My love of moshing

Posted by Mark:

You know how you go through phases in life? Like on my mission I went through a grilled cheese sandwich phase where I ate two grilled cheese sandwiches with a bowl of top ramen every day for lunch. That lasted a few months but I soon grew tired of it and moved onto my next food phase. Well, when I got home from my mission I went through a concert phase (I know the concert and grilled cheese sandwich phase don’t exactly relate well but food phases are the only thing I can think of right now). Anyway, I got home and was trying to get back into the whole “music scene.” Mostly trying to figure out who I liked and who I didn’t.

So after a bit of research and suggestions from my good friend Chris Leppert, I started listening to a few bands to which I soon quite enjoyed. Shortly thereafter I found out that these bands would be coming to town and playing in extremely small venues. This was unusual and new for me because before this time I had only been to two concerts in my life. Dave Mathews Band and Depeshe Mode. Both these concerts were held in the E-center where you were restricted to the seat your ticket told you to sit (not that fun). However, after going to these smaller venues, I fell in love with the entire concert experience that these relatively obscure bands brought.

I loved how close you could get to the stage by just muscling your way forward through the throngs of people. I loved being surrounded by fellow fans that would yell out the lyrics to the songs just as loud as I would. I loved the loud music that resonated throughout my body. But most of all I loved the mosh pits. Now most of you might think this is stupid and extremely violent, but anyone that participates regularly in mosh pits will agree that there are several different levels of mosh pitting. These different levels ranged from the simple group of people just jumping up and down in unison all the way to the better known and violent kinds that consisted of people throwing powerful fists and elbows causing serious pain and discomfort. I tended to stick to the mid level mosh pits. There was just something fun about jumping around pushing others about and the occasional crowd surfing that made the evening extremely rewarding.

I really couldn’t tell you how many concerts I went to during this little phase in life but it was a lot! If I had to pick a favorite concert it would have to be the Dashboard Confessional concert back in 2005. This concert was at a private party hosted by Le-Tigre clothing up in Park City during the Sundance Film Festival. Not only is Dashboard my absolute favorite band ever, I think I enjoyed this specific concert so much because I randomly stumbled upon it while reading the newspaper. At first I was disheartened to learn that it was a private party and there was no amount of money that one could pay to get tickets (believe me I know because I tried bribing anyone I talked to). I wasn’t about to let this bit of bad news stop me. To make a long story short, I went up to Park City anyway and hung around outside the venue for almost 3 hours in the freezing cold of January. Then just before throwing in the towel and return home defeated, almost commando like, I masterfully devised a plan in which I jumped a wall, hid behind a sign, and ran out of sight behind at least a dozen 300 pound bouncers (who also wouldn’t be bribed) until I emerged victorious inside the venue free to enjoy the concert to my liking. Looking back I think I was on an adrenalin high from the sneaking into the concert, but couple that with the fact that this was the first time I had seen my favorite band live... you get the best concert ever!

Like most phases in life I matured and grew out of it. I got tired of finding a few dozen bruises all over my body the next day, I got tired of being squished and surrounded by 1000 sweaty adolescent kids. But most of all I think what changed me was having a serious girlfriend/wife. Kimmi wasn’t exactly blessed with the height gene so when she got into those kinds of crowds she would be swallowed by the people around her (Side note by Kimmi: I used to like mosh pits until the horrible day that a 300 lb sweaty man was dropped on me while he was trying to crowd surf. I vowed never again!) So yeah I cared greatly for my wife's safety. We still went to a few concerts here and there, but tried to stay away from the large hoards of people. Lastly, moving to Twin Falls didn’t help much. If you can imagine, south eastern Idaho isn’t exactly a hot bed for band tours.

Now upon moving back to Salt Lake we will once again have the chance to start attending a few select concerts here and there and last week Kimmi was gracious enough to alert me of an impromptu Dashboard Confessional concert at our favorite Venue “In the Venue” (not really a clever name for a venue). When Kimmi called to tell me of the event, I nearly fell off my chair in the excitement of trying to hang up from the voice message that she left and getting online to buy tickets! I quickly had two tickets and looked forward to the next day’s concert. The reason we love this specific venue so much is because we can avoid the herd of people congregating around the stage and head straight up to their over 21 balcony level that wraps around the entire building. Up here we have a great view and we were able to get a great seat perched high in the rafters to just enjoy the music without being surrounded by psycho teenagers.

The concert was fantastic. It was an acoustic set in which he played songs predominantly from his first few albums (the albums I love the most). Even the opening band was a group that Kimmi and I strongly enjoy so the entire evening was a huge success. I walked away, as usual, without a voice and extremely satisfied with my return to the SLC concert scene.

Conclusion: Hands down the 2nd best concert I’ve ever been to!

P.S. If you recall from my last post our camera is out of juice so we were unable to personally take photos of the event. Luckily, we sat next to a nice couple who upon asking us if we’d take a photo of them, agreed in return to take a photo of us and email it to me after the show. Personally, I think we got the better end of the deal.Here are the photos! Enjoy.

Here we are in our great seats. As you can see we were literally in the rafters. The bench we sat on was at least six feet above the balcony I spoke of in the post.

This is the opening band New Found Glory. They said that this was the first acoustic tour they've ever done and found it different not to see the entire crowd mosh pitting to their songs. They were a very funny band live. PLease notice the formal wear they decided on just for us.

And this is the ah-inspiring Dashboard Confessional. I think this is now the fourth time I've seen him live. Great, great, band. Love it.