Just an informal poll…who on the forum goes to dance music parties, raves, festivals, clubs? Who DJs and what equipment do you use? What kinda music makes your booty shake?
Sometimes I feel like the lone raver here immersed in that culture.
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I used to but now I’m close to 30, I’m getting too old for scenes, and plus I’ll need earplugs I’ve gone deaf from being to close for a club speaker that and cops sometimes raid parties because of noise complaints
I used to go to festivals/raves/parties/clubs that play the following:
- techno
- house (tech/electro)
- trance
- dnb
- dubstep
- psytrance
Recently, haven’t been too much because the scene where I currently live for work revolves around rap/metal/country. Also, I’m already older than 30.
But I’m going to see a synthwave show and Chromeo when I visit Seattle.
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There used to be a pretty cool local hippie rave scene here, but as electronic music became more mainstream, more and more idiots began turning up at the parties. Gang trouble, violence, stolen cars, attempted rapes and such, became the norm. As a result, what used to be a cool mixed crowd, gradually became a sausage party for steroid-using maniacs. Psychedellics and weed got replaced by amphetamines and cocaine.
I sometimes go to metal shows. The metal fans here are generally nice and friendly, and most of them are really into the music. I haven’t gone to a techno party in a couple of years, though.
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I used to party quite a bit back in the day. But now due to the combination of factors (the aforementioned change of scene, getting older, having kids), I rarely go out anymore. When I do, it’s mostly to see techno DJs (wife and I just saw Luke Slater about a month ago). Haven’t been to a proper rave/warehouse/loft/whatever party in forever. Smaller local festivals don’t seem to be worth it any more, so instead of spending our energy and money to go to them several times a year, we prefer to go to one quality psy festival overseas once every couple of years (Ozora, Universo Paralello).
I’m ok with this. If I didn’t have kids or had more time, I’d probably make an effort to go out more often. But I feel no FOMO since I really can’t and there’s still plenty to do and get my pleasures from different things. There’s an opportunity cost no matter what you do.
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I play out, work as a senior audio/visual engineer at BlackCat Sf. It is a Jazz club. I play at festivals, clubs, and raves, and attend them sometimes but not to the level at which I use to.
Here in the bay area I go to out to a few scene clubs, but also have had the pleasure to hit up a few underground warehouse parties. Not as often though after the ‘Ghost Ship Fire’ killed 30+ people in a pretty shotty warehouse party.
Different burners types are always throwing a fund raiser of sorts for their camps, so I go to them at times. More often the fund raisers are people who are into breaks, and house.
You can catch a trap night a few days out of the week in San Francisco, as well as in Oakland. Plenty of house dj nights spread up and down the bay area, every once in a while some one will have a industrial night at a club. Can’t say I’ve been to many techno parties in the past decade, but have gone out to a few trance nights that failed over their start up period.
For me I prefer the bass heavy stuff when going out to shake my bottom! Which has become a bit harder to find after the ‘Wormhole’ guys stopped throwing their long time Wed nightly. That night would have styles ranging form D&B, Dubstep, Westcoast Bass, halftime, and slimepunk.
As for gear that I use while “spinning” I have a Numark MixTrack Pro 3 that I use for a dj set, and my laptop. While mixing bands at the club I use a x32 mixer, and couple it with protools to get recorded mixes that the club or labels will distribute if needed.
I do not think you are alone, but understand where you are coming from.
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Yea. It has been nice to find there are few of us here.
Seems like you are pretty involved, I basically go to a few of the local monthlies and like 3-4 one off parties a year.
My favorite has always been just to DJ a small house party. Like 30 people.maybe. I do that quite a bit now that I have my own PA
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Something like that is great. When I was still active as a (non-pro) DJ, of course it was great to play at some bigger club or party, but the most fun I always had at small non-official parties under some bridge or at a lake, sometimes planned and announced at the same weekend…
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Absolutely!
This is my favorite part of the “stage” I run at a small festival Ive been going to for 10 years or so. Last year was our first year and we could have about 30-40 people in the tent at a time. We did about 2-3 hours a night for three nights during a week long festival. Then some pop up stuff some afternoons.
It was like a dressed up house party in tent in the middle of a camping festival.
Our second year us coming up here in July. Can’t wait to do it all again. Its the most fun I’ve ever had at a festival. Its pretty casual but we are in the festival program so there is an expectation of professionalism and performance Its good mix of responsibility and fun.
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Good stuff! Love those little types of gatherings as they tend to be more intimate.
I have tp agree to the smaller events being way more fun.
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as a younger person of 20 or so , how do you guys get involved in scenes and the sort ? i have searched for things local to me but havent come up with anything remotely interesting , or that these events are too far away to even be visited … should i just organize something myself ? would really like to see something going on in my area , though granted , its a bit of a small town …
It is harder if you can’t travel or there is nothing local. Putting on something yourself is always an option. Getting a venue and getting people in the door will be the biggest challenges in my experience. You can put together a decent PA for not a ton of money–you could look into rental as well, but I have a decent PA that cost about $600 total (used amp, new passive speakers). I’ve used it for a small stage that could hold 40-50 people at a time or for house parties.
If there are absolutely any dance music nights going on, even if the music isn’t your thing I’d recommend going and meeting people. That’ll be your easiest way to tap into what is already going on.
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Another Bay Area resident here (Oakland)
I play out fairly regularly with a family of local artists. They run a monthly called IDP at Hyde St Studios that I play somewhat regularly. Also play Crash Overide (another IDM party). Also used to play the closing set at Psy parties around the state with my old drone/ambient band but haven’t for a few years due to a sudden loss of vision that makes it so I can’t drive anymore, so getting to those remote places is too much effort these days.
My live rig is usually an Octatrack, suitcase modular with a few pedals and sometimes an auxiliary Elektron for support
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Yeah bud as mentioned it’s all about just going out. Even if it isn’t your bag of tea, gotta be out there to meet people into EDM to be around edm heads. It’s the same for any sort of music.
Also traveling to festivals that may be some distance away will also help you find, meet, and become familiar with how the “scene” looks/works/etc. . Especially at your age!!
If you can get access to a venue (don’t just aim for bars and clubs, maybe a cafe will let you host a dinner night/live set. Or a bookstore) be open to any space.
Sound system culture can also be fun. Ie building your own rig to throw shows with. A lot of old edm scenes were built on this exact sort of thing. Jamaica was the biggest influence for it, and then it spilled over into Europe, and all over the states. Having your own sound system can be a game changer if you’re looking to create a true following in a small town. But it can also be coming rather expensive. This is why I suggested going to a big festival to see how some sound systems are built out.
Truly hope the best for you, and that you get out there…or bring it to your town and make the people get down!!
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Groth… yeah IDP at Hyde Street seems pretty cool, and I’ve been busy almost each time it’s thrown!
Will have to get out and hang with you sometime! 
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Yeah! You gotta make it out sometime, it’s a blast. Great room, great people, usually really well attended and sometimes some pretty big names play as well! One of my previous sets was same night as 1/2 of Phoenicia! Usually I play my KnobGoblin project out, Ghroth is more of a studio project until can get a second laptop to break the Reaktor patch into more stable useable chunks.
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Well, that unexpectedly changed last Saturday. Saw Silent Servant and Drumcell at a proper dirty warehouse. Dark and hot as fuck, a couple of strobe lights, a big ass screen behind the DJs and a banging sound system. Around 500 heads. Unreal.
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That sounds amazing dude. I haven’t been to a warehouse party in forever. I think the closest thing to that in the last few years is a local DJ was able to rent out a empty store in a strip mall for the weekend to have his birthday party at.