Slam Dancing

GatorToofGatorToof 582 Posts
edited February 2013 in Strut Central
I don't go to shows at certain venues anymore because of the physical danger of slam dancing. Last time this person catapulted their body through the air into me and knocked me back. Luckily there was girl behind me, she didn't get knocked over, however; she did help keep me from falling. When I see her again I will be sure to thank her. As a result, I don't go to shows where I know people are going to be doing that type of dancing.
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  • HarveyCanalHarveyCanal "a distraction from my main thesis." 13,234 Posts
    I WISH people would slamdance like they used to. Well, maybe I'm actually too old for it. But damn, we used to have so much fun back in the day going to punk and grunge concerts dressed for friendly warfare.

  • DJ_EnkiDJ_Enki 6,471 Posts
    Punk rock girl!
    Give me a chance
    Punk rock girl!
    Let's go slam dance

  • Thought you were going to say luckily there was a girl behind you to break your fall.

  • SP 1200 said:
    Thought you were going to say luckily there was a girl behind you to break your fall.

    Hahaha.

  • I'm scared of slam dancing, but I also get a rush out of it. Sorta like how I feel about donating blood.

    Just a couple of notes into seeing The Refused at Coachella last year, I got blindsided and the wind knocked out of me. As I was struggling to catch my breath, four or five people helped me back onto my feet. There's an interesting camaraderie that goes on in a mosh pit.

  • volumenvolumen 2,532 Posts
    HarveyCanal said:
    I WISH people would slamdance like they used to. Well, maybe I'm actually too old for it. But damn, we used to have so much fun back in the day going to punk and grunge concerts dressed for friendly warfare.

    Yea, it's like most things in the world. Starts out cool and fun then the idiots ruin it.

    Originally it was all us punks just looking to get our anger out. We were all on the same page just wanting to thrash with no intention on hurting each other. When someone went down, that section of the pit stop and got the person back up and then went back to business. It wasn't long before skin heads would show up to punk parties just just trow blows in the pit. The places I went to in Dallas had large body guards that would escort the skinheads out pretty quickly.

    Then frat boys started showing up and aggressively shoving people with the intention of hurting each other as well as the idiots that would just swing their firsts like crazy secretly hoping to punch some one.


    God I'm old.....

  • volumenvolumen 2,532 Posts
    BTW I still go to the shows, I just stand in the back like an old fart.

  • motown67motown67 4,513 Posts
    Slam dancing only works given the right mix of people and the venue. In the early 1980s slam dancing could be dangerous in many places in San Francisco for example. There were tons of Nazi skinheads and plenty of total jerks and fights happened quite often. Later in that decade some places opened over in the East Bay like Gilman St., which did not have that kind of crowd, and things were fine.

  • bassiebassie 11,710 Posts
    Worst part is that it happens in front of the stage, making for a thoroughly shitty time for anyone small and/or uninterested in getting elbowed in the neck and there to see/hear a show without constant jostling and shoving. I feel the same way about b-boys/b-girls taking up most of the dancefloor and creating a huge circle of non-participant spectators basically killing the dance-floor vibe. Take it to the back of the room and let the rest of us have a good time.

    mid-afternoon rant over

  • Mosh pit > B-Boys > Capoeiristas

    And I say this as a dusty and rusty B-Boy.

  • HarveyCanalHarveyCanal "a distraction from my main thesis." 13,234 Posts
    bassie said:
    Worst part is that it happens in front of the stage, making for a thoroughly shitty time for anyone small and/or uninterested in getting elbowed in the neck and there to see/hear a show without constant jostling and shoving. I feel the same way about b-boys/b-girls taking up most of the dancefloor and creating a huge circle of non-participant spectators basically killing the dance-floor vibe. Take it to the back of the room and let the rest of us have a good time.

    mid-afternoon rant over

    Sorry, but you just made me want to obscure your view even more with some good ole fashioned SKANK.

  • FrankFrank 2,370 Posts
    Totally idiotic behavior. Just as idiotic as stagediving, I've been to plenty of punk and hardcore shows back in the 80s and it always annoyed the shit out of me, idiots climbing on stage, invading the band's space and forcing everybody in the crowd to look at their worthless asses. Although it was great when you saw them coming early enough so you could step back with your arms spread out and make room for those fuckers to straight hit the floor.

