The Rave ReviewThe Rave ReviewThis page is a review of raves of the past. Its a history of some of the raves in Los Angeles since December of 1996. For some of you, it will be a blast to the past, and will help u recollect your previous grooving E-xperiences...nights of endless dancing, new friends, countless memories, and extreme FUN!!! And of course, there were some nights when things didn't work out that gr8...maybe there was violence, maybe there just wasn't a vibe, and maybe the cops broke it up and all u have to show for $20 is a ticket u didn't get to use and a few flyers. But its COOL.
This page has only selected raves, and therefore is not even close to containing the all the raves in So Cal. However, I have been to raves with lots of other people, so I'm sure that you've been to some of these. For each event, I've written a brief summary about it, showed pictures or flyers (if I have them), and rated it on a scale of 1 speaker to 5 speakers (1 being the worst and 5 the best)
Well, here is the review...
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Insight was set indoors and was your typical fun, one-room, $15 rave. The music was pumpin' and could be heard from blocks away. The building was decorated nice and had dope films playing. Everyone was happy and friendly which of course made for a great nite. Overall, this was a cool event!!!
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This was personally one of my favorite raves ever. Set in the same building as Insight, it had more of a vibe to it. Put on by the people of PHAT GROOVE, it was set to the theme of care with the CARE BEARS. The music was hard, espcially under DJ Trance, the dancing was dope, and a sense of unity was present.
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This was a small rave set in a bar/club in Boyle Heights. The music was average, but there wasn't a whole lot of action on the floor. One good feature was that it only cost $8 with a can-food donation. But it wasn't that great for me because it seemed like 75% of the people there were guys; SAUSAGE RAVE - AAAAGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!
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Let me start off by saying that I was hyped for this rave for about two weeks. I went out and bought a new shirt, got film for the camera, and tried to get a big group of my friends to go. However, as it turned out, only six of us went on this fated, stormy night. I knew it would be doomed when I forked out $28 at Ticketmaster for a ticket. After waiting in a 45 minute line in the rain, I was disappointed when I got in. This rave had all the potential to be one of the great ones. Three rooms (2 in tents and 1 indoors), mountains of speakers, and tons of ravers. However, the rain was annoying and the cops made the DJs turn the music down because of neighbor complaints. The music was so low that we could talk to each other right in front of the speakers. The security guards were also being d!@ks and pushing everyone around. Eventually the cops shut down one of the tents and said they were gonna close the rest, so we left. Unfortuanately, it just wasn't that great.
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After about a month off of raving (cause of formals, parties, & clubs) I was eager to get out to another rave. Frosted Breaks had a cool flyer with Tony the Tiger and, like Nucleus, was located in the Pomona Arts Colony. However, unlike Nucleus, the music at this one could actually be heard from more than 20 feet away. Along with the $12 ticket price, the bass of the music really made for one of my best raving experiences. One small problem I had though, was that not enough people were dancing at some points in the night. But overall, it was pretty dope!
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Well, this sure seemed to be a popular rave. There were lots of people here in this one room rave. But hey, the best part was that it only cost $5!!! True, it was kinda hot inside and crowded, but the music was loud (the way I like it) and there were a lot of dancers. Cops and Firemen showed up at about 1. Overall, this was an averagely good rave.
