So, a few nights ago, I went to the most laid back metal concert… ever, in the history of metal.

A few weeks ago, I saw a flier for a concert in San Ignacio called “METAL MANIA.” I was immediately excited because: 1. I love metal, and 2. a metal concert didn’t quite seem to belong in Belize. It seemed like a conundrum to me because Belize appeared to lack that certain angry/disenfranchised youth atmosphere and has an overall national spirit would most aptly be described as chill. Metal concerts on the other hand, don’t exactly have a reputation for feel-good times. Depending on the particular evening and flavor of metal, a typical concert experience can range from “high-energy” to “manic mosh-pit massacre.” Now, while I make every effort to avoid the latter, the galvanizing concert atmosphere is precisely where I find the appeal of this genre. Sometimes it gets a little angry, but it’s always exciting and visceral. Personally, I avoid the mosh-pit (mainly due to personal space issues and one almost awful incident at a Flogging Molly concert,) but I love to be around metal’s particular brand of frenzied near-chaos. So I was excited to see what kind of concert Belizeans would deliver.

As I walk up to the concert venue, it becomes immediately clear what’s in store for the evening. Prior to this concert, I had not come across one person in San Ignacio that I would classify as “hardcore” or the like, so I was excited to see some metal-heads come out of the woodwork. I was one of the few people there not wearing a black t-shirt with the name of a very angry band on it. There were even a few dudes sporting Mohawks and extraneous piercings. One girl in attendance looked like she had just stepped out of a Hot Topic, with a wardrobe consisting of white and black striped skinny jeans, plastic bracelets up to the elbow, a black New Moon t-shirt, and black and white checkered vinyl suspenders (worn angstily off shoulder.)

Soon it was time for the music to start. I’m not gonna lie, I had set my musical expectations pretty high. I was expecting to hear some mind-blowing fusion of standard metal with local sounds. I was expecting to have my mind blown. However, I was disappointed/bemused to hear that these bands sounded exactly like every other bad American high school band, born with little musical ability and a deep love of Iron Maiden. I don’t want to trash talk them too much because a few of them were quite talented, but I found it odd that there was a complete absence of local influence to their sounds. However, I soon found out that the local flavor was not to be found in the sound, but in the crowd.

During the bridge of one song, the singer called out to the crowd, “Come on! Headbang! Start the mosh pit!” … and then he giggled. Yes, you read that correctly; the front-man of a metal band giggled at a live show. Before this evening, I thought there were two universal rules: 1. you don’t talk about Fight Club and 2. you don’t giggle at a metal concert. But oh, how wrong I was. The crowd and band members alike were giggling, laughing, and hugging as covers of Slipknot songs echoed in the background. At first I thought that the crowd might just not be feeling the bands or their songs (perhaps they had gotten lost on their way to a Jack Johnson concert,) but I noticed that most people were singing along and seemed to know all of the words- this music was right up their alley. At one point, it looked like moshing was about to commence as two dudes chest bumped, but they quickly hugged it off and returned to their laid-back concert stance. Contrary to the event’s name, it was all metal, no mania.

As strange as it was to me, I found this experience quite enjoyable. The spirit of metal was evoked in a much different way, but it was a pleasantly chill evening. Musical genres evolve in different contexts, but this particularly example leaves me wondering, is it still metal without moshing?