Although it may seem like a stupid, “meat-head” reaction, a
few weeks ago, I believe I had one of my finest moments.
I
was at the Royal Blood concert at Union Transfer with Kim. We were on the standing room floor, but
towards the back, on the side. It
was an ‘all ages’ show and she didn’t think there would be a mosh pit for a
Royal Blood concert, but I bet her otherwise. Sure enough, there was definitely a pretty intense mosh pit
up front, but we felt safe and comfortable about 20ft behind it, watching the
show with other passive fans.
Suddenly and unexpectedly, the crowd from our right surged against
us! The five closest people around
me and I struggled to regain our balance.
It seemed like somehow the mosh pit had moved back and shoved us
laterally somehow. But when it
happened again just a few moments later, I looked to the right to inspect. What I saw was that our fairly docile
neighbors were being pushed around by one, probably drunk, guy purposely
stumbling back and forth. It
seemed like this guy was enjoying taking advantage of the back area, and seeing
how much he could bully these people not intending on moshing. After the 2nd crowd surge
against us, I recognized the situation and moved my feet towards him as he
‘stumbled’ back towards to right side of the crowd. He had at this point, cleared an area of about 10ft. in the
middle of the floor. The right
side of the crowd, for possibly the 3rd time, struggled to regain
their balance against the unwanted agitation. I moved into the open space, my toes, calves, knees, hips,
shoulders, and arms stacked, and ready for this asshole to start terrorizing the
crowd towards me again. He took 2
and a half steps in my direction and I let my muscles twitch. The guy had about 40lbs and 4inches on
me, but he wasn’t expecting my strong and direct hit, and I caught him unaware,
putting a well-anticipated check into his chest and shoulders. If I had gone just a little bit harder,
I probably could’ve put his feet in the air, but I admittedly did not want to start
a fist-fight and pulled up a little bit at the last second. My hit connected just fine though, and
I popped him good. I stood him up
and he was shocked at the hit. It
moved his body backwards about 3 feet.
I was scared of the space between us now, and immediately tried to sign
with my palms pumping downward, “cool the fuck down, man”. But before the guy could react any
which way, another guy from the crowd jumped between us, facing the asshole,
and backed my warnings. He got in
the guys face and told him to stop or get the fuck out. It was like the crowd was waiting for
someone to step up to this guy, and as soon as I made the first move against
him, people stepped in to fill in that uncertain space. My adrenaline was spiked, but I calmly
walked back to my spot next to Kim.
The
funny part is that there was a young Asian couple where I had been standing,
looking at me like I was the assailant.
When I walked back and tried to get next to Kim, my date, they looked
scared. I couldn’t explain the
situation over the roar of the music, and it also looked like Kim was oblivious
to the entire situation. I tried
to explain it to her and them in between songs and after the show, but
apparently I was the only one near me who saw the whole thing through! No one came up to me afterwards saying,
“hey, thanks for stepping up to that jerk pushing around the crowd”, but I left
with such an accomplished feeling of bravery and justice served.
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