April 11th, 2022 @ 9:25 pm

bby’s first rave was in brooklyn one night. i have no idea where… i had been to day parties before this night, but i never really counted them as parties. they weren’t in the expected dark industrial settings or venues with lights and lasers. there wasn’t anything romantic about looking at your friends in daylight, bouncing around like goons. i didn’t get it until i finally got there.

i thought this one was going to be stressful. my on-again, off-again first girlfriend wanted to stab me that day (not literally, but probably literally).  i guess we were off at the time, and we had planned to go together with our friends, but since she was all pissy with me, i just went with my bff javie’s boyfriend paul and my homegirl jersey becca (not to be confused with bronx becca). when we got there, there was a wait (hence the photo above, where i am looking angelic at the bottom). i think we were standing there freezing our asses off for like an hour. at one point, FOX news shows up interviewing people about RAVE CULTURE and i’m ducking trying to hide in case my mom is watching the news, lmao. i was old enough to be out, i think i was 18 at the time… but she was so dead against raves for some reason. drugs?

i didn’t do any drugs this night. i don’t think i had even done any yet, tbh. i can not recall the date of when caryn first gave me a pill, though i do remember the scenario well. this night, i was with a girl that was straight edge… no drugs. in addition to being becca’s party buddy, she was also into the same music as me (punk and what not). i was NOT straight edge… but back then, i don’t think they had booze at parties. i really don’t remember there ever being drinks… so i was sober.

don’t get me wrong, going to see your favorite band and being in a pit with people is a lot of fun – prob the best thing ever, but going to a rave is up there, too. walking into the darkness, feeling bass in your feets, hearing your favorite tracks live is rad. the energy is electric, unless you’re gauging the energy of the crackheads on the dirty floor taking turns touching each others faces… even then, amusing. i’m sure for most people, on drugs it’s elevated even more. i for one never liked doing E at parties bc i wouldn’t want to dance… i just wanted to talk and do everything BUT dance, so instead of annoying everyone, i would just not do it at raves. we’d just do it in our friends’ houses.

walking into this party was weird bc i knew my ex was lingering somewhere, probably in a corner waiting to pounce me… but we explored multiple floors and danced around.  i recall getting a lollipop from a kandi kid (the party kids that wear all of the bracelets/rainbows and shit)… i had to exchange a hug for it, lol. this is when i learned about PLUR IRL. i mean, i knew about plur i just never lived it, lol. it was so weird, but i hadn’t done E yet, so i didn’t understand the niceness.

what else? oh! i remember there was a gabber pit and i was like WTF. i liked listening to gabber more than most EDM at that time and didn’t know the kids made mosh pits for it… what a cultural clash.

i don’t remember seeing a lot of our friends that night, i guess bc it was a hardcore/jungle party vs house or the usual trance bullshit going on (i hated trance, or at least dancing to it… it bored me).  i do remember pleasure head being there, though…  maybe there was a trance room(?),  but i don’t remember there being a ton of other trance.

anyways, i unknowingly steered clear of caryn for most of the night, but as we were leaving, i found her in the jungle or drum n bass room dancing her ass off in strobe lights. i remember walking in and saying hi and she no longer wanted to murder me. that was pretty much our dynamic, lol. i couldn’t dance to jungle, so i quickly got bored of that room. i can’t recall how tf that night ended. i put my brain through a lot of MDMA in them times.

i do remember i got to see mother fuckin rob gee, omar santana and the horrorist that night, tho.

anyways, i have no idea what raves are like now vs. the late 90s/early 00s…  i haven’t been to one in like, 5 years?  but go if you can, it’s a lot of fun.  if you’re around my age, go before your hips start breaking!  🙂

*~*~*~ thanks for visiting my memory bank! ~*~*~*

P.L.U.R.! ♥