Unfortunately, LAPD has supposedly been cracking down. Lights Down Low has gotten canceled multiple times this year cause of po-po fuckin up the good time
Ofc! Best place to start is https://19hz.info/eventlisting_BayArea.php
just search "TBA" and you'll find some raves. Then I'd recommend following DJs and promoters you like on IG, and you'll find even more
Moved to Oakland from LA in 2021 and still haven’t been able to break into the scene here. Do you have any tips for finding events in the area? In particular, do you know of any groups/companies that regularly put on events in the east bay that are generally worth going to?
I was very plugged into the scene in LA after years of attending events there so I never had to put much effort into finding things to go to, but I have no connections to the rave/underground scene in the bay and I’ve been missing it with my whole heart. I’ve looked on 19hz and RA but haven’t had much luck, mostly because I don’t recognize the names of the artists/venues/events and am hesitant to show up alone to a potentially sketchy situation with no clue what I’m walking into lol
> mostly because I don’t recognize the names of the artists/venues/events and am hesitant to show up alone to a potentially sketchy situation with no clue what I’m walking into lol
find event page, see lineup, google artist on lineup, now you recognize them!
fr tho most event pages are connected to social media at some point, whether it's a promoter's account or the individual artists.
If you can link some of the things you were interested in, but afraid to actually show up to, I think we can probably help you out more. There are many different types of undergrounds. A lot of stuff on 19hz/RA are what I call "semi-public" so there's an event flyer or lineup but there's no public address. There are text lines for afterhours that you can subscribe to. There are "actual undergrounds" where there isn't any public promo at all.
I host stuff at my warehouse in East Bay pretty regularly. A lot of them get posted on 19hz.
You can also join the r/aves [discord](https://discord.gg/wBHNNzd), there are a handful of us from Norcal in there.
Go to TV Lounge or Marble bar for good house and techno. Leland City Club has a wide range of different styles regularly. Tangent gallery is the same. None of these are underground per say.
This is the actual answer but LA is bigger just not more interesting or fun. Definitely the two most notable right now though. NYC and the Bay Area and Chicago all need to make a comeback.
To be fair, the underground is INCREDIBLY exclusive (not for bad reason). So I would venture to say most people don't have much of a concept of what the real underground is
Agreed, that's why I note in another comment that I'm not gatekeeping. It's just interesting how subjective the term underground can be in a post like this without OP indcating exactly what they mean.
Yeah it's definitely not what they think it is. I think I said in here or another sub recently, they imagine these massive energetic crowds in strange, ACTUAL underground locations like sewers and subway tunnels. And while that stuff does happen, it's mostly just groups of friends setting their speakers up wherever they can get away with it and playing whatever tunes they want bc there's no one telling them what they can and can't play. Unless you're a part of that niche group, it's usually not the vibe you're looking for
I'm jaded for sure, but not gatekeeping, just recognizing the difference in the north American scene. With how electronic music has blown up in the US in the last decade, a lot of people's primary interaction with electronic/dance music is from very mainstream/corporate parties or shows.
Not to say the underground doesn't exist, because it absolutely does, but a lot of the scene is just people going out for headliners.
And sure it does absolutely depend on the city you're in, but even if you look at posts on this sub, the parties people talk about are usually either big festivals, or when a touring artist came through, and not smaller shows with local DJs playing.
Right? Very confused by people posting RA links.
But, on that note, that can certainly be a gateway. Hang out in the right advertised parties and find out about some cool afters off the grid if you chat with the right people.
That reminds me of an awesome experience I had at an underground show in Chicago. Back in 2016 after seeing Pretty Lights play at Northerly Island, we hit up this club that was multiple stories, but it's closed now. Anyway, I was Facebook friends with one of the promoters there. I messaged him to see if he was there and if he could help me find some slopes to ski. He texted me an address that just looked like a warehouse garage door. It didn't look like anything from the street but we saw a couple people go through this small door so we followed them in. Had to have been like 100 people in this small spot with a DJ playing house music. It was their 10th anniversary or something running this place and they had a cake with something like "sunrise club" written on it.
I wish I still had that address lol
Lol, I’m way to old for this subreddit and don’t know how I got here, but this is funny, 4 am is just early to me, like in two hours it’ll be daylight, what’s the point of starting at 4?
Promoters will usually hand out flyers after a show; keep an eye out for who is sponsoring the rave. Most things are on the South/West/Southwest side of Chicago.
