They took the pit from us
Posted by pumalegal@reddit | Xennials | View on Reddit | 104 comments
Last Friday I went to a 90s rock concert.
(Finger Eleven, Headstones, and The Tea Party - great Canadian bands. IYKYK and if you don't, you should check them out).
The crowd was made up of a bunch of people who simultaneously looked both ancient and just like me.
And on the floor, right in front of the stage, ready for a kick ass show... were neatly lined chairs.
No pit, not open floor space. Chairs. They were padded.
Y'all. We got so old they gave us chairs at the rock show.
Also a 21oz pop was $9.50 and you'd better believe I yelled at a cloud.
Chairs.
bloodectomy@reddit
Go to metal shows at small venues! They always have pits
mergatronix@reddit
I'm used to going to small underground shows and standing on concrete, so honestly chairs sound nice!
Dude_1980@reddit
Yeah, two for each person and they are always unshowered.
questions6486@reddit
At this point, I basically go to floor-only shows. They'll have ADA or VIP seating, but mostly it's just a big open space.
Can't stand sitting in a chair for hours and hours. I wanna move around while I listen to music.
Chubbadog@reddit
Yeppers.
Ok_Rooster_8349@reddit
My outdoor amphitheater always got a pit started in the lawn area- not up front. Those seats are for lame people with money to sit down, apparently.
Nelson_Storm@reddit
Ask yourself my friend, do we really belong in a pit? My back hurts.
bdwf@reddit
This is how they sell tickets in the front row for a lot more.
If it was GA, nobody pays $1000 to see Jeff Martin's coked up face up close
Moxie_Stardust@reddit
Go to a a $10 punk show and there will be no chairs 😆
LemurCat04@reddit
Are there $10 punks shows anymore? Everything near me is at least $18, most over $20.
Moxie_Stardust@reddit
There are here! The last show I played was 3 bands for $10, that was September.
sick_of-it-all@reddit
We ain’t got no place to go, let’s go to a punch rock show.
duckduckduck21@reddit
😂🤣🤣
YogurtclosetDull2380@reddit
My last Primus concert was like that. It makes for a weird vibe
ChefNorCal@reddit
Now a days the pit usually turns into what I call ring around the roses. Just people going in a circle not bumping into each other
DrJJStroganoff@reddit
I saw pantera /black sabbath in 1999. Chairs in the pit section. (Zip tied together) it happens from time to time.
Go to more shows, that could possibly have a higher chance of moshing than this one?
foozebox@reddit
They should simply give out orthotics
No-Captain2150@reddit
My first response was to be that the last time I saw Headstones we had a pit... Then I realised that was like 7 years ago and now I'm sad.
gherbein@reddit
I remember reading years ago (15+) when Tool started requiring chairs on the floor at arena shows.
smashy_smashy@reddit
Not a requirement. I’ve been to plenty of their shows over the last 15 years with a GA pit.
lsleofman@reddit
Such a letdown. Being in the crowd is like 50% of the experience for me. Also, they can charge out the nose for those pit area seats.
bendybiznatch@reddit
After a couple of shows had people that died in the pit, the artists themselves were at the forefront of this happening. I never saw Nirvana in person, but I heard that they did that, I know that Smashing Pumpkins did that. Some of those tool shows were really bad. I can see why they would be one of the groups to do that. I was lucky to live after a Rage Against the Machine pit.
MaineHippo83@reddit
How much you want to bet it had something to do with Ticketmaster.
We should all refuse to ever buy a ticket from Ticketmaster.
Just say no. I really go to concerts now and it's okay. Never buy anything from Ticketmaster
Lcky22@reddit
I had the pleasure of seeing tom morello at the paradise in Boston recently. No chairs, but also a prominent no moshing or crowd surfing sign. I had an excellent time amongst my fellow olds. I hate sitting at shows.
psyclopsus@reddit
lol “why is there no pit at this easy listening 90’s pop radio concert?”
Nobody took the pit from us, you’re looking for one in the wrong place. Go to a Slayer show or Pantera, or Slipknot and I promise you’ll see that the pit is alive and well, it’s just not where you looked for it
“Pit” is shorthand for mosh pit, who’s moshing to Canadian contemporary soft rock? Has there ever been a pit for any of those bands OP named? Finger Eleven might have played a festival where a pit had already formed because other bands are mosh pit music, but come on now
frankvagabond303@reddit
These comments are ridiculous. I doubt any of these people even go to shows anymore. I am 45 and go to concerts nearly every other week because I get free tickets through my work.
