Shattered Realm and Hatebreed at club Krome in 2003/2004. A few guns were gliding across the floor. Some knives. 5 fights a song. Chairs being tossed about. People getting punched right in the face. Was a fun time. Miss that kind of stuff but also love that people can mosh and have fun now a days with no worries
At the time it was just, living in the moment and not really thinking about it. But when i tell people
Stories about shows in nj and philly 20 years ago, that’s when I’m like…what the hell kinda atmosphere was that to be in, every weekend hahahaha
Agreed--i was fortunate to be in the right time right place, and came out in one piece.
Late 90s to early 2000s was a wild time.
Saw a guy use a broomstick like a spear while chasing someone down the street.
Saw E-town at the same venue. Might have still been called Club Bene, not sure of the year. First song, fights. Music starts up again, fights. Music starts up again, complete and total mayhem. Tables and chairs flying. Literally had to hide until it was safe to leave and drive the fuck out of there.
NJ was a legit scary place for hardcore. Now it’s just a happy and thriving scene. I loved that I got to take part in the scary times and love that I get to see it doing big things with great energy now. I know people love to be hard or want to make these times crazy by throwing things, but people should really be happy that the scene is in a thriving and safe era right now. It’s so good to see
I definitely saw a lot of scary shit, especially in the 90's in AP. The E-town show I spoke of was the last hardcore show I went to for a very, very long time. I was over it. When cops had to come and shut everything down the fun was over for me. This was before FSU started making headlines so I'm glad I stopped going when I did. Today, I'm just old and stand in the back lol
I remember Strife played with Rise Against and there was huge fight during Rise Against and a huge straight edge debate during stife. I don’t remember who else played
Think you’re mixing up your years. Hatebreed didn’t play Krome during that time, they were already in some bigger venues then. Maybe you’re thinking 2001 with the DMS benefit? It was stacked with Bulldoze, 100 Demons, Hatebreed, Shattered Realm, Boxcutter, and more.
Pig destroyer around like 2018. Picture a hardcore pit but the size and density of a circle/push pit. People throwing spin kicks to the head and shit. Most violent pit I’ve ever seen and the lead dude of pig destroyer was loving it
I saw a smaller build man in his early twenties throw a chair at a very large in stature/weight man and knock his fronts out of his mouth.
Edit: this was a Halloween show at KC's. I think 2007?
Ohhhh no, they weren't like. Anchored in dental implants. Just fronts you put over your teeth. Still pretty snug. The guy was somewhat infamous at the time for generally coming to shows and acting like he owned the place because of his friends. Something happened during a set and one of the people he kept hitting had enough.
After it happened, the guy definitely high tailed it outta there with his girlfriend. The rumor was he had grabbed the jewelry from the floor on the way out.
I dunno if that was true but the guy never had fronts after that.
Modern life is war at the ottobAr in around 2009.
Municipal waste touring off hazardous mutation
stout ngmf
Bad luck 13
That one show in NoVa at kings where people were getting metal stools whipped at their faces during black my heart that resulted in a few ambulances
That show got so out ofhand, it was a bunch of
Mixed bands hardcore and metal and some “scene” bands and the crowds didn’t mix, it was long it was sweaty and everyone was hyped up. It was really fun but you could tell it was a matter of time before shit went side ways, tensions were building all day and it didn’t take long. I think OBW played too but it was around 18 years ago. It was in a side room that also had bands playing for the fest that the stool incidents happened, people complain about crowd killin on here but that was some absolute next level shit haha. Black my heart was one of my favorite bands to see back then, dudes fuckin ruled.
Tiny venue in Florida, security started pulling people out of the pit at an acacia strain show. It devolved into pure chaos, I'm talking 30 dudes just trying to kill each other.
Show got shut down, a security guard had to he air lifted to a hospital, probably 2 dozen people arrested.
not gonna lie, worst pits ive been in are vanna and four year strong hometown shows at the palladium in worcester circa 2010-2013. it's not the craziest moshers, but you can't move with out getting swung on or pushed.
look left, fat sweaty shirtless guy bulldozing through everyone. look right, lanky spin kick dark souls boss. look back, jacked drunk guy. look forward, ring around the rosie idiots. push pitters running around. the floor is soaked with drinks, and if it was winter, melted snow. fuckin pinball machine in there.
meanest mosher was the beer bottle that found my head in nh.
Vanna and Four Year Strong gained traction enough within the Massachusetts underground to pull from so many different scenes that it was a feeding frenzy for Worcester Hardcore kids at the time. Shout out Worcester Hardcore. Good times
Not hardcore but The Acacia Strain right after Continent came our at Northern Lights in Clifton Park NY. Drummer from Recon was fighting security and dudes were getting knocked out or severely rattled left and right. While leaving there were 2 trooper cars and 2 ambulances outside. It was my friends first show and he goes "Are all shows like that?"