    Most violent "dancing" I ever saw was at a show by the Meteors in '84 or so. This was just a straight up mass fist fight and after the first couple of songs about half the crowd seemed to be bleeding from their faces. I think they had a different word for it than slam dancing though. Second place was the Bad Brains during the I Against I tour.

    It always struck me as odd how guys would want to get all physical and sweaty and half naked with a bunch of other guys and behave in a way that ensures the sweat soaked sausage fest doesn't get interrupted by any member of the other sex.

  • bassiebassie 11,710 Posts
    HarveyCanal said:
    bassie said:
    Worst part is that it happens in front of the stage, making for a thoroughly shitty time for anyone small and/or uninterested in getting elbowed in the neck and there to see/hear a show without constant jostling and shoving. I feel the same way about b-boys/b-girls taking up most of the dancefloor and creating a huge circle of non-participant spectators basically killing the dance-floor vibe. Take it to the back of the room and let the rest of us have a good time.

    mid-afternoon rant over

    Sorry, but you just made me want to obscure your view even more with some good ole fashioned SKANK.

    Yea, I know, it's a macho man's world and the rest of us just live in it.

  • Frank said:
    Totally idiotic behavior. Just as idiotic as stagediving, I've been to plenty of hardcore shows back in the 80s and it always annoyed the shit out of me, idiots climbing on stage, invading the band's space and forcing everybody in the crowd to look at their worthless asses. Although it was great when you saw them coming early enough so you could step back with your arms spread out and make room for those fuckers to straight hit the floor.
    .

    Most hardcore bands I've seen encourage it.

    Also, most violent "dancing" I've ever seen ended with a crippled (as in wheelchair-bound) Crip toppled over and bleeding from a gunshot wound in his abdomen and me and my friends laying face down on the street with guns drawn on us. I guess I can see how the cops can confuse a bunch of Chicano cholos with a bunch of Black Bloods.

  • jamesjames chicago 1,863 Posts
    DJ_Enki said:
    Punk rock girl!
    Give me a chance
    Punk rock girl!
    Let's go slam dance
    "The waitress said 'Well, new--we ewnly have it oiced!'" Man, you gotta love a Philly accent.

    The best is when slam dancing is in the middle of the room, which was the general etiquette where I grew up. That way it doesn't fuck with the folks up front, the folks playing the wall, or the folks chilling in back.

    A long time ago at some punk show outside Athens, Georgia (at Club Fred: "Where People Go To Drink"), my man Wavy Davy attempted expanding the horizons and expanding the parameters by trying to get an inverted slam pit going, running wide laps around the perimeter of the room while stomping and throwing 'bows. Cooler heads weren't ready, and some guy drinking with his girl calculated Dave's movements for a minute, then at the right point in his trajectory just kind of held up a bar stool and let Dave run right into it and knock himself the fuck out. After that, Dave confined his slamming to the middle, and order was restored. On the trip home, he inadvertently seated himself over a corroded spot in our girl Fontaine's van, and some errant exhaust heat came up through the floor and straight melted his pleather wallet, fusing it to his ass cheek most painfully.

    All of which is just to say: Heedless slam-dancers get theirs, believe it.

  • HarveyCanalHarveyCanal "a distraction from my main thesis." 13,234 Posts
    bassie said:
    HarveyCanal said:
    bassie said:
    Worst part is that it happens in front of the stage, making for a thoroughly shitty time for anyone small and/or uninterested in getting elbowed in the neck and there to see/hear a show without constant jostling and shoving. I feel the same way about b-boys/b-girls taking up most of the dancefloor and creating a huge circle of non-participant spectators basically killing the dance-floor vibe. Take it to the back of the room and let the rest of us have a good time.

    mid-afternoon rant over

    Sorry, but you just made me want to obscure your view even more with some good ole fashioned SKANK.

    Yea, I know, it's a macho man's world and the rest of us just live in it.

    No, it's actually not a macho thing. Plenty of girls/women in the pit at the shows I used to go to. Ole Ross Hogg will surely remember a particular chick with a hockey mask on at the Mudhoney show at Liberty Lunch. Great times!

