Moshpits, Japanese Style

So one of the music circles I'm interested in joining is called LMC .... I don't actually know what it means, but it was explained to me as being somewhere between rock and folk music. I was invited to go to one of their shows, and decided it would be worth a visit. Far too long since I had been to a concert.

I show up a bit late (delayed by delicious curry) and step into the back door of a small yet packed venue located on the university campus. The music wasn't so much a cross between folk and rock, as it was one of those sort of offbeat and quirky styling we in America love to refer to as Alternative. Unfortunately I had missed the first few bands, which included the band of a new acquaintance of the prior week, but fortunately there were still more to come.

As the evening went on, I noticed two very distinct things. Though it was bands performing from college circles, they are actually extremely talented. Enough so I would have gladly paid to get into a concert by any one of them. One of the groups will be producing a CD as of next month apparently.

The second thing I noticed was the 'mosh-pits'. For the uninitiated, here are some guidelines for mosh-pit protocol. Now the previous links are more or less what I am used to in mosh-pits. Despite warnings of serious injury, in all my mosh-pit experiences in America I have never received so much as a bruise (ok maybe a bruise). In any case, the music started to get pretty hardcore and I saw some people start to push each other. "Ah ha!" thought my brain "Mosh-pit time!" But then something happened I have never seen before, at the critical moment instead of jumping into each other and a open area forming to let people shove each other around it, the 'moshers' looked at each other, looked around to see who was going to be doing it, moved carefully to the front of the crowd, linked arms like a line of can-can dancers, and began to bounce up and down.

I was astounded. Don't people in Japan want to beat each other up? Where's the fun in this? Don't get me wrong, I know everybody has their cultural differences, and I'm not trying to be critical. It just took me a bit by surprise is all. The music had definitely reached crescendo, and on the last number the group dedicated a screamer, who was previously a back-up guitarist. He set down his guitar, and yelled for the duration of the song. Everybody got into it enough that he began jumping out of his clothes on stage. Perhaps jumping isn't the right word .... tearing might be better. He would yell and scream with all his might, tearing his shirt off, and eventually hopping out of his pants so he was running around the stage in his underwear, then bumping into the people who were jumping in unison at the front of the crowd.

Through all of this, the feeling was sort of a controlled mayhem. Suuuure, people were jumping around... but they had there arms around each other so as not to fall down or bump into others! Occasionally they did crash into people not in the group, and would then turn and bow, make apologies, then arms would go over shoulders again and the jumping would continue. I think henceforth I shall refer to this phenomena as 'micro-moshing'. In truth, I enjoyed the concert, and it was a lot of fun, unfortunately now though I just feel the urge to bump into people.

Maybe one of these days!

~Jeff