Do you rave?

Peas disclosed her status as a closet raver and got me reminiscing.

I guess any mass human synchrony that also has people completely caught up in their own space has to be amazing. Especially since many can be stoned out of their minds and others are health ravers and just drink water.

I used to love a pretty hard core dingy rave club in Cape Town called Pure. It was very hard core though. Once, I passed on a speaker there. Nobody can quite believe that.

Mega-raves are the biz though. I've been to multiple Paul Oakenfold raves. Biggest was at Dockside in Cape Town. They oversold the event by 100% (I'm not quite sure how you do that) and you could tell inside - the crowd literally moved as one - there was no space for individual movement.

The night before the Dockside rave, I stumbled upon James Small's engagement party to Christina Storm at his then Cape Town club (I forget the name). For some reason he allowed my friend and I in and we partied with all the models from Christina Storm's agency about an arm's length away from Oakenfold on the decks. Did you know he earns up to R250 000 per mega-rave gig and was at that stage the highest paid DJ in the world?

I also went to 2 Paul Van Dyk raves. Van Dyk is the godfather of trance. Man. Awesome.

I also had such a good rave with Oakenfold at the Atlas Studios - one of the best venues I've been to - that I wrote my car off on the way home. I've been a little more circumspect about things since then.

Great rave DJs read a crowds' energy and can build to a crescendo of racing heart beats and whooping ravers without the crowd being conscious of the patterns. It is amazing how a poor DJ can have great music but fall flat.

Nexus is cool. Try it. But Truth in Midrand has been the rave destination of choice in Jo'burg for a while and hosted tonnes of big name DJs. I saw Mylo there but he played speed garage and I hated it.

My favourite Jo'burg rave jol was a small dingy place in Benmore Jo'burg called Sublime. Oh my oath, I don't know how I survived! No big name DJs, just a completely different scene.

I also raved to John Digweed in New York and did the obligatory pilgrimage to Ministry of Sound in London (a night out there could break the bank).

Other amazing dance clubs (mostly house rather than rave) have been Jet Lounge Cape Town (all time fave), The Fez Cape Town, Mumbar Cape Town, The Gallery London. Sadly Joburg doesn't have too many out-and-out dance clubs like that, except on the East Rand and the drive home is therefore fraught with danger.

If 27 is a rave rabbit, I hate to think what 33 is! But alas, I find it takes me bloody ages to recover from a rave these days and I go on the rare occasion (like once or twice a year) - typically when I'm drunk after having been somewhere else.

At the beginning of this last December a friend had the great idea (not) of getting up and going to a trance party at 04h00 and partying into the day. I thought it was a crazy idea but went along with it anyway. It was one of those Alien Safari things I think. I arrived and, sober, walked through the tent village with the merchants selling their hubbly-bubblies, health drinks, mushrooms, etc. By the time I got to the dancefloor, I thought I was in a Harry Potter movie. Wow.



Other big outdoor raves have been Carl Cox at a New Year's party on Cape Town's foreshore and another New Year at the River Club (also in Cape Town) - probably about '94 when rave was at its peak. Both had over 30 000 mad ravers!

Still to do:
- H20 (although I thought they were no more)
- The Fridge, London
- Ibiza
- DJ Tiesto
- Junior Jack

I also have to do Carfax although that's more House.

Hey, what memories! I've posted this on my blog for posterity with a photo of the dancefloor from December's Alien Safari at dawn.