I see all kinds of music and bands. If the music is heavy there will be a mosh pit. Period. Some shows get sardine packed and people can't physically mosh because there's no room. But, even then there is pushing and crowd surfing. With that said, most mosh pits are way more tame than they used to be. Especially, compared to the pits of Pantera, Sepultura, and Slayer in the 90's.
lanerzef@reddit
Those bands absolutely would have had pits in the late 90's/early 2000's. In my experience It was rare to see a show that didn't. I saw Finger Eleven a few times back then both at a festival and smaller venues and they had pits every time.
Mike__O@reddit
The kind of beating you'd take in a early -00s pit would put us out of work for a week. It's probably for our own good
LazarusDark@reddit
I was still getting in the pit maybe 8 years ago? Every show I've been to since COVID though... I let the youngins have the pit, it's their time now. I twisted my leg back in the summer helping push a car up a slight hill and couldn't walk for a month, lol. I have definitely aged out of the pit, it's a young (wo)man's game. Still headbanging pretty hard though. I'm sure I'll regret that later, just like I'll regret going even more deaf.
Hot_Gas_8073@reddit
I'm disabled now, and I appreciate sitting way more now than I used to.
Treadingresin@reddit
I once went down HARD in a pit and had to climb my way out by using the torso of a stranger like a ladder, pretty sure I was just die on the floor these days. Idk maybe chairs for the gray hairs aren't so bad.
pumalegal@reddit (OP)
Well I mean, if you want to be all logical about it 😂
NightWriter500@reddit
Get this logic. Last year I went to a Deftones/System of a Down concert and I was pretty worried cause I hadn’t been roughed up in a pit in about 20 years. But I went with some crazy guys, and there was no avoiding. But I’m out there and people are bouncing off me like I’m made of stone. By the time the show is over, I feel like the king of the mountain. Now I was in great shape from the late 90s through the early 2000s, but you know what I have now that makes a bigger difference? About 50 extra pounds. I’m not a whale or anything, but I was like a tank next to the kids flailing around. Nothing had ever made me feel more invincible.
LemurCat04@reddit
My brother and I were considering going to a hardcore show right around Halloween in a church basement and ultimately did not go because we knew the crowd would be absolutely insane and there was nowhere for old, easily broken people like ourselves to hang out. Also, he had to take his kid to wrestling practice.
waterdevil19@reddit
I can’t just stand still and watch. Too boring. If I’m at a live show for a band I love I gotta be in the pit! And yeah, definitely pay for it for a few days now.
joshhupp@reddit
They could have at least put out some walkers
Adventurous_Web_6958@reddit
I can only last 60 seconds or so in the pit now before my lungs are on fire, so it's ok, keeps bruising to a minimum.
TabootLlama@reddit
Great bands and great memories.
I was never a big fan of violent pits, so I haven’t noticed them disappearing. But I am seeing a lot more chairs at shows for bands I grew up with and could never imagine sitting down for.
I was on the floor at a show last weekend and what struck me was the stench. Fewer folks hitting vapes or sneaky cigs or joints etc., no overwhelming patchouli or Nag Champa smells, and a lot of old dudes just farting up the dance floor.
bascule@reddit
I tried to mosh a few years ago and ended up breaking a rib. Oops
mypostingname13@reddit
I took my son to see Emery on a 20th anniversary album tour.
Before the show even started, he looked around the room and said, "I'm uncomfortable with the amount of grey hair in this room."
On the way home, he said that he had a really good time and, "I was surprised to get to mosh! I wasn't surprised everyone was done by the 4th song."
Sal_Paradise81@reddit
Listen, punk’s not dead. It DOES go to bed way earlier, and also takes a statin nowadays though.
