raverpup (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} raverpup) wrote,@ 2006-12-19 00:12:00 |
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Rhythm Society: "Luscious"
This past Saturday Jeremy and I were fortunate enough to swing two invitations to the Rhythm Society’s quarterly party, this one entitled Luscious, as the Unitarian Universalist Church on Franklin Street. The brief review is, if you ever get the chance, be sure to go, as it’s the closest thing to an old-skool rave that I’ve experienced in a long while.
The Rhythm Society (http://www.rhythm.org) used to be known as The Saint John the Divine’s Rhythm Society and was previously affiliated with The Episcopal Church of St. John the Divine until 2003, when some bonehead fell out on G at one of their events in the church bathroom. The ensuring controversy cost the then-pastor, Rev. Kevin Pearson, his job. It’s been around since the early 1990s, and has a pretty select membership; you have to be sponsored by a member to become a “friend,” and once you’ve become a member you get six invitations to hand out to folks for each event. Our friends Slacker and Haydee got two from us from their friend Carrie, who turned out to be good friends with someone I worked with back in the day at Netcentives.
We had some anxiety going to the event, though it was more on Jeremy’s part than mine; the fact that it was held in a church, that the doors closed at 11.30, and that there was an opening ceremony, led him to wonder if perhaps we were being sucked into some cult practice, or if everybody else would turn out to be vampires who were there to feast on newbie blood. I tried to re-assure him that all of this was part of what I had experienced with warehouse parties back in the day, but having never had those experiences, he didn’t have much in the way of reference. I was a little unsure of what to expect myself; there wasn’t any DJ listing for the party, I had no idea what the space would be like, or even what to wear – should I go all blacklight candy crazy, or would that be considered too “ravey?”
We got to the church around 10.30 and my first reaction was that it looked like Burning Man without the dust –same people, same kinds of costumes, and generally fairly groovy downtempo music. The fact that it was in a church social hall, that there were round folding tables set up with tablecloths, and women in faintly formal looking playa wear led Jeremy to make the comparison to a prom. I’ve not been to a prom that had a chill room with mattresses on the floor, though. Aside from the main room setup, there were two chill rooms, one red, the other blue, set up in wood-paneled room with a fireplace and a giant concrete cylinder, respectively. For much of that time when we first arrived we were taken in trying to figure out the church’s architecture, which, true to Unitarianism, was an interesting blend of Japanese framing, Gothic stone slabs and concrete, and pagan “nature.” The Sanctuary was truly magnificent, with an organ loft and seating for several hundred. The slogan “God is Within You” was in big gold letters under the round stained-glass window on the right side of the altar area, and it seemed very appropriate for this event to be held in a building where the congregation regularly meditated on this idea.
It took us about an hour to finally hook up with the people we had expected to meet there, but in the meantime we also met up with several unexpected party-goers, including Jacob, a young guy who has the studio next to my apartment, and Jared, a co-worker of Jeremy’s who was candy-raverlicious and “very happy” later in the evening. It was an interesting scene, to say the least, but it took us a while to get into because of some tension over what we were going to “do” for the evening. We wound up fueling ourselves on the hot tea and coffee that was provided, and by the time our other friends showed up and we got down with some decent breaks after the midnight ceremony, all was good.
As Jeremy commented, all the music we heard (all breaks, which now seems to be the new trance) was generally good, more of the funky breaks variety than being very deep or progressive. The crowd was a decent mix of straight and gay, with plenty of people dressed to show and shake their booties. By 2AM my general comment was “people be high,” but it was interesting that, earlier in the evening, I think there was more of a “family crowd” in attendance that probably didn’t get into anything stronger than the tea. My impression was that it was a generally more “adult” crowd of late 20-somethings on up to some folks with plenty of snow on the roof. When we first came in we heard a woman say “I have to go downstairs now and put my daughter to bed,” and we saw two boys, probably about 11, dancing on the main floor and then crashed out in the chill room later, along with a little girl who must have been about 8, who wandered in and out of the main dance area the whole time we were there.
Luscious was more reminiscent of an old-skool rave than anything I’ve attended in a long time, and we are already letting people know we’d like to go again. For a change we were able to dance to music we enjoyed without having to go through the usual problems of dealing with the club crowd, without having to fight for space on the dancefloor, without really having to worry too much about whether or not we were in the right space at the right time. Aside from the tension brought about by our being unsure about the nature of the event before we came, it was the most relaxed dance environment I’ve experienced in a long time, and it felt like you could do whatever you wanted, so long as you stayed in control of yourself and didn’t cause problems for other people. In short, you could rave until the coming of the dawn, something we all should probably do on at least a quarterly basis.