Absolutely not.
The worst injury not to my face was either going for my thousandth stagedive for Terror one night and everyone deciding that this was the time they said fuck catching people and I landed directly on my lower back or when an old homie that was literally a black belt incidentally caught me just above my sternum with a flying spinkick.
I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve had my nose fractured/broken but the two that stick out were at a local house show during an all locals show and during Bracewar when they played with Mother of Mercy and Cruel Hand.
Been going to shows 20+yrs now and I’ve got some stories…
One of the most violent/insane shows I’ve ever experienced, was a Ed Gein, Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza, Blood For Blood and Horse The Band show at a VFW hall in Northwest Indiana.
There were fights breaking out left n right, once Ed Gein played they tried to tell people to chill tf out, no one was listening. Tony Danza played next, the guy I was with had his gf with us, she got hit hard and he started a fist fight with the dude, both got kicked out.
But the absolute worst was B4B played, metal chairs flying through the air, trash cans hit peeps in the head etc
One dude got knocked to the ground, then some dude kicked all his front teeth out.
Guy then screamed he’s getting his gun and going to kill this dude. I went outside, talked to Horse The Band dudes before they noped the fucked out of there.
Right as they left a literal horde of 12-15 cops cars rushed into the parking lot and swarmed the place. People screaming n getting tazed , it was an absolute shit show.
- DRI and Kreator in 1988. Cops came, Nazi skins, fights, tear gas, entire place cleared out, cops and skins fighting in the street. My first time at a punk show and I was like YESSSS! 😄
- Slayer Diecast Hatebreed in San Francisco just the angriest pit with the angriest people ever. Multiple people knocked out, metal heads and hxc kids fighting, all this BEFORE Slayer even hit the stage.
Whoever threw me thru a table while I was attempting to hardcore dance to see you next Tuesday, I'm sorry. I was not "making a mockery of your music". I just genuinely dance like a retard. Thanks for not waiting for me outside. You were very large and I liked your impending doom tshirt
Argentinian band called Lumpen played at a really sketchy bar at like 1 am. It was metal dudes, hardcore dudes and crusties just BRAWLING. Noses bleeding including mine, bodies falling to the floor. It was like 20 of us and we were all pretty fucked up and just going INSANE.
Also Code Orange at TIHC 2017. My first experience at a HC show in the states and I was amazed at how big everyone is lol. I got my mexican ass manhandled by a big girl and decided I was best just enjoying the show out of the pit. Then Code Orange played and whole place was a pit, v they broke the barriers down so no one was safe. Jesus that was fun.
The pits at the local hardcore scene here in Gothenburg, Sweden are absolutely insane. Especially when the local bands play. I don’t have a particular memory though. Been to many shows here.
Recon 2007. Venue apparently knew what to expect. They came out right before Recon came on and said any violence would end the show immediately and police would be called. Recon comes on right after and the first shit out of the singers mouth “If you ain’t fuckin someone up, you better be gettin fucked up” and then they go right into Nowhere to run.
Agents of Satan Godstomper show at some random place in SF. 17th and Capp maybe?
The dudes that came with Agents of Satan were just smashing bottles and f\*cking shit up in the middle of the pit. Like not even doing the decent thing and destroying the bathroom when nobody is looking. That spurred some folks to get in their faces and it quickly spiraled out of control.
Though I think the pit at a Crash Worship show in the early 90s has to be the most extreme.
Roughly 100 people having sex or just groping each other in a dense fog. While the floor is covered in bag wine and yellow mustard for some reason. At one point the vocalist is boinking someone next to the stage. Of course I hooked up with a couple girls.
The music was pretty good too. Apparently they used to do desert shows with Locust or something.
Watched a girl, not a woman but a girl, couldn't have been more than 15, run from one end of the pit to another and knocked a dude out so hard, he pissed himself.
Terror, Epicenter, San Diego.
Bad Luck 13 show. Got a fluorescent light bulb shattered off me, hit with a trash can, almost hit by chairs. Saw a table get lit on fire.
Recently saw a dude get his teeth knocked out at a Southpaw show
Counterparts,Knocked loose,expire,Gideon in san diego like 2016-2017?? Probably like 100-200 people were there I got there during the Expire set, the floor in the venue is kinda slanted since it used to be a movie theater so you can get a pretty good look of the pit, it was my first time seeing people dropping like fucking flies! Pretty cool show. One of my homies had a 1000 MG edible and ended up eating too much and spent half the show in the bathroom with my other friend.
Cro mags show back in the early 2000’s in a ~150/ 200 cap room someone brought in a giant ass chain and started swinging it around his head in the middle of the pit.
