The Smashing Pumpkins headline TD Garden on Sunday night. Almost 30 years ago, it was Smashing Pumpkins on SNL for Halloween.
October 30, 1993. I remember it well. I was sixteen years old, a junior at Wakefield High School, and the biggest Smashing Pumpkins fan around. I had copped Siamese Dream on cassette tape when it dropped earlier that summer and by the time the Pumpkins played SNL, I’d almost worn it out. I think I put it in my Walkman that summer and I don’t think I took it out until Christmas time. That album was the soundtrack to my paper route and my bus rides to and from school that fall. And I still go back to it every year around this time.
Being sixteen meant I was a big Saturday Night Live fan, too. Season 19 had kicked off in the fall of ’93. That was the cast that had Chris Farley, Phil Hartman, Mike Myers, Adam Sandler and David Spade, among others. I’ll probably share a sketch or two below, but if you remember that cast and that era, you have a pretty good idea of how funny it was.
Smashing Pumpkins on SNL: Halloween 1993
Let’s set the cast aside for a moment, though, and focus on the musical guest. Smashing Pumpkins, on All Hallow’s Eve Eve, crushing “Cherub Rock” and “Today” from Siamese Dream. Sixteen-year-old Adam 12 couldn’t have been more excited. And the excitement came back almost 30 years later when I stumbled across the rehearsal footage and soundcheck from before the airing that a fan shared on YouTube. You can smash that below, along with the aired performances of “Cherub Rock” and “Today” and their music videos. I have a few other surprises from that episode of SNL for you, too. See you at the Garden on Sunday night, Pumpkinheads.
