Yound Crowd Breaks Into A Sweat At Met

Shortly after midnight Friday, the mostly teenage/early 20s crowd at The Met started a chant.

“Swet-eee … Swet-eee …”

And in a few minutes, the rock band called Sweaty Nipples took the stage. One of the guys in the band greeted the raucous cheering and hooting by giving the audience the finger with both hands.

Up in the balcony, a kid wearing a black Sweaty Nipples T-shirt - on the back it said “Mom and Dad, I use Drugs!” - responded in kind.

The real fun was just beginning.

The concert had started three hours prior to this with the first of three warm-up bands. But as the sledgehammer sound of the main attraction throbbed through the theater, the party kicked into gear.

Fans pressed up against the stage and thrashed about like super-heated molecules bouncing off one another. One of the guys in the band put down his guitar and fell into the crowd, allowing himself to be passed around by dozens of up-reaching arms.

This isn’t unusual at a rock show. And several observers who’ve seen their share of mosh pits rated this one relatively tame. But it was a crescendo to a slow-building evening.

The first warm-up band, the Distributors, had been greeted with applause that was almost dainty. Of course, part of the crowd hadn’t arrived yet. And a fair chunk of the audience was still outside on Sprague, smoking cigarettes and honing attitudes.

The second band, Oil Filter, got a bit of a buzz going. Maybe it was the group’s near-total reliance on mantra-like unprintable lyrics. Maybe it was the lead singer’s game attempt to project a guttural snarl.

“Pretty good,” said a boy in a ballcap and a Metallica T-shirt.

Perhaps he approved of the pointed offensiveness and relentless alienation. After all, his parents are probably boomers who still think they’re cool. And it’s hard to imagine that Oil Filter wouldn’t have made them squirm (which, of course, is one of the key goals of hard rock).

The audience itself was too fresh-faced to seem threatening. The “looks” ranged from long-haired metalhead to Mercury astronaut clean-cut.

The final warm-up band, Disturbed Silence - performing such lilting numbers as “You’re a Stupid Slut” and “Sexually Insane” - had the advantage of being last on before the Sweaty Nipples.

Some guy ran across the stage and dove into the stage-hugging crowd during Disturbed Silence’s set.

Eventually Friday turned into Saturday. And it was time.

“Swet-eee … Swet-eee …”

, DataTimes MEMO: Being There is a weekly feature that visits Inland Northwest gatherings.