What was your city like in the 1990's?

[jcchii]

Originally Posted by Baronvonellis

Wow your guys descriptions of the rave scene sounds so cool! Almost like the hippy era. There was nothing like that where I grew up in the 90's. It sounds like a different country from where I lived in Florida. I didn't know what techo or rave was till around '97 when it became super mainstream.

What I don't get is how come all of that stuff disappeared from the midwest and Chicago now that I live here, lol??? I would kill to go to a 90's rave like you guys described. Most people I know now hate dancing and are embarrassed to dance. Did people not feel that way back then? Now there is only the elitist club scene with $300 bottle service, and seems like the opposite of the peace- free love era of the 90's. Now it seems very exclusionary, if you can't afford to throw down $1000 in a night, you aren't allowed to have a good time. More like the Great Gatsby era. Actually that's funny people mentioned that alcohol was the only drug not allowed at raves, since now alcohol seems to be the only drug in use at clubs.

you're doing it wrong

[Tom In Chicago]

Originally Posted by Baronvonellis

Thanks. Primary looks interesting, I might have to check that out. I'm not really into mainstream EDM. I write my own electronic music, I have a bunch of vintage synthesizers. I do ambient stuff. I'm looking for places for hippy-like raves like in those youtube videos from the 90's. Where's the places with glow in the dark body paint, people giving out free hugs, reading your chakras, hippies, people doing e and acid ect..

We used to go to these Drop Bass Network raves up in Wisconsin for that hippy-vibe. . . although it was all hardcore techno back then. . . seemed kind of ironic, and I wasn't really into the hippy aspect of it. . .

I write my own stuff too. . . tracky two-bar techno. . . have a ton of gear, most of which doesn't get used anymore. . . thinking about picking up this Moog Sub-37 though. . . aside from skyscrapers that's my other hobby. . .

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[LouisVanDerWright]

Originally Posted by Baronvonellis

Thanks. Primary looks interesting, I might have to check that out. I'm not really into mainstream EDM. I write my own electronic music, I have a bunch of vintage synthesizers. I do ambient stuff. I'm looking for places for hippy-like raves like in those youtube videos from the 90's. Where's the places with glow in the dark body paint, people giving out free hugs, reading your chakras, hippies, people doing e and acid ect...

Plus, I don't usually like to stay up super late. I'd rather dance at 9pm, by midnight I'm ready to go to bed. I don't really get why all these places don't get swinging till after midnight. Same with concerts at bars, the bands don't start till 10 or 11pm.

Well part of the idea of raving was that the parties go all night, still half the concept today. Chicago used to have one of the biggest legit raves in the country in the Congress Theater until it was shut down. Now all the EDM has gone to smaller venues like Primary, Concord, Mid, etc. The problem is that the culture you are asking for still exists but is MUCH more intense. Just like today's weed isn't your grandad's weed, today's designer drugs aren't your father's designer drugs. There's still free hugs, E, body paint, and acid, but it's all teenagers and college students and they go at it HARD. These people will take a handful of pills that they don't even recognize and then just deal with the results. The culture is still there, it's just a lot more extreme now.

I do wish there were more House options in Chicago though. There really isn't a single club dedicated to ONLY House music. Primary does house nights and so do a bunch of other places, but I wish there was a place I could just go whenever I am digging some house rather than having to wait for some Tuesday night house party filler bullshit that a bar is putting on just to try to get people out for a few hours early in the work week.

[pdxtex]

Originally Posted by Tom In Chicago

We used to go to these Drop Bass Network raves up in Wisconsin for that hippy-vibe. . . although it was all hardcore techno back then. . . seemed kind of ironic, and I wasn't really into the hippy aspect of it. . .

I write my own stuff too. . . tracky two-bar techno. . . have a ton of gear, most of which doesn't get used anymore. . . thinking about picking up this Moog Sub-37 though. . . aside from skyscrapers that's my other hobby. . .

. . .

maybe we crossed paths once. we used to drive from detroit for alot of drop bass parites. i went to the first 3 furthers and few of those dee-day parties. good shit!

[fflint]

Originally Posted by tdawg

I think we're now seeing "peak rave" in the US with the commercialization of dance music so like many other things the US is about 20 years behind Europe. BTW this video pretty much sums up what Atlanta was like (at least for me) in the 90s. This is Backstreet, Atlanta's legendary 24/7 nightclub that sadly met the wrecking ball for a condo tower. To this day Backstreet had the most amazing light show I've ever seen, even better than the clubs in Ibiza I went to.

Disagreed.

The commercialization of dance music probably peaked in the US with disco in the 1970s, and has remained pretty steady through the decades (e.g. Kraftwerk, Soft Cell, Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails, Prodigy, Moby, Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim, Groove Armada, Daft Punk, etc.). In any case, I disagree commercialized dance music was a feature of 'raves,' which featured mostly local DJs mashing up music that often could not be purchased, so much as it is a feature of dance clubs.

And dance clubs aren't raves. There were permanent, regular nightclubs where people went dancing to electronic music before the rave era, during the rave era, and after the rave era. Such places are not in and of themselves 'raves.'

"Peak rave" in the US was in the early-to-mid 1990s, when the largest extra-legal scenes the US ever saw were at their respective pinnacles.

