Crowd Control To Major Tom *Edited*
Last night Brad and I went to see Karnivool, Seven and Antistatic play at Ruby’s and it was a blast. For a full review visit Brads blog at http://www.theshithaus.com/ as this blog is more of a rant about the crown and “moshing” etiquette. All I will say on the gig is that Antistatic have won themselves a new fan (being me) and you should all check them out, Seven had their best performance I have possibly ever seen by them, I think I enjoyed them more than Karnivool, and well Karnivool just plain rocked!
Now back to crowd etiquette…
I was hardly impressed with crowd last night and it led me to thinking if there was such a thing as “moshing” etiquette anymore? Granted Karnivool has some heavier sounding songs but it’s still not really the kind of stuff you would “head bang” to. I hoping it was just the fact that these were Ruby’s Lounge idiots and Friday at the Hi Fi bar goes a little bit better.
Back in the day when there used to be some form of etiquette, people used to respect the fact that you were at the front and you had spent the time there sitting around and waiting. These days it seems that has disappeared, 80% of the gigs I’ve been to recently there are a group of assholes who throughout the entire gig just push at you and try to get their way to the front regardless of whether there is room or not. It’s just not cool people, show some respect.
Another question I’ve asked myself is what do you do when there are girls in the pit? Brad and I were discussing it afterwards, do you try and take it easy on them and not push them too much or just ignore the fact they are female and treat them the same way (I know that sounds sexist, but that’s not how I mean it). I think based on the events of last night I’m going to base my decision on a girl by girl basis. At the beginning of the gig their was this hella sweet, nice young girl next to me all pumped and excited about the gig and was obviously in the front just so she could get a better view. Once Karnivool got started you could see that it was all a little too much for her, and eventually she had to move. On my other side about half way through Karnivool’s performance some other girl had managed to push her way to the front and get in between Brad and I (not in the fun way either *wink*), and she was a pushy little cow (***EDIT: Met this girl tonight at the Karnivool gig at Hi Fi, made the effort to come home and apologise to me, ended up driving her home, nice girl***). Being the person I am, I never intentionally hurt girls, in fact I don’t like hurting anyone really, but hurting, hitting, pushing etc a girl is a HUGE no. So what should I do?
What are your thoughts on the subject of crowd etiquette at a gig?
posted by Brodie @ 4:03 PM
4 Comments:
It looks like you and I were sandwiched in between three girls (and not in the fun way...), there was one to my left, one in the middle, and one to your right.
The chick in the middle was, as you say, a complete cow. She instigated the physicality by trying to push her way to the front, so I don't see the need to go easy on her as far as trying not to push her, etc.
The chick on your right is completely different, she obviously isn't built to be at the front of a mosh pit so if she were next to me I'd make a conscious effort not to crush her. It's not sexist... I'm bigger than her and would most likely hurt her in the normal course of events, so I'd make an effort not to. It would the same for a young boy, for example (not that they'd be in a mosh, but whatever).
The girl to my left was awesome though... I actually got pushed right into her by the cow in the middle and accidentally elbowed her in the ribs, and when I was apologizing she said "it's OK, at least you're not complaining about the pushing"... so she obviously knew what she was in for and was prepared to handle it. I was trying to stop the fuckholes behind us from slamming directly into her, but she could have handled herself anyway.
As you say, it's probably best dealt with on a girl-by-girl basis.
"It would the same for a young boy, for example (not that they'd be in a mosh, but whatever)." - I had that at Metallica, and as you mention i made an effort not to crush him
This is where I think maynards rules are actually a good idea and make for a more pleasant gig. At the APC gig were were right up the front, sure we couldnt breathe and were crushed, but it was so much more bareable than many other gigs.
Opeth a few months ago was horid i thought.
Spot on Nick... Maynard's rules made APC the most enjoyable gig ever, and Opeth this year had a fucking crap crowd.
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