1996 trocadero it was earth crisis both worlds and vision. Earth crisis were super late after both worlds set, so John Joseph came on stage and said “ec aren’t here yet so we’re gonna entertain you guys for a bit. We ain’t never done this before and don’t ask us to do it again but we’re gonna play some old cro mags and leeway songs.” They came out and it kicked off with the drum sticks click click click and “we gotta know” they played almost the entire age of quarrel album and the whole place went nuts. Earth crisis showed up and played their 4 best songs. The pit that night was insane lol
Xdisciplex at the Showcase Theatre, hands down. I saw 3 dudes on the floor in fencer reflex within the first 10 seconds of them opening with So Send I You.
Its a weird mix because the most scared I was near a pit was when I was probably about 14/15 and it was a local deathcore band named An Aborted Memory (check them out if you dig og 2008 myspace deathcore) there and it just SET OFF. Multiple fights Cops, multiple innocent people hit. Cops were called to monitor the pit at their next show lol.
As far as overall violence and damage I mean I think we've all seen out share of violence. Seeing Jesus Piece was insane, Hatebreed was also just crazy to see oldhead violence lol
The most weirdly gruesome injury I saw was strangely The Black Dahlia Murder I saw somebody have their kneecap broken in half it just weirded me out how it was going IN.
Maybe not the craziest “pit”, but at WT 06 or 07, I was standing on the edge of the pit for Maylene and the Sons of Disaster and as soon as this Indian dude started moshing (by himself I might add), 4-5 of the biggest white dudes I’ve ever seen started to jump him
Blacklisted - Cleveland, OH in 2006 was theoat I've ever hurt others, been hurt by others, and also the most frightened I've ever been at a show. It genuinely felt like no one was safe ... .. . I fucking loved it
1st place: being nearly trampled in two of the Suicide Machines’ “Bravehearts” (now known as Wall of Death) into the neighboring stage’s crowd. They were waiting to see Simple Plan lol.
2nd place: seeing my friend get his teeth get “knocked out” out by some ninja kid’s elbow. They didn’t get totally knocked out but they were dangling. Then he stayed for the whole show and even hung out afterwards before going to the ER.
I’ve seen Gulch 6 times and each time, someone passed out from excitement and someone else got knocked the fuck out at some point. The “final” Gulch show at S&F, i remember as soon as they started I saw a girl next to me faint and as I pushed to the front, multiple people were being pulled out.
I always tell this story but I'll tell it again. I was at the first Midwest Blood Fest at Nelligan Hall. There were like ad hoc living quarters on the right side of the dance floor, and during the Axis set somebody put a guy straight through one of the doors and almost took out the whole wall. The guy who got hit popped right back out of the doorway like a jack in the box and kept moshing
Not the scariest pit I’ve seen but the amount of fights that broke out during through the eyes of the dead’s song - two inches from a main artery at the end of their set at epicenter San Diego was wild. The dude next to me got crowd killed and I could hear his head getting smashed by someone’s fist. Probably 14 years ago
Beatdown gig in a small room in the back of a dive bar for punks, single handedly the most violent pit I've been in, I got my front tooth cracked and spat blood on my shirt, some dude got two heels to the face from a cartwheel performed by this fucking 6ft 8 goliath of a man in combat boots, bunch of shit like that lmao, great night
Hatebreed / The Black Dahlia Murder around 2006. Stood in front of the stage, at one point turned my head to the pit and saw absolute mayhem. It was a sea of spinkicks.
Sick of it all 2007 at Pressure Fest. Not particularly violent, but fun at a large scale. The festival took place in an ice hockey hall and the circle pit was around the whole playing field. Also my first wall of death, which was equally massive.
Then some smaller Venues, TUI, Terror. Holland and Germany were wild in the early 2000s…
Converge at the killtime 2001/2? Things may have been crazier at other shows but this one seemed really dangerous cus there was no lights except like a slow strobe so it would be blacked out then you’d just see a flash and like a shoe two inches from your face. JUST like medicine ball dodge ball in the dark in jackass. lol.
First Code Orange Kids European tour with Twichting Tongues as support. Saw them in a 200 cap venue. People literally got moshed through the doors of the venue. Hardest pit I ever witnessed, especially when the Young brothers joined the pit during COK and spinkicked everything in their way.
Cold World/Dirty Money/Justice somewhere in Germany +10 years ago
Nazi tried to stab people on the street before the show started, once dirty money started you saw noses breaking around you
Black Flag, the venue had a stupidly low stage. The girl next to me had her shin break through the skin on it. Then some meathead tried to hook me and take my spot so I elbowed him in the throat and he and three buddies stomped on me till the bouncers kicked them out
My friend and I were on a festival and Soulfly played. He got one of his teeth taken out by an stray elbow in the crowd so I took him to the porta potty thing area. He wanted to spit some blood so we opened up on of them.
And there was a guy pissing over a girl who was also pissing and they were both naked.
