IGX

Like others, Jesse Silverberg believed that mosh and circle pits were random groups of people dancing wildly (and a bit violently). But five years ago, he took his girlfriend to her first (and last) heavy metal concert. Instead of jumping into the mosh pit at the In Flames show, he stayed with her on the outskirts. As the band played louder and the moshers presumably got drunker, Silverberg observed a pattern. One person would bump into another and the movement would ripple across the mosh pit.

“The collision went from one side to the other,” he says, adding it looked like moshers followed the rules of collective motion. “I had a hard time focusing on the music for the rest of the evening.”


Several years later in a statistical mechanics class with James Sethna, professor of physics at Cornell, Silverberg recalled the ripple-like movement in the mosh pit and thought studying it might make an interesting experiment. With the help of a fellow graduate student, Matt Bierbaum, Silverberg examined whether humans in mosh pits and circle pits truly followed the rules of collective motion, which describes phenomena such as flocking as seen with birds or schools of fish. (In mosh pits, people bounce off one another and in circle pits they rush around in a circular motion.)

They watched and analyzed about 100 videos from YouTube of people participating in either mosh or circle pits.
“I watched with pleasure,” says Silverberg. When he examined the dancers in mosh pits he realized that they behaved like gas particles bouncing around in the air in unpredictable ways. People in circle pits, on the other hand, dance in an ordered pattern, like flocks of migrating birds.

Fuzzy Dunlop wrote:Who the fuck drinks before/during metal shows?

Brutal Bajan wrote:I hate it when these faggots think they're enlightened or have some deeper understanding of something as simple as moshing by applying something out of a physics textbook to it.

DARTH wrote:I doubt these fucks know how to skank!


But lots of people get hammerd before hitting the pit but I was into going in sober.

I miss the pits at the old "Slameo" theater before they called the area South Beach.

Circle Jerks 1989 "Return of Elvis " tour show was the best pit ever as far as the right mix of skanking, movment and unity.

Overkill, Motorhead and SLAYER 1988 was the sickest, most hardcore violent pit I have ever been in.

The whole place, icluding the balcony was a pit.

If Tom would have screamed "Go out and kill the first fuck you see! about half the place would have done so. I remember thinking " I bet this is how the German's felt durring the Nuremberg rally. Jesus Christ this is real mass hyponosis.

Hell when he screamed " FUCK IT UP!" durring that split second break in "Chemical Warfare" it was mayhem.

The night looked a bit like that.

You have to understand how dedicated the Thrash metal and Hardcore scene was then.

Brutal Bajan wrote:I hate it when these faggots think they're enlightened or have some deeper understanding of something as simple as moshing by applying something out of a physics textbook to it.

protobuilder wrote:

Brutal Bajan wrote:I hate it when these faggots think they're enlightened or have some deeper understanding of something as simple as moshing by applying something out of a physics textbook to it.

Exactly. If youre at a metal show and instead of moshing or enjoying the music, you're pondering physics and game theory, you deserve a beating.

Dr. Agkistrodon wrote:

DARTH wrote:I doubt these fucks know how to skank!


But lots of people get hammerd before hitting the pit but I was into going in sober.

I miss the pits at the old "Slameo" theater before they called the area South Beach.

Circle Jerks 1989 "Return of Elvis " tour show was the best pit ever as far as the right mix of skanking, movment and unity.

Overkill, Motorhead and SLAYER 1988 was the sickest, most hardcore violent pit I have ever been in.

The whole place, icluding the balcony was a pit.

If Tom would have screamed "Go out and kill the first fuck you see! about half the place would have done so. I remember thinking " I bet this is how the German's felt durring the Nuremberg rally. Jesus Christ this is real mass hyponosis.

Hell when he screamed " FUCK IT UP!" durring that split second break in "Chemical Warfare" it was mayhem.

The night looked a bit like that.

You have to understand how dedicated the Thrash metal and Hardcore scene was then.

Fucking awesome!

Also, I like the S.O.D. videos, as well and since we're talking about thrash, we can't leave these guys out-

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pfTVptGdGg[/youtube]

DARTH wrote:

Dr. Agkistrodon wrote:

DARTH wrote:I doubt these fucks know how to skank!


But lots of people get hammerd before hitting the pit but I was into going in sober.

I miss the pits at the old "Slameo" theater before they called the area South Beach.

Circle Jerks 1989 "Return of Elvis " tour show was the best pit ever as far as the right mix of skanking, movment and unity.

Overkill, Motorhead and SLAYER 1988 was the sickest, most hardcore violent pit I have ever been in.

The whole place, icluding the balcony was a pit.

If Tom would have screamed "Go out and kill the first fuck you see! about half the place would have done so. I remember thinking " I bet this is how the German's felt durring the Nuremberg rally. Jesus Christ this is real mass hyponosis.

Hell when he screamed " FUCK IT UP!" durring that split second break in "Chemical Warfare" it was mayhem.

The night looked a bit like that.

You have to understand how dedicated the Thrash metal and Hardcore scene was then.

Fucking awesome!

Also, I like the S.O.D. videos, as well and since we're talking about thrash, we can't leave these guys out-

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pfTVptGdGg[/youtube]

OH HELL MUTHERFUCKIN YES!

Another great show from my past.

Kreator and DRI at Summer's on the Beach, onthe Ft. Liquerdale strip.

Both bands played 2 hour sets.

That was a 3 day weekend where I watched a local band's show on Friday, Malevolent Creation (My fave local act at the time), then Kreator and DRI (my fave Euro thrash and Hardcore/Crossover band) on Saturday and then Sunday was Iron Maiden, 7th Son tour! (My fave NWOBHM band.