MOSH Pit at a Rock Concert?

Cafe Society
1

I’d never heard of such a thing until yesterday!

How to MOSH in a PIT

My ol’ buddy called and told me about his experience at a “mosh pit” at a popular rock concert in Nashville.

It’s apparently kind’a rough on a routine night - note in the instructions that you don’t want to wear good clothes because they’ll get stained with saliva, blood and be torn!!! (Sure sounds like a fun time already!!! - not)

Keep your arms up so you can deflect bruises to your face. (Yeah, that sounds like a hoot!)

Anyway, my friend told me that he ‘moshed’ all the way across the pit and was coming back when someone got moshed and became angry - and threw a punch. Somehow that turned into a group battle and he got taken down - all the way to the floor - where people were kneeing him in the ribs and bashing the back of his head into the concrete.

He said he doesn’t remember what took him down but was later told by a pal that one guy raised an arm high and came down with an elbow to his face - and he disappeared into the mosh for a time.

He said it was a furious mob brawl for a time and he eventually left from the pit, laughing with blood all over him and all pumped up with adrenaline. Some of his teeth were out of place ( probably from the elbow) and he thought they might be broken off - but he said they were joined together but hanging down in his mouth about a quarter inch.

So he took his thumbs and pushed the group of teeth back up into alignment with the others - which was most painful I was told! He got home about 2:30 am, got cleaned up, took a couple of hour’s nap and went to work. Everybody thought he’d been in a wreck!

His lip was ‘busted’ both inside and out - and his mouth was all swollen so it was difficult to talk - so he went to the orthopedic surgeon for an exam. He was told that a section of bone surrounding his upper teeth on one side was completely detached but was reset into place and didn’t need any further procedure.

His leg and knee are okay and his ribs are only bruised - not broken.

The doc asked him, ***“How did you get that piece of bone reset?”

“I pushed it back up with my thumbs.”

“No… I mean… how did you manage to do that considering the extreme pain it would have caused?”

“Well, it was already causing extreme pain. I just wanted it to stop or at least subside a bit so I pushed them back up until I found a place where they didn’t hurt so bad.”***

http://kilo943.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/moshpit.jpg

So if somebody asks you to go with them to a rock concert… wear old clothes that you don’t mind being bloodied and ruined - and remember to keep your hands up to deflect blows aimed at your face. Oh yeah… Have fun!

2

Not all mosh pits are alike. It greatly depends on the type of crowd, which can usually be predicted by the band playing. There’s a strong correlation between shitty bands and shitty crowds.

3

In younger days (circa 1982 or so), I did some slam dancing at some punk or new wave concerts. It was pretty calm, just people bouncing off each other and having a bit of fun.

Then I went to a concert around 1986 (Husker Du), and saw my first moshing. It looked to me to be a bunch of thugs (think new-Nazi types) wanting to fuck something up. No thanks to that. I’m surprised that any remnant of it still remains.

4

I’ve seen and been in a huge variety. IME, the most physical dangerous ones are at out-of-the-way rural venues that simply don’t understand the cultural ‘rules’ and just see it as an excuse for brawling and bashing. It’s like playing touch football with ‘that guy’ who over-aggressively body checks people senseless, especially picking on the smaller boys and girls, as a ‘touch’.

One of my favorite times was a festival in Seattle in the grunge days. One of the food stands had been giving out free cups of water with a lemon wedge. The pit turned into a crazy lemon-wedge war with those on the outside of the ring pelting lemon wedges into the interior, and the interior being a ‘smush the lemons into your neighbors face’ free-for-all.

5

The ones I’ve been near in the 1990s were aggressive but pretty friendly, pushing each other around in a rough circle. I’ve never seen blood and fluids, and guys would help each other up if they fell.

6

I agree with **GargoyleWB **and control-z’s assessments. They were generally friendly in the 90s but still quite physical. I didn’t get down in to too many (I’m a female, which doesn’t preclude one from moshing but you can only take so many boob busts) but I did do a lot of standing on the perimeter, pushing moshers away from the crowd. It gave me a good vantage point for the band and let me get some aggression out without getting my face busted.

My friend is a huge Iron Maiden fan and told me she was shocked to see moshing at the recent Maiden show she went to this summer. I don’t really know Maiden music or Maiden crowds but I kinda woulda assumed moshing would go on there. Like everyone else, I assumed incorrectly :slight_smile:

I do know that I stopped going to ska shows when the dancing space became more of a moshing space. It’s really hard to skank when kids are trying to pingpong off you and everyone else. I’m not talking about ska-core or punk shows. Nothing too hard. People just really wanted to mosh and it was not the right place for it.

7

I’ve been to many metal concerts, it’s the norm at most of them. The majority of them look about like that, people pushing others around, running in to each other. All in good fun it seems. But I’ve seen others where people are punching, kicking, throwing people around. I’ve seen people have to get pulled out because they were knocked out. I don’t know what kind of bullshit that is, but it’s not what I want to see.

8

We saw Ministry at the Civic Auditorium in San Francisco back in the ‘90s and, opting to stay out of the fray, chose balcony seats where we could look down on the crowd. If you’ve never been, the floor itself is massive and it was fascinating to watch as nearly a half-dozen pits formed, split up, joined up again with other pits, etc. It was like watching cellular division.

9

Even at my advanced age (60) I’ll still hit the Pit now and then. I’ll scout and get a feel for the crowd before heading front and center but its like any other place in life – good crowd and good music and its a lot of fun. Never went surfing or diving but at my weight (I haven’t been under 200 since Clinton first got elected) it just always seemed contraindicated. Cannibal Corpse had some great Pits in PA and OH but I haven’t been to one of their gigs in years. Techno can get some real tight packs but not really what I would call moshing; still fun though.

10

out of your whole post this is the thing that surprises me the most by far,

Caught in a mosh this song is from the 80’s
that said I have been in literally hundreds of pits, and acquired quite a few injuries but the kind of night you are talking about is nuts and way off from the norm.

11

I was going to say…the OP is either really young, really old, or really not into live rock music to have not heard of a mosh pit.

12

I’ve been in tons of pits and only a couple turned “violent” where punches started getting thrown. At a Primus concert in the mid-90s I got punched in the side of the head by who the hell knows and I was like, “Well that’s enough pit for the night.” Mostly it’s just the pushing and shoulder ramming people and elbow jabbing but not to the face/head.

And if someone fell you picked their ass up quick so they don’t get trampled. I fell several times and it’s amazing how fast 20 hands grab you and throw you back up onto your feet. Kind of a “faith restored in humaity” moment after you’ve been slamming into and bruising people all night.

Fun times.

13

This entire thread reminds me of “Adam” from the show “Rules of Engagement” and his girl “jen” backing his pussy ass up.

14

And the OP would be “russell Dunbar” sending “Timmy” in for kicks then hauling ass when the shit hits the fan.

15

Then later boasting about what a full on ass kicking, pussy slaying stud he was.

16

Like others in the thread, I’ve been in a lot of them. One of my proudest moments musically was playing a packed metal/punk showcase, and my band was the only one to get a pit going out of about a dozen bands that night.

Yeah, if you’re from a place that has them regularly, there’s a culture that develops around it that’s less violent and more helpful than you’d expect from watching or reading the OP. There kind of has to be, if it really was just a violent free-for-all everyone would be in the hospital, or at least in no condition to go out and slam. Places where people go completely crazy are generally places that just don’t do this very often.

These days I might get in for a song or two, and then I’m done for the night. I do not have the energy I once had. Plus, at my height, everyone’s elbows are right at eye level.