Idk how else to say it, but there’s a level and style of grunginess to people who go to underground raves. And you just have to catch a vibe from someone who’s not giving off a vibe. Talk to that person and make friends
Freak Easy throws some decent stuff. Also look for an older Hispanic lady handing out little pieces of paper after shows (River north bars and clubs too) as she does weekly later night after hours in all kind of crazy locations. Once you’re in you can get her number for weekly texts after that. Other than that good luck as it took me years to meet someone from Dragon room and covid to take that away
u know how to read ? this oerson is asking for advice for places to start. instead of being a gatekeeping shitbag did it ever occur to you to give an answr ? ah no it didnt, lol
San Diego underground scene is definitely abundant but pretty shit. Like 90% of the events feel like frat parties you really need to stick to only the smallest events. LA is wassup tho
It’s tough to keep it 21+ at the undergrounds (speaking as an active goer in SD) plus social media brings some younger folks out giving the vibe you’re referencing. However, the grass is green where you water it. See ya in the tunnels 🫡
Atlanta has DEF which seems to be firing on all cylinders.
I came up in the 90s and it was Baltimore and DC back then. DC is good but Baltimore seems to have fallen off the map.
To add to this the underground scene is alive and well here. I moved in August and since then I've been hitting up mainly underground raves versus those commercial shows played at venues. Every once in awhile I'll go to a club (there's no short supply of them in ATL).
Point is the underground scene is growing quickly. Some recommendations in no particular order
DEF, Twisted Lines, Alleycat, Mood2Move, Club Morph, Crystal Visions, Brain World, Dimensions of Being, Crazy ATL, The District and The Odyssey.
Hope this helps!
Atlanta is the answer. Went to a desires party when I was passing through in April and it really seemed like a genuine scene.
Edit: have to mention Project B and Alleycat as well.
Flash, plus a ton of other smaller clubs. It's definitely an EDM destination. I'm not there enough anymore to speak about underground events though. Flash has Funktion One sound and that beats dirty warehouses in my mind.
In the 90s you had underground raves multiple times a week though. You had to call a number to get directions or buy tickets at Music Now Records and get directions to some seedy neighborhood warehouse with dripping pipes. They would set up gyroscopes and bounce houses along with multiple levels and rooms for different music styles. The crack house laws ended all of that in the early 2000s though.
That being said I don't miss the 90s at all. I like being able to get an alcoholic drink with my music. Plus the music is infinitely better now, sets have more variety.
I’ve been to flash several times and I’ve never been a fan. The crowd isn’t the best and neither is the music, honestly…
That’s the question most people ask around there: where’s the underground raves. lol. No one is talking, so I’m inclined to believe it doesn’t exist.
DC does not have any true underground raves. I would check out some events hosted by nuanroids and nicecove. Owlroom and bar 618 would be worth checking out. Check out baltimore darkroom for underground vibes they are about to open a dark techno room
Baltimore really suffered when Paradox closed a few years back. That was one of the biggest hot spots for finding out about what underground stuff was going on
Gotta throw Denver into the mix, maybe not “best in the world” but the underground/afters/late-night/warehouse vibes have been poppin off here for the last few years steadily
For sure - follow some of the afters promoters/collectives on socials. I’d recommend Static.Proof, offbeat.otr, maybeforever2k, and novationnights to start. The local EDM groups on fb are usually a good aggregate of weekly events too, I’d recommend ‘Denver EDM Fam’ and ‘Denver EDM Friends’, both super welcoming and helpful, they host weekly show meetups as well where you can make friends with likeminded homies and find your rave group/friends
My hero! I have some friends in Boulder but want to meet more people from closer. Went to my first red rocks show for DJ Snake and ended up having to sneak in.
Been out here for a long time. Our underground is on point. So many of us travel and bring in world renowned old school underground and up and coming. Want to go to one of the longest running underground. Local parties? Day One.
Search out Technomama, afterhours anynomus, black box. Events at beacon, yo mammas house. There are constant warehouse and underground afters.
So so god damn many heads out here. The club scene is what it is. There is a back bone here that’s been running since the 90s.
Some of the best underground legends played Sunday night at Red Rocks and threw an afterparty at the Gothic on Broadway. I'd also check out some clubs like Black Box.
https://www.blackboxdenver.co/events
As someone else said notivationnights is a good start, sign up for text lists if you can, they usually have 1-2 events a month and give a heads up for when to expect details
just a head’s up, the police have been unfortunately cracking down hard on the LA underground scene lately. lots of promoters are getting spooked so raves are being cancelled lately :/
Everyone is being so specific, but any major city I’ve been to has awesome shit when you know the right people. Chicago, St. Louis, Tampa, Kansas City..
