When the Dave Matthews Band Dumped Sewage Onto 120 People

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If you've never heard this story before, I know the title is jarring. But if anything, it kind of undersells just how absurd this story actually is. And if you've already heard this story, you might still enjoy revisiting it after all these years. In 2004, the Dave Matthews Band was staying in Chicago for a couple shows at the Alpine Valley Music Theatre when one of their tour bus drivers had a great idea: empty the bus's septic tank while crossing the Chicago River. After all, the bridges are all made of steel grating, so the poop water will just slide through, right? Right, except that he chose the worst possible moment to do this. Believe it or not, a boat of 120 sightseers on a Chicago architecture tour were passing under the Kinzie Street Bridge at the exact moment that the driver decided to empty the bus's sewage. And rather than describe the details myself, I'll let the words of the survivors do it justice. But let's just say the whole thing left quite a stain on the Dave Matthews Band. Today, we know it as Poopgate. But to those who lived it, it's simply hell.

Sources:
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/08/07/dave-matthews-band-bus-chicago/
https://www.chicagomag.com/city-life/thats-not-water-buddy-an-oral-history-of-poopgate/
https://www.wbez.org/history/2024/08/07/dave-matthews-band-incident-bus-chicago-boat-bridge-anniversary
https://www.cracked.com/article_29095_the-worst-story-ever-told-in-4-chapters.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20210516084704/https://www.latimes.com/world/chi-0408110211aug11-story.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20060216122125/http://cbs2chicago.com/topstories/local_story_068113057.html

One more joke I couldn't fit into the video: I guess the poop took "Crash Into Me" literally.