best and worst things about shows with moshing

[SLIV]

I agree with others that when you have a tight group of people who seem to understand the situation, it can be quite fun. The idea, to me at least, is to move your body and if you bump into people who are also moving around, you have this bond. When someone falls, EVERYONE pulls them up. You never touch someone who isn't interested and the music comes first. Move to the music.

The problem is it is rare that it ever works out this way. I've come to hate moshing, slam dancing, pogoing and the like because not all people know the culture and all it takes is one person to screw it up for the rest. I haven't participated in years because of this. When it starts, I'm out.

As a musician, I feel like I should discourage it not unlike Fugazi. It makes for a bad night for too many good people. I play in a band that you can mosh to but unless its a houseparty, I don't think it would turn out good.

 

[winndaddy]

I'm too old for that crap but on the plus side, I'm 6' 5 and 280 pounds and can put up my own weight.

If you punch me or my wife, I will knock you out. I'm not talking about the simple getting bounced around in the pit. I'm talking about the douchebags that just start spinning with their fits flying no matter where in the crowd they are, if you do that I will discipline you. I did it to two scene kids last deftones show that hit my wife in the face, twice. Security at the venue never even spoke to me, they picked the douche-nozzels up and drug them out the door.

Billy badass needs a chill pill. I probably would have done the same thing.

 

[Joe Gress]

i dont hit people who don't move. im against that. they dont want to,it's their choice. but i can't stand people who literally just stand in one spot all night and don't feel any sort of emotion from the music they hear.

Oh no, I didn't mean hit them just cause they weren't moving. Accidentally hitting them as you bounce off of one guy to another while moving around. I don't know, I guess I'm at that size where holding my arms down and bouncing off of people is the way to go. I'm to big to do that ninja kick crap, to big to run around, but to little to be doing the plowing over and jackass thing.

 

[Joe Gress]

As a musician, I feel like I should discourage it not unlike Fugazi. It makes for a bad night for too many good people. I play in a band that you can mosh to but unless its a houseparty, I don't think it would turn out good.

At the melvins show I went to Buzz stopped the show to stop a guy that was doing the ninja kick stuff near the stage. He told him to either knock it off or he was going to hurt himself, or someone from the crowd would do it for him. The crowd cheered and douchenugget calmed way down.

 

[Rebecky]

I don't really get them. They're kind of exciting at the time but not worth the hassle to everyone else. Worst things for me is that I always end up between a mosh pit and some douchebag with his girlfriend who doesn't know how to deal with a metal concert. I get shoved by some guy in the pit and go flying into another dude's girlfriend who's just trying to enjoy the show, and I end up getting hassle from this dude because I shoved his girlfriend. Sorry I'm not made of concrete! If you and your wife can't deal with metal shows then go hang out at the back with your zimmer frame.

I was at a club last night stuck next to a mosh pit, I was only there 2 hours and but I ended up having 3 drinks spilt down me thanks to those fools. And one of them was my own drink! What a waste!

 

[cannonballjames]

Agreed, the problem is not the mosh pit, but like so many things in life, it's a relatively small number of idiots that ruin something. Most entertaining pits I've ever seen are at Flatfoot 56 shows, the band directs the circle pit, tells them to change directions, has everyone shove the person next to them on the count of 3... AND no idiots trying to knock people out! It's actually fun! They have themes at their shows, one year was the Shark Tank... people in the pit wore cardboard shark fins on their heads... a mosh pit when done right is lots of fun, even just to stand back and watch if you're not one to get involved personally.

But a bad one is just all around horrible. At a P.O.D. show a friend of mine was elbowed in the face, knocked out, ended up with a concussion. Was during I think the 2nd song... so, what a waste of those tickets, eh? Your "fun" shouldn't take away from someone else's ability to enjoy the show.

And NO groping!!! Period! That is so low class, no character, no respect... you need to be thrown into a circle pit of 500 scene kids all doing windmills and have the crap beat out of you...

 

[JakeAndAirwaves]

Best - when girls start the moshing.

Worst - children standing where pit should be

Worst - Moshing in Toms

Best - loudness

Worst - taking elbows to the nose.

 

[TolerancEJ]

Best thing: Power! The power and control you have in making the crowd jump & bounce around with the flick of your wrist.

