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How Modest Mouse Failed the Pandemic Concert Test
There’s a right way, and a wrong way to welcome people back from lockdown
The first concert I attended after lockdown restrictions had been eased was Modest Mouse. They played at an outside amphitheater in Portland. It was a sold out show. My expectations were extremely high. Unfortunately, so was Isaac Brock.
The disappointments began well before Modest Mouse ever took the stage. To begin with, the venue was not requiring any proof of vaccination to attend. Thankfully, they were requiring masks be worn, but only because the state had just issued another mask mandate. It was not enforced. This was apparent when driving up to the parking location, a worker in an orange vest had his mask dangling from a buttonhole on his shirt instead of on his face.
It’s also fairly difficult to enforce a mask mandate when so many people are crowded into one location. And most of these people are flocking to be in line at concessions and merchandise tables. They’re drinking their eleven dollar beer and eating their twelve dollar hotdogs. Children are running around barely supervised by their stoner parents. This was a Delta Variant playground just waiting to happen.
I probably would not have risked this under normal circumstances. But my wife and I are…
