Saturday night at the Deerhoof show two inconsiderate males unapologetically threw their bodies into other people around them making many people miserable. Miserable enough in fact to cause AT LEAST four of them leave. What’s worse for me personally is the embarrassment I sustained by a confrontation with the worst of the terrible two. Instead of thinking of a clever method of stomping him out, I ended up looking like a jackass after an effort to covertly trip him resulted in me getting in his face. A concerned onlooker grabbed my shoulder and gently pulled me back in an attempt to avoid a bare knuckled boxing match between myself and Mr. Cordial. I knew at that moment that anyone who noticed the encounter probably added to their extreme dislike of the mosher, a sense of embarrassment for me who pathetically lost his cool and failed miserably at ridding the show of its pest. For being the cause of the intense anger that resulted in my embarrassing behavior, I dislike you even more Mosh Man. I desperately hope you figure out your error and feel badly.
This article appears in Jul 17-23, 2008.
you go to an indie/rock/alternative concert and get offended at a moshpit? wow.moshpits are a fact of concert. i know i have moshed plenty of times, sometimes practically bymyself because the audience was filled with people like you. granted, i havent moshed to deerhoof (no clue what they sound like), but i have moshed from the oh-so-obviously-mosheable stuff as dying fetus, and lapidate, to unmosheable stuff like novembers doom and agalloch.i hope karma is going to get you hard for trying to trip the guy. mosh pits are about comradeship, and positive energy. whenever someone falls in the pit, people always help them up, rather than kick them while they are down. to ‘covertly trip’ someone in the moshpit on purpose is more than despicable. that person is vulnereable, not looking where they are stepping and for you to take advantage of that, just because you dont like them moshing, is like someone raping a handicapped person. i know some people dont take it too kindly when others abuse moshers. i know i interfered in confrontations like that. i hope karma is going to bite you real hard for that.damn right you should be ashamed of yourself.angry and amazed
maybe, but Grindcore, it sounds to me like there was no moshpit… only 2 jackoffs pissing everyone off who was trying to hear/watch the show. maybe if it were the other way around and the OP was the only one who WASN’T moshing, then something could be said. And maybe deerhoof isn’t a mosh-able band in the first place. i wouldn’t know.
I’m too old to handle the Moshing now and Deerhoof is one of my favorite bands. I want to enjoy them as much as the next guy does without pissing anyone off. I guess the best way to handle it is to move. Unless you want to ask the guy to stop, which is pretty lame way to put a wet blanket on the party.I was next to Greg Saunier and didn’t notice any of this.
I’m inclined to agree with Mimi though. If you are the ONLY one moshing, maybe then you might want to consider those around you. There are lots of ways to rock out without hurtling yourself into those who don’t want to be knocked around. If moshing is about “comradeship and positive energy”, then I would think lone moshers would have the decency to not piss off those around them, the same way a lone non-mosher should respect the pit.
I second that. Camaraderie and positive energy generally involve NOT breaking the ribs and jaws of those around you who don’t want them broken. If they are into it, great, but if they’re not, don’t bash into them, or you’re just being a jerk. And moshing to Deerhoof is a bit like dancing a jig to October Language.