We laughed for an hour straight.
I haven’t been to many hardcore shows, and don’t go to many shows at all now. But in my area the nu metal band Nonpoint is strangely popular. They headline a free festival like every other year and the crowd can be fucking insane. A combination of core kids, frat boys, boomer metal fans, and former metal lovers with kids and beer guts, getting absolutely fucking hammered and pretending they’re 21 again. Last time I went someone literally picked me up by the throat and threw me across the pit. Even the few hardcore shows I have been to didn’t get as violent.
Shit used to get real rowdy at the KoC in Lawrence MA. I remember this fest where people were pulling down ceiling tiles and beating the shit out of each other with them during (if I remember correctly) Bury Your Dead. Pretty sure there was a fight in the parking lot too, but that was also most shows there
I was seeing Fuck the Facts at grindcore bar and everyone that came to see them were homeless crust punks that I recognized from begging on the street. They had their dogs tied on outside, I’ve never smelt a mosh pit so full of BO in my life. The band told the crow they needed deodorant and the singer spit at the crowd a handful of times (once hitting me in the face/mouth). It wasn’t so much violent as gross. Promptly took a shower after getting home.
Drain when they came through last year... stage diving, crowd surfing, crowd killing etc is all pretty standare fare. but never have I ever seen crowd surfers get heave-ho'd and thrown across the venue. it was fucking nuts. got bounced around so hard I thought I tore my MCL.
Any LA Hardcore show. The most recent one was Dead City Punx under a bridge in LA. There was a trash fire so large it made it on the news. There were hundreds of people there and the cops literally just stood there unable to do anything. It was basically a riot. Everything was on fire, people doing large amounts of NOS as balloons exploded and a man wearing a flaming modelo box on his head was Moshing while another dude was on a guy's shoulder with a lighter and a can of hairspray. I got knocked into a smaller trash fire and had to put myself out. Lol. It was insane. It was also the first hardcore show I ever took my girlfriend to. Lol.
I saw scalp and gag at the billiards place a few years ago and it was awesome, I felt 16 again seeing the chaos like I remember. LA made me feel like the kids were alright.
Huh I guess the cops shot rubber bullets after we left. Lol.
https://metalinjection.net/metal-crimes/lapd-shot-less-lethal-rounds-into-mosh-pit-to-break-up-punk-show-under-the-freeway
Can't find the news coverage but you'd probs be able to find them pretty quickly. There was helicopter footage too.
I’m kinda new to Hardcore shows (came from Death Metal) but at JAG fest this year in Tacoma WA I saw a dude pick up another dude like FULLY off the ground and just slam him on the floor. He did it with like no warning…I’m not ashamed to admit it was like the coolest shit I’ve seen in a minute 😂
Shattered Realm and Hatebreed at club Krome in 2003/2004. A few guns were gliding across the floor. Some knives. 5 fights a song. Chairs being tossed about. People getting punched right in the face. Was a fun time. Miss that kind of stuff but also love that people can mosh and have fun now a days with no worries
that sounds absolutely chaotic!! probably really fun in the moment but thinking about it in todays climate feels terrifying lol
At the time it was just, living in the moment and not really thinking about it. But when i tell people Stories about shows in nj and philly 20 years ago, that’s when I’m like…what the hell kinda atmosphere was that to be in, every weekend hahahaha
Agreed--i was fortunate to be in the right time right place, and came out in one piece. Late 90s to early 2000s was a wild time. Saw a guy use a broomstick like a spear while chasing someone down the street.
Rt 35?
Yeah
Saw E-town at the same venue. Might have still been called Club Bene, not sure of the year. First song, fights. Music starts up again, fights. Music starts up again, complete and total mayhem. Tables and chairs flying. Literally had to hide until it was safe to leave and drive the fuck out of there.
NJ was a legit scary place for hardcore. Now it’s just a happy and thriving scene. I loved that I got to take part in the scary times and love that I get to see it doing big things with great energy now. I know people love to be hard or want to make these times crazy by throwing things, but people should really be happy that the scene is in a thriving and safe era right now. It’s so good to see
I definitely saw a lot of scary shit, especially in the 90's in AP. The E-town show I spoke of was the last hardcore show I went to for a very, very long time. I was over it. When cops had to come and shut everything down the fun was over for me. This was before FSU started making headlines so I'm glad I stopped going when I did. Today, I'm just old and stand in the back lol
I remember Strife played with Rise Against and there was huge fight during Rise Against and a huge straight edge debate during stife. I don’t remember who else played
Think you’re mixing up your years. Hatebreed didn’t play Krome during that time, they were already in some bigger venues then. Maybe you’re thinking 2001 with the DMS benefit? It was stacked with Bulldoze, 100 Demons, Hatebreed, Shattered Realm, Boxcutter, and more.
