Mosh Pits (Dangerous?) Update on Page 3

[Keli]

Right now my dd is at a three day outdoor christian concert thing. And she's in the mosh pit for every one of her 'favorite' bands.

Last night apparently the barrier at the front of the mosh pit began to collapse in one area and they had a hard time keeping it upright with the press of all the people 'rocking out' (Ashli's term, lol). There was also an incident where someone landed on top of Ash (she couldn't tell if it was a guy or a girl) and Ash started to fall back into the crowd. She said security reached over the barrier and pulled her upright.

After I mentioned how dangerous this all sounded Ashli did some backpeddling. I'm really sure that in any future calls I will be receiving the 'santitized' version of anything even remotely dangerous but now I'm wondering, how dangerous are mosh pits at christian concerts?

 

[DVC~OKW~96]

As dangerous as they are at any concert.

 

[azgal81]

Some mosh pits are worse then others. There are usually areas that aren't as extreme as others though so if she doesn't feel comfortable she can move away from the rowdy kids!

 

[Tazicket]

I went to a DC Talk concert a few years ago (obviously, I guess since they aren't together anymore) and they threatened to stop the concert when people started moshing and body surfing.

 

[Serena]

Ok, my oldest was in a few. What she told me to calm me down was that, she always went in with a buddy. She always stayed near the outside, so that if it got to rowdy she could get out of it. Also, there are some groups that are more dangerous than others.
Another thing, she always made friends with security and the band when she could. She's jumped on stage once or twice to get out of a bad situation.

Along with all the other precautions a girl has to take of course.

 

[Sparx]

Mosh pits can get bad. Usually they're okay, but people get hurt. If she thinks shes gonna get hurt, she can always get out of it.

 

[ducklite]

She has two diffrent things going on.

Moshing (mosh pit) has it's roots in "slam dancing" which began with fans of early punk bands like the Sex Pistols and the Clash who shunned conventional forms of dancing by developing their own style which consisted of alternately standing in one place and hopping up and down and slamming into those around you.

In a mosh pit, generally a circle is formed and a person or people will come out into it spinning and slamming into those around them. SOmetimes the pit is less organized with several hundred people jsut slamming into each other as hard as possible. At hardcore shows you didn't have fun unless you left bleeding.

While it doesn't always happen and it seems to greatly depend on the band, broken bones and wounds requiring stitches are not at all uncommon. This fellow came out of a pit, but I believe alcohol was more of an issue than injury...

This is a mosh pit AND crowdsurfers:

As to people flying over her, that's crowd surfing, and IMHO a FAR more dangerous activity. The reason I say this is because mosh pits are generally fairly controlled, you can avoid them. Crowd surfing can't really be avoided.

Crowd surfing got it's start during the mid-1980's at thrash and speed metal concerts of such bands as the mighty Metallica and Anthrax in their early club days. It truly started with band members--generally singers, "diving" out into teh audience. The fad grew into fans climbing up on the stage, and then diving off into the crowd below. After most venues took strong measures to keep fans off stages, they began to simply launch each other up into the acrowd to "surf" along the crowd being passed from one set of hands to the next, until they were either dropped (sommon) or went "over the rail" (over the barricade) and were caught by security who sent them back into the crowd or out the door, depending on the rules of that venue.

Crowd surfing endangers not only the surfers, but people under them when someone falls on them. Here are some photo's of crowd surfers to give you an idea:

The problem is that when crowd surfers get dropped, they often go head first, and there have been more than a few incidents of broken necks and skull fractures. They also fall on other people, and can easily injure them in the process. A friend had her nose broken by a crowd surfer.

Anne

 

[ducklite]

BTW--I LOVE watching a good mosh pit--the kind with a few hundred bodies in them from an elevated position above them. The participants amuse me. I figure it's their own personal audition for the Darwin Awards. I think my favorite ever was KoRn at Meadowlands Arena--must have been the better part of two thousand people in three seperate pits.

There have been some songs written about mosh pits, most notably Drowning Pool's "Bodies"...