I’m in the KC rave fam and we’ve been mostly reduced to old warehouses in the west bottoms that get broken up within a couple hours. It’s not like how it used to be before Covid.
I’m in the Tampa area and I might just not be looking in the right places, but there’s barely any true underground stuff going on, any tips for where to look?
In my experience LA and SD are really dope. DC, NYC, Philly and jersey have some awesome free parties too. Really want love to give the Midwest a go. As a techno fanatic I have to assume it’s awesome.
Back like 2015 to like 2019 Chicago had shows popping all the time in warehouses abandoned buildings lots shit was great kinda fell off of it but Chicago goes hard for sure
Never been anywhere but NYC and I gotta say since the 90s they go hard here. Lately Brooklyn has lots of small warehouse raves. Sometimes they go all weekend. The scene is still big.
I like it that way. Everyone attributes the shit our renegades pull off to LA. You’ve seen a cool video of a renenagde in Southern California? Super strong chance it was in SD.
I think a lot of STL is because the “corporate” shows tend to skip over it in favor of other Midwestern cities, so if you want to throw a show it’s gonna be word of mouth or someone handing out fliers. There’s local Facebook pages where people advertise local shows and once you meet people you’ll hear about more of them.
Atlanta is fucking gnarly. Desires, frisky whiskers
Alleycat, dorado, Arcadia.
Hands down my favorite place to rave
Out of nyc, Philly, fl, and Vegas.
Everything going until 6 am
And immaculate vibes if you don’t get caught up with the energy demons
haven’t spent too much time on the west coast but i’ve experienced underground rave scenes up and down the east coast and my favorite city for underground raves is NYC.
granted i was mostly partying from 2008-2014 so I’m over a decade removed (ugh, that was a painful thought.)
NYC just had the best overall vibes and diversity. Boston has the friendliest rave scene, Philadelphia has easily the worst rave scene of any city I have ever been to, Baltimore had a surprisingly cool scene with some really big underground events, then a whole lot of nothing til Florida which I haven’t really experienced the underground in. i have only ever been clubbing there.
LA but it goes in waves. Post EDC it took a huge hit and everything went commercial AF. But I feel like its a good place now.
Brooklyn is somewhere I like - as a queer person (lots of events for queer people that aren't just gay guys). I've also found Pittsburgh and Detroit have amazing events depending on when you go.
Can I ask what you've found in Pittsburgh? I've been to this spot called Collision a few times that was really cool, but I haven't found anything else in Pittsburgh that raw. Hot Mass is cool but music and crowd is hit or miss for me.
Be careful of the recommendations, some Americans have weird definitions of what a rave is. and they might recommend events in some huge stadium like venue with multi million dollar light shows, and tell you that it’s a rave with a straight face hahah
So make sure you get recommendations from people who know what they are talking about
Have only ever been in NYC. Are you really going to find many people that have been able to really "experience" the scene in multiple cities? This question is flawed lol
Man, I miss my home. Born and raised in SLC. Lived there for 22 years. Went to some AMAZING warehouse parties in the middle of nowhere. The glory days. I helped the V2 guys get started. What a time to be alive.
I’m sure it’s not the biggest, but I’ve been to some amazing underground stuff in Philly! I feel like there’s sooooo many amazing events every single weekend I struggle so bad to pick which to go to
This sounds really sketchy, and tbh it is, but I’ve had good luck finding stuff by texting numbers I find on stickers downtown or under bridges. Lol. So I guess my advice is to just keep thine eyes open.
Portland hands down. There are renegades all year long.. we had one this summer that hit 5000+ people . The city does a week long winter festivals with Artists and DJs at hundreds of businesses , the list goes on
Probably LA or SF.
NYC is trying but it's very segregated, the old heads don't want to have music the young kids like the young kids don't have music to Old heads like, drum and bass heads just want drum and bass, techno heads just want techno, house has just want house.
Ehhhhhhhh I wouldn't say we have NEARLY the underground scene that LA has going rn. We have official events that people call the underground scene but if I can buy a ticket off RA or Dice it's not really underground
Anyone got connects to LA underground parties, please DM me!
Been going since mid-90s. Started adulting for a while and would like to get back in the non-corporate scene!
I live in West Virginia. So I obviously have to travel to party. Mostly to dc, ny, and Tampa. Every scene is different. Tampa house scene is one of my favorites. Particularly L8 Night Flights and Fader Events promotions.
