Shaky Trade at Deer Valley: Launching My Career In Mosh Pit Development

Press PLAY and you will see my fellow members of the concert posse shaking it.

A group of us and the rest of the die-hard-gotta-do-as-many-Park City-concerts-as-possible-this-summer crowd made way to Deer Valley yet again, this time to hear Shaky Trade, a band from Ogden, Utah.  After spreading out my camping blanket, I made way to get a bottle of water ($2.50) because I didn't have time to stop and get a beverage on the way to the Shopko carpool meeting spot.  Anyway ... it wasn't long before I discovered that sitting at a concert, something I've seldom done all year, was boring.  Boooooooring, even with the best of concert posse members and some new recruits.

So three of us went up (this was not a three-some, Mom), bravely, and we began to dance.  I motioned to the others, who were eating dinner, updating their iPhones (the perfect time to post what an exciting time you are having is while having it), or they were simply lulled by the nearly perfect Deer Valley weather.

Slowly, ever so slowly, the dancing crowd built.  The "mosh pit" (yeah, I know it's not really a mosh pit, Ang) gained traction when I invited a couple of groups dancing off to the side of the stage and grassy areas to come into the middle so we could all dance together.   I motioned again to the rest of the concert posse still sitting down.  They finally came.  The crowd built.  And built.  And built.

Small children danced and hula hooped near the foot of the stage.  One of the band members said, "You can come up on stage, kids," and I was up in a flash.  No hesitation.  I forgot I wasn't 10 anymore.  Oops.  Naturally the concert posse followed in nanoseconds also.

It wasn't long before I found myself dancing in between two guitar players, looking out over the masses in the dancing pit I'd fostered.  If dancing in the space between members of the band is sacred, I violated all the rules.  And I started a chain reaction to gather a fairly sizeable crowd of people who really did want to dance, but they needed a little push to get their a**es off the grasses (please forgive my poetic tendencies, which  have been overactive this month).

Shaky Trade was a great band.  I wasn't sure that was going to be the case.  Even though they were from Ogden, they had a few anti-Utah sentiments on their website, and I wasn't up for hearing comments in between songs.  But there weren't any comments, the band was too busy playing or I was too busy dancing, or both. I was won over by their charm and fun-loving, "oh what the heck, sure you can come onstage" attitude.  And the music was not to be missed. {good times}