SP held the Mellon Collie release party at the Rivieria Theatre in Chicago on 10/23/1995. To prepare for it, they played some warmup shows at universities in Illinois. I saw the show at Northern Illinois University.

At the time, Bullet With Butterfly Wings (BWBW) had been released as a single and the video was getting lots of play on MTV. My favorite concert memory of all time was when SP played this song.

During the quiet part of BWBW, all of the house lights went down. I couldn’t see anything except some of the lights on amps onstage. Then when the guitars kick in for the bombastic ending, strobe lights came on and the crowd lost its mind. I was in the balcony and seeing everyone on the floor thrashing like maniacs and losing their minds was pretty fucking awesome.

What a show, what an album.