Potential-Ant-6320@reddit
There are still pits at hardcore shows.
knarfolled@reddit
I always think of this comedy bit
duckduckduck21@reddit
Be the change you want to see. Pick up that chair and hit someone over the head with it!
space_ibex@reddit
https://youtube.com/shorts/dj2mCnoQqPY?si=E4pPIOz20hneA-D4
PraetorianXVIII@reddit
I got into a pit last year at a metal concert and I can't thrash around like I used to
RainerGerhard@reddit
As a general rule, I rarely mosh. But I have been talked into it.
symonym7@reddit
F11 was one of my favorite bands until they hit it big with grocery-store-rock and made that their whole sound.
mnfimo@reddit
The goo goo dolls would like a word? (Not that I’m a ggd fan) but go listen to their first few albums
symonym7@reddit
Oh heellllll no.
mnfimo@reddit
Or don’t? Go enjoy your grocery store rock ban
wetfloor666@reddit
Those guys are from the next city over from me. When I lived in that city I recall my foster brother attending one of their shows at a local bar or venue. This was years before they hit it big and still went by Rainbow Butt Monkeys.
symonym7@reddit
I remember that! I saw them somewhere in the late 90s in CT with Virgos Merlot and Fuel.
hoopstick@reddit
Tip and TGoBS were both awesome records, after that not so much.
mnfimo@reddit
Or don’t? Go listen to grocery store rock then?
red286@reddit
Man, I haven't seen the Tea Party since... well, the '90s. 1997 to be exact. Actually went to see the opening band (Econoline Crush, vastly superior), my friends insisted on sticking around for The Tea Party. I figured "okay whatever, it'll be like a 2-hour set, 3-hours tops".
BZZT, for some fucking reason after playing a 2-hour set, they decided to have a THREE-HOUR-LONG JAM SESSION. So I got stuck hanging out for over 5 additional hours listening to a band that I didn't even like mostly just faffing about.
Gloomheart@reddit
I HAVE TICKETS FOR SATURDAYS SHOW!!!
I picked a seat cause my old ass doesn't belong in a pit anymore, regardless of what my young heart tells me.
Quixotegut@reddit
Finger Eleven mention in 2025!
Tip was my whole junior year in highschool!
cmyk_life@reddit
My back threw itself out reading this.
rangeghost@reddit
In other words, if you traded it ALLLLL for one thing it's be a mosh pit for Finger Eleven?
BasvanS@reddit
Were the chairs bolted down? Otherwise it’s a mosh pit with one extra step
OwnLobster1701@reddit
Happened long ago with Smashing Pumpkins after that kid died in Dublin.
Biscuits4u2@reddit
The chairs are there because you're all old now. Chairs are good.
eggs_erroneous@reddit
Was the show at 11AM on a Tuesday?
Davethe3rd@reddit
Treadingresin@reddit
Chairs for the gray hairs!
Goldhound807@reddit
Gross
bascule@reddit
I tried to mosh a few years ago and ended up breaking a rib. Oops
AgentOrange1717@reddit
Here in Finland they have pits but nobody moshes. I was waiting for everyone to start jumping and smashing around and like…nothing. They all literally stood there and headbanged and held up their devil horns in their own spots and that was it. Barely even spilled beer. Actual space between people. I was very, very confused.
LineImpossible3958@reddit
One day in the not too distant future, retirement communities and nursing homes will host concerts and at those concerts will be pits full of people with sagging tattoos and using walkers and wheel chairs ramming into each other as the cover band plays Prison Sex by Tool.
tim8104@reddit
must be a shitty venue. ive seen 20-30 90s bands this year and all had pits.
squarebodynewb@reddit
You need to go to smaller shows. I go to a place called White Rabbit that holds about 250 people. Saw Soulfly there just recently. Went to another place in town, saw Sepultura and Death there, huge floor space.
redditdoesnotcareany@reddit
If I go into a pit right now I’ll die
beezchurgr@reddit
We took the pit from ourselves. I saw me first & the gimme gimmes on Friday and there was only a small pit. I was front & center at the railing and nobody even squished against me or tried crowd surfing!
LostLetter9425@reddit
I won't go to a concert unless there are chairs and it's on a Saturday. Bonus points if it starts at 8.
Express-Cow190@reddit
I’m not certain but I’d bet a good part of it is they can get people to pay more for seats.
anakusis@reddit
I've been going to see the same band every time they tour for over a decade and the last time I went people were mad about them not letting them bring in chairs. Lots of canes and mobility issues in the audience. Fuck we're getting old.
MaineHippo83@reddit
This is starting to happen I can't tell you how many concerts I see where the general admission standing area is now seats.
Because it's prime real estate up close to the stage they can now charge more for tickets to see people and assign seats in the front rows.
