I Used to be a Raver
My Ravin' Daze of 2000
All of the old rave parties, afterhours, and clubs I went to during the year 2000...from Detroit to Pittsburgh to Toledo to Windsor...
For those of you who are wondering,...I wrote into a little black book the names of parties and clubs I went to, date, location, who I went with, drugs I took, cover charge at the door, and sometimes a short synopsis of how the party went and whether or not it got busted.
For those of you in Detroit, you will know what it means when I say, "the Theater", "the whore house", "the chop-shop", and "the house" among a few fabled others. No explanation is further needed...
it's too bad ROAR can't be enforced here...
Inside,...the names, locations, and dates..and sometimes an explanation into the mind of a raver..
Unless otherwise specified, all parties are in Detroit and the surrounding areas.
Jump
at Concord AKA the whore house
Friday, January 28, 2000
The whore house is a small, dark little place on the upper side of Detroit south of I-94. One big room, three smaller side rooms. Sometimes one of the smaller rooms was made into a "bubble room": this room would be lined with plexi glass, thus giving it a giant "boombox effect",..perfect for putting the nitrous tanks and doin' a couple of balloons,.. first friend I made at my first Detroit party and he's still my good friend today. This party was cold because there was no heat. The owner of the building was rumored to have died shortly before from a K overdose. The bill wasn't paid and a lot of us got cold.
2000a rave party
at Concord AKA the whore house
Saturday, February 5, 2000
flyer; back
Be Mine
at the new Firehouse
Friday, February 11, 2000
cops came but the promotor's lawyers stopped them at the door (hide the nitrous tanks!), told us to "keep the music down" and then decided to let us party
flyer; back
Lover's Ball
at the Theater
Saturday, February 12, 2000
My favorite venue! Perfected my "Sea Breeze" technique,..okay,..let me explain: I take a..ahhh,...nevermind,..you don't know, then you don't know!...okay, okay!,..I'll explain so that nobody thinks it's something else. I take a Vics Inhaler, put it backwards in my mouth, grip your head with both hands (see why I didn't want to explain this? it sounds sick), use my thumbs to gently hold back your eyelids and lightly blow into your eyes as I'm methodically messaging your head to the techno music. If it's done right,..your eyes roll into the back of your head as if you were sleeping and I put you into a deep-seated trance,..I'll let you stay in your trance world for a couple of moments, finish my patented head message, then clap my hands loudly and your eyes immediately fall back into place...Voila! - a true feeling of total bliss to someone who is rolling! ..The party has a couple thousand strong and still a vibe!
flyer; inside; back; ticket
Tough Guy
at the Theater
Saturday, February 19, 2000
perfected my arm roll technique (this is where I'm pulling one's arm away from the body, gripping it tightly, crawling my fingers down at the same time..the closest way to describe it is a feeling of slowly peeling some invisible layer off of the arm...it's just a wicked feeling, that's all,...sort of like your limb falling asleep and the "pins and needles" feeling you get) ..A couple thousand strong and still a vibe! ..feels just like last Saturday..
flyer; back
Cotton Candy
at Concord AKA the whore house
Friday, February 25, 2000
legendary party, end of night count: 1500 people ..walking into the bathroom, I first thought there was a fire,..it was just heavy fog from the respiration of all the people; the walls were "bleeding" and the ceiling dripping from the respiration of everybody present..This was the most crowded party I've ever walked into.
flyer; back
We Are Twisted
at Mack & Bellevue
Saturday, February 26, 2000
Mack & Bellevue is a dirty-ass warehouse in a ghetto part of Detroit's east side..a place where the roof leaked when it rained, the floor always seemed to be wet, the walls were covered in dirt,..and one always walked out of that building with dirty clothes and black boogers..
flyer; back
We Like You Humans
at Mack & Bellevue
Saturday, March 4, 2000
I discover my love of 140 bpm with Adam X and Heather Heart
flyer 1; flyer 2; inside
Save Our Scene
at the Theater
Saturday, March 11, 2000
fire! Dammit, party's over (hide the nitrous tanks!) Well, at least it's towards the end of the night... Perfected what I call my "free fall",..this one is simple: we stand back to back and lock arms, I bend down far enough to kinda guess where I want you on my back, then I bend over and pull you up onto my back so that you're balancing on my back,..I will tell you to close your eyes and release your arms from mine and just lie there with them out..I then slowly go up and down and rock around a bit,..hey,..I don't know,..when you are rolling, it feels like a freefall! Some people do variations of it and might call it the "airplane"...I don't like the airplane, so I do the "free fall". This can get tiring for me pretty quickly as I'm only 5'9" and 145 lbs.
