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Pit Stories: The Two Man Mosh Pit

Not every pit is a massive mosh from hell with a horde of metal fans. Sometimes the crowd just isn't into it, and then a metal fan has to make his own mosh - even if its a pit of only two!

For this week's Pit Story, vocalist / guitarist Farhad Hossain of Shumaun shares this story of the two guys in the back who aren't content to just fold their arms and bob their heads:

Three years ago was the last time I played all original music live with a band of my own, which happened to be my last show with my previous band Iris Divine. That is a long time for a musician who prefers to play live as opposed to being stuck in a studio day in and day out. As you can imagine, the itch to play live again was intense, but it was also quite daunting. How will the music be received? Will the crowd like it? Will I play okay? Will we suck? These are all questions that run through your mind when you debut your new band to a crowd that has never heard a single note from you.

So, here we are at Shumaun’s first show.  I look onto a crowd of mainly progressive rock and avant-garde fans, with a few scattered metalheads wearing tees consisting of prickly logos.  Intro tape plays, and all eyes are on us as the hi-hat count begins. The first thing I notice is people bobbing their heads back and forth with their arms crossed. For a band that’s used to getting the “prog” label thrown its way, this is a pretty standard audience reaction, so all was good. Shumaun tends to shift in and out of various styles of hard rock, with progressive and metal elements sprinkled in throughout, but that didn’t seem to impress the extreme metal dudes I noticed in the back of the room who just stared at us with no readable expression.

However, soon into our second song, it happened: that magical moment when we got into one of our more metal-inspired sections.  I noticed two of the dudes in the back who were wearing the tees with the indecipherable band logos getting a mosh pit started, which unfortunately just consisted of the two of them. They continued bashing up against each other until one of them hit the ground. Sadly, the heavy portion of the song didn’t last long enough for the guy to get up and continue to wreak havoc on the subdued and focused prog crowd, which was more interested in analyzing our every note. It was the best moment of the show for me, and what made it even better was that the two dudes approached me afterward to tell me that they really enjoyed our set. You got to raise the horns up for them!

Let's hear YOUR stories of that time it was just you and a buddy moshing - share away in the comments below!

Shumaun's debut record will be released independently by the band on November 13, 2015 and pre-orders are now online at this location. Check out a song from the album below.

Ty Arthur splits his time between writing dark fiction, spreading the word about underground metal bands, and bringing you the latest gaming news. His sci-fi, grimdark fantasy, and horror novels can be found at Amazon.