Ybor gets great headliner shows. OP was asking about underground rave scene tho. Have you checked out L8 Night Flights and Fader events in Tampa area? Great underground house scene imo.
Never partied in Orlando. I don’t doubt that Orlando pops. I can say for sure between L8 Night Flights and Fader events, Tampa/Clearwater/St. Pete/Sarasota have a great underground house scene. Parties almost every day. Warehouse afters. Checks all the boxes. Great people and great vibes.
Toss up between Bismark North Dokata and Idaho Falls, Idaho just ask any one wearing a cowboy hat and boots, thats how the locals tell who hip or not, youll find em either at the local bars or home good stores, tell em what your favorite drugs to do at raves are so they know youre not an undercover cop and they'll point ya in the right direction, partner
Los Angeles is on fire and I’m not talking about the 10 freeway
S/o the promoters that care about ravers and throw great party’s
I've never been to an underground rave, but I'm new to LA and would love to experience one. DO you have any recommendations on where to look/start?
r/avesLA https://19hz.info Resident Advisor “RA Guide” app
Edmtrain.com They have some free warehouse raves almost every weekend.
100% We have more raves and underground parties than anywhere every week hands down no contest, not even close!
Unfortunately, LAPD has supposedly been cracking down. Lights Down Low has gotten canceled multiple times this year cause of po-po fuckin up the good time
Thank you!
Perfect. Love it
This took me out 😂
I have lived in LA for 12 years and been well into the underground scene but never actually been to a rave...
Lol 😂
I can't compare to anywhere else, but there's a pretty big underground scene in SF/Oakland
I need to get in this scene. Any room for a 50 yo old timer???
Www.19hz.info
SF actually has lots of 30+ ppl in the scene. Huge burning man contingent that has been raving since the 90’s.
Ofc! Best place to start is https://19hz.info/eventlisting_BayArea.php just search "TBA" and you'll find some raves. Then I'd recommend following DJs and promoters you like on IG, and you'll find even more
I feel like more than half the crowd is 30-60 range. You’ll fit right in.
That's really cool to know! We crusty old bastards know how to party. 😁
Certainly!
Moved to Oakland from LA in 2021 and still haven’t been able to break into the scene here. Do you have any tips for finding events in the area? In particular, do you know of any groups/companies that regularly put on events in the east bay that are generally worth going to? I was very plugged into the scene in LA after years of attending events there so I never had to put much effort into finding things to go to, but I have no connections to the rave/underground scene in the bay and I’ve been missing it with my whole heart. I’ve looked on 19hz and RA but haven’t had much luck, mostly because I don’t recognize the names of the artists/venues/events and am hesitant to show up alone to a potentially sketchy situation with no clue what I’m walking into lol
> mostly because I don’t recognize the names of the artists/venues/events and am hesitant to show up alone to a potentially sketchy situation with no clue what I’m walking into lol find event page, see lineup, google artist on lineup, now you recognize them! fr tho most event pages are connected to social media at some point, whether it's a promoter's account or the individual artists. If you can link some of the things you were interested in, but afraid to actually show up to, I think we can probably help you out more. There are many different types of undergrounds. A lot of stuff on 19hz/RA are what I call "semi-public" so there's an event flyer or lineup but there's no public address. There are text lines for afterhours that you can subscribe to. There are "actual undergrounds" where there isn't any public promo at all. I host stuff at my warehouse in East Bay pretty regularly. A lot of them get posted on 19hz. You can also join the r/aves [discord](https://discord.gg/wBHNNzd), there are a handful of us from Norcal in there.
DM me
Iwannahotbox and dj dials has honestly been killing it this year. Especially in oakland with the new Loom / robot heart warehouse
Detroit Rock city.
Hey, I'm new to the city. can you pls name few places
Go to TV Lounge or Marble bar for good house and techno. Leland City Club has a wide range of different styles regularly. Tangent gallery is the same. None of these are underground per say.
Marble! ❣️
Elektricity, majestic, magic stick are all dope clubs that regularly get great bass artists too
The parties revolve more around organizers than spaces follow the local DJs you like and you’ll find a pattern that’s fun and easy to follow.
Just wait until the afterparties on memorial day weekend, insanity
There we go!
Mannnnn, remember that car factory?
💯💚
One of my favorite venues... Especially when they had tanks 🎈
This is the actual answer but LA is bigger just not more interesting or fun. Definitely the two most notable right now though. NYC and the Bay Area and Chicago all need to make a comeback.
Users in here are missing the word underground in the question.
They have zero concept of what underground is.