flyer; back; ticket
Keep On Dancin 2000
at the chop-shop
Saturday, March 18, 2000
a real chop-shop run by shady Russians,..the dj deck is on top of an old limosine..the Russians also run most of the illicit nitrous business in Detroit.
flyer; back
Microrave
at Concord AKA the whore house
Saturday, March 25, 2000
CDX gave me six tapes of Durty Haus Dubs tapes; side B
flyer; flyer 2; back
we are the robots too
at Studio 95 at 6 mile & Woodward
Saturday, April 1, 2000
in an actual recording studio; owner later took flack for allowing rave parties with nitrous tanks to occur on his premises...thanks Fox 2 "problemsolvers"!..your camera in a teddy bear was a real cute idea!...Mos Def and Afrika Bambaataa were the headliners...
flyer; inside; inside 2; back
True Masters 2 (the Wu-Tang Clan rave)
at Studio 95 at 6 mile & Woodward
Saturday, April 8, 2000
Ghostface, RZA, GZA, U-God, Inspectah Deck, and Cappadonna (of the Wu-Tang Clan) in the presence of nitrous!?! Rapping over rolling drumnbass beats?! wahwahwahwhat?! ..pretty cool.. Bad Boy Bill - you can suck it! You're a flavorless hack!.. First noticed what I call the "nitrous circle" at this party. Tons of people getting nitrous plus a big open space (think circus tent) = a lot of people end up walking/dancing their way around in a giant oval path. A nitrous path. Many people smartly sit down when they get their balloons..others, and I am one of them, tend to see how well we can tip-toe on the line between balancing and phishing out..what many of the characters in this play didn't realize was that they were walking/dancing with their balloons while going around in this huge oval path. Literally a train of maybe thirty or fourty people..weird thing to notice to say the least. I pointed it out to numerous people and they recognized the same thing I saw. 6 in the mornin' cops broke through the nitrous tent (which was connected to the side of the fairly modern building),...party's over
ticket
Twisted
at Mack & Bellevue
Saturday, April 15, 2000
I love taking first timers to parties,..even if it is at this skank-ass place
flyer; back
Peeps Forever
at the Theater
Saturday, April 22, 2000
SQUISH's trance party attended by thousands. Something just felt off to me the whole night. The Theater's a big place and I spotted two cops in the actual theater part of the building,..let's just say I made huge circles both literally and figuratively while staring at these two cops busting some poor passed out raver in the middle of the theater while the trance music pulsated and the lasers swirled around their heads..they just seemed so out of place and it was new to me because it was the first time I saw cops just walking around at a rave,..and nobody seemed to notice or even care, people would keep on dancing with a trance-like look in their eyes and make the cops walk around them...just couldn't shake the vibes all night: odd, odd, odd...
flyer; inside; inside 2; back
reality bites
at the Factory
Saturday, April 29, 2000
only wishing that the two 16 year olds who were enamered with my dancing were 18...yeah, yeah, reality does bite sometimes
flyer; back; the building
Nitrous Jungle
at Four Bears
Friday, May 5, 2000
Four Bears is a water park located north of 20 mile. One hour in and the party is busted (cops smelled weed in the girls bathroom)...oh well, I was given a free VIP invite..I guess it's off to...
Twilight
at the Theater
Friday, May 5, 2000
small crowd,..but this party stands out for me because I "felt liquid" and my dancing was as smooth as hell on this night,..too bad I didn't have a bigger audience...funny watching Bad Boy Bill thanking the maybe 75 of us who were still there at the end of the night..
Lifted Again
at the chop-shop
Saturday, May 6, 2000
looks like I got lucky because another party called "White" at the Studio 95 venue at 6 Mile and Woodward got raided on this night...sometime after 4 am we started hearing reports from the people just showing up about how the Highland Park police raided their party and roughed up some of the partiers...Highland Park police are currently getting sued in a class action lawsuit taken up by lawyers pro bono (the law is agonizingly slow sometimes)..Seems that the police forgot that they had Fox 2 News with them videotaping their assault on the ravers,....opps! Let's just say this wasn't a pretty scene and officers ended up losing their jobs because of this....opps!
