North Dakota has no problem running concerts. Last month, Great White faced a bit of backlash for performing an outdoor show, with no masks visible or any social distancing. So you can imagine how the internet is reacting to the below photo of Fozzy performing indoors in Minot, North Dakota club "The Original" on Saturday August 8th.
Heel By Nature reports Fozzy frontman Chris Jericho defended the performance saying precautions were taken. During a livestream on Saturday night, he explained the tour was originally booked for the spring, then moved to late summer and fall, and then had to be rescheduled again. When they began rescheduling, they noticed four dates were still on the books, as restrictions in those areas had been lifted.
Jericho said “We actually did four shows this week, and the reason for that is we had our ‘Save the World Tour’ which was originally scheduled for April and May, but it got postponed to July and August, then got postponed to October and November. Four shows remained in August, and I was like ‘How?”. The shows are in South Dakota, and North Dakota, and we have one in Fort Madison, Iowa, which is right near the border of South Dakota.”
He continued “The reason why the shows have happened is because these states of North Dakota and South Dakota have low COVID cases, less than 1000 in both states, I think Florida had 9000 today alone”. North Dakota has been reporting a daily case load between low 100s, however there has been a spike in recent days, with 181 new cases reported yesterday. South Dakota is averaging 100 cases a day, so relatively low.
Jericho noted the shows were all sold below capacity to give room for distancing. “The venues are either outside, or they are half capacity. We are sold out tonight in Minot with I think 50% capacity, last night we were sold out in Sioux Falls, SD with 35% capacity. We hand out masks at the door, the temperature checks. We stay on the bus all day, the Fozzy crew and camp have been tested”
The venue noted masks were available at the door and there were hand sanitizer stations all over the venue. The venue cap is 375 people, so that would mean less than 200 people were at the show.
Fozzy is scheduled to play tonight at a saloon in Sturgis, South Dakota. There is an annual biker rally going on the week of the performance, where attendees have been adamant about not wearing masks.
Jericho posted the below photo after the show last night:
Jericho also wrestles weekly for All Elite Wrestling on TNT, who have been doing bi-weekly closed set tapings, with limited fans. He is scheduled to wrestle against Orange Cassidy in a big match this Wednesday, live on TNT. AEW has been testing their performers and everybody has to be cleared before performing. A quick look on Twitter shows a large portion of fans to be wondering if Jericho made the best decision here. Here is a variety of opinions we found:
Everyone at that FOZZY concert has become a Judas in their lungs.
— Murph (@ScandalousMurph) August 9, 2020
Imagine risking your life and the lives of others to see fucking Fozzy. Couldn't be me. https://t.co/nu79Fzly35
— Lasagna Del Rey (@JennMint) August 9, 2020
The Ayatollah of Corona
— Kyle (@ST0ODY) August 9, 2020
Hey @TonyKhan you cannot by any means allow @IAmJericho at any @AEWrestling shows for 2 weeks if he's going to be playing freakin' Fozzy shows in venues like this tonight & tomorrow. It's irresponsible as hell & he needs to quarantine lest he put the whole company at risk. https://t.co/XgoWp7kKNs
— Minus | BLM (@minusxero) August 9, 2020
Jericho working concerts for Fozzy and attending tapings for AEW. But when WWE tape shows it's an outrage because they're exposing talent to corona. Y'all are mental with your double standards.
— ? – ??????, ????? ????? (@ZVArmy) August 9, 2020
Tfw you become the judas in your mind ?♀️?♀️?♀️ what a fucking joke. I love jericho but this is such a bad look for him, AEW, and fozzy pic.twitter.com/UPr6M1oOyC
— grant (@GBoyardee) August 9, 2020
I feel for performers that generally live hand to mouth. But that’s not Fozzy’s situation, they can’t use the starving artist excuse. They didn’t NEED to play that show.
— Satanic Rights (@SatanicRights) August 9, 2020
— Ryan Proctor (@Zero2Hero) August 8, 2020
imagine your obituary saying “they got called home by the Lord after contacting COVID-19 from a Fozzy concert”
0 bad bitches in attendance at the funeral
— beretta scott king (@livorleave) August 9, 2020
imagine dying to see FOZZY pic.twitter.com/ylzmW4GaQM
— ⌨️ Patches Chance ? (@patcheschance) August 9, 2020
Y’all sacrificing your lives for FOZZY?!? pic.twitter.com/rpmy5HQZFc
— Austin (@austinonrasslin) August 9, 2020