Completely ruins concerts. I've only been to two maybe three seated concerts and I hate them
Riker_Omega_Three@reddit
Probably more of a building legal liability thing these days than anything else
thenoid42@reddit
Some venues pull out the chairs because their floors get crazy slick when people spill their drinks in mosh pits. one thing to notice when you go to a venue if somebody spilt their drink and you step in it and you slide, there’s a good chance that’s the reason it’s a liability issue maybe not in your case, but I have been venues that this was very much a problem.
I went to a Phunk Junkeez concert in the late 90s one person spilled their drink and it was like an actual ice-skating rink. Nobody could even get near the stage. It was so slippery the venue didn’t even try to clean it up. They didn’t attempt to stop anything. I watch people drop like bowling pins.
SadAcanthocephala521@reddit
Edmonton show? Wouldn't have minded seeing the Tea Party, but no interested in the other ones. How was it?
Pierson230@reddit
The fans are old now
Halsey has more action in GA than most rock acts do now, real talk
Epicardiectomist@reddit
I don't bother with any big venues anymore. The cost plus shit experience just isn't worth it.
$15 for a small death metal band at a local club that's guaranteed to have a crazy pit is where I spend my money and time now.
jessek@reddit
I dunno, I go to hardcore shows still, there’s still a pit. I just stay away from it.
MyGodHole@reddit
This sounds more like a Canada thing rather than something that is happening in general. Every show I’ve been to in any recent memory has had a pit.
C_est_la_vie9707@reddit
My feet/hips/lower back can't stand on concrete for a whole concert, come on.
Also my sciatica can't sit. I guess watching from home in my bed is all I can do now.
NotARealGeologist@reddit
Penticton? We were confused by the floor chairs.
CalliopePenelope@reddit
The onto Canadian band I care about is Crash Test Dummies
marco3055@reddit
When God Shuffled His Feet came out, they were playing at a fair nearby my hometown (not US) in 1994. I found out because the whole show is on YouTube. They were looking just like the videos I remember watching (Afternoons, Mmm Mmm and others). Fast forward to 2024, they were playing an acoustic, very intimate set at the Rams Head in Annapolis, MD on Valentine's Day. But I'm a lazy moron, so I preferred the comfort of staying home and not buying into nostalgia. 🤦
seminarysmooth@reddit
I heard a radio commercial for a Grateful Dead cover band. Advertised as “no standing”.
BobbyGuano@reddit
Bro you’re going to the wrong shows. I saw Weezer last year and Offspring this year and both still had pits.
Deep-Ad4351@reddit
Gorilla Biscuits will be bummed to hear that stage dive no longer makes me feel more alive, but in fear I’ll break my little body.
questions6486@reddit
I've seen a couple places do that and everyone stands around them looking confused.
Like... we're not that ancient. If I bought tickets for a floor show/pit, it's because I want to stand!
FoppyRETURNS@reddit
Never knew the pit went away. After i got kicked in the face in the pit I was done for good. 😅
threefeetoffun-@reddit
Kicked to the back of the head ended mine. I saw everything with a yellow tint like a Breaking Bad scene in Mexico for 3 days.
slademccoy47@reddit
They weren't Tecca chairs, were they?
ohwowimonredditcool@reddit
ya my bro and i saw built to spill / modest mouse and they had chairs heh. but hey if i want to stand i’ll get a standing machine
threefeetoffun-@reddit
Oh I love a good chair. I don’t get standing at concerts. If we all sit we can see the same thing.
muhhuh@reddit
I, too, like jazz shows 🤣
BigPoppaStrahd@reddit
Very few sit even when there’s chairs. I haven’t bought general admission tickets in a long time unless there was no choice. I think the last concert I voluntarily bought floor tickets for was Foo Fighters and their set was over 2 hours long, my back was killing me, I just wanted to sit. Now I buy seats so I can sit down during the slow ballads
threefeetoffun-@reddit
Last time I saw foo fighters had a nice arena seat with a good view. Loved that day.
Hell last concert I went to I had lawn seats so I rented a chair.
No-Double-8933@reddit
I saw the Deftones and Glassjaw at milwaukees summer fest in the late 90s. They had aluminum benches bolted to the ground. that pit was rowdy and painful lol
BlackieDad@reddit
I love the Headstones, no way I’m staying seated for them wtf
pumalegal@reddit (OP)
The worst part is, they weren't even wrong to do it. I had to sit for most of Finger Eleven thanks to my arthritis.