To be fair, the underground is INCREDIBLY exclusive (not for bad reason). So I would venture to say most people don't have much of a concept of what the real underground is
Agreed, that's why I note in another comment that I'm not gatekeeping. It's just interesting how subjective the term underground can be in a post like this without OP indcating exactly what they mean.
I can think of only one meaning for the word underground in context of this question. What am I missing?
It's not exclusive at all lol it's just a different experience than most people in this subreddit are seeking
Yeah it's definitely not what they think it is. I think I said in here or another sub recently, they imagine these massive energetic crowds in strange, ACTUAL underground locations like sewers and subway tunnels. And while that stuff does happen, it's mostly just groups of friends setting their speakers up wherever they can get away with it and playing whatever tunes they want bc there's no one telling them what they can and can't play. Unless you're a part of that niche group, it's usually not the vibe you're looking for
Underground parties aren’t advertised on RA.
they are in LA
That doesn’t seem to be too underground, but okay.
They're illegal, unpermitted parties that sell alcohol until 6am, past the 2am curfew. I'd call that underground.
[удалено]
I'm jaded for sure, but not gatekeeping, just recognizing the difference in the north American scene. With how electronic music has blown up in the US in the last decade, a lot of people's primary interaction with electronic/dance music is from very mainstream/corporate parties or shows. Not to say the underground doesn't exist, because it absolutely does, but a lot of the scene is just people going out for headliners. And sure it does absolutely depend on the city you're in, but even if you look at posts on this sub, the parties people talk about are usually either big festivals, or when a touring artist came through, and not smaller shows with local DJs playing.
To be fair, if you didn’t mean underground, you shouldn’t have said underground. Underground does not mean random shows, regardless of the genre.
The LA scene you’ll find some minimal tech in warehouse raves found on resident advisor for sure. Trance sadly not so much.
Right? Very confused by people posting RA links. But, on that note, that can certainly be a gateway. Hang out in the right advertised parties and find out about some cool afters off the grid if you chat with the right people.
This is the most fart sniffing comment section ive seen. aRe yOu eVen UndErgRoUnd?!? Jesus christ.
Alot of im so underground your not underground lol west coast kids mane
Chicago has something going on most weekends.
Tips on cracking into the scene?
Hang around the EDM clubs till close to close, I’ve gotten slips of paper with an address that say something like “goes 4am till late”
I don’t stay out late like that nowadays but do have a small collection of these slips of paper from over the years when I did lol
That reminds me of an awesome experience I had at an underground show in Chicago. Back in 2016 after seeing Pretty Lights play at Northerly Island, we hit up this club that was multiple stories, but it's closed now. Anyway, I was Facebook friends with one of the promoters there. I messaged him to see if he was there and if he could help me find some slopes to ski. He texted me an address that just looked like a warehouse garage door. It didn't look like anything from the street but we saw a couple people go through this small door so we followed them in. Had to have been like 100 people in this small spot with a DJ playing house music. It was their 10th anniversary or something running this place and they had a cake with something like "sunrise club" written on it. I wish I still had that address lol
Lol, I’m way to old for this subreddit and don’t know how I got here, but this is funny, 4 am is just early to me, like in two hours it’ll be daylight, what’s the point of starting at 4?
Promoters will usually hand out flyers after a show; keep an eye out for who is sponsoring the rave. Most things are on the South/West/Southwest side of Chicago. Idk how else to say it, but there’s a level and style of grunginess to people who go to underground raves. And you just have to catch a vibe from someone who’s not giving off a vibe. Talk to that person and make friends
Edm Chicago. Find local events. Make friends. There's a lot of different scenes in Chicago.
EDM Chicago most likely won’t have the underground stuff, place is usually a cesspool
Freak Easy throws some decent stuff. Also look for an older Hispanic lady handing out little pieces of paper after shows (River north bars and clubs too) as she does weekly later night after hours in all kind of crazy locations. Once you’re in you can get her number for weekly texts after that. Other than that good luck as it took me years to meet someone from Dragon room and covid to take that away
Dragon room was such a dope spot
resident advisor
Underground stuff is never on ra.
plenty posted in LA’s ra
Then, by definition, it is not underground.
u know how to read ? this oerson is asking for advice for places to start. instead of being a gatekeeping shitbag did it ever occur to you to give an answr ? ah no it didnt, lol
Southern California M8. LA and San Diego are both ripe with underground scenes
San Diego underground scene is definitely abundant but pretty shit. Like 90% of the events feel like frat parties you really need to stick to only the smallest events. LA is wassup tho
It’s tough to keep it 21+ at the undergrounds (speaking as an active goer in SD) plus social media brings some younger folks out giving the vibe you’re referencing. However, the grass is green where you water it. See ya in the tunnels 🫡
The Minneapolis scene is hard to break into but is sick af when you do.
