Imagine Risking It All for Smash Mouth

these people risked it all to see Smash Mouth last night pic.twitter.com/6yDbVXXEGN

— Lambgoat (@lambgoat) August 10, 2020

While much of the country is respecting CDC guidelines and self-isolating based on their local mandates (or personal comfort levels), realizing that the only way we’re going to get through this pandemic is if we exercise self-restraint and personal accountability, others spent the weekend risking their and others’ health and safety to see … Smash Mouth.

An estimated 250,000 people were expected to show up for the annual Sturgis Buffalo Chip nine-day music festival. That’s far fewer than have attended in previous years but still about 250,000 people too many.

The festival announced they would be following CDC guidelines and doing extra cleaning, and the events and campground lodging at the festival are all outdoors. But photos of Sunday night’s crowd, which had risked it all to gather to hear the “All Star” band play hits off the Shrek soundtrack, show basically no one wearing a mask or practicing social distancing. And when people gather in large numbers without masks, we consistently see spikes in COVID-19 cases.

I don’t know what’s worse….
Willfully endangering your life to see Smash Mouth
or
Smash Mouth possibly being the last concert you’ll ever see. https://t.co/wfBQRZMYny

— Emily Brandwin (@CIAspygirl) August 10, 2020

full offense but imagine risking it all for smash mouth lmao https://t.co/WMH6SZ5RAY

— morgan sung (@morgan_sung) August 10, 2020

The band’s frontman, Steve Harwell, said at one point during the concert: “We’re all here together tonight! Fuck that COVID shit!” Which is quite a lot of hubris in the face of a disease that’s affected five million people in the United States alone. Although he is right: Everyone crowded together there did make the decision to be there together. That was their choice.

i am disappointed in my friend and mutual smash mouth https://t.co/xcAQJqvYsP

— Gene Park #AAJA20 (@GenePark) August 10, 2020

Except, of course, unless every single person at that concert also makes the decision to quarantine themselves for two weeks, this doesn’t just affect them, it affects all of us.

At least the prophecy has finally been fulfilled:

Well smash mouth did say “Somebody once told me the world is gonna roll me I ain’t the sharpest tool in the shed” the tweet writes itself https://t.co/RJfHcFFDBE

— Patty wants you to abolish the police (@RealPattyWap) August 10, 2020

The irony of getting Covid at a Smash Mouth concert is once it kills you, the years finally stop coming. https://t.co/y6KY8FfE4u

— Travon Free (@Travon) August 10, 2020

not the sharpest tools in the shed https://t.co/zKQBQyHLmk

— tyler oakley (@tyleroakley) August 10, 2020

(via Consequence of Sound, image: NBC/Screengrab)

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