Pit Etiquette

After EIGHT YEARS of band cancellations due to Crohn's disease and turmoil, breaks and remakes, and hiatuses I finally got to see the almighty Glassjaw in concert.

... Glassjaw...

Darryl Palumbo close enough to see his PICC line scar on his inner right arm. Close enough to read the set list and know they would start with "Lenon" and play "Caligula".

This band is about music I love, friends I love even more, and memories that I would never ever replace. I started listening to Glassjaw at the pinnacle of my transformation from mousy, nerdy, and annoying to a pretty decent gal with radical tattoos. This band brought passion to my ears and lips, and made me want more from music than I had in the past.

The thought of this band brings back 2003.

The smell.

The taste.

The anticipation.

The pride.

The freedom of thought and action.

The loft.

As Darryl walked out onto stage, I could feel who I was in 2003. This chick teaming with confidence and pride in herself. This chick who was no longer confined by order and regulations. This chick who found love, friendship, and music.

Glassjaw

As nostalgic and entranced as I was in the moment, reality soon hit with a shove, a beer, and the absolute idiocy of the pit. Pit ethos could be a subject in college. It is teaming with apartheid, misogyny, and sweaty dudes dying for a non-existant cause.

The pit is still largely uncharted ground for us women folk. We have always skirted the barrier, standing away from the action, neglecting our absolute passion and desire to be in the middle seeing and doing as the menfolk do.

I would honestly say this enrages most hardcore dudes. Some fight for their ladies and others to keep them safe and promote their place in the pit. But, it is the biggest, sweatiest dude that lets rage take flight and will purposefully shove, push, and hassle girls half their size and 1/4 their weight until they reign supreme.

But for what?

A lonely bed, a bar tab, and scorn from the band?

Basic etiquette should still rule in the pit. Music isn't freedom from law, no matter how many middle fingers are raised in the air. Listening to music still comes with social norms and laws. As much as music is an outlet, it is an outlet with reason and boundaries. Notes and cords fade, but actions don't.

You give a girl a black eye in the pit or anywhere else and you are still ostracized as a douche and idiot.