Gotta catch 'em all! upstairs
Klusterfuk'D the rest of the building
at the Theater
Saturday, May 13, 2000
an odd vibe night,..you seem to get that any time you have booty music playing as DJ Godfather, DJ Assault, and DJ Shortstop were there...shady promotion upstairs so that's where the cops were...two enterprising young lads were selling T-shirts with the Fox logo titled, "Fuck U Fox 2 - News that fucks with you",..I bought one for $10...
Gotta catch 'em all flyer; back
Replay
at the chop-shop
Saturday, May 20, 2000
got jacked by a crazy Russian and three big black security guards,..total lost: about $1600; cops broke up the party soon after (whoops! forgot to pay the cops off?..bye bye tank!) F you sin-di-kat! (to give some credit, they let me keep about $300)
flyer; back
Onetopia
at The Ice Gardens in Rostraver, PA
Friday, June 2, 2000
got jacked again! total lost: about $1400;..not good..this will be the last time I get jacked by someone who's not wearing a badge...Anyways,..Pittsburgh sucks! Their parties have a "gay and happy" vibe to them,...much rather stick with Detroit,..they're a little harder...
flyer front; party pics
Zoraks
at St. Andrew's Hall
Saturday, June 10, 2000
legendary concert hall located downtown Detroit
flyer; inside; inside 2; inside 3; back
Family Ties 3
at Mound & Outer Drive
Saturday, June 17, 2000
At the Beach
at State Fair
Saturday, June 24, 2000
flyer; flyer 2; inside; inside 2; back
Off The Wall
down by the Ambassador Bridge; Baulie's place
Friday, June 30, 2000
worked the front door
flyer; back
Brainwashed
right near the Ambassador Bridge
Saturday, July 1, 2000
flyer; back
Cherry
at State Fair
Monday, July 3, 2000
note to self: sparklers indoors = really not a good idea; part of the admission cost was to give a pack of Lifesavers to Wilhelm K
flyer; back
Meltdown
at Butternut and Tillman
Friday, July 7, 2000
flyer; back
club Motor
Hamtramck, MI
Saturday, July 8, 2000
Motor turns out to be my all time favorite club.
flyer; back
after this I went to...
Instant Haus
at Butternut and Tillman
Saturday, July 8, 2000
remember the party because I was kissing a tall, blonde little hottie who was barely 18. All I can really remember is that she was about the sloppiest kisser I've ever come across in my life!
flyer
Likwid
at Butternut and Tillman
Friday, July 14, 2000
kissed the same damn sloppy-ass blonde girl from last week yet I still managed to dance most of the night away with another little blonde 18 year old named VK. Mike from the comment section was the party thrower...
flyer; back
Groove, the movie Release Party at club Motor
Hamtramck, MI
Saturday, July 15, 2000
flyer; back
after this I went to...
Home Town Heroes
down by the Ambassador Bridge; Baulie's place
Saturday, July 15, 2000
flyer
bt
at the State Theater
Thursday, July 20, 2000
this was a club event, I got the tickets at Ticketmaster...note to self: BT is an over-rated dj who's just for the club kids.
flyer; ticket
after this I went to...
Bring it Back
down by the Ambassador Bridge; Baulie's place
Thursday, July 20, 2000
a rave on Thursday...What's up Pogo!
flyer; back
mind kandy
at the Theater
Friday, July 21, 2000
cops came (hide the nitrous tanks!), decided to let us party...probably wasn't a good idea to dance sarcastically when the cops were watching me,..but oh well...One memory stands out at this party for some reason. Friend nykol was pretty K'd out and there were cops walking around as per usual for that venue. Party wasn't crowded at all and there were only a handful of people dancing towards the end of the night...nykol was one of them. There were two cops shining lights walking around and they came upon nykol while she was doing her brand of the raver-step...she had both of her eyes closed just moving to the music in that sideways way of hers. The cops just stood there because her dance was not only hypnotically entrancing to her, but to onlookers as well.