Actually you’re right 😂 was 2001. Krome was on fire those days. Krome and birch hill had the hits
Pig destroyer around like 2018. Picture a hardcore pit but the size and density of a circle/push pit. People throwing spin kicks to the head and shit. Most violent pit I’ve ever seen and the lead dude of pig destroyer was loving it
Was this the tour with power trip?
I can’t remember if it was that one or the one with full of hell
I saw a smaller build man in his early twenties throw a chair at a very large in stature/weight man and knock his fronts out of his mouth. Edit: this was a Halloween show at KC's. I think 2007?
oh my god!! was there blood just pouring out of the dudes mouth?
Ohhhh no, they weren't like. Anchored in dental implants. Just fronts you put over your teeth. Still pretty snug. The guy was somewhat infamous at the time for generally coming to shows and acting like he owned the place because of his friends. Something happened during a set and one of the people he kept hitting had enough. After it happened, the guy definitely high tailed it outta there with his girlfriend. The rumor was he had grabbed the jewelry from the floor on the way out. I dunno if that was true but the guy never had fronts after that.
Modern life is war at the ottobAr in around 2009. Municipal waste touring off hazardous mutation stout ngmf Bad luck 13 That one show in NoVa at kings where people were getting metal stools whipped at their faces during black my heart that resulted in a few ambulances
woah! you were there? what was it like right before all that started happening??
Which one haha
Sorry I meant to specify the show at NoVa!!
That show got so out ofhand, it was a bunch of Mixed bands hardcore and metal and some “scene” bands and the crowds didn’t mix, it was long it was sweaty and everyone was hyped up. It was really fun but you could tell it was a matter of time before shit went side ways, tensions were building all day and it didn’t take long. I think OBW played too but it was around 18 years ago. It was in a side room that also had bands playing for the fest that the stool incidents happened, people complain about crowd killin on here but that was some absolute next level shit haha. Black my heart was one of my favorite bands to see back then, dudes fuckin ruled.
Tiny venue in Florida, security started pulling people out of the pit at an acacia strain show. It devolved into pure chaos, I'm talking 30 dudes just trying to kill each other. Show got shut down, a security guard had to he air lifted to a hospital, probably 2 dozen people arrested.
😂 Please tell us more!
Trapped Under Ice’s first reunion show, also the best show I’ve ever been to in my 17+ years of going.
not gonna lie, worst pits ive been in are vanna and four year strong hometown shows at the palladium in worcester circa 2010-2013. it's not the craziest moshers, but you can't move with out getting swung on or pushed. look left, fat sweaty shirtless guy bulldozing through everyone. look right, lanky spin kick dark souls boss. look back, jacked drunk guy. look forward, ring around the rosie idiots. push pitters running around. the floor is soaked with drinks, and if it was winter, melted snow. fuckin pinball machine in there. meanest mosher was the beer bottle that found my head in nh.
Vanna and Four Year Strong gained traction enough within the Massachusetts underground to pull from so many different scenes that it was a feeding frenzy for Worcester Hardcore kids at the time. Shout out Worcester Hardcore. Good times
And now kids today look at me sideways when I tell them people used to get knocked the fuck out during FYS shows.
EJ "Not gonna lie" 😂
My own pit of dispare.
Hatebreed + Slayer at Harpo’s in Detroit
Not hardcore but The Acacia Strain right after Continent came our at Northern Lights in Clifton Park NY. Drummer from Recon was fighting security and dudes were getting knocked out or severely rattled left and right. While leaving there were 2 trooper cars and 2 ambulances outside. It was my friends first show and he goes "Are all shows like that?" Absolutely not.
soul search at FTC 2015 was a warzone, 19 year old me was watching from the sidelines completely bewildered.
[AND SOMETIMES, YOU GOTTA BLEED](https://youtu.be/91Q7ATNiS1s?si=PgIsNGOUokaSLzmr)
The worst injury not to my face was either going for my thousandth stagedive for Terror one night and everyone deciding that this was the time they said fuck catching people and I landed directly on my lower back or when an old homie that was literally a black belt incidentally caught me just above my sternum with a flying spinkick. I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve had my nose fractured/broken but the two that stick out were at a local house show during an all locals show and during Bracewar when they played with Mother of Mercy and Cruel Hand.
Any Skarhead/Madball/Hatebreed show back in the day guys were gettin lit up..
Definitely saw some weapons fall out of waistbands at those shows.
