The Smashing Pumpkins 1996-05-11

May 11, 1996 – Dublin, IE
Live performance by The Smashing Pumpkins
Infinite Sadness tour
Date	May 11, 1996
Venue	Point Theatre
Coordinates	53°20′51″N 6°13′42″W
Location	Dublin, IE
Venue type	Theater
Capacity	8,500
Personnel	Billy Corgan, James Iha, D'arcy Wretzky, Jimmy Chamberlin, Jonathan Melvoin
Order of bands	Filter, The Smashing Pumpkins
Prev. show archive.org Recordings Next show

The May 11, 1996 performance saw the tragic death of fan Bernadette O'Brien (aged 17). At around 10 PM, she was crushed near the front of the stage as excited fans pushed forward from a mosh pit, despite warnings from the band that people were getting hurt. O'Brien was pulled over the barricade by security staff and taken to a hospital, where she died two days later. During the show, the band stopped several times to calm the crowd, and the show was eventually ended early. The band was devastated, especially given that they already had a public stance against moshing. They cancelled the Belfast show scheduled for the following day, and future Smashing Pumpkins tours had fewer shows with open area pits that would allow for moshing.

Setlist

1. "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" (prerecorded) 
2. "Where Boys Fear to Tread" 
3. "Zero" 
4. "Fuck You" 
5. (speech)
6. "To Forgive" (abandoned) 
7. "To Forgive" 
8. "Tonight, Tonight" 
9. "Today" 
10. "Thru the Eyes of Ruby" 
11. "Porcelina of the Vast Oceans" 
12. (speech)
13. "Disarm" (acoustic) 
14. "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" 
15. "Cherub Rock" 

Encore

16. (speech)

Notes

• This show was (unfortunately) chosen for a live audio broadcast via the imusic.com website; however, the server and technology of the time meant that the experience for most online listeners was poor

