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jackshoegazerRAVE! - 'WE DREW PEOPLE FROM ALL OVER THE COUNTRY'
( Wisconsin State Journal )
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by Natasha Kassulke
It was 3:30 a.m. Lisa Romano, 19, pulled the pacifier from her pierced lips, wiped the sweat from her face, and took a deep breath of steamy air. For the next 10 minutes she was on break. One she earned after five hours of dancing... Five hours down. Four hours to go. Romano was relying on the pacifier to keep from biting her tongue as she stepped back into the psychedelic Easter morning dance squall.
Chris Renz watched Romano and the more than 2,100 other ravers who were in a similar tranced state. He admitted he had had reservations about heading down this trail. He knew hosting a rave (an all-night techno dance party) on Easter would be risky. ``I thought some of the usual ravers might stay home with their families this weekend,'' Renz shouted over the heavy house music central to the weekend's rave at the Expo Arena on the city's South Side. ``But they didn't.''
Not only was the rave well-attended by Madison residents, it drew people from Detroit, Chicago, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Watertown, Rockford, the Fox Valley, San Francisco and New Jersey. ``We drew people from all over the country,'' he said. ``They are mostly teen-agers or people in their 20s. But there are older people too. Everyone dances so nobody cares how old they are.''
Each raver paid $20 admission. In return, they got a full night (9 p.m. Saturday to 7 a.m. Sunday) of throbbing synthesized rhythms. The sounds could be broken down to techno, house, drum and bass, trance, down tempo and ambient. But it was all still rave music.The rave was called ``Thumper'' because of its Easter timing.
Ravers like Romano said they were drawn to it to escape boredom and to celebrate the music. Romano vowed to stay awake all night and gyrate in an exhausted state until she reached a mental rush not unlike what some athletes experience when the endorphins kick in and push them through that invisible wall.But it was playful too. Thumper began with an Easter egg hunt. Ravers wore bunny ears and carried Easter baskets.
To get to Thumper, they had to get a hold of secret directions. It's not always easy finding a rave. Usually, a phone number is circulated by word of mouth, over the Internet, or through fliers.Renz started touting Thumper six months ago and printed 15,000 fliers for parties and night clubs with a phone number to call for directions on rave day. As usual, the site was a secret until the day of the event. In the past, that secrecy was necessary to prevent police from busting the parties. But Thumper organizers weren't worried about the police breaking up the party. In fact, Renz hired an off-duty sheriffs lieutenant and a detective to monitor the event.
Although he prefers country western music, detective David Mahoney said he has been working off duty at raves for several years to earn extra money. ``I like watching the ravers -- they seem to be having a good time, '' Mahoney said, sipping his second cup of coffee of the night. The only problem on Sunday came from a 21-year-old man who had to be taken to the hospital after telling security he had taken LSD and ecstasy, which is a hallucinogenic amphetamine.
Music, not drugs, was Thumper's focus. It attracted deejays from all over the country. Two Madison deejays -- house mixer Nick Nice and former Old Skull punk rocker Jesse Collins -- pulled the early record spin shifts. Each deejay got about an hour. The deejay perch was set on scaffold and treated like hallowed territory guarded by security. Being a rave deejay can be a lucrative career and allows them to travel the world. Kode IV is a deejay from San Francisco but who was raised in Germany. At 40-something he was one of the oldest people at Thumper. A world-wide reputation for being innovative made him one of the top Thumper spin doctors. ``It's my first rave in Madison,'' Kode IV said between bites of a veggie burger outside the arena. ``And I never expected so many people to turn out for a rave here.'' He suggested the experience is not about one style of music being better than the other. It's about being innovative.
Acid house founder DJ Pierre, of New Jersey followed up Kode IV. Some ravers blew whistles to the beat. Lasers spelled out the promoters names -- Eucalyptus and Drop Bass Network -- and played tag with the mirrored balls dropping from the ceiling. The ravers took turns painting each other with body glitter. They hugged stuffed animals like Glow Worms, Tickle Me Elmo, and Teletubbies. Renz said that in Chicago you find raves every Saturday in warehouses and athletic and concert venues. In Madison raves are fewer. But they are well-respected. ``This is the best rave yet,'' said Josh, a 17-year-old raver from Detroit who asked that his last name not be used. It took him eight hours to get to Madison.
Jeremy Parker, 21, and Craig Wincell, 23, came from Watertown.``I come for the music and the people,'' Parker said. ``It's a roller coaster that captures the energy of a mosh but is nonviolent and you can let everything go.'' Parker fueled his dance to dawn with bottled water ($2), fruit Smoothies ($4), and Smart Drinks ($3) made from non-alcoholic fruit juice, amino acids, caffeine and vitamins. In the back, some ravers were huddled under a tent giving each other massages. Fliers for upcoming raves littered the floor and soaked up the spilled water and sweat. The humidity reached greenhouse proportions. Renz, who has been going to raves for about six years, said he now throws raves for a hobby. He also holds a job at an information technology company. Raves, he said, have become better understood since he started going to them.
Raves are credited with beginning in Europe in the 1980s as a way for young people to get together and dance to a new form of music known as ``techno.'' In the '90s, raves moved to the United States, starting on the coasts and moving to the Midwest. The publicity, however, has not always been positive. Some Madison raves in the mid-1990s raised concerns from parents who had heard about drug use at them. Not all raves are as drug and alcohol free, or as organized, as Thumper. Renz said an important part of organizing Thumper was arranging for permits, insurance and security. He also worked through a booking agency to line up the deejays. It was all in an effort to avoid police calls for illegal activity such as trespassing, property damage or complaints about noise, drinking or drug use. ``There aren't a lot of other options for people who are too young to get into bars but who want to talk and dance,'' Renz said. Kode IV agreed. He added that raves are about celebrating music and sharing a vibe. ``We need to get people together and raves are one way to do that, '' Kode IV said. ``You don't get this kind of interaction from watching TV or sitting at a computer. Raves are an alternative to crime and violence. They offer a vision of the positive and make me hopeful that if we can get all these people to dance together then maybe things can work out in the world.''
Copyright © 1999 Madison Newspapers, Inc.
My God, that was TEN years ago, this coming spring! Oh Time, where have you gone!
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Date: 2008-10-07 08:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-09 04:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-09 12:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-09 01:39 pm (UTC)Mostly, good "rave" music has moved into clubs in the Madison area. You basically missed it - raves were awesome in the mid-to-late 90's and a little into the 2000's but they've now gone the way of the dodo. (I retired from raving in 2002. Ravers don't quit or die, they retire.)
Here's me at a rave in 1999. (http://www.geocities.com/jeremy714p/pinky2.jpg)
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Date: 2008-10-09 01:44 pm (UTC)Ah well.
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Date: 2008-10-10 12:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-10 01:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-10 12:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-09 02:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-10 12:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-09 04:22 am (UTC)Heh, yeah. We got noticed. The best quote I got from a girl there once was "You're thirty?? WOW. Well, it's good to see you guys still get out." And she was sincere -- way to make me feel 80 chicka.
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Date: 2008-10-09 04:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-10 12:51 am (UTC)