All proceeds benefit the July 4th shooting victims

Last week, Billy Corgan and his partner Chloe Mendell brought together artists and locals for a very special and intimate Together and Together Again benefit to raise funds for the Highland Park Community Foundation’s July 4th Fund. The evening was live-streamed across the world where donations poured in in excess of $250,000.

The Smashing Pumpkins frontman was joined by his bandmate and fellow Chicagoan Jimmy Chamberlin, alongside Perry Farrell who performed a stripped down, bluesy version of the Jane’s Addiction classic, “Jane Says.” Bob Moses and Father/daughter duo Billy and Sierra Swan each performed a captivating and intimate set of some of their best known songs. Janelle Lake played “Clair de Lune” on harp. The legendary Frank Catalano Quartet performed a thrilling jazz set including a version of Coltrane’s “Impressions,” with Corgan on guitar. Corgan also treated viewers to a stripped down performance of The Smashing Pumpkins classics “1979” and “Today” as well as two new songs, most poignantly “Ithax,” a song he wrote in July in the wake of the tragedy.

“We had such an amazing night of music, tears, and laughter at Zuzu’s, all in tribute to those victims of this unspeakable atrocity and the heroes who ran towards danger to help the innocent,” Corgan says. “It was truly an honor to stage this concert with our dear friends and raise these funds, which are so desperately needed in our Highland Park community.”

“I honestly have a lack of words to express the amount of gratitude we have for this community. How we join during times of darkness and turn that energy into light makes me very proud to call Highland Park our home,” shares Mendel.” Highland Park will not be defined by what happened but by how we stand with one another to heal and continue to heal. This has been a true honor.”

To help those directly impacted by the mass shooting in Highland Park, the Highland Park Community Foundation established a July 4th Highland Park Shooting Response Fund. All contributions to the Response Fund will go directly to victims and survivors or the organizations that support them.

Corgan has lived in Highland Park for almost two decades, while Mendel has called the city her home for nearly a decade. Highland Park is where the couple raise their two young children and run Madame Zuzu’s, located on the main strip where the recent Highland Park shooting took place.