Banter

Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness Intro
> Where Boys Fear to Tread
Zero
BC: Alright, good evening, you crazy fuckers. It's good to be back here again. Just be careful with each other down there, okay? I don't want anybody to get hurt. We want you all to go home to your parents and wives and cats and dogs.
Fuck You
BC: Hello? Hello? Listen, okay? You gotta listen to me, really, okay? There's a bunch of people down here that have fallen down or are getting crushed. You have to move back, please. I don't want anyone to get hurt. I know you don't want anybody to get hurt. Please move back. We gotta let these people up. Okay? Thank you, thank you. We're just gonna stop for a minute, okay? Let everybody who got hurt and everything just chill out for a second.
Iha: Well, let's all be calm, heh.
BC: Wait, just wait, just give it a minute, okay? We're gonna play forever, really, just, let's take it easy.
D'arcy: This will be the longest concert you will ever be at.
BC: Okay, so let's just...
D’arcy: Take a deep breath.
BC: ...let's just take it easy for a minute, let's make sure everybody who got injured gets up and out, okay? Please, okay?
D’arcy: Why are you [unintelligible]?
BC: I know you don't want anybody to get hurt. I know that's not why you're here, so just relax, just for a minute. Okay? I promise we'll play a normal show, everything will be groovy, we just don't want anybody to get hurt.
Iha: And just don't beat us up. Think of a good book you've read while you're waiting, maybe that'll calm your--your mind. Think of a nice pool of water. You're drifting down the pool of water and you're feeling groovy. Alright, maybe not. Just chill out and--and try to have a good time.
BC: Hey, take it easy, we still--we gotta, still gotta lot of people got hurt, so.... Just please wait a minute, okay? Just wait. Please don't push, okay? Okay? There's a lot of people who fell down and were getting trampled and everything, we just gotta be cool. And please not--just try not to throw shit at us while we're talking to you, we'd appreciate that too. ... So, how is everybody?
Iha: Heh, we’ll all wait.
BC: Please, okay? Don't make the situation any worse by hitting us with stuff, okay? We really appreciate that part of the show too. There's some people who really got hurt during that, I don't want anybody else to get hurt, so let's just take a minute.
Iha: Don't worry, we will rock in a minute. We're just waiting for everyone who hasn't been hit over the head to get--to be safe.
D’arcy: Do you think that you could take a minute and look around you and make sure that your neighbors are okay?
BC: Yeah, please make sure that there's no one else that's still down, okay?
D’arcy: Make sure you're not standing on anyone.
BC: Heh, yeah I guess not, uh, heh heh.
D’arcy: Everybody's okay?
Iha: And if not, they're--you just trample them.
BC: Okay, is there anybody else that needs to come out yet? No, no, is there anybody else who needs to come out who got hurt?
Iha: I don't think they can answer.
BC: Just--just wait, it's cool. Don't worry, the concert will be totally fine, no problems. We'll play so long, you'll fuckin'--your ears are gonna bleed.
D’arcy: You'll be sick of us.
BC: Your brains are gonna come out your eyes.
Iha: And then you'll wish you'd never came here.
BC: You're gonna wish you never came to see this concert, so just relax! Take it easy. There's plenty of time to be unhappy.
D’arcy: Gooch, Gooch, Gooch.
Iha: Shall we play, Gooch?
D’arcy: How is everything down there?
Iha: Shall we play?
BC: Time to play? Okay.
Iha: Gooch says it’s okay to play.
BC: Okay, we’re gonna kick it with something mellow just to kinda ease back into the vibe.
To Forgive (abandoned after 4 notes)
BC: Whoops, sorry. My plectrum was trampled upon.
To Forgive
Tonight, Tonight
> Today
D’arcy: How is everybody? You’re okay? Everybody’s okay?
BC: Everybody’s just fine. Everybody’s having a great time.
Iha: No one’s getting smashed.
D'arcy: Except those people leaving up there.
BC: Well, they--they came to see Filter.
D’arcy: Haha. Hey, we love Filter. I wanna thank Filter, Filter’s great.
Iha: They’re neat guys.
D’arcy: I love Filter.
Iha: Neat guys from America.
BC: They’re really good bowlers too, that’s the amazing thing. You wouldn’t think it just by looking at ‘em.
Thru the Eyes of Ruby
Porcelina of the Vast Oceans
BC: Okay, alright. I ha--you have to listen to me one more time, I know this is redundant, okay? We have a situation where it’s really dangerous up here. I don’t know what else to do about it but to ask you for a couple things, okay? Now, back in the old days when we used to play, no one used to jump around like this and act all crazy, okay? Now, you have to understand something, okay? Your friends, your neighbors, your schoolmates are getting hurt, I’m watching people come out of here who are, like, nearly unconscious or close to unconscious. I--I in good conscience can not continue this concert and watch people keep coming out getting hurt, okay? So we have two choices: One choice is to stop the concert. I don’t wanna stop the concert, I know you don’t wanna stop the concert. Okay? The other choice is--is we will play, I swear to god we will play so long, you’ll wanna go home. We will play every fucking song we know. But what I ask of you--but what I ask of you is you’re gonna have to behave and you’re gonna have to control yourself and what you’re gonna have to do is you’re gonna have to not mosh, you’re gonna have to not crowd surf. And I understand that for some of you, this is part of the reason that you’re here, but I’m telling you, you have to police yourselves, okay? We’re all intelligent people, we all understand what I’m talking about, okay? So we’ll keep playing the show, but I guarantee you, if you continue to mosh and you continue to crowd surf and you continue to push and I see more people come out, we’re just gonna have to stop the concert, okay? Now I’m telling you because I care and I’m telling you because we wanna play the concert, okay? So, if the idiot next to you starts jumping around and acting like a dick, you and your two friends are gonna have to tell him to stop, okay? It’s just that simple. I know this isn’t what you want for a concert, but it’s either that or it’s no concert, so those are our choices, okay? Okay. ... So I hope you understand, it’s not really the position I wanna be in...and that’s that. So I hope nobody got hurt and I hope no one else is gonna get hurt, okay? It’s important to us that no one gets hurt.
Disarm (acoustic)
Circus tape
> Bullet with Butterfly Wings
Iha: Alright. Maybe just jump up and down in one place and you won’t kill yourselves, that was good. You’re a very orderly chaotic crowd. We know you mean well but there’s like all those crazy bars out there where you can like, crack your head open. Remember, it’s only a rock concert. (Jimmy starts the next song) And now back to the jamming.
Cherub Rock
D’arcy: Thank you.
[encore break]
BC: Okay, you gotta listen to me one more time, okay? I know this is so redundant. Okay? Okay, a lot of people got hurt, somebody may have even died, okay? Okay, we’re totally freaked out, okay? We’re human beings, we cannot stand up here and continue to play, we’re totally freaked out, do you understand? We cannot continue the concert, we’re very sorry. If you like us, if you respect us, you’ll understand and just go home and we’ll figure it out later, okay? We’re very sorry, but you c--it’s like too weird, it’s too crazy and it’s too dangerous. We’re not gonna play any more songs, we’ll stand here and watch you leave, okay? But you’re not gonna hurt each other anymore, I’m not gonna stand here and watch it happen. You can throw shit at me, whatever, but I’m not gonna fuckin’--it’s too crazy. I’ll stand here and watch you go out the door and wave goodbye, but that’s it, the show is over, okay? Okay.
D’arcy: Listen! Listen! Don’t fucking boo, do you fucking understand? Do you understand what he said? There are fucking people backstage dying. Do you care? I see people up here with smiles on their faces. It’s not fucking funny.
BC: It’s just a stupid concert, okay? We’ll figure it out later.
D’arcy: The concert--
BC: We’ll come back back and play, whatever, okay?
D’arcy: The concert is not more important than people’s lives, you guys gotta chill, look at....
BC: We--we can’t tell you enough how sorry we are, we know you’re disappointed, we’re extremely disappointed, we went around the world and told everyone that the two Dublin shows that we played before were probably some of the best shows we ever had. We looked forward to coming here and we were very excited about playing tonight and we’re sorry that it’s turned out the way that it has, okay? It’s not your fault, it’s not our fault, it’s circumstance. You have to understand. And if you love the people around you and you respect us, you’ll understand and just peaceably go home and that’s it. You can hate us, you can fucking whatever, I don’t care, but I’m not gonna watch you get hurt, that’s it.
Iha: We’re really sorry. We hope you rock for a while but there--people seriously hurt, you gotta go. We can’t--we can’t play music for people getting beat over the head. Sorry.
BC: Thanks, we love you, please understand.