flyer; back
Smurf
at State Fair
Saturday, July 22, 2000
over 3000 people, $5 bottles of water, $10 balloons, clowns, fire eaters, fake tickets and professional massage therapists all added up to mean vibes and bad feelings all around because of a greedy and selfish promotor. I got burned by spending 10 bucks on one of those fake tickets that didn't have laminate on the backing from some dipshit at mind kandy the night before. I would have never guessed that rave tickets would have been faked. I ended up giving 17 bucks to nykol's friend just prior so that she could get in...ended up having to pay 25 more bucks so that I could get in plus that 10 bucks on the fake ticket plus that 17 for the chick all for admittance. End of night note to self: Keoki's an overrated prick who spins garbage.
flyer; back
club Tonic
Pontiac, MI
Sunday, July 23, 2000
club Motor
Hamtramck, MI
Tuesday, July 25, 2000
club Clutch Cargo's
Pontiac, MI
Wednesday, July 26, 2000
Clutch Cargo's is a club housed in an old Catholic church building,..one of those huge, nice Victorian style architecture type of buildings,...four staggered floors: techno in basement, club and radio shit on first floor for the stupid club kids and college crowd (the room where mass used to be held,..picture a cathedral ceiling,..typical looking Catholic church), booty music on third floor, and trance on the fourth floor...you could usually find me in the basement...I never really liked the place much,..it's really nice and the layout is superb, but it always felt kinda cold in that place...
kidz at play
at Butternut and Tillman
Friday, July 28, 2000
a good vibe party until it was busted at 4am...
flyer; back
after this I went to...
DtownSound
at Mound & Outer Drive
Friday, July 28, 2000
just a wind down party for me,..even though the crowd was still jumpin'. Ended up kissing a beautiful 18 year old blonde cutie...yeah, another hot 18 year old blonde girl,..that made four 18 year old blonde girls for the month of July. Dammit! I'm starting to get old, that will never happen again.
flyer
we are still Twisted
at Mound & Outer Drive
Saturday, July 29, 2000
note to self: I can dance to Anabolic Frolic's 170 bpm quite well on nitrous..just dance to the metallic sounding wahwah's...Found out that some candykidds can bounce to 170 bpm during the whole 2 hour set! what a feat...
flyer; inside; inside 2; back
what the fuck
underneath the Ambassador Bridge
Friday, August 4, 2000
if I had to pick a favorite party, this is it. I worked this party with Linda G and BTM. Frankie Bones! 3000 people indoor/outdoor at an old truck depot (picture a rectangular building with 6 or 7 huge open garage doors on one side), 2 tents, nice view of Detroit skyline to your left, Windsor, Canada right across the river facing front, Ambassador Bridge leading to Canada almost directly above to the right...best vibes I've ever felt from one party...met the girl I fell in love with and lived with...this was the life changing party and I'm searching for another one even half as decent...cops came for the third and final time at 6 in the morning; found out later that Canada was complaining about the loud-ass techno music!..oh well,..huffed those three balloons I just got and hide my all-access pass...
flyer; back
Cybertron, forever known as the house
corner of Joseph Campau & Hunt
Saturday, August 5, 2000
this was the best afterhours Detroit had to offer in 2000,..free every Fri. and Sat. night after 2 am..party till noon...cheap medical grade nitrous, top-talent DJ's, workable police,..the same group "family" there all of the time...ahh,..I miss the house. Some of my best dancing was done there. The house on the corner of Joseph Campau and Hunt no longer exists.
flyers
club Motor
Hamtramck, MI
Tuesday, August 8, 2000
club Clutch Cargo's
Pontiac, MI
Wednesday, August 9, 2000
Shut the Fuck up and Dance
underneath the Ambassador Bridge
Friday, August 11, 2000
the cops rolled around to the back at this party; kind of just snuck up and took us all by surprise...the music shut off..as the nitrous tanks were disappearing and as everybody started going for the door the cops got on the PA system of their car and said, "Hey! Where's everybody going? Don't leave! This is a party. You're supposed to have fun! Come back!" Everybody gathered courage and slowly surrounded the cop car. Somebody shouted, "Turn the lights and sirens on for the ravers!" The cops obliged! The music went back on, the nitrous tanks rolled back out and the scene became one of us ravers dancing around this cop car with it's lights flashing! I told my girl to give the cops a couple of bracelets. The cops put the bracelets on! Truely a weird and amazing scene to see two cops in a car, wearing candykidd raver bracelets, lights flashing, and 2000 people at a party dancing in the midst of it all. I'll never forget it... I saw four meteors on this weird and joyful night. After this I went to...
