The latest youth craze, in which groups of club and rave goers throw socks at performing musical artists for entertainment, often capturing the attacks on camera phones, has escalated to epidemic levels, experts say.
According to police, club promoters and DJ (an acronym for ‘Disc-Jockey’) organisations, the fad, which began as a craze in the Dublin electronic music scene, before catching on in national music venues, festivals and even school playgrounds, is now a nationwide phenomenon.
Those close to the issue describe ‘socking’, as it is affectionately dubbed, as the act of spinning and flinging one’s own sock at a person or object, in the majority of cases, at an unsuspecting entertainment purveyor. These ‘sockers’ are targeting mainly international DJs visiting Ireland’s clubs and music events.
A recent gig by house music icon Julio Bashmore gig this past October was said to highlight the extent of the epidemic. As the lights rose in local music hotspot, The Twisted Pepper, revelers attest to seeing a desolate sea of dirty socks scattered about the stage. While many themselves were unaware of the strain the artist found himself under but as he was swept up in the sock-crazed mania he was left visibly shaken by the events. When asked for his thoughts afterwards, he paused, lifted a sock from his hood and muttered: “I hate Ireland.”
Bashmore is not alone in his disgust at the craze, with many other artists sharing his sentiment. Electronic music performers such as Nina Kraviz, Marcel Dettmann, Ben Klock (given the impromptu moniker ‘Ben Sock’ by the chanting bloodthirsty crowd), Todd Terje and even Dublin house music sensation, Cillo, are said to have been adversely affected.
“I was about to drop a solid and before I knew it I was covered in socks,” explains Cillo. “At first I found it funny but when they persisted it became serious.”
“If I ever catch one of those cunts I’ll make them eat their own socks,” he added.
Cillo isn’t the only one searching for these mysterious disturbed individuals. Following a lead this reporter was able to confront a self-described socker at a Kerri Chandler gig some weeks ago. Waiting until the madness of the event had subsided and it was safe to proceed I confronted him as he left the venue.
The man, who looked frenzied and was wearing what could only be described as rags, or old clothes, offered the following insight into the dark new trend.
“It’s not to terrorise people, it’s to glorify them. People throw roses at the opera, our mothers threw underwear on stage in the early days of rock music; we feel it is fitting to throw our socks. This music is not clean cut; it’s dirty, it’s out of control – what better tribute to that essence than to throw our socks”.
“Plus, it’s the only thing we really had to hand to throw at the time,” he added.
Despite the man’s explanation tension remains high at venues across the nation, with reports of sockings occurring as far afield as local student bars and even cinemas.
Venue owners insist that measures are currently being put in place to ‘sock’ the trend in its steps. These include extra undercover bouncers (known as SockBusters), and even raised netting above stages. Doormen now routinely ask attendees to lift their pant legs as they leave the establishments to identify key instigators.
“If this socking fad continues it will only be a matter of time before someone is mildly distracted for like a second,” predicted a shrill busybody.
Finally someone is writing about the truth. These are the harsh realities right here.