Let the bodies hit the floor
Let the bodies hit the floor
Let the bodies hit the floor
Let the bodies hit the floor Beaten why for
Can't take much more
One - Nothing wrong with me
Two - Nothing wrong with me
Three - Nothing wrong with me
Four - Nothing wrong with me
One - Something's got to give
Two - Something's got to give
Three - Something's got to give
Now
Let the bodies hit the floor
Push me again
This is the end
Skin against skin blood and bone
You're all by yourself but you're not alone
You wanted in now you're here
Driven by hate consumed by fear
Let the bodies hit the floor



Anne

 

[ducklite]

As dangerous as they are at any concert.

Ain't that the truth. One of the bands that I've seen the most crowd surfing at is P.O.D., a Christian rock band. I've seen them four times, and each time the crowd was crazier.

Anne

 

[boo's mom]

I've been in a mosh pit at a Staind/Theory of a dead man/ Loser concert, a concert at a club with two local bands, Chili Cookoff in April (shinedown, hinder, nonpoint, trapt, revelation theory) and next weekend I'll be in the mosh pit for Lunatic Luau (FM99 concert in Virginia Beach, VA) they are dangerous but I stay to the outside so I can get out if I need to. I'm not into the whole beat each other up, crowd surfing thing..my boyfriend on the other hand loves being in the middle of them and loves to crowd surf....he got dropped on his head and was knocked unconscious a few years ago at a Lunatic Luau event....I don't know whats so fun about that

 

[ducklite]

Of the photo's in my above post--the ones taken inside are during a Shinedown show after Brent spent a few minutes egging the crowd on--he was in a particularly mischievious mood that night because his management team was all there.

Some of the outside crowd surf photo's are during Nonpoint. The pit during Nonpoint gets MAD NUTS especially if they play Rabia.

I don't understand why people mosh to Staind (other than Mudshovel) and Theory. It normally isn't that bad, but on that particular tour I think there were a lot of Manson fans there to see John 5...

Anne

 

[ChrisnSteph]

I've never even heard of mosh pits at "christian" rock concerts. The christian rock I listen to doesn't seem very "mosh" like....

 

[ktulu]

Back in my younger days I was caught up in the middle of a mosh pit at a slayer concert with the wind knocked out of me. That was not fun, but I went back in.

In all the mosh pits I've been through (many, many of them, usually at Lollapalooza, Metallica, some Christian concerts) and I've never seen anyone seriously hurt. If someone is, it's cause they were doing something really stupid. There is usually an unwritten rule that everyone watches out for each other, and any good band will let the crowd know to do so as well.

The buddy system works well, especially if your buddy if a large guy like me. I protected a few folks back in the day. Now I like to sit back and enjoy the show more than participate in it

 

[Saxsoon]

I've never even heard of mosh pits at "christian" rock concerts. The christian rock I listen to doesn't seem very "mosh" like....

I agree, the only one that I listen too that would get that close is 12 Stones.

Course another one I heard was Demon Hunter, headbanger music if there ever was one.

 

[sha_lyn]

Someone was knocked out in the mosh pit while Lacunna Coil (sp?) was playing (opening for Rob Zombie) a couple of months ago in Atlanta. My arm was bruised up just from the crowd pushing forward when Bullet for My Valentine came on stage. I high tailed it to the balcony. Had a bird's eye view when the guy got knocked out.

 

[boo's mom]

Of the photo's in my above post--the ones taken inside are during a Shinedown show after Brent spent a few minutes egging the crowd on--he was in a particularly mischievious mood that night because his management team was all there.

Some of the outside crowd surf photo's are during Nonpoint. The pit during Nonpoint gets MAD NUTS especially if they play Rabia.

I don't understand why people mosh to Staind (other than Mudshovel) and Theory. It normally isn't that bad, but on that particular tour I think there were a lot of Manson fans there to see John 5...