the house
corner of Joseph Campau & Hunt
Friday, August 11, 2000
Glow too
at Mound & Outer Drive
Saturday, August 12, 2000
this one got cut short by a shady building owner at around 3:30ish, screwing over Dubtech's CDX and Wilhelm K.
flyer; inside; back; ticket
After this one ended too quickly I went to...
the house
corner of Joseph Campau & Hunt
Saturday, August 12, 2000
this night stands out because I "felt liquid" for the second time,..this time during my light show routine,..I quickly gather a small audience and impress even myself with what I'm seemingly pulling out of thin air...Let me explain what I mean when I say that I "felt liquid": it's a total bliss feeling, almost a trance state, but not quite the feeling,..total awareness and not thinking at the same time,..concentrating without spending energy concentrating,..a zen-like state..just feeling..Saying that I "felt liquid" describes the feeling better than any other adjective I can think of because your whole body is rolling to the music in one continuous fluid motion and everything feels right...it's the type of dancing where one night is equal to three months and you spend your next couple of months poorly imitating the fine art you felt when you were "liquid"...and to anybody who thinks that this can only happen with drugs: I've got news for you: I've felt it twice completely sober... We went until 11:30AM, for about 12 hours of total partying.. Here I am after the second change of clothes for the night. Early in the morning sun with still a couple of hours to go. DJ Translucent AKA Jason Tyler liked to play here "because there is nothing like this out in Chicago".
club Motor
Hamtramck, MI
Tuesday, August 15, 2000
Thunderdome
Toledo Sports Arena
Friday, August 18, 2000
30 cops at this party,..Toledo cops are bullshit! ..they made me pat my stomach and turn around three times to get in the door! and they wonder why I might call them pigs! This party carried an odd vibe because there were so many cops walking around. They would walk around in groups of five to ten. Oftentimes it seemed that it was a police party. So many cops, so little partiers. As such, the party was dry as hell (I made a killing). Another odd aspect of this party was that there was an old libertarian guy near the front door with a booth set up. I spent the first 30 minutes or so talking to him until my roll kicked in.
flyer; back; ticket
after this lovely detour from reality I went to...
Tony's afterhours
somewhere in Toledo, OH
Friday, August 18, 2000
while here, my friends and I see a flyer for a Pittsburgh party,..we decide that it's a good idea to drive an hour north back to Detroit to shower up, then drive the six hours to Pittsburgh with no sleep and party on Saturday night...with no sleep...
Intergalatic Adventure
at an ice arena in Johnstown, PA
Saturday, August 19, 2000
I'm tired,...it's good that my parents lived not too far away...this party was odd..Picture the scene: at 4:20 am and there's a loud pop coming from the ceiling. We look up to see hundreds of smiley face balloons with arms and legs decending onto the crowd. All of the e-tards became super e-tards and grabbed these balloons, heisting them onto their shoulders like a parent would do with his kid, and danced around to some gay-ass trance! My girl, my friend, and I just stood back and watched with awe. You can bet that my dancing was laced with sarcasm that night as I just couldn't help but to make fun of these goofy people. This was a scene that you just wouldn't see in Detroit...
club Motor
Hamtramck, MI
Tuesday, August 22, 2000
good ole' Motor,..you could always count on a bevy of beautiful women there: a lot of the reason it was my favorite club...
Ass & Titties
underneath the Ambassador Bridge
Friday, August 25, 2000
what a ghetto ass party,..the quality underneath the Ambassador Bridge had quickly devolved...after this I went to...
the house
corner of Joseph Campau & Hunt
Friday, August 25, 2000
ahhh, the house,...quickly it's becoming an old reliable friend...