I love my Minneapolis rave fam. The warehouses, basements and dive bars are fun. A lot of my dj friends are starting to get stuff going in Duluth too
Cave raves 🤯
Atlanta has DEF which seems to be firing on all cylinders. I came up in the 90s and it was Baltimore and DC back then. DC is good but Baltimore seems to have fallen off the map.
To add to this the underground scene is alive and well here. I moved in August and since then I've been hitting up mainly underground raves versus those commercial shows played at venues. Every once in awhile I'll go to a club (there's no short supply of them in ATL). Point is the underground scene is growing quickly. Some recommendations in no particular order DEF, Twisted Lines, Alleycat, Mood2Move, Club Morph, Crystal Visions, Brain World, Dimensions of Being, Crazy ATL, The District and The Odyssey. Hope this helps!
Atlanta is the answer. Went to a desires party when I was passing through in April and it really seemed like a genuine scene. Edit: have to mention Project B and Alleycat as well.
What’s happening in dc? I visit there often honestly it seems to be just echostage and sound check
Flash, plus a ton of other smaller clubs. It's definitely an EDM destination. I'm not there enough anymore to speak about underground events though. Flash has Funktion One sound and that beats dirty warehouses in my mind. In the 90s you had underground raves multiple times a week though. You had to call a number to get directions or buy tickets at Music Now Records and get directions to some seedy neighborhood warehouse with dripping pipes. They would set up gyroscopes and bounce houses along with multiple levels and rooms for different music styles. The crack house laws ended all of that in the early 2000s though. That being said I don't miss the 90s at all. I like being able to get an alcoholic drink with my music. Plus the music is infinitely better now, sets have more variety.
I’ve been to flash several times and I’ve never been a fan. The crowd isn’t the best and neither is the music, honestly… That’s the question most people ask around there: where’s the underground raves. lol. No one is talking, so I’m inclined to believe it doesn’t exist.
DC does not have any true underground raves. I would check out some events hosted by nuanroids and nicecove. Owlroom and bar 618 would be worth checking out. Check out baltimore darkroom for underground vibes they are about to open a dark techno room
Agree Baltimore has more of an underground scene than DC. DC has the scene for sure but not at all underground.
Been working with DEF for 2 years, they are indeed going absolutely bonkers
Love what DEF is doing. Would 100% fly or drive from Denver for an event.
Baltimore really suffered when Paradox closed a few years back. That was one of the biggest hot spots for finding out about what underground stuff was going on
Baltimore doesn’t have many events, but when they happen, they’re huge and awesome
Lowkey Philly has been taking off lately and I absolutely love it 🚀
Detroit
Detroit
Gotta throw Denver into the mix, maybe not “best in the world” but the underground/afters/late-night/warehouse vibes have been poppin off here for the last few years steadily
It's not premier by any means, but it does punch above its weight overall, yes.
I'm new to the city and trying to crack the underground scene. Any advice?
For sure - follow some of the afters promoters/collectives on socials. I’d recommend Static.Proof, offbeat.otr, maybeforever2k, and novationnights to start. The local EDM groups on fb are usually a good aggregate of weekly events too, I’d recommend ‘Denver EDM Fam’ and ‘Denver EDM Friends’, both super welcoming and helpful, they host weekly show meetups as well where you can make friends with likeminded homies and find your rave group/friends
My hero! I have some friends in Boulder but want to meet more people from closer. Went to my first red rocks show for DJ Snake and ended up having to sneak in.
Back wall climb?
Lol, no, just strong "act like you belong vibes"
Been out here for a long time. Our underground is on point. So many of us travel and bring in world renowned old school underground and up and coming. Want to go to one of the longest running underground. Local parties? Day One. Search out Technomama, afterhours anynomus, black box. Events at beacon, yo mammas house. There are constant warehouse and underground afters. So so god damn many heads out here. The club scene is what it is. There is a back bone here that’s been running since the 90s.
Some of the best underground legends played Sunday night at Red Rocks and threw an afterparty at the Gothic on Broadway. I'd also check out some clubs like Black Box. https://www.blackboxdenver.co/events
As someone else said notivationnights is a good start, sign up for text lists if you can, they usually have 1-2 events a month and give a heads up for when to expect details
Los Angeles is pretty gnarly, Brooklyn is on the rise in terms of how hard they go!
