On the phenomenon of “crowd killing”
Hardcore punk shows have been my favorite pass-time for over 10 years. It shaped how I look at the world, treat myself, the people and animals around me.
Hardcore bands play aggressive music. The singer yells lyrics into the crowd about all things wrong with the world. People dance violently, sing along, jump on top of each other and… accidents happen. I got my own fair share of chipped teeth, kicks in the gut and unintentional fists to the nose.
I understand that from an outside perspective, this might appear as a violent culture. It’s not though. In all it’s chaos, it’s relatively coordinated and very few accidents happen. There’s something like an unwritten hardcore show etiquette. When you are directly in front of the stage, you know you are going to get jumped on. When you are standing in the first 5 rows in front of the stage, that’s where the dancing happens and you might catch an unintentional blow to your body/face. If you can’t stand that heat, you move out of the kitchen to the back of the room.
But no different from other aspects in life, hardcore punk is subject to trends. One in particular and topical being “crowd killing”. Crowd killing basically consists of stepping outside that “5 row” perimeter, into an unsuspecting crowd and kicking or punching them in the face. intentionally.
When I attended my first hardcore shows, it felt like coming home. I found like-minded people that took me in and amongst all the chaos I felt part of this group. But as I see this trend unfold, I can only think that if this was the status quo during those first shows, I would have gotten scared and walked out. I would have missed some of the best friends, conversations, music and food I ever experienced.
I understand that violent music and a lot of insecure teens and angry men looking for their place in the world brings some macho into the mix, but I do not understand the “macho” part of walking up to someone unsuspecting and sucker punching them.
Long thought has gone into how to counter this trend, because I don’t believe in fighting it actively and it would only fuel the fire. Therefore I think the best thing to do for bands that don’t agree with this is to speak out and educate their audience.
