Smash Mouth – Mayo Park – Rochester MN – July 25th 2021
On Sunday, July 25th, 90s rockers Smash Mouth played a high-energy show for a packed Mayo Park in downtown Rochester, MN as a part of the Down by the Riverside free concert series, presented by Rochester Civic Music and Think Mutual Bank.
Opening up the night with “Can’t Get Enough of You Baby”, they had the crowd of roughly 13,000 was on their feet, dancing, and with beach balls and bubbles flying through the air. The party atmosphere continued through a heavy hitting set of favorites, including “Pacific Coast Party”, a cover of “Why Can’t We Be Friends”, and crowd favorites “Walkin’ on the Sun” and “I’m a Believer”.
When bassist Paul De Lisle was interviewed for a Med City Beat article promoting the show, he was quoted as saying, “you have to do it for the love of what you’re doing…” and that love was apparent from the entire band throughout the show. There is nothing that engages and energizes a crowd as much as watching a band perform that clearly just loves doing what they do and appreciates the energy being given to them. As lead singer Steve Harwell launched into the final song of the evening, smash hit “All Star”, he announced to the crowd, “this one is for you guys” and invited the crowd to a sing-along that filled Mayo Park with the happiness of music, connection, and fun that has been critically missing in the past year and a half. They returned to the stage at the delight of a roaring crowd to end the night with and encore, playing a cover of The Kinks “You Really Got Me”, with non-stop energy right to the last note in the way that only Smash Mouth can bring it.
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