MORE TALES FROM THE PIT

In our May 2009 issue, we take a look at some of the best mosh pit stories from some of the hardest rockers in the business, in a little feature we call Tales from the Pit. Sadly, we couldn't include every tale of broken bones, split lips, and Walls of Death, so here, for your friendly, violent fun, are some of the stories that didn't make it.

BOBBY THOMPSON
JOB FOR A COWBOY
“When I saw Slipknot out with Shadows Fall and Lamb of God, the crowd was pretty much nuts from the beginning of the show. But once Slipknot hit the stage, there was this weird vibe in the arena like you knew some serious mayhem was about to go down. One of the most gnarly circle pits I’ve seen broke out. People started fighting and probably about 10 of ’em got knocked out. Then a guy lit his shirt on fire and started swinging it above his head. So all these other people decided to join in, and most of the flaming shirts ended up forming a smoldering pile in the middle of the circle pit.”

LOU KOLLER
SICK OF IT ALL
“I remember one time when the first time we did the ‘Braveheart’—which is copied by everyone now, but they call it the ‘Wall of Death’—at the Reading Festival in the UK in, I think, 1997 or 1999. We were on the main stage, having a great show, but I notice the farther back the crowd went, the less it moved. So I got everyone from the pit, which was a couple of thousand people, to push all the way up front to the barrier, turn, and face the back. When we went into ‘Scratch the Surface’ I had them charge! The resulting carnage was insane. We saw the crowd moving and saw a lot of people falling on one another it really looked like a medieval battle was going on. I would yell, ‘Pick ’em up!’ in between verses. [Laughs] By the first chorus, the whole field was moving and jumping. A year later, at another festival in England, loads of people came up to me saying they were in that pit and had broke a leg or an arm or some other injury. I felt bad. But they all told me how they loved it ’cause now they had a cool story to tell. Only in England can you do that and not get sued! [Laughs] It made it into the book about the history of festival, as one of the 25 coolest things that happened at Reading.”

DEREK KERSWILL
UNEARTH
“We were on the Altamont Never Say Die! Tour in Europe, and while we were onstage in Austria, suddenly some kid in a full-blown teddy-bear costume starts raging around the pit. He ended up running onstage and stage diving, and the next thing I know, I look up and [guitarist] Buz [McGrath] is playing a solo with this huge teddy-bear head on. It felt like we were playing inside of Alice in Wonderland or something.”

DEZ FAFARA
DEVILDRIVER
“A few years ago, we were onstage somewhere, and I saw one kid crowd surfing, then he got dropped. Next thing I knew, I saw people standing around him and when I saw him, he didn’t look so good. His femur was striking out of his leg and he was just staring at me. We felt so bad we sent some hoodies and T-shirts to him in the hospital.”

HERMAN LI
DRAGONFORCE
“I saw people doing wrestling-takedown moves to each other in the pit at one of the shows. It was pretty crazy. This guy got a proper double-leg takedown. Then he stood straight and up clapped! He loved it! I thought, Oh man… that must have hurt! Now what? Is it gonna turn into a MMA pit?”

ROBB FLYNN
MACHINE HEAD
“In Finland there was a kid in 2003 up front and he was just punching himself in the face the whole fucking show. He’d stop in between songs for a second and then we’d start playing and he’d start punching the shit out of himself again, and he was all bloodied up. I went over there near the end of the show, and I was like, ‘Are you all right? Is everything cool?’ And he went, ‘Yeaaahhhh!.’ I was like, ‘All right, killer.’ He’s feelin’ it. There’s nothing you can say. That’s his thing.”