This past Saturday Jeremy and I were fortunate enough to swing two invitations to the Rhythm Society’s quarterly party, this one entitled Luscious, as the Unitarian Universalist Church on Franklin Street. The brief review is, if you ever get the chance, be sure to go, as it’s the closest thing to an old-skool rave that I’ve experienced in a long while.
The Rhythm Society (http://www.rhythm.org) used to be known as The Saint John the Divine’s Rhythm Society and was previously affiliated with The Episcopal Church of St. John the Divine until 2003, when some bonehead fell out on G at one of their events in the church bathroom. The ensuring controversy cost the then-pastor, Rev. Kevin Pearson, his job. It’s been around since the early 1990s, and has a pretty select membership; you have to be sponsored by a member to become a “friend,” and once you’ve become a member you get six invitations to hand out to folks for each event. Our friends Slacker and Haydee got two from us from their friend Carrie, who turned out to be good friends with someone I worked with back in the day at Netcentives.
We had some anxiety going to the event, though it was more on Jeremy’s part than mine; the fact that it was held in a church, that the doors closed at 11.30, and that there was an opening ceremony, led him to wonder if perhaps we were being sucked into some cult practice, or if everybody else would turn out to be vampires who were there to feast on newbie blood. I tried to re-assure him that all of this was part of what I had experienced with warehouse parties back in the day, but having never had those experiences, he didn’t have much in the way of reference. I was a little unsure of what to expect myself; there wasn’t any DJ listing for the party, I had no idea what the space would be like, or even what to wear – should I go all blacklight candy crazy, or would that be considered too “ravey?”
We got to the church around 10.30 and my first reaction was that it looked like Burning Man without the dust –same people, same kinds of costumes, and generally fairly groovy downtempo music. The fact that it was in a church social hall, that there were round folding tables set up with tablecloths, and women in faintly formal looking playa wear led Jeremy to make the comparison to a prom. I’ve not been to a prom that had a chill room with mattresses on the floor, though. Aside from the main room setup, there were two chill rooms, one red, the other blue, set up in wood-paneled room with a fireplace and a giant concrete cylinder, respectively. For much of that time when we first arrived we were taken in trying to figure out the church’s architecture, which, true to Unitarianism, was an interesting blend of Japanese framing, Gothic stone slabs and concrete, and pagan “nature.” The Sanctuary was truly magnificent, with an organ loft and seating for several hundred. The slogan “God is Within You” was in big gold letters under the round stained-glass window on the right side of the altar area, and it seemed very appropriate for this event to be held in a building where the congregation regularly meditated on this idea.
It took us about an hour to finally hook up with the people we had expected to meet there, but in the meantime we also met up with several unexpected party-goers, including Jacob, a young guy who has the studio next to my apartment, and Jared, a co-worker of Jeremy’s who was candy-raverlicious and “very happy” later in the evening. It was an interesting scene, to say the least, but it took us a while to get into because of some tension over what we were going to “do” for the evening. We wound up fueling ourselves on the hot tea and coffee that was provided, and by the time our other friends showed up and we got down with some decent breaks after the midnight ceremony, all was good.
As Jeremy commented, all the music we heard (all breaks, which now seems to be the new trance) was generally good, more of the funky breaks variety than being very deep or progressive. The crowd was a decent mix of straight and gay, with plenty of people dressed to show and shake their booties. By 2AM my general comment was “people be high,” but it was interesting that, earlier in the evening, I think there was more of a “family crowd” in attendance that probably didn’t get into anything stronger than the tea. My impression was that it was a generally more “adult” crowd of late 20-somethings on up to some folks with plenty of snow on the roof. When we first came in we heard a woman say “I have to go downstairs now and put my daughter to bed,” and we saw two boys, probably about 11, dancing on the main floor and then crashed out in the chill room later, along with a little girl who must have been about 8, who wandered in and out of the main dance area the whole time we were there.
Luscious was more reminiscent of an old-skool rave than anything I’ve attended in a long time, and we are already letting people know we’d like to go again. For a change we were able to dance to music we enjoyed without having to go through the usual problems of dealing with the club crowd, without having to fight for space on the dancefloor, without really having to worry too much about whether or not we were in the right space at the right time. Aside from the tension brought about by our being unsure about the nature of the event before we came, it was the most relaxed dance environment I’ve experienced in a long time, and it felt like you could do whatever you wanted, so long as you stayed in control of yourself and didn’t cause problems for other people. In short, you could rave until the coming of the dawn, something we all should probably do on at least a quarterly basis.
