Teen Gothic

So I saw Twin Tribes, Harsh Symmetry, and Bootblacks at Brooklyn Made last night. All around good show, everyone sounded great. But then a handful of people in the crowd had to go and ruin things for everyone else there. These people started moshing during Heart & Feather of all songs and pushing/slamming into people who were not at all interested in moshing.

And then during Fantasmas, they do it again but even more aggressively. Someone in the front was slammed into and yelled at this guy to cut it out, it immediately escalated into a whole fistfight with a couple other people jumping him. I had to hold this guy's arm back and yell at him to stop until security intervened (and of course shove me out of the way despite obviously attempting to break up the fight). Props to Twin Tribes for keeping it professional and continuing to play but I can't help but feel bad for them with this stupid bullshit distracting the entire audience during their last song.

I get it, moshing is fun and I'll gladly jump into pits at metal and punk shows. But slamming into people who obviously just want to chill and dance is obnoxious af. This isn't like hardcore shows where that's expected and you're aware of the risks, moshing is just something you almost never see at goth concerts, especially since most of the music isn't really fitting for it.

What's really annoying, this isn't the first time this has happened. I've had to deal with people starting mosh pits at shows for She Past Away and Clan of Xymox just to name a couple. And I'm not one to gatekeep on the grounds of fashion, it's a music-based subculture after all. But 100% of the time, it's been people who aren't visibly goth/alternative or regulars at clubs who start this shit. It's just random hipsters showing up and distracting from the bands and actively bothering everyone there. And now assaulting people for no reason. So fucking stupid and annoying.