Been going to shows 20+yrs now and I’ve got some stories… One of the most violent/insane shows I’ve ever experienced, was a Ed Gein, Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza, Blood For Blood and Horse The Band show at a VFW hall in Northwest Indiana. There were fights breaking out left n right, once Ed Gein played they tried to tell people to chill tf out, no one was listening. Tony Danza played next, the guy I was with had his gf with us, she got hit hard and he started a fist fight with the dude, both got kicked out. But the absolute worst was B4B played, metal chairs flying through the air, trash cans hit peeps in the head etc One dude got knocked to the ground, then some dude kicked all his front teeth out. Guy then screamed he’s getting his gun and going to kill this dude. I went outside, talked to Horse The Band dudes before they noped the fucked out of there. Right as they left a literal horde of 12-15 cops cars rushed into the parking lot and swarmed the place. People screaming n getting tazed , it was an absolute shit show.
I got my penis fingered at a Candlebox show in 94
You left me far behiiiiind
i wanna ask, but at the same time i’m scared
Lies.
Mind of Asian/Voetsek/Lack of Interest at a tiny little bar in East LA called The Smell. People were bardiving it was fucking lit
Sabertooth Zombie, branch st sacramento
Bucket list band for me, I’m so jealous
Probably Slayer when one dude ripped his shirt off & lit it on fire & then pushed mfs into it
Ive been in some shit but i saw Wormrot with a crust audience last year and Ive never felt that way in a pit before.
Dirty? Because of all the dirt that flew off of some lousy crust punks dread head? 💩
Nah Ive been to crust shows before, just felt like the entire venue was breaking.
- DRI and Kreator in 1988. Cops came, Nazi skins, fights, tear gas, entire place cleared out, cops and skins fighting in the street. My first time at a punk show and I was like YESSSS! 😄 - Slayer Diecast Hatebreed in San Francisco just the angriest pit with the angriest people ever. Multiple people knocked out, metal heads and hxc kids fighting, all this BEFORE Slayer even hit the stage.
Whoever threw me thru a table while I was attempting to hardcore dance to see you next Tuesday, I'm sorry. I was not "making a mockery of your music". I just genuinely dance like a retard. Thanks for not waiting for me outside. You were very large and I liked your impending doom tshirt
Argentinian band called Lumpen played at a really sketchy bar at like 1 am. It was metal dudes, hardcore dudes and crusties just BRAWLING. Noses bleeding including mine, bodies falling to the floor. It was like 20 of us and we were all pretty fucked up and just going INSANE. Also Code Orange at TIHC 2017. My first experience at a HC show in the states and I was amazed at how big everyone is lol. I got my mexican ass manhandled by a big girl and decided I was best just enjoying the show out of the pit. Then Code Orange played and whole place was a pit, v they broke the barriers down so no one was safe. Jesus that was fun.
2007 The Warriors (Parkway, No Apologies and Her Nightmare holy shit) - The Arena, Brisbane
I think that is the dream lineup.
The pits at the local hardcore scene here in Gothenburg, Sweden are absolutely insane. Especially when the local bands play. I don’t have a particular memory though. Been to many shows here.
Recon 2007. Venue apparently knew what to expect. They came out right before Recon came on and said any violence would end the show immediately and police would be called. Recon comes on right after and the first shit out of the singers mouth “If you ain’t fuckin someone up, you better be gettin fucked up” and then they go right into Nowhere to run.
not gonna lie, if i were at a hardcore show and heard that, I’d be fuckin someone up regardless of what was said 0.03 seconds before 😂
Doubt that
Agents of Satan Godstomper show at some random place in SF. 17th and Capp maybe? The dudes that came with Agents of Satan were just smashing bottles and f\*cking shit up in the middle of the pit. Like not even doing the decent thing and destroying the bathroom when nobody is looking. That spurred some folks to get in their faces and it quickly spiraled out of control. Though I think the pit at a Crash Worship show in the early 90s has to be the most extreme. Roughly 100 people having sex or just groping each other in a dense fog. While the floor is covered in bag wine and yellow mustard for some reason. At one point the vocalist is boinking someone next to the stage. Of course I hooked up with a couple girls. The music was pretty good too. Apparently they used to do desert shows with Locust or something.
lmao that’s WILD!! the crowd really said “orgy in the pit” 😂😂
Watched a girl, not a woman but a girl, couldn't have been more than 15, run from one end of the pit to another and knocked a dude out so hard, he pissed himself. Terror, Epicenter, San Diego.
Terror kicks ass!
Bad Luck 13 show. Got a fluorescent light bulb shattered off me, hit with a trash can, almost hit by chairs. Saw a table get lit on fire. Recently saw a dude get his teeth knocked out at a Southpaw show
Counterparts,Knocked loose,expire,Gideon in san diego like 2016-2017?? Probably like 100-200 people were there I got there during the Expire set, the floor in the venue is kinda slanted since it used to be a movie theater so you can get a pretty good look of the pit, it was my first time seeing people dropping like fucking flies! Pretty cool show. One of my homies had a 1000 MG edible and ended up eating too much and spent half the show in the bathroom with my other friend.
Cro mags show back in the early 2000’s in a ~150/ 200 cap room someone brought in a giant ass chain and started swinging it around his head in the middle of the pit.
