It's 10 p.m. and you're moshing your brains out.....
Do Your Parents Know Where You Are???
The "Mosh Pit" has become a common phenomenon
in the alternative music world. Webster's doesn't have a definition...so
we'll make one up! "Moshing" is the practice of slamming unselectively
with a participative crowd of individuals engaged in a frenzied celebration
of musical energy.... with an occasional "stage dive" and "surfer."
This "Generation X" practice of the 90's has it's origins in the
Punk Rock "Slam Dancing" of the 1980's...with a twist...
Instances of Moshing have resulted in serious injuries
to participatants caught up in the excitement of the music. Some cities
have outlawed moshing and most arenas who host alternative and hard rock
concerts dread the mess. After being caught in the mosh pit at the Verve
Pipe Concert...this writer certainly understands the volatile nature of
the event...yet there was something 
exciting
about the fact that so many people can jump up and down, bounce off of each
other, and pass folks above their heads (crowd surfing)...and survive! Wow!
Stage Diving is the art of making it past the security
guards...looking the featured artists in the eye...smiling...and jumping
back out onto the hands (and heads) of the awaiting crowd... all before
the big mean security guy comes to kick your bottom off himself!! The musicians
like to get in on the action on occasion and the crowd goes really nuts
when that 
happens.
Crowd surfing results when an individual (either voluntarily or involuntarily) is heaped up to the shoulders of others and passed gingerly across the crowd until one is either dropped off gently let down somewhere very far away from where they started.
The crowd at the SpringFest concert had a great mosh pit!
They got really cranked up when The Verve Pipe stage manager let the security
guys know that the band always wants the crowd to come to the front while
they perform. Instead of sitting in their reserved seats...the crowd descended
on the stage...and the
moshing took over! The
crowd was a "well behaved mosh pit" and no injuries were 
recorded (that's the best way to mosh).... the crowd enjoyed themselves
and the Band complimented them on their outstanding effort!
Story by Kim Reece