The Stranger went to Monster Jam. by West Smith Introduction and captions written by Hannah Murphy Winter. Last weekend, photographer West Smith got on Sound Transit and headed down to Tacoma. Why? Because it was time for Monster Jam—the three-day monster truck rally at the Tacoma Dome. This show has everything: A truck named Scooby-Doo; A motocross halftime show; (Probably) AI-generated songs about America. The whole event was (actually) sponsored by super glue. So today, as we all doom scroll through executive order updates, we offer you monster trucks. No thoughts, just smash.  The show started with two songs: "I Got Three Favorite Colors: Red, White, and Blue," and "I Got Three Favorite Letters: U, S, and A." Smith says they sounded AI-generated. Zero points for creativity. Ten points for being entirely on brand.  The whole event is scored by the audience, through an app on their phones. Monster Jam tracks the cumulative scores, which all builds toward the Monster Jam World Finals on the Fourth of July in Utah.  There were four events total: Racing, two-wheel skills, the doughnut contest, and the freestyle competitions. In between of all this was the motocross halftime show (where the drivers inexplicably had to set up their own ramps).  If you're picturing a monster truck rally, you're probably picturing the freestyle event: Trucks going full-speed on ramps, launching into the air.  It's easy to assume that this is a trucker-hat, beer-drinking affair, but when you walk in, it's very clearly an event for little kids. "I thought it was weird that the same people who produce Monster Jam produce Disney on Ice," Smith says, "but now that I'm here and see that every food item also comes with a toy, it makes sense."    Smith's favorite piece of merch was a Grave Digger bubble wand.   Grave Digger was the crowd favorite, so naturally he stole the show. During the show, his overall season score was a full 100 points in front of his second place competitor. Today, he's still in the number one slot.  During the freestyle event, three of the nine cars broke. One of those was the event's winner, Grave Digger, who broke 30 seconds into his freestyle run. "When a truck breaks, a construction vehicle comes out to haul the truck's body into the back," Smith says. "It was weirdly sad to me. Working in pro wrestling for 10 years, I felt like it was the equivalent of seeing a wrestler get legitimately injured and wheeled off in a stretcher." Once again I'd like to remind you, this event was entirely sponsored by super glue. See you all in Utah.