Smash Mouth SLAMMED For Playing To A Crowd Of Thousands In Unsafe Conditions: 'F**k That COVID S**t'

Now, this is decidedly NOT All Star behavior!

Smash Mouth, the band that is today perhaps best known for their contributions to the Shrek soundtrack, came under fire on Monday after a clip of one of their performances went viral. The video shows the band in front of a HUGE crowd of bikers over the weekend, and the audience isn’t exactly following CDC guidelines. There’s barely a mask in sight, and definitely no social distancing going on.

Here is a brighter video to see all the people (credit KOTATV) pic.twitter.com/P7XW46BLiS

— Connor Matteson (@mattesontv) August 10, 2020

According to the event website, some safety measures were put in place to protect attendees, such as posted signs with reminders of CDC guidelines and hand sanitizer stations. They also specified “Guests will be required to have a mask with them when they enter the amphitheater” — not, you will note, that they would actually enforce wearing a mask. You may be wondering how many people would show up for a Smash Mouth concert in the year 2020, let alone in the midst of a deadly pandemic. Well, the concert was actually part of the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in Sturgis, South Dakota. The festival is billed as “the Largest Music Festival in Motorcycling” and features bike shows as well as nightly concerts. Hundreds of thousands of people are estimated to attend the festival every year — in other words, definitely the kind of event that should have been canceled during a deadly pandemic.

Other musical acts performing at the festival included Trapt, Buckcherry, Drowning Pool, Night Ranger, Reverend Horton Heat, Lit, 38 Special, Quiet Riot, and Big Skillet. Smash Mouth in particular made it clear they felt the show must go on! In the clip, the band’s frontman Steve Harwell told the crowd:

“Now, we’re all here together tonight … F**k that COVID s**t!”

While we agree with the anti-COVID sentiment, saying it doesn’t make the disease any less of a clear and present danger to everyone in the audience! It’s kind of like shouting “WE HATE LAND MINES” while Naruto running through a live mine field.

The band’s negligence may come as a bit of a surprise, only because they’ve previously tweeted pro-safety messages with the hashtag #MaskStar. They also tend to be pretty “woke” about things like antiracism, gun control, and, um, oral sex.

#MaskStar https://t.co/lCFWdXRiCk

— Smash Mouth (@smashmouth) July 14, 2020

imagine being so racist you gather your toothless friends to hold a counter protest. "Conservative Militias"??? that's what they call themselves? That sounds too human! https://t.co/xAZOpe22nC

— Smash Mouth (@smashmouth) July 25, 2020

#HoggStar https://t.co/GJSAqdPxsV

— Smash Mouth (@smashmouth) July 12, 2020

However, this isn’t the first time the group has courted controversy in recent weeks, although the previous instance was much lower stakes. The band drew the ire of stan Twitter after shading the new Taylor Swift album by tweeting, “borelore.” LOLz! (And they were shaded right back by Dylan O’Brien and Emmy Rossum.)

Agree.

— Emmy Rossum (@emmyrossum) July 24, 2020

We never thought we’d have to say this, but: folks, please do not risk your life to see Smash Mouth!!! Or anyone else! The sooner we all commit to wearing masks and social distancing, the sooner we’ll all be able to go to concerts SAFELY!

See some of the angry fan reactions (below):

me having to cancel smash mouth cuz they dont take the pandemic seriously pic.twitter.com/Hi13f2g16g

— ✨Aster✨ (@ceeberoni) August 10, 2020

My heart goes out to those who get COVID and die from this concert because that means they were just "dying to see Smash Mouth" and I can't think of a more tragic sentence. https://t.co/brbbDGxL4R

— Jackson Rickun (@JacksonRickun) August 10, 2020

falling into a coma at the thought of smash mouth singing "it doesn't make sense not to live for fun~" "my world's on fire, how bout yours, that's the way I like it" to a bunch of old people who are going to die in a pandemic b/c they can't spend 5 mins not being catered to pic.twitter.com/J1UXot776x

— Aura???? (@MOOMANiBE) 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

I have to take a moment to interrupt this but since I'm a Shrek account I feel as if I have to say this: I am very sad to cancel Smash Mouth but what they did was not very Gucci pic.twitter.com/dgIQamsmKm

— one word from the entire shrek script every day (@leshrekscript) August 10, 2020

[Image via Smash Mouth/YouTube]