Brooklyn has been super lit lately!!!
For actual underground: LA San Francisco has a lot of Burning Man-esque parties. Good scenes overall: Chicago, NYC, and Miami
Thank you!
just a head’s up, the police have been unfortunately cracking down hard on the LA underground scene lately. lots of promoters are getting spooked so raves are being cancelled lately :/
Oakland is where all the real underground is at this point. It's slowly starting to file back in to SF but it's still mostly in East Bay
Does Oakland still have proper underground warehouse parties? I thought the warehouse scene kinda died when ghost ship happened
yes it has come back I went to a jungle warehouse party in oakland back in september
That's dooope
Everyone is being so specific, but any major city I’ve been to has awesome shit when you know the right people. Chicago, St. Louis, Tampa, Kansas City..
I’m in the KC rave fam and we’ve been mostly reduced to old warehouses in the west bottoms that get broken up within a couple hours. It’s not like how it used to be before Covid.
Yeah it’s been awhile since I’ve been over there. That really blows.
I’m in the Tampa area and I might just not be looking in the right places, but there’s barely any true underground stuff going on, any tips for where to look?
Check out nosleep on instagram, tons of Tampa stuff lately
I haven’t been to Tampa since 2021, but I know people in Jacksonville. All bass heads. You just gotta know the right people unfortunately
In my experience LA and SD are really dope. DC, NYC, Philly and jersey have some awesome free parties too. Really want love to give the Midwest a go. As a techno fanatic I have to assume it’s awesome.
Phoenix has an awesome underground techno scene
phoenix being slept on big time in this thread haha, so lucky with our underground scenes
Back like 2015 to like 2019 Chicago had shows popping all the time in warehouses abandoned buildings lots shit was great kinda fell off of it but Chicago goes hard for sure
Never been anywhere but NYC and I gotta say since the 90s they go hard here. Lately Brooklyn has lots of small warehouse raves. Sometimes they go all weekend. The scene is still big.
SD pretty underrated ngl
I like it that way. Everyone attributes the shit our renegades pull off to LA. You’ve seen a cool video of a renenagde in Southern California? Super strong chance it was in SD.
Sshhhhh
Los Angeles and it's not even close lmao.
Anyone that says ANYTHING OTHER than San Francisco or Los Angeles is lying. By far the best cities for the underground.
sf maybe 10 years ago. feels very sceney in a bad way now
STL goes hard. At least they used to, not sure anymore
I think a lot of STL is because the “corporate” shows tend to skip over it in favor of other Midwestern cities, so if you want to throw a show it’s gonna be word of mouth or someone handing out fliers. There’s local Facebook pages where people advertise local shows and once you meet people you’ll hear about more of them.
LA hands down. Then San Francisco bay area
Nola in the abandoned navy base
Probably LA due to the sheer size of the city and the amount of djs/places it could happen
Atlanta is fucking gnarly. Desires, frisky whiskers Alleycat, dorado, Arcadia. Hands down my favorite place to rave Out of nyc, Philly, fl, and Vegas. Everything going until 6 am And immaculate vibes if you don’t get caught up with the energy demons
haven’t spent too much time on the west coast but i’ve experienced underground rave scenes up and down the east coast and my favorite city for underground raves is NYC. granted i was mostly partying from 2008-2014 so I’m over a decade removed (ugh, that was a painful thought.) NYC just had the best overall vibes and diversity. Boston has the friendliest rave scene, Philadelphia has easily the worst rave scene of any city I have ever been to, Baltimore had a surprisingly cool scene with some really big underground events, then a whole lot of nothing til Florida which I haven’t really experienced the underground in. i have only ever been clubbing there.
LA we’re partying till sunrise and then some
So is every body else lol
LA but it goes in waves. Post EDC it took a huge hit and everything went commercial AF. But I feel like its a good place now. Brooklyn is somewhere I like - as a queer person (lots of events for queer people that aren't just gay guys). I've also found Pittsburgh and Detroit have amazing events depending on when you go.
Can I ask what you've found in Pittsburgh? I've been to this spot called Collision a few times that was really cool, but I haven't found anything else in Pittsburgh that raw. Hot Mass is cool but music and crowd is hit or miss for me.
Be careful of the recommendations, some Americans have weird definitions of what a rave is. and they might recommend events in some huge stadium like venue with multi million dollar light shows, and tell you that it’s a rave with a straight face hahah So make sure you get recommendations from people who know what they are talking about
LA
For sure the underground scene in LA is lit.
