I remember going to a few with my older sister when I was a mid teen. It was great fun, but in hindsight, my older sister was a bad influence LOL. Lots of drugs etc.., but it was exciting to be at these illegal raves in fields or wherever. I know when I went to them they were probably passe by then or whatever, but it was fun.

Normal nightclubs in my area are horrible compared to raves though. People always starting fights etc....horrible culture, particually compared to the ravers. Booze does terrible things to some people (Iam not preaching drink is bad, but just bad in some people). Its really rough in my local city centre, and you wouldn't ever think it.

NDRU said:

Hmm, I suspected that drugs were involded; glad you left hard drugs behind guys

In my case, I can only say that one nite, at some rave, at some point, there was that fight, and less than 1 hour later I was in jail, that has been (so far) the lowest point of my life

Hell, I DON'T miss the rave culture, not in the slightest...
[Edited 2/22/10 15:22pm]

novabrkr said:

Well, I'll have to totally disagree with that as that's totally not what I have seen myself. The djs/producers I know do dj at clubs, but they also do remixes and original music and produce other artists. And again, they are mostly all hilarious, extroverted people who like to party with the crowds that come to see them.

But maybe we're talking about different crowds here...

JustErin said:

But wait, let me clarify...I'm not disagreeing with what you saw, just that this is not what I've seen first hand.

JoeTyler said:

yeah and the silver lining was that it made me quit smoking pot too, because it aggravated the anxiety. I am not against pot, but I personally used to smoke too much, and my life has vastly improved since then.

NDRU said:

that's an awesome stance NDRU.

NDRU said:

Good for you. I was more into Speed at the raves I went to. Extasy never did me any harm mind to be honest. I know its not the most moral thing to say but its true.

I found pot and alcohol to be the most damaging socially to be honest. Far more so then Speed or E's. Again, I know alot of people would disagree with that, but thats just from my personal experience. Pot is a great relaxer but in a social setting makes you dull as fuck I find. A real waste of time to me personally. Drink sometimes really brings out the worst in people. Most fights I have ever been in were because of drink Iam sure.

thesexofit said:

I would tend to agree believe it or not. As much as an advocate as I am for marijuana, it can dull the life out of a lot of people. However, I don't find that very harmful, so it doesn't bother me anywhere near the damage alcohol causes.

JerseyKRS said:

I've seen people really mess up their lives with speed, but only when they start using it every day. I know plenty of people who could control that & only did it once in a while, but pot smokers & drinkers tend to do it every day.

In my case, roughly every hour or two!

JerseyKRS said:

Alcohol is horrible. Sometimes I wish they would ban it considering all the damage it causes. Extreme I know LOL. Any extreme abuse of drugs is bad obviously, but alcohol makes people do terrible things. Not to delve into my past too much but my Dad was a heavy drinker. Cue predictable bad tempered father etc...he regrets his alcohol abuse everyday he once told me. I forgave him, but he was fucked up and whilst I and my family have forgiven him, unfortunately, forgetting is harder.

NDRU said:

I use it everyday, usually often throughout the day. I don't take it out of the house ever because it is still, for now, illegal. However, it really provides more of an anti-anxiety effect for me on the whole. If I smoke a lot, or have some really strong stuff I will probably be "stoned", but I honestly don't do that often at all.

Most pot smokers are all day everyday stuck on the couch types, so I do see your point.

NDRU said:

Looking back (years now), xtasy I feel did me the least harm out of all of those vices (drink, pot, speed), and yet apparantly, according to the media (in the UK anyway, particually in the 90's), Xtasy a massive no no.

My friends are more into bush "doofs" (essentially a rave but out in the middle of nowhere, and are usually over a couple of days) Personally I'm don't care for them but they try and drag me out to them every now and again. Really don't like the whole atmosphere. Sure some might say its all calm and relaxed and everyone is there for a good time etc but a good percentage of those people are high on something and that energy does bad things to you even if your not on anything.

Not a big fan of the music either. Its just not something you can relate to or feel anything for. Sure dancing until the sun comes up is fun but I prefer music that speaks to you and is meaningful.

JerseyKRS said:

I just have that type of personality that fixates. So it was with pot, too, but I have friends who are very successful and smoke all the time. They keep focused on their lives as they enjoy smoking some pot along the way.

For me, I would only do as much as was necessary, I never really moved forward. I fixated on being high & trying to achieve some kind of enlightenment

thesexofit said:

In my experience it's a russian roulette. I have friends who did tons of it and never had an issue other than the inevitable come-down a day or two afterward

Me, I shared one pill with my friend and he's fine, I think I'm going to die

NDRU said:

Yeah bottom line is everyone is different.

JustErin said:

Yeah, my original comment just didn't emphasize where I am coming from myself. Like said, my tastes lean towards the more artistic / progressive/ weirder end of the spectrum - so that's part of the explanation. Also, I've mostly socialized with folks who have had their material released on Warp -type of labels (I'm not indicating I'm close friends with any of them though). That's not always exactly danceable music, but it has the same audience. Nevertheless, there are tons of guys who do electronic dance music simply in their bedrooms and they're not really interested in parties. Gear forums on the internet are full of such individuals.

Exhibit 1: Aaron Funk (okay, this one's admittedly a bit extreme though )


Obviously, if you go to the clubs or parties yourself, you're going to see the guys that go to clubs or parties. There's always existed a big "linuxbeard" community on the side as well.
[Edited 2/23/10 5:55am]

CarrieMpls said:

HamsterHuey said:

I don t think I could handle moving to France.

ConsciousContact said:

Actually, I did it years later and it was fun.

I went to a rave in October. It was fun. Not magical, but fun. I was definitely one of the older people there (I'm 30), and it was harder to connect with people because of that. I probably won't do it again. But I'm glad I went.

I had a few really fun rave experiences in the past. I'll always remember those nights fondly.

And I think E is a very interesting drug, for very occasional use.

I enjoyed raves, they gave me a new appreciation for electronic music (especially House ).

I enjoyed dabbling with E but that was NEVER to be a long term thing (the afterdays were a real bitch! ).

I really like the creativity in finding the "real" underground raves, that shit was awesome and hella fun!!! I really miss that aspect...

I.do.not.miss.seeing.grown.folks.sucking.on.pacifiers.

Wow. Thinking back, I feel very "old". The last one I went to was in 1996. I was 19. Thinking back to that very specific moment, I realize how long ago it was.

But being out all night dancing my ass off, I would do it again. Just not until 6am.

RenHoek said:

Raves, huh?



Take a wild guess which "adult" in the photograph is my mother.


... Yep.


And that is clothing that she actually OWNS, not a costume.
This is shockingly a picture WITHOUT her LED-light hoola hoop that she has.

Acrylic said:

Heehee.
Only later in life will you understand how amazing that actually is. In a GOOD way.

HamsterHuey said:

I love the woman and her freespirit, but lord, do I want to slit my throat time to time. LOL.

Acrylic said:

Acrylic said:

RenHoek said:

Yeah it was a lot of fun, I appreciated how the dj's could really work the crowd, and the music was really exciting. The dancing was great.

But I remember being sober and fools trying to give me light shows, blowing in my face, or the asshole who puked on the dance floor & sent me off onto bad trip when I wasn't sober. Or the people sitting around the room, heads in hands, floored, but not in the good way as my friends tried to convince me.