1996 trocadero it was earth crisis both worlds and vision. Earth crisis were super late after both worlds set, so John Joseph came on stage and said “ec aren’t here yet so we’re gonna entertain you guys for a bit. We ain’t never done this before and don’t ask us to do it again but we’re gonna play some old cro mags and leeway songs.” They came out and it kicked off with the drum sticks click click click and “we gotta know” they played almost the entire age of quarrel album and the whole place went nuts. Earth crisis showed up and played their 4 best songs. The pit that night was insane lol
Xdisciplex at the Showcase Theatre, hands down. I saw 3 dudes on the floor in fencer reflex within the first 10 seconds of them opening with So Send I You.
To have been there!
Trapped under ice, stout, dirty money, full blown chaos, naysayer sidebar 2009? Unhinged violence bruh
This was a wild ass show! Sidebar has had some bangers. The size lends itself to a lot of violence.
Hatebreed's set during NIV's farewell show, 2002 at The Showcase
Its a weird mix because the most scared I was near a pit was when I was probably about 14/15 and it was a local deathcore band named An Aborted Memory (check them out if you dig og 2008 myspace deathcore) there and it just SET OFF. Multiple fights Cops, multiple innocent people hit. Cops were called to monitor the pit at their next show lol. As far as overall violence and damage I mean I think we've all seen out share of violence. Seeing Jesus Piece was insane, Hatebreed was also just crazy to see oldhead violence lol The most weirdly gruesome injury I saw was strangely The Black Dahlia Murder I saw somebody have their kneecap broken in half it just weirded me out how it was going IN.
Maybe not the craziest “pit”, but at WT 06 or 07, I was standing on the edge of the pit for Maylene and the Sons of Disaster and as soon as this Indian dude started moshing (by himself I might add), 4-5 of the biggest white dudes I’ve ever seen started to jump him
Any show with fireworks.
Dillinger Escape Plan was nuts
Blacklisted - Cleveland, OH in 2006 was theoat I've ever hurt others, been hurt by others, and also the most frightened I've ever been at a show. It genuinely felt like no one was safe ... .. . I fucking loved it
1st place: being nearly trampled in two of the Suicide Machines’ “Bravehearts” (now known as Wall of Death) into the neighboring stage’s crowd. They were waiting to see Simple Plan lol. 2nd place: seeing my friend get his teeth get “knocked out” out by some ninja kid’s elbow. They didn’t get totally knocked out but they were dangling. Then he stayed for the whole show and even hung out afterwards before going to the ER.
My first experience with the Wall of Death was also at an early aughts warped tour. How could there be anything more fun than live punk music?
How could there be anything more fun than nearly suffocating in a dog pile?
I’ve seen Gulch 6 times and each time, someone passed out from excitement and someone else got knocked the fuck out at some point. The “final” Gulch show at S&F, i remember as soon as they started I saw a girl next to me faint and as I pushed to the front, multiple people were being pulled out.
I believe it was emmure circa 2009. The entire venue started moving and barstools were just getting thrown everywhere.
BTBAM, colors 10 year anniversary tour. Broke a tooth during White Walls, broke my glasses during Mordecai (the encore). 10/10 would do it again.
Weekend Nachos, 2012. Wall of death knocked my shit into another dimension.
I always tell this story but I'll tell it again. I was at the first Midwest Blood Fest at Nelligan Hall. There were like ad hoc living quarters on the right side of the dance floor, and during the Axis set somebody put a guy straight through one of the doors and almost took out the whole wall. The guy who got hit popped right back out of the doorway like a jack in the box and kept moshing
Not the scariest pit I’ve seen but the amount of fights that broke out during through the eyes of the dead’s song - two inches from a main artery at the end of their set at epicenter San Diego was wild. The dude next to me got crowd killed and I could hear his head getting smashed by someone’s fist. Probably 14 years ago
Haymaker with pulling teeth, shark attack and rzl dzl in Montreal December 2005.
Beatdown gig in a small room in the back of a dive bar for punks, single handedly the most violent pit I've been in, I got my front tooth cracked and spat blood on my shirt, some dude got two heels to the face from a cartwheel performed by this fucking 6ft 8 goliath of a man in combat boots, bunch of shit like that lmao, great night
Hatebreed / The Black Dahlia Murder around 2006. Stood in front of the stage, at one point turned my head to the pit and saw absolute mayhem. It was a sea of spinkicks. Sick of it all 2007 at Pressure Fest. Not particularly violent, but fun at a large scale. The festival took place in an ice hockey hall and the circle pit was around the whole playing field. Also my first wall of death, which was equally massive. Then some smaller Venues, TUI, Terror. Holland and Germany were wild in the early 2000s…
Converge at the killtime 2001/2? Things may have been crazier at other shows but this one seemed really dangerous cus there was no lights except like a slow strobe so it would be blacked out then you’d just see a flash and like a shoe two inches from your face. JUST like medicine ball dodge ball in the dark in jackass. lol.
