I began hitting raves in Chicago in 1993. Some people would hit a party occasionally. If I could hit four parties in a week, I would. A perfect evening would consist of dancing all night and then hitting an afterhours party on Green St.
The nocturnal underground was my home. There was a true sense of community and it was a moment in time that I will always value. Back then, raves enabled you to live a very different life, if only for twelve hours. Fond memories include driving on I-90, glancing to my right and seeing a car full of ravers, passing the knowing nod. Calling the infolines to find out the map point, then stopping at a store front to look at a little square piece of paper on the bottom right corner of a window telling me to go to Big Tony's. I knew that when I got to Big Tony's, I would have to give a rather large man $20. He, in turn, would provide another map for a location where I was to park. We would park and sit nervously, wondering what the score was, when another larger vehicle would show up to take us to the venue. Hours later, cops would raid the party and ravers would go sprawling into the ghetto at 4 in the morning. These were dedicated individuals. These were defining moments in a person's life. And then, quite suddenly, we all grew up. Whenever I visit Chicago, I can't help stopping at Gramaphone Records and picking up a few pieces of vinyl just to verify the music is still alive.
In the early to mid-1990s, electronic music was really coming into its own, technology was getting better, and you could go to a party with only a handful of people attending and see greats like Paul Johnson, DJ Sneak, Daft Punk or DJ 3D spinning. The music from this time period influenced much of the dance music today and inspired many careers. At the same time, the ability to use a computer for image manipulation started becoming more accessible to the masses. Flyers for parties became very amusing and were complete eye candy. I started collecting them around 1996 and ended up with close to a hundred over the following years. While visiting Chicago, I found the collection still intact and realized that these needed to be shared. It's a documented slice of history for my friends from yesteryear and for anyone else who is curious. I hope you enjoy the site. If you have any flyers you would like added to the collection, shoot me a mail.
I began hitting raves in Chicago in 1993. Some people would hit a party occasionally. If I could hit four parties in a week, I would. A perfect evening would consist of dancing all night and then hitting an afterhours party on Green St.
The nocturnal underground was my home. There was a true sense of community and it was a moment in time that I will always value. Back then, raves enabled you to live a very different life, if only for twelve hours. Fond memories include driving on I-90, glancing to my right and seeing a car full of ravers, passing the knowing nod. Calling the infolines to find out the map point, then stopping at a store front to look at a little square piece of paper on the bottom right corner of a window telling me to go to Big Tony's. I knew that when I got to Big Tony's, I would have to give a rather large man $20. He, in turn, would provide another map for a location where I was to park. We would park and sit nervously, wondering what the score was, when another larger vehicle would show up to take us to the venue. Hours later, cops would raid the party and ravers would go sprawling into the ghetto at 4 in the morning. These were dedicated individuals. These were defining moments in a person's life. And then, quite suddenly, we all grew up. Whenever I visit Chicago, I can't help stopping at Gramaphone Records and picking up a few pieces of vinyl just to verify the music is still alive.
In the early to mid-1990s, electronic music was really coming into its own, technology was getting better, and you could go to a party with only a handful of people attending and see greats like Paul Johnson, DJ Sneak, Daft Punk or DJ 3D spinning. The music from this time period influenced much of the dance music today and inspired many careers. At the same time, the ability to use a computer for image manipulation started becoming more accessible to the masses. Flyers for parties became very amusing and were complete eye candy. I started collecting them around 1996 and ended up with close to a hundred over the following years. While visiting Chicago, I found the collection still intact and realized that these needed to be shared. It's a documented slice of history for my friends from yesteryear and for anyone else who is curious. I hope you enjoy the site. If you have any flyers you would like added to the collection, shoot me a mail.
If you would like additional knowledge of the music that surrounded this scene, please visit
http://techno.org/electronic-music-guide/music.swf.