I know what you’re thinking;
‘Mosh-pit? You must
be joking! I wouldn’t allow myself in that!’
But believe me, when your mouse is hovering over the price
options and you chose standing as its cheaper, you’ll thank me.
1.
Wear
sensible clothing – This may seem a stupid point, but you will be surprised
the amount of people who wear 7-inch heels to stand in at a concert or wear
skimpy high waisted, cheese slicing shorts. Myself, I just opt for the jeans
and nice top. Don’t do what some Muppet does *cough* not me *cough*, and wear a thick coat, with a
jumper underneath, because my god do you get hot easily in the crowds. And you
will end up holding it.the.entire.night…
Maybe the skimpy
clothing wasn’t a bad idea after all…
2.
Get there
nice and early – Now some people do this so they can get as close as they
can to the stage. Personally I don’t fancy looking up skirts and shorts, that’s
not what I pay £25 + for. If you have a standing ticket, I like to get in nice
and early to, rather more sensibly, take in my surroundings. Plan my exit for
when things get wrong and nasty. Locate the bar, check. Locate toilets, check.
Locate fire exit, check. Locate the bar, check! See… the important parts!
3.
Find a
reasonable crowd – I don’t mean buddy up with a crowd, because I know some
people can be sociably awkward, what I mean is again look around. At my recent
gig, Tinie Tempah, there were a few older people there. In fact a mother with
her two teenage children. Now, I know that that mother isn’t going to join in
and mosh. If we stay close enough to her, but not creepy close, then no one
will involve us in their ‘mental dancing.’ Once you have found a suitable area, stand your ground. Attach your feet to
the floor with sensible shoes, duct tape if you insist!
4.
Position
yourself near a barrier – If the crowd are more or less the same age as you,
then find a barrier to stand by. I
normally go for the tech barrier, it’s in the middle, there’s nice people
inside the boxed off area that can just quickly whisk me out and because they
have the camera equipment, you gain an advantage to getting on the screens
quicker! Down side is I’ve not tried this theory, yet.
5.
Don’t
resolve to violence – I think this is one of the more serious of all of the
tips. In some cases you will find that other revellers just don’t like their
drink anymore and feel the need to chuck it in the air, contents and all. Or
maybe, they just felt that the black hoodie they brought in was no longer
needed. If this falls on you, don’t turn around and take it out on the nearest
person, just go with the flow. Violence does not solve anything, and in some
cases may just start the mosh process.
If you follow me on Twitter, you would have
noticed that despite having a brilliant time at Tinie Tempah, I was in fact a
victim of ‘drunken-sweaty-man-‘dancing’-and-bumping-into-me.’ Dancing was not
the word, more stumbling; into me (did I mention that?). Every time we moved
away, he would follow.
Eventually I got so pissed off that I (little
me), shoved him back into the crowd while the audience cheered for my bravery!
Ha – I wish! No instead, I just put my hands out to stop him bumping into me
and gave him the most evil of evils.
6.
If all
else fails – Join in! - Now in some gigs, standing isn’t at all that bad.
There are no mosh pits to be seen, just the crowd jumping up and down to the
blaring music and vibrating bass. This was the case on that night, until Tinie
announced that one of the songs is called ‘Mosh Pit’ and that he wanted to see
every one mosh.
Shit!
I looked to my left, the bar had
disappeared.
I looked to my right, fire exit not
reachable in time.
I had lost my safety crowd.
That bar had definitely disappeared...
I had no option, but to join in.
So next time you find you are standing in a concert, take on
board these simple tips and you’ll walk away absolutely fine. I can’t promise
you will walk away with no bruises though!
Have you been involved in a standing
crowd, what where your experiences?
Until next time!
Becky x
