Dance party scene becomes commercialized
ERNEST A. JASMIN; The News Tribune
http://www.thenewstribune.com/
Published: March 29th, 2006 01:00 AM
The weekend fatal shootings of six young people in Seattle have rightly or wrongly put a spotlight on techno music dance parties known as raves.
But the consensus among insiders is that the parties have declined in popularity, especially in Pierce County, where they were never as common as in Seattle.
“Seattle’s got a bigger scene,” said Calvin Murphy, a former rave promoter whose company, Ocean Grooves, books a Wednesday night dance event at 21 Commerce, a Tacoma lounge.
“There’s more people up there,” he said. “You can’t really find a weekly party to go to if you’re under 21.”
That hasn’t always been so. Scenesters recall a 1990s heyday when underground parties were held without permit or traditional promotion at such Tacoma locations as the Heidelberg building downtown and the Propeller Club on the Tideflats.
“It’s harder to throw the parties. There’s more liability,” said former promoter and club owner Bryan Purdy of Burien. Back then “you could call (renowned DJ) Donald Glaude and say, ‘You want to do my party for $100.’ Now you’ve got to go through an agent.”
Raves lost their veil of secrecy and morphed into big business in the late ’90s as techno’s popularity peaked and promoters began to appreciate the merits of securing the proper permits. Many promoters began throwing their events in local nightclubs.
“It’s easier,” Murphy said. “You don’t have to run the venue; you have public facilities. You don’t have to worry about concessions (and) permits.”
The start of the 2000s saw the rise of “massives,” parties with big budgets and lineups that rivaled large rock concerts. Seattle promoter United State of Consciousness has held its annual USC and Freak Night Parties at Seahawks Stadium Exhibition Center.
“The stuff we see today, it’s basically got the same concept,” Murphy said. “It’s just evolved through the years. It’s more commercialized.”
Purists would not call such events “raves.” And Tacoma businessman Jerry Lechner characterizes his as “music festivals.”
Since 2001, his company, Ground Zero Events, has showcased a variety of rappers, DJs and rock bands in loosely rave-style parties. Apocalypse 2 in December drew 900 to 1,100 revelers – aged 16 and up, he said.
The next Ground Zero party, Masquerade 4, will bring popular rapper Twista and various DJs to Seattle nightclub The Premier on Saturday.
Lechner said he planned to donate a portion of proceeds from Saturday’s event to a memorial fund for the shooting victims.
Granted, some underground parties still go on. Stephen Wentling said he’d been to one recently. The 19-year-old University of Puget Sound student characterized the events he goes to as small, usually 10 to 15 people in someone’s basement.
There is a DJ. Partygoers swing neon glow sticks as they dance. People give each other massages, and some “roll” on the illegal drug Ecstasy. “We pamper each other,” Wentling said. “It’s all about just feeling good and loving every moment of it.”
But many consider rave culture a trend way past its prime. Whenever Jonathan Tollerud hears talk about raves “it’s always in the past tense – I used to go to raves,” the 20-year-old UPS student said.
