Local bands have a ball at Mosh Madness

By Carolina Carmo
Photos by Tilly Sandmeyer

I spent the Saturday before starting my last semester of college watching a bunch of out of shape local musicians play basketball in a church gym in Takoma, MD. It was the first ever Mosh Madness, a half-court single elimination tournament organized by Ian Donaldson and Reid Williams of Dorinda. Fourteen bands competed while five bands (three of who also balled) – Flowerbomb, Pretty Bitter, Massie, Pinky Lemon and Spring Silver – played sets during the matches. The event raised over $2,600 for the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund. Flooded in stale lighting, the smell of sweat growing exponentially worse each hour, you could barely hear conversation because the acoustics of the room weren’t prepared to host some of the DMV’s best and loudest. After whining through a semester abroad with no real live music, this was the perfect scene homecoming.

Games were three on three, but there were lots of substitutions from guitarists who couldn’t endure a full 10-minute match. Some wore their own merch as makeshift team uniforms. The ball flew out of bounds countless times from shots even I thought I could have made, but play never stopped. Surprisingly, the gravest injury was a slightly bloody nose. Beyond the questionable athleticism across the board, the performing bands showed each other out –  Flowerbomb’s steady rock kept the chaos on schedule, Pretty Bitter boiled over with gratitude between songs, Massie played with a fresh, darker sound and Pinky Lemon delivered crushingly loud noise. 

Last June I was stuck in D.C. with no job and fearlessly decided to marathon a bunch of shows, hoping to find the center of the local music community. I walked away exhausted and disappointed. At the time the barrier for entry seemed too high and the scene felt fragmented and disconnected. Mosh Madness convinced me otherwise. The scene proved itself eager and vibrant. Alive. Beyond the bands that participated (Montaines, Sam Elmore, Cal Rifkin, Capital Rat$, Funk Buddy, Home Remedies, Rex Pax, Pink House, Rosslyn Station, Silent Island, peachteapunch, Cinema Hearts), there were members of other local bands who came out to support – Makeup Girl, Soul Meets Body, Tosser, and Cuni. Multiple creatives, photographers and writers were courtside all afternoon. The rest of the crowd was made up of people who regularly show out to gigs across the city. They sang along and cheered for their favorite acts even when they sucked—Emily from Massie only shot from the three-point line, going 1-11, give or take, Home Remedies prayed to lose round two so they could catch their breath. 

Spring Silver played their 30-minute set during the semi-finals and final game which saw Dorinda vs. Haus Magazine, an independent local music publication. It was a sort of a classic face/heel showdown—Dorinda were the day’s heroes for pulling together the event while the Haus players brought a rough frat-guy energy that was making people a little mad. It seemed like Spring Silver was done midway through that last match, until I noticed frontperson K Nkanza sat behind the kit. The three band members had rotated so that the bassist was now at the mic with Nkanza’s teal electric guitar, the drummer was now instrument-less at the second mic, and K was on drums. They closed with a cover of “Say It Ain’t So,” and halfway through the song Dorinda won the match in a blowout. After receiving a trophy crowning them “Best Baller in the District,” the other bands charged the court to hoist the winners up while the rest of the crowd rushed under the basketball hoop and in front of the stage. I stood on the outer circle watching all the faces in the room chaotically dance and scream along to the last vamped choruses of the song. This is the community. Mosh Madness was collaborative and unselfish. Everyone in the room came together on that Saturday to do the right thing and have fun. It was sorta silly and showed how well the people in the scene care for and about each other. It’s here, we are here for this. Ball is life.