Live music, at least in its traditional form, has been on a heartbreaking pause for quite some time now. And for (obviously) good reason.
But not even a goddamn pandemic could inject some sense into the head of Chase Rice, a person that a quick Wikipedia search claims is a "country singer" in some form. In the spirit of accuracy, this article will refrain from using the descriptor of "country star" when discussing Rice.
Rice played a show in east Tennessee over the weekend, with footage showing the crowd was very much not engaged in the practice of social distancing. Additionally, you'd be hard-pressed to spot a mask in the sea of presumably annoying faces.
The show in question had reduced its maximum venue capacity from 10,000 to 4,000, perNBC News, with "less than 1,000" actually attending the display of Trump-level stupidity.
And while temperature checks were reportedly given at the entrance, with free hand sanitizer also made available, even the VP of the group that hosted the event conceded that the crowd—shown in footage behaving as if it were 2019 or some shit—was reluctant to "voluntarily follow" social distancing guidelines aimed at preventing continued spread of COVID-19.
In addition to the Rice fuckery, another singer of the tepid variety—Chris Janson—pulled a similar stunt over the weekend in Idaho.
Other artists (and general music appreciators) were thankfully quick to condemn this potentially dangerous rush to return to the live performance methods of yore, with many pointing out the obvious anti-science selfishness of such a thing:
There are now more than 2.5 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, as well as more than 125,000 deaths, in the U.S. alone. For the general good of you and everyone around you, it's still best to avoid gatherings of this nature, particularly when masklessness is prevalent. It's simple: Wear a fucking mask and do not—under any circumstance—poison your ears with Chase Rice.
