The past 12-plus months has played host to a handful of peculiar Smash Mouth stories. In August 2020, Smash Mouth performed at a motor cycle rally that ended up being responsible for a substantial number of COVID-19 cases. Last month, the group took exception to Rolling Stone leaving “Smash Mouth” off their list of the 500 greatest songs of all time. Then, within the past couple weeks, the group was seen performing with a replacement singer and seemed to deny that anything about the show was atypical.
Now, regular lead singer Steve Harwell is back with the band, and based on one person’s account, it seems at least one recent concert wasn’t exactly the peak of live entertainment.
A TikTok user named Haley shared a video yesterday, which has over 700,000 views as of this post. The video starts with her introducing what’s to come, saying that she saw the band perform at “a local beer and wine festival,” presumably October 9’s “The Big Sip” at Bethel Woods Center For The Arts in Bethel, New York. She described the performance as “the most chaotic show I’ve ever seen in my entire life” and then shared a selection of clips from it.
https://www.tiktok.com/@doesthisfeelgood/video/7017561368475766021
It’s worth noting that the video features a selection of out-of-context clips, so it’s possible the show as a whole wasn’t like how it seems here. However, this collection of clips is truly something. Aside from a litany of sound issues, Harwell made a gesture that looked like a Nazi salute, appeared to be incoherent, and brought a random person on stage and handed them the microphone.
Meanwhile, some choice Harwell quotes included, “I’ll f*cking kill your whole family, I swear to God,” and, “If I could suck my own dick, I’d never leave the house.”
This afternoon, Haley shared a follow-up video, in which she talks about the supposed Nazi gesture and gives more context to that moment:
https://www.tiktok.com/@doesthisfeelgood/video/7017869994985803013
So far, the closest thing the band has made to a comment on the performance is a re-share of a photo featuring Harwell and some fans at the event.
https://twitter.com/smashmouth/status/1447062140536320003
Check out the video above.
