This month of October has been a crazy month - I’m talking about some of the sickest concerts with some hard-hitting bands. On October 12, Detroit was visited by some mosh-worthy bands that tore Harpo’s theater apart. First up on this tour was the almighty All Shall Perish: these guys have some of the best stage presence. I had never seen them live and now I really want to see them live again!
Next up on the stage was one of my favorite bands, the earth stampeding head bussing Whitechapel who put on one of the craziest shows of the night. Front man of Whitechapel Phil Bozeman said he loves Detroit and can’t wait to see us again. This set was crazy - I have never seen a mosh pit where a girl gets in and does just as good as the guys. The concert was fun for me until I was racially discriminated against in the worst way imaginable.
While watching Whitechapel perform, everyone around was enjoying the show and going crazy as usual. Near the stage, I was head banging and the guy next to me tapped me on my shoulder. I turned around and said, “Hey, what’s up man?” The music was so loud, we had to be close to talk to each other. He said to me, “You touch me again N*****, I’m gonna f*** you up!” I looked at him and walked away thinking to myself I wish I could do something about it.
Later on that night, hardcore gods Hatebreed took the stage. Once they started to play Harpo’s turned into one big mosh pit. I have never seen so many mosh pits in one set in my life! During the Hatebreed set, I wanted to crowd surf as I always do when I’m at concerts. While I was up, I came across a group of big white guys with shaved heads and tattoos. They pulled me down by my shirt and pants and started an imaginary mosh pit with me. An imaginary mosh pit is when someone or a group of people starts a fight and tries to disguise it as fun.
While they were trying to beat me down, I was trying to get out of the way and one of them was pulled me back by my backpack and shouted obscenities at me about how I didn’t belong there. Someone saw what was happening and started to pull me away from them. I stayed at the concert just a bit longer to get a pic from the guitarist Wayne Lozinak from Hatebreed.
This show was amazing regardless of what happened to me. And it is not the band that was the problem – it was some ignorant thugs who were there. Hardcore is for anyone who chooses to listen to it. It doesn’t matter what race you are; you deserve to enjoy the music you love without the stress of being discriminated against. If you see anything like this happening at a show, do something about it! We are all a family and if we don’t stop what is going on, someone could really get hurt. Like always, keep those horns up and don’t stop head banging.