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Before I started going to raves, I always associated them with the desert because that's what I saw on the Fox Undercover News Reports. But as I found out, most raves are in warehouses in the city. So when I heard about this one, I was like, yeah, we gotta go. And I just gotta say that this was the DOPEST rave I have ever been to! The whole night was a cool exprerince. Im sure there were over 5000 ravers there. For those of us comin from LA, we took either the 10, the 60, or the 91 east, to Interstate 15 South, to Highway 79 East where we arrived at our mappoint - The Stagecoach Inn. After waiting in a line that was about 45 minutes long, we kept goin east on the 79 until we finally turned left on Highway 371. There we were greeted with another line, this time a line of cars on the highway going into the desert that was about a half and hour long. It was strange cause this fog started coming in when we were waiting in line and it just made the night seem more unreal. As it turned out, the long wait was worth it. There were two dancing areas, one area that was open-air in the desert, and one that was in a tent. The area outside had some of the best music that I have ever heard at a rave (or anywhere), the volume was up, and lots of people were dancing. There were campfire, tents, and cars all around. People were dancing on top of sand dunes which looked really cool. There was this dope-ass laser show all night that seemed to lure ravers to it when it started goin crazy and making strange tunnel things. The tent was packed with ravers and the music was also hittin hard there. There were glowsticks and blinking lights everywhere, and one guy even had a light-up Toy Story Alien. Some people started dancing on the speakers and this one girl even danced topless. "Take it off" was being chanted since she enticed everyone earlier, so she finally did take it off. We left the tent at about 5:30am and found that it was already dawn outside. However, the rave was still going on at full force, although it was noticible that some had already left. So, we went back to the Honda to catch up on some sleep (about an hour and a half of it) It was hard to sleep with music pumpin all nite long and people putting flyers on your car. We promoted ealier in the night for Cloud One-Nine by putting flyers on cars and passing them out to people. The only thing I didn't like about the rave was how muddy my shoes and pants were the next day, but who gives, this was still the best rave I have ever been to.
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Hmmm, well let's see, there were 8 ravers here and hey, one of the security guards was dancing!!! They started playing 80's metal...at this so-called rave...whatever.
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With the re-release of the Star Wars Trilogy, I was excited going into this rave that was themed to celebrate the destruction of the Empire by partying on the moon of Endor. After weaving our way through the mappoints on Angeles Crest Hwy and Angeles Forest Hwy, we finally found the location on Upper Big Tujunga Rd. We parked and took about a 15 minute walk to reach the scene. It wasn't the biggest rave in the world, but it had great music, especially under Guido (Argentina) and there was lots of dancing. The organizers of the event provided free fruit, candy, and glow sticks. Also, everyone at this rave was very friendly and it provided for an excellent atmosphere dancing under the stars in a forest decorated with lights and glowing things. On the way back to the car however, it was so cold that our hands nearly froze off. But overall, this was an above average and very fun rave!
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This was Short Circuit's virgin attempt at a rave. Set in an abandoned bowling alley in Lynwood (the industrial side of Compton), this event had all the potential...walls of speakers, plenty of space, two rooms, etc. However, other events were cheaper and Cloud One-Nine just couldn't compete. There were some ravers and the music was good, but there were some technical difficulties, the speaker people were protesting, and other crap like that. It had a lot of potential, but for some reason just didn't live up to it.
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I was totally hyped for this rave, especially since I got numerous flyer and heard that it was gonna be bomb. Well, it turned out that after we got our tickets at a Los Angeles mappoint, we were in for a treat. Put on by Cand-E productions, Jujubeats was definately the best rave I have ever been to. It was located at a ski resort somewhere uptop the San Bernardino mountains, and as we approached the venue, lines of cars were parked along the road. We finally found a spot and had about a 15 minute walk to the actual event. It was definately worth the time though. There were two areas, one small one by the ski lodge and one big one out on the open area. The music was going off all night and the stars were shining brightly. One of the best laser shows I ever saw was also lighting up the huge event. Jujubeats had a vibe which was like nothing else I have ever experienced. It was almost unreal, like it was on a different level of human existance.
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As we ventured along the 101, we stopped in Hollywood, planning on going to Spider. However, we found out that it cost $15 and there were not many people there. So we broke out the flyer for Fry for Five, and called the info line from a pay phone. We learned that the mappoint was in Buena Park along Knott Ave., so we decided to give it a try. When we got to the checkpoint, there were ravers (and cops) everywhere. We puchased our $5 tickets and ventured off to Santa Ana. When we got to the destination, we discovered that the rave was in a Racquetball World. We also discovered that there was a huge-ass line of thousands of ravers waiting to get in. As we were being searched, the crowd started yelling and bum-rushing the security. Our asses started to run, but security quickly controlled the situation. We entered the gym and went up-stairs to find a hardcore room. We danced a little and walked through it some more, finding two more rooms...one in the gym! The music was going off and there were lots of people everywhere. It started getting hot and crowded, so we went back outside and danced at a fourth room out there for awhile. It was totally a bomb rave, and for five bucks, definately worth it!!!
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