2 Miles past BFE
past Port Huron, MI
Saturday, August 26, 2000
close to a thousand people showed up.. my beautiful friend Dana was the party thrower. after this party all the way out in BFE (butt-fuck egypt), (that's way the hell out there for you types that didn't get it)
flyer; staff pass
After this I went to...
the house
corner of Joseph Campau & Hunt
Saturday, August 26, 2000
cop asked me for my ID (you had to be at least 17,..don't ask me why it was only 17 for an afterhours at 5 am),..I said, "naw,..I don't feel like it" and continued dancing..cop just walked off...
club Motor
Hamtramck, MI
Tuesday, September 5, 2000
club Clutch Cargo's
Pontiac, MI
Wednesday, September 6, 2000
club Motor
Hamtramck, MI
Tuesday, September 12, 2000
club Clutch Cargo's
Pontiac, MI
Wednesday, September 13, 2000
club Hayloft
Mt. Clemens, MI
Thursday, September 14, 2000
Stop, Drop & Roll
"blue skies" venue, not too far from the Ambassador Bridge
Friday, September 15, 2000
Squirt's first party he spun at. Eminem was at this party! He wasn't performing, just there to have a good time and watch his buddy spin for the first time. Hey,..Eminem likes nitrous too! Cops showed up and looked around (nitrous tanks disappeared just in the nick of time),...Marshall decided to leave,...I stayed...
flyer; back
Playhouse II
at the Slaughter House
Saturday, September 16, 2000
Virgin venue that was recently a slaughter house...turned out to be one hell of a good vibe party...Dubtech's 2 year anniversary...cops showed up and rounded us all into one giant room,..they said, "You guys are running a clean party, you have good security and no nitrous,..you can continue to party. Just try to keep it down."
flyer; back; ticket
after this party ended I went to...
the house
corner of Joseph Campau & Hunt
Saturday, September 16, 2000
club Motor
Hamtramck, MI
Tuesday, September 19, 2000
ended up going over to Squish's house afterwards for an all nighter,..probably about 20 of us there with the Detroit staple CDX as the DJ
club Tonic
Pontiac, MI
Sunday, September 24, 2000
...girlfriend is home...hotel K party after club till 6 am...why do I put these things in my name?...Dave, Drop, nykol, Tony Roll, Brian and Jewlz showed up...
club Motor
Hamtramck, MI
Tuesday, September 26, 2000
afterwards another all nighter over at Squish's house with CDX as the DJ again
club Clutch Cargo's
Pontiac, MI
Wednesday, September 27, 2000
club Motor
Hamtramck, MI
Tuesday, October 3, 2000
stroke of midnight,..I'm 21! Only drink a couple though,..I've got other things on my mind,..er,..make that in my mind!...
the house
corner of Joseph Campau & Hunt
Saturday, October 7, 2000
club Motor
Hamtramck, MI
Tuesday, October 10, 2000
club Motor
Hamtramck, MI
Tuesday, October 17, 2000
club Motor
Hamtramck, MI
Tuesday, October 24, 2000
the house
corner of Joseph Campau & Hunt
Friday, November 3, 2000
club Platinum
Windsor, Canada
Saturday, November 11, 2000
club Motor
Hamtramck, MI
Tuesday, November 14, 2000
club Motor
Hamtramck, MI
Wednesday, November 22, 2000
after this I went to...
afterhours Rush
somewhere in the Eastern Market
Wednesday, November 22, 2000
a Motor crowd afterhours, slightly older and diverse crowd...$1 cans of beer, no ID's checked...
The beat that stole Christmas
at the chop-shop
Christmas day, Monday, December 25, 2000
The vibe of the party left something to be desired. It wasn't a very merry celebration. I spent most of the time upstairs with my girl talking to CDX.
flyer; back
What a long year. 49 parties! 26 times at clubs! 10 times at afterhours! 85 total forays into the pulsing techno and jungle music! Some got busted and cut short, most went without a hitch.
The final party of the year was on Christmas Day. I was winding down at this point and settling down with my girlfriend. We got to the point where we would rather cuddle on the couch and watch a movie on Friday and Saturday nights rather than go out. Plus Detroit parties were starting to get raided by swat teams. It was all fine watching the police walk around a few times a night, maybe bug some hapless raver, only for them to leave and for us to bring the nitrous tanks back out! (they couldn't have been stupid, seeing all of those balloons on the floor) But the swat team with weapons drawn!?! That's just crazy for the PLUR crowd. They started handing out "crack house" law tickets that cost upwards of $400! These tickets never came to pass because of a court decision in 2001 but we didn't know what would happen and just considered ourselves lucky to have never been in a party that got one of these tickets.
2000 was a very good year and I had as much fun as I'll probably ever have. I became a dancer, partial to the styles of liquid and popnlok. I developed an original style that ranges from doing hat tricks to the lightshow, complete with facial expressions and different characters. On my smooth nights I can crip walk, glide, slide, body trace, box, tut, and wave pretty well. I made a lot of friends, some of who are in my life today. One friend watched me get jacked in Detroit and later gave me $3000, just because. Another friend ended up moving out of state and unloaded his car onto me. That's a partykidd for ya!