    And funk shows in the 21st Street Coop...which has recently been torn down...females galore.

  • HarveyCanalHarveyCanal "a distraction from my main thesis." 13,234 Posts
    Frank said:
    Totally idiotic behavior. Just as idiotic as stagediving, I've been to plenty of punk and hardcore shows back in the 80s and it always annoyed the shit out of me, idiots climbing on stage, invading the band's space and forcing everybody in the crowd to look at their worthless asses. Although it was great when you saw them coming early enough so you could step back with your arms spread out and make room for those fuckers to straight hit the floor.

    Most violent "dancing" I ever saw was at a show by the Meteors in '84 or so. This was just a straight up mass fist fight and after the first couple of songs about half the crowd seemed to be bleeding from their faces. I think they had a different word for it than slam dancing though. Second place was the Bad Brains during the I Against I tour.

    It always struck me as odd how guys would want to get all physical and sweaty and half naked with a bunch of other guys and behave in a way that ensures the sweat soaked sausage fest doesn't get interrupted by any member of the other sex.

    Another who wasn't going to the right shows to know that it's moreso a fun dance, and not just a show of male brutality.

    I mean, I went to some of those shows too. In fact, for some reason the skinheads would come out in droves any time Firehose would come to town. They'd certainly try, but we wouldn't let them drag it all down to their ignorant level.

    POGO!

  • jamesjames chicago 1,863 Posts
    HarveyCanal said:
    And funk shows in the 21st Street Coop
    Out of curiosity, is that "co-op," or "coop"?

  • bassiebassie 11,710 Posts
    HarveyCanal said:
    bassie said:
    HarveyCanal said:
    bassie said:
    Worst part is that it happens in front of the stage, making for a thoroughly shitty time for anyone small and/or uninterested in getting elbowed in the neck and there to see/hear a show without constant jostling and shoving. I feel the same way about b-boys/b-girls taking up most of the dancefloor and creating a huge circle of non-participant spectators basically killing the dance-floor vibe. Take it to the back of the room and let the rest of us have a good time.

    mid-afternoon rant over

    Sorry, but you just made me want to obscure your view even more with some good ole fashioned SKANK.

    Yea, I know, it's a macho man's world and the rest of us just live in it.

    No, it's actually not a macho thing. Plenty of girls/women in the pit at the shows I used to go to. Ole Ross Hogg will surely remember a particular chick with a hockey mask on at the Mudhoney show at Liberty Lunch. Great times!

    And funk shows in the 21st Street Coop...which has recently been torn down...females galore.

    We see it different. I am not speaking as a tourist.

    Not just women who don't want to be in the pit and there are plenty of rude-ass ladies ruining it for others out there, too - so my mistake to limit it to macho men.

    And I am not seeing too much SKANKING at funk/soul/hip hop parties. Like I said above - bboys/bgirls...

  • HarveyCanalHarveyCanal "a distraction from my main thesis." 13,234 Posts
    james said:
    HarveyCanal said:
    And funk shows in the 21st Street Coop
    Out of curiosity, is that "co-op," or "coop"?

    Co-op.

    They had a 2nd story rec room and seemingly endless Shiner Bock kegs (back when it was still a good beer) and local groups who fashioned themselves after the Big Boys who would get the place in a slamdancing frenzy to the point that it felt that the whole building would fall down. But I swear, those were the most insane but also the most cordial and girl-friendly moshpits anywhere. Loved it!

  • DB_CooperDB_Cooper Manhatin' 7,823 Posts
    HarveyCanal said:
    the most cordial and girl-friendly moshpits anywhere

    Sounds more like slam prancing to me, hommie.

  • HarveyCanalHarveyCanal "a distraction from my main thesis." 13,234 Posts
    bassie said:
    HarveyCanal said:
    bassie said:
    HarveyCanal said:
    bassie said:
    Worst part is that it happens in front of the stage, making for a thoroughly shitty time for anyone small and/or uninterested in getting elbowed in the neck and there to see/hear a show without constant jostling and shoving. I feel the same way about b-boys/b-girls taking up most of the dancefloor and creating a huge circle of non-participant spectators basically killing the dance-floor vibe. Take it to the back of the room and let the rest of us have a good time.

    mid-afternoon rant over

    Sorry, but you just made me want to obscure your view even more with some good ole fashioned SKANK.