Worst thing would be if someone got hurt. I haven't witnessed it yet but I'm sure it happens all the time. Some people obviously go in there with a goal of intentionally hitting people. And oh yeah, the sausage party it usually entails.

 

[Infrasonik B.]

Having sweaty, sticky, dirty metal kid hair stuck to your skin and having to peel it off.

Not alot of things gross me out, but man that's up there on the list.

 

[thatdude]

And NO groping!!! Period! That is so low class, no character, no respect... you need to be thrown into a circle pit of 500 scene kids all doing windmills and have the crap beat out of you...[/QUOTE]

Absolutely. My girl was groped during a slayer/robzombie show. On top of that I'm in a band that starts mosh pits. When we're watching other bands play and we decide to mosh, we fight for the crowd. If you can't respect a chick enough you sure as hell shouldn't be in a pit. Tje other way around....that's another discussion

 

[Cbassist]

I went to Mayhem in July to watch Red Fang and at some point there was a mosh pit. This kid in a wheel chair got his buddies to strap him to his chair with bungie cords and then they threw him into the mosh pit!

 

[freshcelery]

I find at the bigger shows, especially the more mainstream ones, there tends to be little to no mosh etiquette. Which is why I tend to stray away from the pits at stadium shows. Little house shows or hall shows are usually fantastic though, a bunch of people just wanting to have a good fun time, rather than trying to grope chicks and break heads.

 

[ShredderMaximus]

I find at the bigger shows, especially the more mainstream ones, there tends to be little to no mosh etiquette. Which is why I tend to stray away from the pits at stadium shows. Little house shows or hall shows are usually fantastic though, a bunch of people just wanting to have a good fun time, rather than trying to grope chicks and break heads.

Yeah, I agree. Bigger shows tend to have mosh pit noobs that only know what they've seen in the media, where its pretty much portrayed as a giant fight, which it isn't. Along with them there are also the frat boy jock meatheads who listen to a little Disturbed and Rammstein who just go in to start fights and hurt people also. I've seen plenty of both and they are the first ones to take all the fun out of a pit, ime.

 

[pocketgroove]

I love being able to jump around and expend energy in a way that isn't socially awkward and doesn't involve having to put up a front and act like someone I'm not. I love how everybody genuine is there for the same reason, and it's like temporarily being part of a big, fun community.

I hate when someone spills beer on you, or you get hit by some dick-munch. Also, it's not much fun when someone's surfing and they land or get tossed on top of your head or neck.

One thing I especially don't care for - I was at a show alone and trying to get up front and see the band better, and some guy came up behind, grabbed my hips, and started grinding on me! That's not okay, is it? It's alright if you're interested and you pull me aside to chat or whatever, but that just wasn't appropriate. Everyone else was cool, though, and I think a couple of guys dealt with him then hung out by me to keep an eye out.

 

[Depth_Charge]

I think that the best thing about a show with moshing is during the time when the mosh pit is completely observant and helps the fallen instead of trampling them. It amazes me sometimes.

A huge +1. One line spoken by Tom Araya on Slayers Decade of Aggression Live CD has stuck with me since hearing it.
"You guys down the front here...if you see someone going down, help 'em out allright, help each other out". Or something to that effect.
It was much less appalling than watching LoG or whoever it is encourage fans into a wall of death

But MY BIGGEST PET PEEVE IN A MOSH PIT IS SEEING GUYS GET HANDSY WITH THE FEW LADIES WHO BOTHER COMING TO THESE SHOWS! A local Perth metal band in the 90's had to start threatening to cut their shows short because a few guys would always try copping a feel while the girls were moshing, stage diving and crowd surfing. As if the music/environment doesn't work hard enough to alienate chics

 

[runmikeyrun]

I hate getting my pedals trampled. I also hate getting kicked out of clubs because people destroy things and start fights. We got kicked out of a place earlier this year because some dummy brought 3 cans of silly string and sprayed it EVERYWHERE. The bartender was yelling at us between songs, we kept yelling at him to stop it, and even cleaned it up after our set. We were asked not to come back. Luckily since then we've changed our name so we can sneak back there, but i'm sure one more show and we'll get kicked out again.

I think i'm going to name our EP "Kicked out of Everywhere" like the skate video from years back.