a blog. i never once in my life thought i would be writing a blog. why the sudden change now you might ask? well ive always thought that i had some really cool life stories and it would be kind of neat to write a book about all the things ive done. i think everyone could do that actually. everyone has some pretty cool stories they could share. but we cant all be top selling auto biography writers. and we cant all get published. so here i am, on a blog site, hoping that some passer by will take the time to click on my post. then i hope that he takes the time to read it. my idea is to write a blog about different events in my life that i think are sort of interesting. for instance, my first blog will be about my story as a "DJ". so without further ado, here's my story...
im not sure exactly when the idea was spawned to start the rave music scene, but i know it was a long drawn out process. it all started with a crazy idea that i threw at my friend chad. we both had a fancy for techno music. anything with lots of bass and noises that would be deemed unbearable to most other people. growing up in such a small secluded county, we didn't know much about club scenes and seeing as we were both the skinny white boys that no one wanted anything to do with, we didnt know much about the party scene either. but we knew about techno music. and we knew there was more to it than just fist pumping and E pills.
chad introduced me to the world of the "melbourne shuffle" through a youtube video he had found while searching for techno songs. my life would never be the same thereafter. i had always loved electronic music and the way it made me feel. with its different sounds and beats it could make me feel so many different ways, from happy to angry to down right high on life. with this new dance i could finally channel those feelings into various steps and kicks. a little lesson on the melbourne shuffle, it is a dance form comprised of two basic moves. one move is called the "running man". when done correctly, the dancer seems to walk or "run" in place. the second move is the shuffle. when done properly the dancer can glide across the floor smoothly almost seeming to float.
another image that was burned into my mind from watching this video was the style of clothes these kids were wearing. they wore baggy hoodies with these giant flared out pants that tapered out from there waist to cover there feet at the ground. these pants were emblazoned with flashy colors and UV reactive tapes like you would find on a fire fighters gear or on a police cruiser. with a bit of research, we found the pants to be called "phatties" or "phats" for short. to get a better image of them picture M.C. Hammer style bell bottoms washed in a rainbow of vibrant color. right away we knew that we needed these phats in order to make a statement. it would also add style to our newly acquired dance skills. but as luck would have it, the only stores that sold phats were located in Europe and Australia, where the rave scene was already a booming trend. we knew we were going to get our hands on a pair of these "phats", even if we had to make them ourselves.
so it was off to the fabric store. one of the most uncomfortable, alien places for a man to be. but we were on a mission. we could put our manliness on the line for this cause. all we had when walking into the store was a few dollars and an idea. no list of materials or anything to start with. we asked the ladies who were working there, what would be the bets pant-making material. they directed us towards the denim. i guess denim was on high demand because there was only one type of denim left. a thin, grey denim. we would make due. we bought a few yards of it and went on our marry way.
neither chad nor i had any idea on how to craft pants. we didnt even know how to turn on the sewing machine! but through trial and error, (and a few choice words) we were on the road to making pants!
so we had the music, the clothes, and we had the dance. now what to do? the answer was obvious. we couldn't continue to keep this to ourselves. we had to let people know about this wonderful new thing! but we had never heard of anyone who had ever done such a thing as we were doing. we never heard of such a thing as a "rave" or "dance party" going on anywhere locally. as far as we knew, we were the only two people in our small town that even knew what phats and the melbourne shuffle were! so it was decided, we would start a new musical revolution. a rave revolution. a RAVEolution.
normal rave venues consist of a DJ, a decent sized PA system through which music is played, some form of refreshments, and a large area where people can gather. us being two high school students had NONE of the above mentioned items. we certainly didn't have any money to buy any of the essentials either. so we began rummaging through what we already had to see what we could throw together. i had a growing collection of guitar equipment which included 2 small practice size amps, a few 1/4" cables and an old yamaha cassette deck recorder which looked like it was straight out of the 80's. i also had a rather large black light that my mother had bought me for christmas the year before. what luck right? chad found a few different colors of UV reactive paint, strobes and a laser light at the local Spencers gift shop. the basic essentials for a rave right?!
the next order of business was to find a venue to hold this event. what better place than my grandmothers garage?! she was all for the idea. after all, the garage was a mess and she could use our help to clean it. cleaning, in the teenage boys vocabulary, means to push everything to one side of the room and shove as many things as you can underneath other things so that it looks more spacious. and that's exactly what we did. our solution to hiding the mess that we had moved? why, cover it with a tarp of course!
we spread the word that there was going to be a big party going down and encouraged people to tell other people the news. we sparked the fire, now we just had to sit back, cross our fingers and hope it all worked out.
the night before the rave was scheduled, chad and i went to my grandmothers garage to set everything up and make sure everything was in working order. we set the lights up and hooked all the sound equipment up. we even happened across a rather large speaker which looked like it had been stolen from a basket ball court PA system.
the night had come. it was show time. we had set up the prior night so that we knew everything would be in working order for the night of the party. the anticipation grew with every second passing. we watched the driveway for any sign of lights heading up towards the garage. 7:00 pm rolled around, the starting time for the party, and no one had arrived yet. we were beginning to think no one was going to show up. low and behold, 10 minutes after the scheduled start of the party, people began flooding in from what seemed like out of nowhere. and to our surprise, there were more girls then guys! im not entirely sure on how many people actually showed up, but i think the number was around 20 to 25 people crammed into this small 20'x30' garage with music blaring out of these small guitar speakers. we couldnt have been happier. we had done it. we were finally raving.
everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. my mother had bought us 2 cases of bottled water and some chips which we set out on a table outside since there was no room at all inside. we passed out glow sticks and tried to teach people how to shuffle. the rave went on from about 7 pm till 1 am. by then, everybody had either left or was too tired to leave. even though we didnt want to, we called it a night. we cleaned up what we could, threw up in trash cans and went to my house to crash for the night.
the following morning was full of sore joints and pounding head aches. but it was well worth it. we had started a revolution. we had started a RAVEolution.
(im new to this whole blog thing, and im sure i wrote too much. i had alot going through my head and figured it just type it all out. let me know what you think. any criticism is good criticism! and if you request it, ill write about our other rave stories.) thank you for reading!
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