Mosh Pits

I'm always tapping my foot or hand or bobbing my head/head banging when im watching a band or listening to an album... for some reason i just can't help it. But I've never gotten to urge to push around a bunch of sweaty tough guys.
 
At the peth gig i went to there were pits but they were quite sparse. I think the thing with opeth is they have some very pit worthy parts but alot of there songs are too musical and unpredictable to mosh to.

Song like the grand canjuration, blackwater park and demon of the fall had some pretty intense pits but other songs like the baying of the hounds,when,the drapery falls were quite pitless. And the soft songs definatly didnt have pits hehe, although i think they tried to get one going at the end of face of melinda :lol: .

Ironiclly the biggest mosh at the entire gig was to the grand canjuration wich kind of prooves the people who say moshing is for untalented bands right.
 
I used to do it all the time at metal gigs, i don't think there is anything wrong with it at all. Metal music is aggressive and furious, its perfectly natural that people would want to lose themselves in the music and jump around etc. I have no idea what its like in the states, but in the uk there is a kind of unspoken rule that no fists should be used or elbows above shoulder height (and certainly none of the hardcore dancing).
I mean, do certain songs which are so intense, really deserve a response which means just standing there nodding your head? Most bands love to see some movement / appreciation during the songs and its a good way of the fans letting the band know.

However, of course there are idiots abound in pits and jumping, pushing / jostling whatever is clearly not enough for them. I was at a slayer gig once (the worst kind in my experience for complete and utter twats) and after going a bit bonkers myself during hell awaits, some retard comes up to me and asks me to punch him in the face. I ask you....wtf. He kept coming back and yelling at me (it was too loud for me to get the message through that i might break his jaw), so i just threw him across the floor in annoyance. The idiot came back and actually wanted to shake me by the hand.

These days i just stand back and watch and soak up the sounds. I prefer it to having an elbow to the solar plexus or having someones stinking arm pit in my face. I certainly don't look down at those who get carried away and like to go a bit spastic though. But i'll agree that there is a fine line between having a laugh and jumping around / shoving etc and acting like a complete and utter dickwad.
 
I have always maintained (as evidenced in another thread nearly identical to this from about a year ago) that there should be a moshing area, for people who want to do that. I know some people really enjoy it, and maybe they never played contact sports and this is the only outlet they have for what's pent up inside them. I get it. I also think that it must be kinda cool to see the chaos of the pit from stage and know that the music you are making is causing that.

But couldn't it be off to the side or in back? Leave the front area for people who actually want to WATCH what's going on. Moshing can be effectively accomplished anywhere. Watching what Mike's fingers are doing can't. Especially with a fucking elbow in your face.

BTW, for those who live outside the States, I found out in that other thread that moshing tends to be way more violent here than elsewhere. At least, that's what the consensus seemed to be a year ago. Like I said in that other one, I watched a dude get pulled from the pit at Ozzfest during the Killswitch set with his fucking shin bone poking out of his calf. People actually started puking when they saw it. One of many injuries I saw that day. Nasty.
 
NineFeetUnderground said:
i actually did mosh once. the first "metal show" i ever went to. it was shadows fall and nevermore opening for in flames. well, when in flames came on, warrel dane and jeff loomis went into the pit and started moshing with everyone, which i was in the middle of no less. so it was a bit of a "when in rome" kind of thing. but anyway, typically any mosh activity is complete san francisco-core.

I think Warrell Dane has more fun at the shows than we do. A few yrs ago I saw him pulling fans on stage so they could jump into the crowd. This went on for 20 minutes. It was pretty funny.

1st time I saw Opeth there was a very tall gay dude wearing a Halloween Costume with wings looking completely out of place. He actually ventured into the pit area. When Opeth came on I saw the wings go flying. Almost felt bad for him, but he was an easy target. Didn't see him again after that.
 
soundave said:
BTW, for those who live outside the States, I found out in that other thread that moshing tends to be way more violent here than elsewhere. At least, that's what the consensus seemed to be a year ago. Like I said in that other one, I watched a dude get pulled from the pit at Ozzfest during the Killswitch set with his fucking shin bone poking out of his calf. People actually started puking when they saw it. One of many injuries I saw that day. Nasty.

OUCH. Do you not have the rule that if someone goes down everyone stops and tries to pick them up again? I guess that's impossible if the pit is "mobile" as it sometimes is these days, for instance, when they are doing that circle of death thing....

I was watching LOA (download 2004) a couple of years ago and someone (allegedly) broke their neck in the pit. No idea what happened, but the band had to stop playing...i didn't hear of any fatalities that day.
 
Kir-ir-Bannog said:
OUCH. Do you not have the rule that if someone goes down everyone stops and tries to pick them up again? I guess that's impossible if the pit is "mobile" as it sometimes is these days, for instance, when they are doing that circle of death thing....

I was watching LOA (download 2004) a couple of years ago and someone (allegedly) broke their neck in the pit. No idea what happened, but the band had to stop playing...i didn't hear of any fatalities that day.
Yeah, we do pick them up when they fall. At a Korn show once (yeah I know 95% of you hate Korn, but the pits at Korn shows are some of the worst I've seen/been in), some girl fell down and everyone was packed so tight and moving so much that I was the only person who even noticed her down there. It took an entire song for me to succeed in pulling her up. I'm afraid if I wasn't there she might have been trampled to death.
 
been to 2 shows......both times while oepth were on...some kids were moshing.....not my thing.....specially teh idiots who slam into you...in hopes ud join in....ahhahaa.......i just throw them back in teh mosh....hahaha.....!!!......PEAC EOUT
 
went to opeth in philly last year, and a bunch of noobs started moshing, so i started throwing elbows into the pit and my friend tackled a kid....and the other night i went to a buckethead show...and more fags moshing...i cant stand when your trying to enjoy the music and you get shoved over like 10 feet because people are getting pushed by the pit...save that shit for a morbid angel show..not opeth
 
BRI said:
There are always mosh pits at Opeth shows, but it's generally from the metalheads that go to every metal concert they can, and not the fans that actually want to listen.

I agree. At the first Opeth show I went to, it was mostly all the Nevermore fans that were moshing like crazy. :erk:
 
^ i remeber seeing them back in highschool when they first came out. -pits- it'd be funny to see people mosh to Twited Transistor :puke: and I'm sure there are people who do.

Seriously though, the hardest nastiest most fucking brutal pit ever been in was at a hardcore punk Strung Out show WOW all I got was chunky face but there was a hell of a lot worse. Brohken Bones, teeth, blood everywhere shit was just fucked up, ended the show, and a couple of people leaving in ambulances. You really can attribute a lot to alchohol and "likes to fight guy who lifts everyday" plus being totally shit faced myself/yourself.

Don't do that any more though just enjoy the music.:kickass:
 
Moshing can enhance a song that's only about rocking out, which doesn't really apply to any particular Opeth song. I'd rather be seated, but I would want to mosh to Master's Apprentices. Though at a Subhuman's show, one of their supportings bands (World Inferno Friendship Society) made us waltz. All of us. And that was pretty cool.