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by tdawg

I think we're now seeing "peak rave" in the US with the commercialization of dance music so like many other things the US is about 20 years behind Europe. BTW this video pretty much sums up what Atlanta was like (at least for me) in the 90s. This is Backstreet, Atlanta's legendary 24/7 nightclub that sadly met the wrecking ball for a condo tower. To this day Backstreet had the most amazing light show I've ever seen, even better than the clubs in Ibiza I went to.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqGV6qBxOa8

Nice, looks like a good club.

Here's one from Pittsburgh; August 1999. 2,000+ people in the Crane Warehouse

• Video Link

[Tom In Chicago]

Originally Posted by pdxtex

maybe we crossed paths once. we used to drive from detroit for alot of drop bass parites. i went to the first 3 furthers and few of those dee-day parties. good shit!

Oh for sure. . . the most memorable raves I've been to were up in Wisconsin. . . I went to the Even Further rave in '96 when Daft Punk played their first live show in the U.S. . . also those Dee-Day parties were sick - they used to rent out this armory in Humboldt Park here in Chicago, which at the time, was a pretty dangerous neighborhood for kids to be hanging around in late at night. . . ah the 90s. . .

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[Tom In Chicago]

Originally Posted by LouisVanDerWright

I do wish there were more House options in Chicago though. There really isn't a single club dedicated to ONLY House music. Primary does house nights and so do a bunch of other places, but I wish there was a place I could just go whenever I am digging some house rather than having to wait for some Tuesday night house party filler bullshit that a bar is putting on just to try to get people out for a few hours early in the work week.

House is still big on the south side. . . I'm not sure how organized of a scene there is anymore here though. . . have you checked out 5 Magazine? All good stuff house. . .

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[pdxtex]

Originally Posted by Tom In Chicago

Oh for sure. . . the most memorable raves I've been to were up in Wisconsin. . . I went to the Even Further rave in '96 when Daft Punk played their first live show in the U.S. . . also those Dee-Day parties were sick - they used to rent out this armory in Humboldt Park here in Chicago, which at the time, was a pretty dangerous neighborhood for kids to be hanging around in late at night. . . ah the 90s. . .

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yeah the daft punk one was cool. wasn't that some weird camp ground with a lodge? i just remember it was muddy as all $%%&. our car got stuck and we had to camp up a hill. i remember that armory too. it never really struck me that any of the venues we went to in chicago were so dangerous (looking back they were in some bad hoods, your right) i had a colorful conversation with some hookers outside of that antique mall where the first dee day was at. was that in garfield park? i remember some ATP party called tornado, had woody mcbride. it was in some shitty stripmall and these neighborhood gangsters were running security. we went to some other party in some old foundry, crap, i wish i remember the name. it was busted in 30 minutes and i was completely high and wearing silver pants. we ended up at some kids farm up near madison with a bloody thirsty raver hating goat.. don't ask.....

[krudmonk]

EDM is both ubiquitous in advertising and relatively easy to produce so of course much of it wil be schlock nowadays. Blame:

- novice DAW composition
- soft synths and their flat algorithms
- four-to-the-floor meatheads
- hoovers and supersaws are still recycled and overused

Nobody's going to fork out for a used 303 to play in a remote field when they can probably make a few bucks pandering to a world of Jersey Shore rejects that just want a mindless hookup soundtrack with all channels barely mixed at full volume from some butthole's Macbook. Things change; life sucks.

[Tom In Chicago]

Originally Posted by pdxtex

yeah the daft punk one was cool. wasn't that some weird camp ground with a lodge? i just remember it was muddy as all $%%&. our car got stuck and we had to camp up a hill.

http://www.spin.com/articles/daft-pu...-furthur-1996/

One for the history books. . . I ended up camping there years later on a canoe trip with some friends of mine. . . we walked all around the valley where the event was held. . . it was eerily quiet. . .

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[pdxtex]

Originally Posted by krudmonk

EDM is both ubiquitous in advertising and relatively easy to produce so of course much of it wil be schlock nowadays. Blame:

- novice DAW composition
- soft synths and their flat algorithms
- four-to-the-floor meatheads
- hoovers and supersaws are still recycled and overused

Nobody's going to fork out for a used 303 to play in a remote field when they can probably make a few bucks pandering to a world of Jersey Shore rejects that just want a mindless hookup soundtrack with all channels barely mixed at full volume from some butthole's Macbook. Things change; life sucks.

Your take on the current state of affairs is extremely funny.

[fflint]

Electronica has been the preferred music for advertisements in Los Angeles for more than 15 years--because it doesn't carry cultural baggage that any particular racial or ethnic group might find objectionable. It's the one kind of music that is equally alien in every culture!

[pdxtex]

Originally Posted by Tom In Chicago

http://www.spin.com/articles/daft-pu...-furthur-1996/

One for the history books. . . I ended up camping there years later on a canoe trip with some friends of mine. . . we walked all around the valley where the event was held. . . it was eerily quiet. . .

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theres a pretty good video of their further set on youtube.

[Tom In Chicago]

^http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xec55UOHtxw

I also saw them do a DJ set a few years later at the now defunkt Shelter. . . they also filmed the video for Burnin' here in Chicago from their debut album. . .

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