Back in high school my friends were in a punk band called Feared Alien Voodoo and they'd get high on speed pills before the show. Once on stage another friend, who was wearing a black leather gimp mask, a rainbow colored pair of daisy dukes, and knee-high combat boots, would run around hitting all the band members with one of those things cowboys use to make horses go faster. Then he'd jump into the crowd and proceed to whip the crowd as well. Fun times.

75 people moshing at a slam brutal death metal band

"YO GUYS WHAT ARE YOUR POLITICAL BELIEFS?"

Chaos ensues as socialists, anarchists, libertarians and conservatives begin fighting each other in the pit

Ah yes, the good old days of DSBM BDSM music.

This is something else that makes DM.org's assertion ridiculous. Unless (as someone else pointed out) someone's wearing clothing or patches that make their politics explicitly obvious, this just isn't going to happen. Again, I wouldn't be shocked if there were a few isolated incidents where some dude with a hammer and sickle pin gets punched in the face or something, but it's certainly not an every day thing, lol.

Sure. Better to stay safe at home and read bullshit on the Internet.
You do realize you can find idiots anywhere, right?

This is assault trojan horsed as moshing.
You can't change my mind.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7cM7caJZyY

I remember the Sleep crowd at MDF one year got a little too packed and turned into a big push pit. It was getting hard to breathe and hard to get out of, so I tapped a guy's shoulder to get ot the ol' foot catapult and crowd surfed out to the safe, roomy back.

I was at the Ecchymosis show in Manlla over the weekend and had a nasty tumble when some assholes slammed into me and pushed me into the pit. Normally I would just shrug it off and laugh about it. But I had difficulty getting up as another person got entangled on the strap of my sling bag and we both couldn't get up. Those moshers know who each other are and they should confine the moshing to themselves and keep uninterested and unwilling participants away.

I saw Get The Shot in Toronto last year and some jackass literally shoved someone HARD into a bunch of tables and chairs, and then 'WOO'd' like Ric Flair in someone else's face. Then later on the vocalist is holding off on starting the next song until he sees literally everyone moshing/crowdkilling and is pointing out the folks who quite obviously want nothing to do with that bullshit.

I decided to go stand/sit near those tables in case that happened again, because all I could think about was that scene in Million Dollar Baby and my stomach turned.

So in the pit people are discovering the political views of other people and attacking? How is that working? I've never ran into someone at a metal show going on about politics other than the band I guess.

I'll stil jump in the pit now and then, GWAR was crazy during Immortal Corrupter, but I don't know how one would figure how who is the liberal and who is the conservative in that environment. Its not like I was seeing Che or Trump shirts.

Would seem plausible that the far-right fuckwits are targeting to "crowdkill" people who they know to not align with their views.

Okay so are they doing an on the spot poll while at the merch table? Just thinking "That dude in the Cryptopsy shirt looks like a commie, lets get him". Or what? Unless someone is wearing a Che shirt or something I'm just not sure how this would work. I can't say I've ever seen politics come up at a show unless the band decided we needed to hear a lecture of some sort. And yes I've heard my fair share of that but people in the crowd picking out people in the crowd...This seems quite nonsensical.

Getting away from the politics for a minute here but didn't Paul Baloff used to encourage violence on anyone wearing any glam metal t-shirts?

Well poseur annihilation is a different story.

I heard that a few times and they went over it in that Murder in the Front Row documentary. I never got the idea that thrash metal kids were exceptionally tough group but I guess pack tactics would be effective against solo Dokken fans.

Honestly, I find the whole concept of moshing fascinating, even though I'm not really interested in participating, but this overtly violent variant of it is just puzzling to me. Are there people who really like the idea of being able to say "I went to a concert last night, I broke my arm on the mosh, but managed to crush at least three random dudes' ribcages and one spine" or anything of the sort? I can sort of see the appeal of the classic mosh, it's an adrenaline thing and it keeps itself constant due to the safety aspect, which allows it to be an outlet for the innermost desire for thrilling experiences, but would really tell me you find exciting to get major injuries on thing that's supposed to be fun?

Sure, I'm really stretching it with those statements, breaking bones is gonna be rare, even in the most intense moshpits, but I still don't understand why someone would even risk running into that possibility. I mean, if an activity gives you bruises, it can give you more serious injuries, and if it can give you serious injuries, it can give you some fractured bones, and in we're in that territory, it's not hard to see how it can lead to even fatal injuries that might result in paralysis, death and whatnot. If your idea of fun is this dangerous to other people's well-being, then I don't understand you.

https://loudwire.com/hardcore-band-turn ... kyRWMHGZ4A

Now this is a mosh pit I can happily participate in.

It's not any different than competing in contact sports, nobody is trying to hurt you but if you can knock somebody on their ass, it's fun. You always pick them back up and all is cool. Just a circular version of slam dancing. At least that is the way it used to be, I would not go near that Wall of Death crap that they do now.

I've never seen politics come up at a show in the crowd either. It's a non-issue.

That said I also think its bad if people are pushing others into the mosh pit against their will. However, if one goes to a crazy show you also have to conform to reality. Don't stand near the young stupid moshers. Sort of the same at a big show, if you don't like very crowded places and people pushing into you - don't get tickets and/or stand right in front of the stage.

I was at Testament back in the 00's and some assclown was picking his buddy up back to chest and then swinging him around so he could kick people. I foolishly had my glasses on in the pit, yeah I know, and they came flying off. I was fighting off the crowd with one arm as I grabbed them off the floor. Either Testament didn't have the crowed fired up enough, or the thought of losing 150 dollar pair of glasses gave me superhuman strength. By the time I got my shit back together they were gone.

Go watch the videos of the Wall of Death on Youtube, those fuckers are straight up throwing punches.

There is definitely idiocy and I stay out of those pits. When I go to Full Terror Assault each year there are always circle pits, but its just people slamming into each other, helping each other up when they go down, and no walls of death. I love it even if I'm getting to be an old fuck.

That is definitely the worst. You get crushed against the person in front of you and then this weird suction effect happens that pulls you forcefully backwards and into the line of fire if you're not careful. I love watching people have a good time in the pit and by and large they don't bother me, but I have no interest in being pulled into all of that. When I was a bit younger and well, drunk, frankly, sure. But not anymore. As someone said, you can tell who doesn't have to work the next day.

Going to shows in my teens in the mid-2000s was always an experience because so many of the bills had a blend of metal, hardcore, metalcore, etc. which have very different crowd responses, respectively. If an entire pit was comprised of hardcore dancers, fine. Push pitters, also fine. But blending the two together was an unmitigated disaster. I watched someone slam into a hardcore dancer and get thrown to the floor and intentionally stomped by multiple people to the point where he had to be carried out of the venue. It was disgusting.

I agree. Too many idiots in pits. I like (or used to, it's been a while) skanking around and having a bit of a shove sometimes, but people with elbows out thinking that anything goes... No. I'm not there to hurt anyone or to get hurt myself, it's supposed to be a dance with other people who are just having a good time, not a mass punch-up.

I'm a gentle giant by nature but I have to admit violence was on my mind for a split second when some idiot forcefully pushed me across the room when Igorrr were playing at a gig I was at recently. It was a miracle I stayed on my feet, I guess weight/height was on my side luckily. Less is more in my experience in the pits and being courteous/restrained is the best way to having a good time in them, just because you might be a big unit and don't feel pain it dosen't mean a small young 5ft female won't be hurting if you dig a big elbow into their ribs.