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Comments
*blinks*
This... this HAS to be a satirical article, right? Please, fortheloveofgawd, tell me that Boston hasn't really actually just said that mosh pits are illegal in all forms and ways no matter what?
*throws hands in the air*
That's it. This damned city deserves to be looked down on by real cities. Hell, I think I hear Pittsburgh laughing.
non sequitur
Pittsburgh has much later bus and trolley service than Boston.
Well,,,
I feel secure in the knowledge that the fine officers are keeping me safe from random Slam Dancing.
/sarc
Where is Kevin Bacon when you need him?
Are they filming a remake of "Footloose" in Boston and the directors forgot to inform the general public?
Of course, you know what's next
BPD will attempt to ban the Lambada.
That's the forbidden dance!
That's the forbidden dance!
Really?
I thought that was the Bat-tussi.
What's next, only showing Elvis from the waist up?
After purposely tracking down a pair of tix for the HOB show so my son could mosh and crowd surf (something his mother used to do 30 years ago), instead of Lowell - for the BPD to do this now is bull. We have real problems in this city with crime.
What's next, kids have to play football, soccer and lacrosse in bubble wrap for their own protections? If the city were really worried about my safety, they'd be doing things like fixing sidewalks, cracking down on aggressive drivers intimidating cyclists, cyclists who think the rules of the road don't apply to them and aggressively go after the pieces of excrement that attack runners on the esplanade. Going after kids moshing at the HOB - which has a dance floor specifically with things like mosh pits in mind - is another case of the nanny state gone amok.
I have to say
while the City of Boston maybe should not be involved, the HOB certainly should be doing something about what happens at that venue. About 2 years ago I went to HOB for a Taking Back Sunday concert (yes, moshing was imminent. I knew this.). I went with another female and we planned ahead of time to stick to the edges of the crowd and the bar area (out of the center, where the action would happen.) This did not happen at all. We were dragged into multiple mosh pits by people (read: men) rushing past us. We saw this happen to numerous other girls. I was elbowed in the face multiple times, and later found many bruises on my body. Multiple points during the concert, as we were being pushed and dragged into the middle of what was basically a giant fight, we waved and yelled at the bouncers (about 5 feet away) to help us. No reaction. This was a pretty terrifying experience, and eventually the bouncers started kicking people out and trying to cut down on the moshing.
I am not new to moshing. I am not new to Taking Back Sunday shows. I am not new to drunk idiots, people who are high on who knows what, shitty bouncers, and generally douchey guys. But my experience was not okay. There was nothing I could have done to remove myself from the situation except for to have paid more money to get in the balcony area. And since when do I have to pay more money to be "safer" at a concert that everyone is paying to be at? HOB sucks. Their bouncers suck. And I wish it would all get torn down and turned back into Jake Ivory's.
queue the violins.. news at
queue the violins.. news at five: girls upset at moshing at concert.. blah blah
this story i've been hearing from people since the early 90s. Dont go to things like this if you can't deal with what the crowd is like.
Clearly, you don't know how to read
I know, it must be so painful for your beady little eyes to read a full two paragraphs. Wah.
I wasn't upset at moshing. I like moshing. I've done it before, and I've done it since. I was probably doing it before most of the tards who were at that show. My point is, that was an effed up atmosphere that the bouncers were willing to do nothing about.
Have you ever been dragged into a pit of screaming, jumping, punching, kicking idiots? I have it. It sucks. I knew it would happen, so I kept back. In fact, on the other side of a metal railing in attempt to keep myself away from even the outskirts of the pit. Still got dragged, with people laughing in and elbowing my face.
I'm not trying to get pity. I was expecting mosh pits, and I planned according. I didn't expect people to force 15 feet across the floor into a moshpit, and for the bouncers to do nothing about it.
....Really? haha okay. First
....Really? haha okay.
First of all, tickets on the mezzanine cost the same as floor tickets, it's all GA. If you want true balcony seats to a TBS show...well then I just don't understand the point of that.
