Carmen Ghia

Resident Former Rocker

Police recently cited a Boston city club for allowing violent mosh pit dancing and vowed a crackdown on what they called “dangerous behavior” and a “public safety hazard.”

The Boston Herald reports that police cited the House of Blues for a license violation because of a mosh pit that broke out during a Feb. 21 show by Flogging Molly.

Police say 60 concertgoers engaged in slam dance.

Police say the dance violated safety rules and the club was cited because security did not intervene. The club has agreed to put up signs that say mosh pits are banned.

Brian Fair, vocalist for the Boston band Shadows Fall, called the clampdown “ridiculous.” Musicians say slam dancing is part of the metal and hardcore culture.

 

Now, for those of you who are asking yourself, “What is a mosh pit?” I’ll try to explain. Moshing is a style of dance whose participants push or slam into each other. It is mostly associated with aggressive music genres, such as hardcore punk and heavy metal. It is primarily done to live music, although it can be done to recorded music and is typically done in an area in front of the stage which is referred to as the mosh pit.

If you are one of the people who needed to have this explained to you, you either don’t have teenagers or have not been to a rock concert in quite some time. I’m sure each generation has had its dancing risks. One wrong slip in swing dancing could have painful outcomes.

In my heyday, headbanging and breakdancing was about as “dangerous” as it got. At least with those, no one else seemed to be in harm’s way other than the individual doing it.

While moshing is seen as a form of positive feedback or expression of enjoyment, it has also drawn criticism over its dangerous nature. Injuries and a few deaths have been reported. However, it is generally agreed that moshers are not trying to harm one another, and that they follow an unwritten “moshing etiquette.”

Apparently, you’re not supposed to run into each other to where your skulls crack, but more like a chest bump that some athletes have been known to do with each other.

Unfortunately, in the density of a large crowd, the momentum may be harder to control, and if anyone falls, there’s the possibility of being trampled. With high potential for disaster, surely prevention is better than another tragedy.