Remember gigs? The sweat? The blood? The beer? Well, if you can’t, FIRST MOSH AFTER COVID — a new documentary from director Tom Dream about the resilience of the music industry post-coronavirus — is about to remind you.
We got our first sneak peek at the so-called ‘moshumentary’ after the director dropped a four-minute teaser trailer on his Instagram, alongside a written statement and a series of thank you tags for the artists involved in its making. The list includes the alt rock joint Sports Team, the rapper Che Lingo, and Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, as well as South London producer Wu-Lu and Bristolian punk rockers IDLES.
In Tom’s accompanying statement, the director said he had been working on the film for the past few months. The aim, he writes, “was to bring together a dedicated mosh hunting community to help track down and intercept the first official mosh pit in the UK once Covid restrictions are lifted.”
Judging from the footage so far, we’d say he’s on track to meet his goal. Speaking to seasoned moshers about “the vortex of elbows and knees” one frequently encountered during pre-pandemic gigs, Tom collects testimonies of the chaos contained within.
“I got my face punched in,” says one interviewee, casually. “I jumped off a monitor,” says another. Each to their own, I guess! But according to Tom, FIRST MOSH AFTER COVID is going to be “more than a film about moshing”.
“It’s a film about the resilience of the DIY music industry in this country; all the bands, fans, photographers, tour managers, roadies, sound engineers and independent venues that make the music industry what it is today in the UK,” he continues.
“It’s also a film about what we’ve lost this past year to Covid, and what we’ve been through mentally. The science of human touch, the psychology of crowd behaviour, and the impact of isolation on our mental wellbeing and our creativity. We’ll uncover the power of communal alchemy, social and sonic harmony, and that transcendent feeling in the pit, where for one brief moment, many people make a whole.” Check out the wild trailer via Tom’s Instagram at the link below.