Slam Dancing

[HarveyCanal]

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_Cooper]

HarveyCanal said: the most cordial and girl-friendly moshpits anywhere




Sounds more like slam prancing to me, hommie.

 

[HarveyCanal]

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...

 

[HarveyCanal]

Apparently, some of y'all aren't familiar with og punk rock. Hardcore wasn't it.

 

[ppadilha]

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.

 

[asstro]

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.

 

[DOR]

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.

 

[Danno3000]

Interesting thread. I can now confirm that I have zero regrets I was never part of this scene.

 

[tripledouble]

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!!!!

 

[tripledouble]

and i always remember girls involved.


not no cute pretty little nice smelling numbers youd bring home to mom, mind you

 

[tripledouble]

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

 

[tripledouble]

and just for the record, i give full and total support to that chick, cause she was definitely doing her thing

 

[The_Hook_Up]

Ive been to tons of hardcore shows, started going in '86. But I have to admit the biggest, most insane pit I ever witnessed (I didnt get in it was insane and huge) was at a Ministry show, the "The Mind is a Terrible thing to Taste" tour. They had a 12ft tall chain link fence all across the front of the stage and folks were climbing it and falling and diving off of it back into the crowd...the pit was at least 15-20ft in diameter...total mayhem.

 

[tripledouble]

sounds a little too crazy, but hey, that shit was memorable, right?

 

[GatorToof]

tripledouble said:sounds a little too crazy, but hey, that shit was memorable, right?




Kindergarten is memorable.

 

[HarveyCanal]

The_Hook_Up said:Ive been to tons of hardcore shows, started going in '86. But I have to admit the biggest, most insane pit I ever witnessed (I didnt get in it was insane and huge) was at a Ministry show, the "The Mind is a Terrible thing to Taste" tour. They had a 12ft tall chain link fence all across the front of the stage and folks were climbing it and falling and diving off of it back into the crowd...the pit was at least 15-20ft in diameter...total mayhem.




When that tour was in Austin, Ministry dudes started breaking glass bottles on the chain link fence, sending shards into the faces of the crowd...so of course the crowd started doing the same right back at them. And noone attempted to stop any of it. The show just went on like that without interruption. So yeah, there's a definite instance of a crazed violent thing.





But to assume that that's every moshpit at every show...pure silliness.

 

[HarveyCanal]

tripledouble said:

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




Yes, because you're awesome.





b/w





I really miss actual grunge girls.

 

[james]

I saw Ministry in Savannah at some weird abandoned seafood warehouse or something in like '89, and that shit was unhinged--absolute Grand Guignol. Life-altering.

actual grunge girls.

Oh shit. This is perhaps a thread of its own.

 

[Burns]

There was always that {with his shirt off beer bellied buzz cut} white dude standing in the middle with the look of dude from Full Metal Jacket waiting to fuck you up though. Hated that dude.

 

[JectWon]

Danno3000 said:Interesting thread. I can now confirm that I have zero regrets I was never part of this scene.