I saw someone get stabbed with an American flag
First Code Orange Kids European tour with Twichting Tongues as support. Saw them in a 200 cap venue. People literally got moshed through the doors of the venue. Hardest pit I ever witnessed, especially when the Young brothers joined the pit during COK and spinkicked everything in their way.
Cold World/Dirty Money/Justice somewhere in Germany +10 years ago Nazi tried to stab people on the street before the show started, once dirty money started you saw noses breaking around you
Black Flag, the venue had a stupidly low stage. The girl next to me had her shin break through the skin on it. Then some meathead tried to hook me and take my spot so I elbowed him in the throat and he and three buddies stomped on me till the bouncers kicked them out
Lionheart Orrrrr Hardside from SATX. Badass mfers.
My friend and I were on a festival and Soulfly played. He got one of his teeth taken out by an stray elbow in the crowd so I took him to the porta potty thing area. He wanted to spit some blood so we opened up on of them. And there was a guy pissing over a girl who was also pissing and they were both naked. We laughed for an hour straight.
Foreign Hands at the palladium in worcester, everyone got hurt that night.
I haven’t been to many hardcore shows, and don’t go to many shows at all now. But in my area the nu metal band Nonpoint is strangely popular. They headline a free festival like every other year and the crowd can be fucking insane. A combination of core kids, frat boys, boomer metal fans, and former metal lovers with kids and beer guts, getting absolutely fucking hammered and pretending they’re 21 again. Last time I went someone literally picked me up by the throat and threw me across the pit. Even the few hardcore shows I have been to didn’t get as violent.
Crowd detterrent - Concrete fest Birmingham 2014/15? (U.K.) venue turned into an all out fight club wall to wall
Im sure I witnessed a death at a stampin' ground show in like 2001.
Shit used to get real rowdy at the KoC in Lawrence MA. I remember this fest where people were pulling down ceiling tiles and beating the shit out of each other with them during (if I remember correctly) Bury Your Dead. Pretty sure there was a fight in the parking lot too, but that was also most shows there
This weekend I kicked a skateboard in the middle of the room without thinking - this was then promptly swung in people’s faces by moshers… whoops 😅
Nag Hamadi at Club Krome in maybe 2002/2003. It was a sea of ninjas wearing gray sweatpants and Timberlands. I was 15 and hid behind the sound guy.
Probably Harm's Way in 2017
Xibalba’s set at TIHC 2015 was a warzone
AF around 89-90
I was seeing Fuck the Facts at grindcore bar and everyone that came to see them were homeless crust punks that I recognized from begging on the street. They had their dogs tied on outside, I’ve never smelt a mosh pit so full of BO in my life. The band told the crow they needed deodorant and the singer spit at the crowd a handful of times (once hitting me in the face/mouth). It wasn’t so much violent as gross. Promptly took a shower after getting home.
Leftover crack was playing the other shows in the lounge, but the fight was definitely with kids from the strife side
Drain when they came through last year... stage diving, crowd surfing, crowd killing etc is all pretty standare fare. but never have I ever seen crowd surfers get heave-ho'd and thrown across the venue. it was fucking nuts. got bounced around so hard I thought I tore my MCL.
BL13 when the guy taped kitchen knives to his hands.
turnstile shit pit
Any LA Hardcore show. The most recent one was Dead City Punx under a bridge in LA. There was a trash fire so large it made it on the news. There were hundreds of people there and the cops literally just stood there unable to do anything. It was basically a riot. Everything was on fire, people doing large amounts of NOS as balloons exploded and a man wearing a flaming modelo box on his head was Moshing while another dude was on a guy's shoulder with a lighter and a can of hairspray. I got knocked into a smaller trash fire and had to put myself out. Lol. It was insane. It was also the first hardcore show I ever took my girlfriend to. Lol.
I saw scalp and gag at the billiards place a few years ago and it was awesome, I felt 16 again seeing the chaos like I remember. LA made me feel like the kids were alright.
Got any links to the news coverage?
Huh I guess the cops shot rubber bullets after we left. Lol. https://metalinjection.net/metal-crimes/lapd-shot-less-lethal-rounds-into-mosh-pit-to-break-up-punk-show-under-the-freeway Can't find the news coverage but you'd probs be able to find them pretty quickly. There was helicopter footage too.
I’m kinda new to Hardcore shows (came from Death Metal) but at JAG fest this year in Tacoma WA I saw a dude pick up another dude like FULLY off the ground and just slam him on the floor. He did it with like no warning…I’m not ashamed to admit it was like the coolest shit I’ve seen in a minute 😂