Can you say "structural failure kills hundreds"? Sure you can. Probably even under oath in court.

Video of the balcony bouncing at The Fabulous Fox Theatre, St. Louis during the 6.16.09 Phish show.
(Great tip from Doug McDonald - Thanks Doug!)


Video of the balcony bouncing at the Fox Theatre, Detroit during the 1.16.10 Nick Jonas show.  The Detroit and St. Louis Fox Theatres are basically identical buildings.

Despite the ampped-up headline for this blog entry, the readers should note that a little bit of structural flexing is typical in many balcony structures.  However, you should also realize that the structural engineer in 1928 may not have fully anticipated this kind of a crowd response.  Thankfully, the audience members were not fully synchronized in their jumping up-n-down to the beat.

For more insight into this trype of structural event, the book "Why Buildings Fall Down; How Structures Fail" by Matthys Levy and Mario Salvadori is a good read.