Never Too Old to Mosh

Last night a friend and I traveled to Moline, IL to see Korn and Slipknot in concert.  I go to my fair share of concerts, but it's been a long time - a very long time - since I've done a concert like this.  Being a seasoned concert-goer, I'm familiar with the ins and outs of music fans.  Sometimes I'm up front with the die-hard fans, other times, I prefer to hang in the back and absorb the music.  I've even been known to sit in the stadium seats from time to time.  It all depends on my mood (and my budget when I buy the tickets).  For this concert, I purchased floor tickets, and wasn't sure at the time of purchase whether I'd push my way to the front, or choose to hang back.  There were two basic questions... Would I enter the mosh pit?  How hard would I push to get close to the stage?

In the end, I let fate decide.  My friend and I were about 1/3 to 1/2 way back on the floor for Korn.  I figured that if a mosh pit formed around me, I'd mosh for a while, or maybe hang out on the edge of the pit, where there's still some moshing, but you're not in the thick of things.  A pit formed close by, but I wasn't actually in it.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the mosh pit, the best way to explain it is a series of spontaneous dance areas that organically form and disappear throughout the course of the concert, except that you don't really dance in it per se; you slam into one another.  Occasionally fists and elbows fly.  There are only a couple of unwritten guidelines.  One is no blood, no foul.  The other is that if someone goes down, you give them an opportunity to get up and/or help them up.  Other than that, it's pretty much a free for all.  For lack of a better way to phrase it, it's controlled violence.

Korn put on a great performance.  My favorite part was where Jonathan Davis played the bagpipes for the opening of Shoots and Ladders, which is a dark, twisted mash-up of nursery rhymes.  A close second was when they did the bridge from Metallica's "One." The energy at this concert was great.  Lots of aggressive, but friendly testosterone flowing freely.  By the end of Korn's set, we decided to get closer to the stage for Slipknot's performance.

Shortly after Slipknot came on, a mosh pit formed, the crowd pushed forward, and my friend and I were separated.  My friend held his place.  I let the crowd move me, and as a result, I moved closer to the stage throughout the course of the set.  I ended up in the second row.  I was close enough that I could hear the custom percussion without the amplifiers.

For those of you who aren't familiar with hard rock concerts, let me explain something.  Energy flows from the stage.  Generally speaking, the more mellow crowd hangs toward the back.  The closer you get to the stage, the more intense the energy of the crowd.  The front is downright aggressive.  You're packed in like sardines.  It's hot.  Everyone is pumping their fists in the air, screaming the lyrics, and bouncing up and down like pogo sticks.  The front is not for the weak.  Though it's highly unlikely, it's theoretically possible that you can be injured in the front.  The front is also where you're most likely to get souvenirs... guitar picks, drum sticks, etc.  I got a guitar pick from Seven in Slipknot.  He threw the pick into the crowd and it landed squarely on my shoulder.

Maybe it was the energy from the crowd.  Maybe it was the fact that I was a forty-something holding my own, moshing with a crowd young enough to be my children.  But Slipknot was crazy awesome.  I loved hearing Psychosocial and Before I Forget.  It was awesome to actually keep up with fans who are two decades younger than me.  By the way, I got mad props and respect from the youngsters.  Got a lot of high fives and thumbs up from the kids who were impressed that the gray-bearded old guy was holding his own.

I should also point out that I'm really glad I've been working out.  Last time I moshed like this, I was far younger, and I was very sore for the next couple of days.  I woke up this morning a little tired, because I stayed up way past my bedtime, but I'm not sore at all.

So... what did I learn?  I learned that there's still a young metal head inside of this middle-aged body.  I've learned that I've still got some raw aggression inside of me, and it's okay to release it.  I would say that I remembered how much I love concerts, but the fact is, I never forgot.  My main lesson though, is that you're never too old to mosh.