Anne

Brent eggs the crowd on at every show they do. my boyfriend has seen them 3 times (going to see them a 4th time when we go to the Rob Zombie/Godsmack/Shinedown show this fall) Brent egged the crowd on at the Chili Cookoff in April and crowdsurfed and ran to the back of the amphitheatre....event staff were not too happy Nonpoint and Shinedown put on a pretty good show.... Staind, believe it or not, put on one heck of a show too. the mosh pit at their concert was pretty intense. John 5 is pretty cool. he started the band Loser (my new favorite band! they put on a better show than Staind and Staind was pretty good)

 

[boo's mom]

Someone was knocked out in the mosh pit while Lacunna Coil (sp?) was playing (opening for Rob Zombie) a couple of months ago in Atlanta. My arm was bruised up just from the crowd pushing forward when Bullet for My Valentine came on stage. I high tailed it to the balcony. Had a bird's eye view when the guy got knocked out.

I wanted to go to that show when they came to the Norva in Norfolk, VA but it sold out QUICK I hear Rob Zombie puts on one heck of a good show. I believe my boyfriend is a pro concert attendee..he's been to quite a few (shinedown, seether, staind, nine inch nails, slipknot, marilyn manson, breaking benjamin and numerous other metal/rock/heavy metal concerts) and he said Rob Zombie was the best followed very closely by slipknot.....Lunatic Luau 10 is a concert with 10 big bands for $20 (mosh pit area/seats)..this year its headliners are Saliva and Puddle of Mudd (not as big a line up as the year before--slipknot, shinedown, etc.) We are planning on going to the Family Values Tour in July (Korn, Stone Sour-Slipknot's lead singer's band--Deftones and Flyleaf) more moshing... and Rob Zombie in the fall....my boyfriend makes sure I stay on the sidelines of the pit so I can get out of I need to..at least he looks out for me while he gets his butt kicked in the mosh pit

 

[MareSINY]

First mosh pit I ever went into was in 1993 at a Pearl Jam concert in the Lime Light in NYC. It really is a rush to be in something like that. People were really watching out for each other, a bunch of us got knocked to the ground and I thought that was going to be the end of me, but a bunch of guys reached down and picked me back up. In 1996 I ended up with a black eye in another Pearl Jam mosh pit (this one at Lollapalooza). It happened when some guy was crowd surfing and flipping around like a maniac. He turned and elbowed me right in the eye.

I think if you watch what you're doing and are around other people who are considerate you'll be fine in a mosh pit, but once you get around a few a-holes whose only concern is to see how much mayhem they can cause, you run the risk of being hurt.

 

[maddhatir]

I cant see why a girl would WANT to be in a mosh pit in the first place--- i have been to tons of concerts in the past- Slayer- Megadeth (blast from the past!) Metallica, WHITE zombie (another blast), pantera and many more...

i would LOVE to sit up in the seats and watch down on the people doing their thing. 99% of them were guys.

and as far as a girl crowd surfing-- ummmm... i have seen plenty of girls getting "felt up" while the guys are "passing them around"! not fun!

 

[ducklite]

Brent eggs the crowd on at every show they do. my boyfriend has seen them 3 times (going to see them a 4th time when we go to the Rob Zombie/Godsmack/Shinedown show this fall)

I've seen them over two dozen times, trust me, I'm well aware of Brent's antics. I'll be seeing them again in a couple of weeks. Sometimes Brent gets a little off the wall when his alter ego "The Rev" comes out. That happens more in their headline shows than when they are a support act.

Here's one of my more recent photo's of Brent:

Brent egged the crowd on at the Chili Cookoff in April and crowdsurfed and ran to the back of the amphitheatre....event staff were not too happy

I've seen him do all sorts of crazy things, including dive from second story balconies into the crowd below.

Nonpoint and Shinedown put on a pretty good show....

I've seen Nonpoint three times, they are phenomenal live.

Staind, believe it or not, put on one heck of a show too. the mosh pit at their concert was pretty intense. John 5 is pretty cool. he started the band Loser (my new favorite band! they put on a better show than Staind and Staind was pretty good)

I've seen Staind over a dozen times, sometimes they are better than others. I didn't like Loser at all, but I really think he's doing a great job with Zombie. You know that Loser is all but kaput, right?

Here's John 5 with Rob Zombie...

Anne