Mosh pit discussion/appreciation thread

6bummin6it6

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Who else out there loves to mosh? Why do you love it? What are your favorite kinds of pits? Least favorite? Any interesting/funny pit stories?

moshing may very well be my absolute favorite thing in the world to do. between shows i just kinda walk around and pick up shit that pisses me off or whatever other emotion, and its impossible to get rid of, there is no outlet or form of expression that gets all the energy and suppressed feelings out better than moshing. and i love the community in the pit. people are looking out for you, people you've never talked to before, never seen before, never gonna see again, but they've totally got your back. they'll pick you up, talk to the guy who is just being a dick, lock arms and spin in circles with you.

i head butted this guy in a pit once and it knocked the drunk out of me.

ya know how some pits just kinda feel like a washing machine full of beer, sweat, and piss? they're so tight and there isn't any room to push people or anything, you're kinda just trying to keep yourself on the top of the pile so you don't get trampled and die. they tend to happen at folk punk shows, especially at small venues with way too many people.

circle pits make me laugh, i just don't get it. still fun every once in a while though

fuck these "hardcore" tough guy pits. just a bunch of kids in vans or nikes windmilling and flailing around like jackasses. they don't even touch each other, it looks more like a really poorly directed ballet than a mosh pit. the only physical contact is that one drunk guy who is bigger than anyone else and he just punches people all night long. if my band were ever playing a show and somebody was being a dick like that they would get a bass smashed over their head. nothing ruins a pit like a tough guy and nothing ruins a show like an unenjoyable pit.

the best kinds of pits in my opinion, are the ones where you have some room to run around, and you can pick somebody out, then push them to the other side of the room. of course they'll come back and just push you harder but thats the fun of it. if you wanna dance you can dance and not accidentally whack somebody in the nose, and if you do its their fault because there was more than enough room to avoid your skankin' ass.

so here is this terrible "poem" i wrote about moshing. its a beautiful thing, its therapeutic. i love it.


Bodies slam against one another
Fists fly
Elbows swing
Feet kick
Heads collide
This is love
These are my brothers and sisters
They want to crack my ribs
I want to push them to the ground
Only to pick them up
And send them hurling to the other side of the room
Weathered boots
Tattered shoes
Slipping and sliding
On a beer drenched floor
Lose all sense of direction
Which way to the stage
The source
The energy
The violence
The sound
The pit
 

Rob Nothing

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my first metal show a couple years ago in oregon.. was never much for metal music until I discovered it live. what a great place to go and rage without killing anybody!

as far as mosh pits go though that time I saw jesus lizard in seattle was insane. we were packed like sardines in the middle of the street and it was this ocean of swaying from people still trying to mosh it. I finally ended up climbing / surfing out just for the fresh air. greatest show ever, actually. greatest band on the planet.

seen some fancy stuff. I don't remember where, but it was the first time I'd seen a mosh circle and kids were gettin rough. punk wasn't and still isn't much my thing but it was still impressive to watch and will still wander into a show from time to time. last one they threw me out though, on grounds that no one much liked me which is understandable! turned me off from that crowd a little bit though.
 
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Kim Chee

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Haha...

I used to work in a nightclub and part of my job was to make sure the dance floor didn't turn into a mosh pit.

If you need an elbow to the face, let me know, I'll be gentle;)

I'll maybe never understand why "organized violence" or "mosh pits" are something people want.

Go forth and love one another, brother.

Since this is a mosh pit appreciation thread, you can give me a little poopie pile if you like.
 
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Archon Haz

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Personally I love it because its all aggression and violence but no anger and no ill will. Its loving aggression, sorta like hardcore sex guess. Heavy metal pits are the way to go, stay the fuck away from hardcore pits, they will fuck you up and not give a shit, they have some sirious bad vibes. and I agree that windmilling shit is retardded.

I The running around is fun somtimes but a little pointless.

Personally I like it when you have good shoving room where you can just push one guy into another, a moment before someone pushes you and you go flying and hit someone - who then pushes you back.

In Israel there is a big difference between Core pits and Metal pits, I think my best story was the time that
I got hit and my glasses flew, six guys dropped to the floor to look for them and after someone screamed in Hebrew "We've got glasses on the floor!" and all of a sudden a circle opened up in the midlle of the pit (while people are still moshing) in order to find my gasses. Now I'm fucking blind without my glasses - this was a big releif to me, being blind while being physically asulted is scary as fuck. Anyway they actually found up and I got right back in the pit.

