Cannibal Corpse has never been my cup of tea but I've been in bigger mosh pits at a Beach House show.

There has to be a crowd for there to be a pit.

Like, a pit is negative space filled with violence.

You have to remember that just being there is exhausting. It's hot, nobody's had any sleep, there's a ton of walking involved; hell most people are half drained right when they show up just from traveling all day to get there. The energy level waxes and wanes, but it's not gonna wax for a death metal band at what's primarily an underground rap festival. The moshing is much more intense at an ICP concert, I assure you.

^^I know I get defensive about any Juggalo complaint I feel is unfair, haha. I am as God made me!

If you can find me a better example of juggalos moshing, I'm open to reappraising my opinion! But I must warn you, I was raised on Massachusetts hardcore pits, so my standards are unreasonably high.

Can *anyone* mosh to underground rap? Even for someone like Tech N9ne, I imagine the crowd would sooner do the Lindyhop than mosh.

Nah I can't. And honestly I don't imagine that it ever approaches a truly hardcore level of moshing, so you win. But answer me this: in a Juggalo mosh if somebody falls to the ground, then like 8 hands immediately shoot down to help the person up. Or if somebody drops something then people clear out and the phone lights break out to help them find it. Is this standard mosh pit etiquette or just Juggalo style? 99% of the shows I've ever been to have been Juggalo shows so I have no frame of reference...

The weird thing is, the most intense mosh pits I've ever been in were in the midwest, not too far from the GotJ. Portland's too polite: get your glasses knocked off and someone will probably give them back to you. W/r/t my comment above, that was not a joke. I decided to go to Pitchfork that year for a sort of ad hoc honeymoon (I knew none of the bands except for Slint and Sonic Youth) but had a really good time.. anyway a fucking pit started in the middle of a then-unknown-and-fucking-up-their-set's Beach House. It was surreal.

^^whoops written the comment before I saw your's Pete. It's cool that ICP does that: when I was like 17 I was nearly stomped to death at a Millions of Dead Cops show and had trouble seeing out of my left eye when I was taking my SATs the next day. Luckily someone picked me up!

>> Is this standard mosh pit etiquette or just Juggalo style?

It's standard mosh pit etiquette. I've seen some really violent pits, but people tend to have a lot of situational awareness (it's absolutely necessary when you've got skinheads whipping chains five feet away from your head) and people are generally very helpful if you lose stuff or get hurt. In fact, the only time I've ever seen or heard of moshers being assholes when somebody goes down was in a "wimpy pit" at a Phish concert; a friend of mine lost his glasses and some hippies stomped all over them.

The absolute worst that will happen is you fall down, some drunk guys pick you up, and then they throw you right back into the middle of the pit.

It's funny, too, cuz I remember when I went to my first show in Masshole country, I was really put-off by all the violent tweakers. I was used to mosh pits more like this one: just a bunch of kids running into each other and having fun. But you go to deep hardcore territory, and the pits are nothing but a big empty space with three or four hulking 'roid monsters standing in the center, throwing crescent kicks. I hated it, I thought it was stupid, and yet... after my second show, the old bumper car style just seemed wrong.

I turned into a fucking mosh pit hipster. :(

I was working a Lightning Bolt show and a bunch of skinheads showed up and threw fireworks into the middle of the pit. After that I also became a mosh pit hipster

The most brutal mosh pit I ever saw was at a Deicide show in the midwest. It was the only time I've seen people not helping others get back on their feet. I got blindsided with a face punch, my buddy got his hands stomped on real bad.

Mosh pits are for virgins.

I learned this at a Lords of Acid concert, it had a molest pit.

I will never consider a mosh pit worth it again.

Lords of Acid are for people with daddy issues and crippling STDs.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, but let's just be clear on what we're dealing with here.

Jiggalos

The smell of pit beasts, unforgettable.
Or perhaps unforgiveable.
Usually a hashish infused, nobcheese and elephant's armpit sort of smell.

Better than a crowd of goggle-eyed twerps recording the gig on their mobile at least its -some- form of exercise.