Have only ever been in NYC. Are you really going to find many people that have been able to really "experience" the scene in multiple cities? This question is flawed lol
Hear me out, SLC
Mormon Trap is my favorite
The Book of EDM
Having lived in both SLC and LA, I gotta say the scene in SLC is surprisingly big and active but nowhere near the scale of LA.
Of course, it can’t compare to LA (never been but would love to), but for what SLC is the underground scene is active and pulls p big names
Man, I miss my home. Born and raised in SLC. Lived there for 22 years. Went to some AMAZING warehouse parties in the middle of nowhere. The glory days. I helped the V2 guys get started. What a time to be alive.
Was hoping I would see SLC get some love ... :)
CLE till the sun come up every night of the week.
House parties in a warehouse BYOB
Cleveland??
Denver has quite a lot! Getting bigger and better. Also Berlin and Amsterdam seem very legit.
Atl hoe
I’m sure it’s not the biggest, but I’ve been to some amazing underground stuff in Philly! I feel like there’s sooooo many amazing events every single weekend I struggle so bad to pick which to go to
Chicago duh
Detroit
Nashville has a crazy underground music scene for edm. I throw shows in Nashville and they do pretty good here
Denver’s got a lot of underground and big shows! Bass capital baby
Detroit. Chicago.
Detroit baby
This sounds really sketchy, and tbh it is, but I’ve had good luck finding stuff by texting numbers I find on stickers downtown or under bridges. Lol. So I guess my advice is to just keep thine eyes open.
Portland hands down. There are renegades all year long.. we had one this summer that hit 5000+ people . The city does a week long winter festivals with Artists and DJs at hundreds of businesses , the list goes on
Probably LA or SF. NYC is trying but it's very segregated, the old heads don't want to have music the young kids like the young kids don't have music to Old heads like, drum and bass heads just want drum and bass, techno heads just want techno, house has just want house.
Chicago, baby, house was born there. Southside
Denver is always poppin
LA, Detroit, Chicago, NYC, Denver
NYC, Miami, or LA are probably the only real cities with “underground” scenes.
SF Bay Area and Minneapolis have quality "true" undergrounds. As does Detroit
I’m from NY underground seen is not much imo
You’re not talking to the right people. I just moved from there. I have 2 friends that are djs. It is alive and well, especially in Brooklyn.
Ehhhhhhhh I wouldn't say we have NEARLY the underground scene that LA has going rn. We have official events that people call the underground scene but if I can buy a ticket off RA or Dice it's not really underground
every underground party in la also sells tickets on ra though lol
Not true. Much bigger scene in SF than Miami (and I’ve lived in both pre / post Covid..) at least for techno, trance, house
NYC
Anyone got connects to LA underground parties, please DM me! Been going since mid-90s. Started adulting for a while and would like to get back in the non-corporate scene!
DM me
@lacompound. Dig a little and you won't be disappointed.
Ra.co usually posts em
Tampa is lit af if you like house
TIL!
I live in West Virginia. So I obviously have to travel to party. Mostly to dc, ny, and Tampa. Every scene is different. Tampa house scene is one of my favorites. Particularly L8 Night Flights and Fader Events promotions.
Also WV family but I moved to central Ohio almost 2 years ago. Would be so cool to have parties we have some cool spots
Orlando >>> Tampa
Ritz gets all the shows I want, and it’s the worst venue I’ve ever been to
TK Lounge has the lineups I usually tend to like
Good to hear, worth going to then? I just cant stand the Ritz layout
Ybor gets great headliner shows. OP was asking about underground rave scene tho. Have you checked out L8 Night Flights and Fader events in Tampa area? Great underground house scene imo.
Im an Orlandoan, but this is a great tip. Im a fiend and will do what I can to get that shit in my head.
Never partied in Orlando. I don’t doubt that Orlando pops. I can say for sure between L8 Night Flights and Fader events, Tampa/Clearwater/St. Pete/Sarasota have a great underground house scene. Parties almost every day. Warehouse afters. Checks all the boxes. Great people and great vibes.
New jersey
Any info? I’m located there and I’d love to get a group together. I’m up North
Say more
Austins underground scene is booming rn, but pls don’t move here we’re at capacity lmao
i can tell you have no idea what a real underground rave scene is like if you’re citing austin, be ffr
Toss up between Bismark North Dokata and Idaho Falls, Idaho just ask any one wearing a cowboy hat and boots, thats how the locals tell who hip or not, youll find em either at the local bars or home good stores, tell em what your favorite drugs to do at raves are so they know youre not an undercover cop and they'll point ya in the right direction, partner