IN CONCERT
What: Laketown Shakedown featuring Snoop Dogg, Incubus, Smash Mouth, Sublime with Rome, Jesse Roper and more
Where: Laketown Ranch Music and Recreation Park, 8811-2 Youbou Rd., Lake Cowichan
When: June 28 through June 30
Tickets: General admission day passes cost $50 (Friday), $89 (Saturday) and $109 (Sunday), or $199 for a three-day general admission pass
Note: Children 12 and under are free when accompanied by an adult
For all the good that career-defining, instantly-recognizable hits can do for an artist, not every signature song is a blessing. Some hang like albatrosses around the necks of their authors, who then avoid playing them in concert.
Smash Mouth bassist Paul De Lisle does not understand that position. Not once in concert has his California rock band entertained the idea of skipping All Star, their enduring 1999 hit.
“I never understood that,” he said. “I thought it was stupid when Eddie Van Halen, really early on, said: ‘I’m not playing Runnin’ With the Devil anymore.’ Really? I think that’s rude. Everyone wants to hear that song, and you’re not going to play it? You released it on an album.”
De Lisle said he never wanted to find out what would happen if the group, from San Jose, skipped playing All Star.
In the 20 years since its release, the hit has remained a unifying moment during each and every Smash Mouth concert. Fans sing along at full volume each time out, De Lisle said, carrying many of the verses while the band watches in amazement.
“All that [Smash Mouth singer] Steve [Harwell] has to do is sing the first word and that’s all it takes. We don’t have to play anymore after that. The crowd takes it from there.”
Smash Mouth will make its Vancouver Island debut Sunday night at Lake Cowichan festival Laketown Shakedown, on a bill with Snoop Dogg and Sublime with Rome, among others. Since February, the band has been what De Lisle calls “weekend warriors,” committing to band-related activity between Thursday and Sunday and leaving the early part of each week open for their families.
Now that summer has arrived, the band is back on the road full-time, with founding members Harwell, De Lisle, and guitarist Greg Camp leading the way.
“We’re not done yet,” De Lisle said of Smash Mouth, which celebrated its 25th anniversary as a group this year. “We don’t feel done.”
Many critics never expected the group to get this far, tagging them the very definition of a one-hit wonder. The facts don’t lie: All Star has been streamed 426 million times on Spotify, making it a certified smash in the conversation for one of the most successful songs of the late 1990s. The bouncy song was made more omnipresent by its prominent use in the 2001 animated hit Shrek, but a follow-up proved difficult.
The next closest competitor in Smash Mouth’s catalogue tops out at 69 million streams on Spotify.
The band also drew criticism for its reliance on cover songs. Of the band’s best-known hits, only Walkin’ on the Sun (from 1997’s Fush You Mang) and All Star are originals. The other three — Neil Diamond’s I’m a Believer, Question Mark and the Mysterians’ Can’t Get Enough of You Baby, and War’s Why Can’t We Be Friends? — were hits by other artists.
Harwell has been very outspoken in his defence of the band, and has stated in several interviews that he thinks Smash Mouth has been unfairly maligned. He has never shied away from brash statements, saying in a recent interview with Rolling Stone magazine that he knew All Star would endure. “The second I heard the first lyric, I said: “This song is going to change music forever.’ ”
When De Lisle and Camp first hooked up with Harwell during the early 1990s, he was a rapper. People around the San Jose music community wondered where the commonality was, but De Lisle knew Harwell possessed a unique quality that would make him a fit as their frontman.
“Steve is the funniest man I’ve ever known, and I don’t mean that because I’m his pal. But his wit, and his response to things with people — his boldness — there’s a constant laughter. You can’t help it. He makes it fun.”
San Jose has been home base since the start, but only De Lisle and Harwell continue to operate out of the San Jose suburb of Campbell. Keyboardist Mike Klooster now lives in Nashville, Tennessee, while Camp, drummer Randy Cooke, and guitarist Sean Hurwitz reside in Los Angeles.
Months will go by where they only see each other for live dates, De Lisle said, but that hasn’t affected the close-knit culture that surrounds the group. Having been the subject of countless internet memes in recent years, the group has developed an armour that battles all the negativity with humour, De Lisle said.
He sees the big difference between Smash Mouth and other groups when they are on the road together. “You walk into some other bands’ dressing rooms and it’s like a funeral. I can’t imagine touring like that, where everyone is sad. That would be really difficult. We don’t have that problem. We’ve got to keep it loose and light, otherwise we’d go nuts.”