I don't get out as much anymore,..not because I've grown out of it or because the want has passed; but simply because the parties that I used to go to now exist few and far between. The scene was already busting from it's own excesses in 2000 and it's just now slowly recovering. I used to have a "family" that I could count on seeing every weekend. These "family" members were known as fellow "partykidds" and "candykidds" and by my guesstimates were about 400 strong with a hardcore, there every weekend crowd of maybe 75. On busy nights Detroit used to have three to four raves a night to pick from. Now,...you're lucky to see even one.
I don't understand the level of persecution,..not one of the 49 parties I went to had any alcohol. Saw only one fight, never saw any overdoses. I'm not saying that it didn't exist, but it's nowhere near as abundant as the media and government would have you believe. Most parties would have anywhere from 200 to 1000 people partying with the bigger parties getting upwards of 3500. That's about as big as they got in Detroit. All of those different people partying and hardly any problems. I believe that's as big as a testament as one could give.
For all intents and purposes, most of the parties I went to were totally legal (well,..except for the nitrous part; a Detroit party was almost guaranteed to have nitrous and some attribute this to the general scene decay). Permits were pulled, police were notified, taxes were paid and yet somehow it could still carry the risk of a swat team raid. And when a rave party gets busted, nobody runs,..everybody just kind of hangs his or her head and groans or sighs, then orderly files out. If you're pissed at all, it's because you just spent anywhere from $5-35 and you're not getting your money back. I'd like to see that kind of civility anywhere else. I'd only been to two parties in 2000 that didn't bother to search you,..most of the security guards do a more thorough search than most cops! (I know,..I'm speaking from experience here!) I can only think that somehow there was an effort made to make our scene illegal. Everyone's answer to that is: well of course,..it's the drugs, silly! But the fact of the matter is, not many walks of life are drug free. I don't imagine that concert goers would subject themselves to the same level of scrutiny that ravers do.
Fact is: there were a lot of people in the party scene for the wrong reasons. Whether it be doing drugs or just in it for the money (example: an illegal 60 pound nitrous tank goes for about $200; you can get about 8-10 twelve inch balloons off of one pound; 600 balloons going for $5 a pop; do the math: that's $3000 dollars from a $200 dollar investment in about 2-3 hours give or take a few from popped balloons and fly-aways; it never fails to deliver), they gave the scene a black eye and over-represented us; at least they did with the media, general public, and government. I can assure you that these people were the minority. The true partykidds were and are in it for the music, the party, the scene, and the vibe.
Just for the record: I never wore "phat" pants. Those are the pants that are the biggest around the ankles. I did wear large clothes though,..size 30 waist called for size 38. 5 XL sweatshirts and a plain cap backwards twisted slightly to the right (after all, I'm right handed). I did go through a time where I was a "candykidd", but I was a classy candykidd, if you can imagine such a thing. I wore four bracelets to each arm that were made out of glass (it kinda looked like a laser if you put if up to your eye, and shown brightly during camera flashes), color coordinated, necklace, and yes (I'm embarrassed to admit this, but here goes), I wore a pacifier around my neck. But I wasn't the only one! There were guys who looked like they could kick anyone's ass, muscles big, guys I wouldn't want to cross because I know I would get my ass kicked, walking around shirtless with a pacifier in their mouths. But at least I didn't look like one of those candykidds who came out looking like some deranged rainbow puked them out. I also had the hat clips, so that I could see a twinkle at the end of my hat for when I wore it brim out. (See,..you knew there had to be a reason for those hat clips.) As my dancing became more intense, I quickly dropped such attire and now wear slightly big khaki pants, button up dress shirts, nice sweaters, sharp looking shoes, and the ever present cap (the bill is forward, slightly to the right). Basically, my dress went from a mother's embarrassment to mother-approved. (good thing my parents were states away, huh?) I guess you could say that I've matured. I like to say that I'm more sophisticated now, but whatever. For those of you who know what I'm talking about, you could say that "I'm just another jaded junglist."
Indulge
Play
Laugh
Step Forward
Dance
To the old skool ravers!: Peace, Love, Unity, Respect! Never forget!
