Hardcore Dancing is the new black

Column: For the girl who has everything

By: Trevor Erb, Staff Writer

Posted: 11/3/04

Oh my God, I can't believe he won!

I've been following the debates and the mudslinging and I never would've thought that he would win. This is just pure insanity!

Since my column deadline was before Tuesday, the above is just malarkey, I didn't know who won, until last night. I was just looking for a rousing bit of social commentary to add to my article.

However, since everything you'll read for the rest of the week is going to be sociopolitical, I decided to stray away from it, go figure.

Last week, I went to see the mighty Dillinger Escape Plan's "Miss Machine Gets Pregnant Tour" in Little Rock.

Despite a speedy yet lackluster drive to Vino's, the sights that I witnessed inside and out of the venue were quite astonishing.

Upon our arrival to Vino's my friends and I came to the immediate conclusion that Little Rock is perhaps the largest breeding ground for girl pants, side-swept hair and gauged ears.

The holy, tight-pant rollers were lined up for blocks and there I was hanging out with a kid in a Korn shirt and another one that obviously didn't care what was "in" this season.

"Gawd, what was I thinking?"

After amassing a large collection of PETA pamphlets from some 15-year-old girls, we made our way inside and proceeded to look over a sea of black shirts just as Misery Signals hopped on stage.

As the band played through some choice cookie-cutter cuts that are prevalent with the current strain of metalcore, the sea of black quickly turned into a circle pit full of the ugliest and worst dancers I'd seen in years.

For those of you that haven't witnessed the infamous trend of "hardcore dancing," you're truly missing out.

Forget moshpits, hardcore dancing is the new black.

The idea is basically the same as moshing; intense physical strain placed on the body through a series of beatdowns, pushing, punching and skank-dancing, but with a twist.

You don't actually push each other around.

That's right, the pit forms and scenester after scenester takes their turn at showcasing his/her best one-inch spin kicks, arm windmills or any other number of crazy moves. All the while, they make sure not to touch any other "bro" or "bra" with their flurry of fists and feet.

Lame, I know.

Yet as Zao came on-stage, I got closer to the pit and another discovery.

Some guy in a Pantera shirt had made his way into the pit with his other metal-head brethren, and they were terrorizing the scenesters. It was like watching an old-fashioned beatdown.

You know the type, where one guy gets punched a lot more than the other?

Even more shocking than the clash of the Titans taking place in the pit, was the fact that I discovered this "dancing" routine to be a form of exercise amongst many of the larger scenesters.

I began noticing that most of the guys in the pit would thrash around for about 5- to- 7 seconds at a time, and then suck down vast amounts of the stagnant air the floated about the venue.

Such a discovery as this was quickly shadowed, thought, as Every Time I Die hit the stage, and I uncovered yet another strange ritual amongst the scenesters.

Head-walking.

As ETID ripped through some brutal palm muted breakdowns, kids would hop up on stage and run through the air as they came down on people's heads -- and continue to run.

Witnessing these stunts left me befuddled as to why these creatures would pay $15 to harm one another, then it hit me.

They live in their own movie and this music was merely a soundtrack to a three-hour action sequence in their action packed blockbuster.

No sooner did the revelation hit me, than The Dillinger Escape Plan hit the stage and I realized that my supporting role in the film "Trevor Screams with Dillinger" was making its debut.

It's that new one, where I share some mic time with DEP and we rip through some of the hits like "Panasonic Youth," "When Good Dogs Do Bad Things" and close with "Sugar Coated Sour."

Coming soon!