Anther good one is the time that a half naked, sweaty giant came hurling at me (no idea who could have pushed him, he was fucing huge) and nocked me the fuck down, pushing all the air out of me and seriously disorienting me. They guy doesn;t even hesitate, he streched out his arms above me creating some sort of tent and just deflected people coming my way with his body. He then dragged me up (getting me covered in man-sweat), asked me if I was ok, when I gave him half a nod he burst out laughing and pushed me so hard I flew across the pit.
 

6bummin6it6

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Since this is a mosh pit appreciation thread, you can give me a little poopie pile if you like.

yeah but its also just a discussion thread, all opinions welcome and what not.

i've actually never moshed at any kind of metal show. i kinda got sucked into a wall of death at a slayer concert when i was 12 but thats about it, never got to go to anymore metal shows after that.

i was at a show one time, just a bunch of local indie type shit, they were playing in the attic and there was some hardcore show going on downstairs. while waiting for the next band to get on stage we'd all run downstairs to see if we could mosh a little but every time we went down there, there was just a giant cleared out circle in the middle of the dance floor, with about three helicopters running around. but since i was with a fairly large group, we would all just run out there and mosh like regular people. the helicopters looked really confused, as if they'd never seen anything like it. this would have been a perfect time to twerk, they would still look at you like what you're doing is highly inappropriate, but at least they would know what you were doing.

went to see a show at some house party type thing, the bill was full of punk bands and grindcore bands, really intense shit, was really looking forward to the pit.....pit never started. i guess everybody was just being respectful of the venue, since it was somebodys house and all, still a bummer though and really kinda weird, most of these bands were like old hardcore, 80's type shit, the best shit on the planet to mosh to. how does a basement full of 70ish drunk kids not react at all?

we used to mosh in the hallways at school. there'd be a group of about five er six kids throwing each other into lockers. of course it would only last about 12 seconds.
 

jaws

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The right kind of mosh pits are extremely healthy for your mind and body.
In a day and age where most people have personal bubbles so large they exist in solitude even when living in cities of millions, the body contact in mosh pits is like a breath of fresh air. I'm talking about the ones where people playfully exchange in full contact for hours until you are literally getting high from eachother. The middle of a mosh pit is like a sauna where everyones sweat and toxins are dripping to the floor, endorphins are flying and the combined doses of oxytocin and adrenaline you are releasing from the movement is astounding. It can appear harmful when you are really healing eachother. The next day soarness is always a good soar, like a full body workout and the cardio is next to completing a marathon unless it's in a room of cigarette smoke of course.
My first mosh concert was my 14th birthday, The Casualties played at Fitzgeralds in Houston. My Dad took and watched me from the back of the show haha. The men were like ogres compared to me and my also 14 year old friend. Everytime we got knocked on the floor they would reach down laughing with a smile and pull us back up. You can imagine how my Dad felt haha.
Now I am 6'3'' and 200lbs, the last show I went to was in Monterey, Mexico. Mexican youth love the hardcore scene! It was one of the best shows I ever went to, the endurance of the guys were great, many of them stayed in the mosh pit the entire night, I kept up with them and when it was over I was thankful.
 

6bummin6it6

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Jaws, thank you for everything you just said. I could not agree more.

moshing is such a wonderful, beautiful, therapeutic thing. there is just so much energy flowing around everywhere, almost without boarders. so many kinds of energy too, you've got anger and violence and aggression but its presented in a way that makes it fun, the initial fear of being hurt quickly turn to adrenaline and before you know you're having the time of your life. moshing is like flushing the toilet of yer soul. it takes all that built up rage or whatever, knocks it outta ya, and replaces it new energy. the pit is some place where everybody is accepted, everybody has some friends. all the things that are so hard to come by in the rest of the world can be found with ease in the pit. love and community and brotherhood, aggression just because it feels good.
 

snax

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The pit tends to become a political war zone for me. Nothing puts a damper on a good punk show like mad white bros dominating the space.

I tend to enjoy brass band pits the most.
 

CelticWanderer

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if anyone gets a chance to see Tiny Moving Parts, do it. They have the most energetic stage presence ive ever seen, Dylan was crowd surfing and shredding solos and losing his mind. The drummers nuts too. Not really a lot of moshing at that show, I guess its not really the music for it but looots of crowd surfing and jumping around.
 

HoboinaTux

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Socially acceptable violence - yup

Cool story though, I went to a coffee shop in a super small town cause I was bored and I figured I'd get on the internet. Fucking Bad Brains was playing. There were probably 30-40 people there so small mosh. Not being prepared I was in flip flops. They got destroyed and I kept moshing barefoot. After a few songs the singer called me out as the most hardcore person in the place. Was awesome as fuck. Also, noone ever thinks I'm hardcore except that guy. Fuck yeah.
 
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