    Yea, I know, it's a macho man's world and the rest of us just live in it.

    No, it's actually not a macho thing. Plenty of girls/women in the pit at the shows I used to go to. Ole Ross Hogg will surely remember a particular chick with a hockey mask on at the Mudhoney show at Liberty Lunch. Great times!

    And funk shows in the 21st Street Coop...which has recently been torn down...females galore.

    We see it different. I am not speaking as a tourist.

    Not just women who don't want to be in the pit and there are plenty of rude-ass ladies ruining it for others out there, too - so my mistake to limit it to macho men.

    And I am not seeing too much SKANKING at funk/soul/hip hop parties. Like I said above - bboys/bgirls...

    Yeah, I'm mostly talking about 20 years ago. But again, women slamdancing aren't automatically rude. Nor is every moshpit inherently rude. The bands down here welcomed crowd particpation like that. It was all part of an all-inclusive scene. Actually, listen to what's being said here...


  • HarveyCanalHarveyCanal "a distraction from my main thesis." 13,234 Posts
    Apparently, some of y'all aren't familiar with og punk rock. Hardcore wasn't it.

  • ppadilhappadilha 2,233 Posts
    my experience of "slam dancing" has been in mosh pits at heavy metal concerts, and since every metal head is just a clown in black clothes they were always pretty civil. I think I would find it strange if it didn't happen. Punk has never been my thing, so I never go to see the more brutal scenes that have been described. The last few times I saw anything like it was at Lightning Bolt concerts, but their fans are more art school geeks than anything else so it was mostly kids bouncing off each other rather than throwing elbows. Lots of girls in the middle of it too. Call me crazy, but there's something kind of sexy about a girl [del]who's willing to smash into sweaty dudes[/del] at a noise show.

  • asstroasstro 1,754 Posts
    I've always enjoyed it, as a participant and when my own band was playing. I came up in up the NY hardcore scene at CBGB and we learned pretty quickly to do it respectfully or get your shit dealt with harshly. You did not want to piss off dudes like Billy Psycho or Harley Flanagan.

    My favorite girls in the pit story involves a show I was playing on Long Island about 15 years ago. There was one guy, a kid who was probably about 17 and 6' 4" who was barreling into everyone whether they were in the pit or not, karate kicking, hitting much smaller girls, etc. Not cool. Eventually during my band's set my wife and her girlfriends decided that they had endured this kid long enough and completely destroyed him the next time he slammed into them. Except they did it so aggressively that they shattered this poor kid's knee. I could hear him screaming in pain over the top of our extremely loud music. We had to stop playing and stand around onstage for 15 minutes while an ambulance was called to haul this guy off to the emergency room and the cops asked around to see what had happened. After they all left we then had to try and re-start our set and get everyone in the mood for "fun" again. Didn't work.

  • DORDOR Two Ron Toe 9,896 Posts
    it's a macho man's world and the rest of us just live in it.




    Some of my earliest memories of shows were ska pits and moshing. My thoughts really changed at the beginning of the 90's tho, when it became a super hyped macho type deal. Dudes wanted to slam dance everywhere to anything and where some dudes just wanted to fight and used it to punch some guy in the face who was really in a pit looking to enjoy the music and blow off some steam. Many didn't even care about the music. They just wanted to punch some dude in the face.

  • Danno3000Danno3000 2,850 Posts
    Interesting thread. I can now confirm that I have zero regrets I was never part of this scene.

  • i was never really immersed in any punk scene but have definitely had a good old time at various metal and punk shows i ended up at over the years. its a nice healthy adrenalin rush crossing through the pit, knowing you could knocked on your ass. etiquette seemed to be to bump sided to side and back into people kindof like bumper cars. i never saw any intentional violence and i saw a lot of people get picked up immediately upon hitting the floor. stage diving is fun too, if the crowd is in the mood and youre not hurting people. trocadero in philly!!!!

  • and i always remember girls involved.
    not no cute pretty little nice smelling numbers youd bring home to mom, mind you


  • "harv, i know youll pick me up if i fall, baby!"
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