Maybe it’s the algorithm, maybe it’s the people I have in my feed, but I tend to see a lot of negativity from people claiming that the spirit of what a rave is supposed to be is extinct. And to be fair, I’ve been guilty of perpetuating that same negativity and feeling like the spirit of rave culture has disappeared, or at least become harder and harder to find. This weekend, I had the pleasure of attending two underground EDM events in Philadelphia that completely contest that assumption. One I attended from the side of helping the people putting the event together. The other I attended purely as someone going to the party. Between the two events, I got to experience the scene from many perspectives. Let me tell you what I found.

Friday night, I went to Nintendo Rave by Midnight Moon. I was there primarily as manual labor, helping wherever I was needed, but I ended up filling a time slot and assisting with sound as well. Of course there were some hiccups. There always are. But none of them were showstoppers, because every time something came up, these guys reacted quickly, thought outside the box, and figured out how to use the limited resources they had to come up with a solution that kept the party moving. It brought me right back to when I first started throwing events. Back then, the attitude was basically: we’re going to party regardless. Figure it out. Make it happen. Midnight Moon has that same energy. And it wasn’t just the people throwing the event. The crowd was incredible. People weren’t standing around staring at their phones. It didn’t feel like the kind of disconnected crowd I’ve run into at some of the giant corporate-investment-vehicle festival events. They were engaged. The crew created the vibe, then the crowd fed energy back into it. That intensified the vibe, which made the crowd give even more energy back. It became this feedback loop between the people throwing the party and the people on the dance floor. At one point I was standing toward the back, looking at the room, and this feeling just came over me: This is fucking beautiful.

Saturday night, I went to Bassface, put on by Kulture Cru. I’ve been to a few Kulture Cru events before and I’ve never been disappointed, but this was the first indoor event of theirs I had attended. The others had all been outdoors. And somehow, after all my years of going to and throwing events, I don’t think I had ever consciously realized how much the forced intimacy of an enclosed space changes the energy of a party. Every interaction I had inside, whether it was with the people in my general area or somebody coming up to me while I was dancing, was overwhelmingly positive. You’re sharing the same space, reacting to the same music, and constantly becoming part of each other’s experience. That feels very different from my experience at outdoor events in general. Outdoors, there’s enough room for people to spread out, and people tend to stay with the groups they came with. There’s naturally less mingling. I usually don’t interact much with the people around me because everyone has enough room to do their own thing. And, in my experience, when somebody does specifically go out of their way to approach me, it’s more likely to be a negative interaction, because the people who are just having a good time are usually busy having a good time.

I brought Mickey Kismet, my cousin, with me. I emphasize cousin because despite the fact that we repeatedly introduced one another as “my cousin Jason Theory” and “my cousin Mickey Kismet,” apparently this still required clarification several times throughout the night. Mickey is one of my favorite people to go to these events with because we’ve been raving together long enough that we both know exactly what’s going to happen. She’s going to disappear into the crowd and somehow become friends with every single person at the party. I’m going to disappear onto the dance floor and get completely lost in the music. Dancing is a flow-state meditation for me. Once I’m in it I’ll take little micro-breaks without really leaving the dance, but for the most part I just keep moving until the music stops. So we both did our thing. I started dancing not long after we walked through the door, and I stopped when the lights came on. I stayed until the very end. On the way out, I picked up a couple pieces of trash, threw them away, and stopped when I saw Vibrarium from Kulture Cru by the door. I told him, “Every track, every DJ, everything about this party was amazing.”

Friday night was hardcore DIY. A new generation of promoters with limited resources, figuring things out in real time, refusing to let obstacles get in the way, with the determination to make it happen. I love that energy. Those are people I will gladly have on my team, and I’ll gladly be on theirs anytime I get the opportunity. Saturday was a masterclass by a crew that has figured out the organization and preparation required to create a modern version of a classic rave. And after spending two nights surrounded by people dancing, connecting, solving problems, creating community, losing themselves in music, and contributing their own energy to the experience, I am happy to report that the Philadelphia Underground EDM Scene is alive and well.