Mosh Pits Are Roiling and Dangerous
By DAVID BAUDER, AP
Mosh pits can be a roiling, fearsome place to be during a rock
concert. But the biggest danger has usually been broken bones, not sexual assault.
New York State police are investigating allegations of at least four rapes at
Woodstock '99. One woman claims she was assaulted in the mosh pit as a band played.
Mosh pits are a place where concertgoers, usually boys and young men, hurl their
bodies against each other in a release of aggression that's usually accompanied by
intense, angry music. Moshing used to be known as slam dancing when it began with
the punk rock movement in the late 1970s. It turned darker as the music turned darker in
the 1980s, and was popular at concerts by Southern California bands like Fear and Black
Flag.
``There's a sexual frisson as well as a human need for physical release,'' said
Will Hermes, senior editor at Spin magazine. ``People do it because it's fun. The
danger makes it more exciting for people.''
Mosh pits became larger when alternative rock bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam
became popular in the early 1990s, he said. Many people were introduced to the
practice by the huge, muddy mosh pit at Woodstock '94. Moshing was accompanied by its
close cousins: stage diving, in which musicians and fans literally dive into an audience
as if it were a pool, and crowd surfing, in which fans are passed along over audiences by
the hands of people below them.
``Some mosh pits are chaos with etiquette - they look worse than they are,''
said Paul Wertheimer, president of Crowd Management Strategies, a company that specializes
in rock concert security. ``Then they have these sprawling, reckless pits where
people can truly get hurt.''
Women who go crowd surfing are often groped by men. But most people who crowd
surf do so voluntarily and are not dragged into the action.
Injuries from mosh pit activity have been the trigger for lawsuits across the
country. Some communities and universities have sought to ban or restrict the practice,
Wertheimer said. Many rock clubs also ban moshing and stage diving.
Moshing has become even more frenetic as the music has increased in speed and
intensity during the late 1990s, Hermes said. It is often seen at concerts by bands like
Rage Against the Machine and Korn, both of whom performed at Woodstock '99.
Related links:
Zen And The Art Of The
Mosh Pit
