Shirley Manson addressed the Bondi Beach shooting at Garbage’s show in Sydney on Sunday night, just hours after more than a dozen people were killed.
Garbage played a concert at Sydney Opera House hours after the mass shooting tragedy, which left 16 dead, including one of the two gunmen, and over 40 people in hospital, including two police officers and a bystander who tackled and disarmed one of the gunmen. Their conditions are currently serious.
The shooting came at the same time a Jewish event was being held at Bondi Beach, to celebrate the first day of Hanukkah. The two gunmen, later confirmed to be father and son, were taken into police custody.
Per Rolling Stone, Manson told the crowd: “This has become an astoundingly frightening, violent, hateful, intolerant world. And I think the only thing we can do really, as people who do not believe in all this separation and all this intolerance, all we can really do is really try and profess our love for one another.”
She continued: “We have been a band that have always believed that we are one people under one sun. It doesn’t matter what god you worship, or colour of your skin, or what your gender is, or what your sexual orientation is, what food you like to eat, what clothes you like to wear, how you like to hang your junk, whether you like to wear a bra or not wear a bra. But you get my point, it’s all so fucking stupid, we have people in power telling us to really hate one another, and destroy one another.”
Garbage also addressed the tragedy on social media, revealing that family members had been at Bondi Beach mere hours before the shooting.
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“What kind of world we’re living in right now?” they posted in a statement on Instagram. “Innocent people were targeted while celebrating life and faith. This should never happen to anyone, anywhere. My heart is with the Jewish community in Bondi, with the victims, the injured, and the families whose lives are forever changed.
“Our hearts go out to the victims and their surviving families who are now dealing with unfathomable loss and heartbreak. We love you so much Sydney. Fuck all this vile antisemitism. Fuck Islamophobia. The killing has to stop.”
