Moshpit: The Violent World of Moshpit Culture

Joe Ambrose

I can't review this book-- nor even start talking about it-- without griping about its title. Yes, I'm getting old. But starting sometime in the early nineties, the term "moshing" drifted away from its original meaning-- what Ambrose, early in the book, terms the "circle pit"-- and started being used as an all-inclusive term for slamming, skanking, pogoing, and various other dance moves one found in use at punk shows. But if you want to be old-school, folks, get your hands on a copy of the first Circle Jerks album, examine the amusing pictures in the liner notes, and follow along. That's moshing. (As an alternative, check out, if you can find it, the video for Anthrax's 1986 hit "Indians," perhaps the best filmed depiction of moshing extant.)

Okay, that said, this is otherwise a pretty fun book. Ambrose alternates (roughly) between wandering through shows on a couple of different continents and looking at the pit from a more philosophical perspective. On the upside, Ambrose retains the same tone throughout, making this somewhat more readable than, say, Steven Blush's American Hardcore: A Tribal History. On the downside, however, Ambrose's tone is about the only thing consistent about the book. The various pieces of text (they don't seem like chapters, per se) have a disorganized feel to them. The book seems thrown together more than anything.

That said, there are some things to like about this book; Ambrose traces the devolution of pit culture from its beginnings to the stupidity that has plagued pits for the past half-decade or so. In the process, he takes us inside pits from the destructive chaos of Woodstock '99 to the last bastions of true pit culture left today, hiding out in underground and squatters' clubs.

If you can sift through the organizational problems, there's a good deal to be enjoyed here. You just have to work a little harder than you should to get it.