Second of all, TBS is not a hardcore band as this article refers to. If you were close enough to get dragged into the "pit", you were not near the bar, and were not on the "edges". I suggest you check out some Dashboard Confessional shows, they seem more up your ally.
You weren't there.
You weren't there. I WAS near the bar. People literally GRABBED MY ARMS and dragged my friend and I into a mosh pit. Nearly every time I tried to literally claw myself out, I got shoved back in. Don't believe me? That's fine (refer to paragraph 3).
I've done Warped Tour numerous times, crowd-surfing to the same TBS for as far as the eye can see. Clearly, I'm not afraid to get in the thick of it and mosh.
On the point of you being a moron:
1) The "hardcore band as this article refers to" is Flogging Molly. Um.. not hardcore at all, you raging idiot.
2) It's spelled "alley."
The experience you described
The experience you described definitely does suck. But I've been to numerous shows at HOB a little more recently than that. I've seen the bouncers do a great job of keeping the peace, haven't witnessed anything close to what you described. Not that I disbelieve you (your story makes a lot more sense considering this hearing) but this crackdown just seems ridiculous based on my experience.
*!HEADDESK!*
Define "mosh pit". Provide statistics on moshing injuries.
Can we headbang nanny nanny nanny state ... pleeeeeeese?
Ugh.
Hardcore used to be a huge
Hardcore used to be a huge scene in Boston. Now, not so much because of how out-of-control the shows used to be
You couldn't go to some shows because FSU and/or skinheads would be there with their 400-lb friends beating the shit out of each other. and everyone else at the show. Not just in Boston but in Worcester and the Cape as well. I've seen my friends get held by the neck and assaulted by multiple people and there's nothing you can do because they all had knives/guns and were huge.
Obviously this never happened at some emo show like taking back sunday, but most venues in Boston stopped allowing hardcore shows and I guess also enforce no-moshing rules as well. Probably so that little girls can go to the front of the crowd in an emo show and not have to worry about running around in a circle pit. I'm not sure why you would listen to angry, high-energy music and go to a show just to sit around by the wall. Usually a mosh pit is just people running around really fast and dancing/pushing each other, and most of the time people get pulled back up the second that they fall down or get pushed.
Mosh Pits
What is this, 1991?
real mosh pits
were invented by the true punks and they died with them (1979?). mosh pits now are either 16 year old kids with chips on their shoulders (which is cool) or 26 year old frat boys that cant grow up and love the idea of knocking 14 year old girls through walls (not cool). ive been in quite a few and you can always tell who is getting off to the music and who is getting off on hurting someone weaker than them. its a fine line and sometimes people wading in not knowing what to expect are preyed upon, not cool or fun. keep it real y'all.
Hangup your boots
Time to hang up your boots and turn in your spikes old man. Punk has seen it's share of bastardizations, but it is still alive today.
The out-of-control moshing at
The out-of-control moshing at Death Cab For Cutie the last time they swung through town must have pushed the authorities over the edge.
Seriously, though, mosh pits can cause injuries. No one going into one expects that they're going to end up at the bottom of a pig pile or leave with broken bones, but it happens. I was told by someone involved in the mid-80s scene that someone at a local show ended up paralyzed, and this is when clubs weren't as large as HOB (The Channel was the biggest one at the time, I think). The other thing going on is that while 99% of people want to have fun, there's the 1% of jerks that want to fight or beat people up.
What's the solution? If HOB is booking heavy acts and a few hundred people are standing in front of the stage, getting that to stop will be difficult unless the music stops or they send a lot of security in there. You can imagine how bands and fans are going to react to that.
But what does this mean for pillow fights? water gun battles?
...your Mom?
I mean really. I have no love lost for HoB getting spanked for being jerks now and again. But there are things that just happen at shows, and things that the staff can distinguish as task-worthy and take care of. A fight in a club? No, never. A mosh pit (with care taken by club staff that nobody's pointedly throwing punches or groping). Hell yeah.
If the CoB touches my yearly pillow fight there will be some kind of legally allowed and state sanctioned non-secular hell to pay.