Episode #21: Elevate [1997]

Rewind to San Diego, 1986. Leading up to this year die-hard San Diego party kids make a 2 hour drive to downtown Los Angeles. Many of the popular Los Angeles parties in the mid-80s were hosted in hotel banquet rooms. One of the most famous was The Park Plaza Hotel. When Todd Zweig went on a trip to Ibiza, Spain that year he had a refreshing musical experience. The massive parties and Balearic dj style ignited his motivation to put an end to the two hour drive to LA and give people in San Diego an event that brings all types of people together under one roof. This was the birth of Playskool. Playskool, which was eventually renamed Playscool after legal confrontations with the Hasbro Toy manufacturer, was held at Hotel San Diego at Broadway & State Street. During this time the acid house revolution in Europe had not even begun and dj's mostly played artists like The Cure, Aerosmith and Anita Ward. By 1988 Playscool had become so big that Zweig made his first arrangements to use the San Diego Sports Arena. Zweig had hired George Kreiger who promoted and staged bungee jumping demonstrations for this first event at the Sports Arena. The bungee jumpers were to run across the rafters dressed as police officers and descend upon the crowd as a joke. During practice an operational error took place which led to both jumpers falling to the floor below. No casualties took place but the situation led to a lawsuit which had eventually become case law titled American Casualty vs. Kreiger. After this incident happened in 1987 the decision was made to make Playscool a yearly event. In 1989, Mark E. Quark was asked to take over Greyboy's "World House" night at Soma on Market Street in San Diego. The event was a copy of Bart Blackstone's "One Nation Under A Groove" events. However the "World House" night came to an end within a couple of months only to re-open shortly afterward with Mark E. Quark as the resident dj, supplied this time with more promotional power. The second run was highly successful with turnouts of 600 - 1000 people per weekend. At this time Quark was mixing between artists like Front 242 and Nitzer Ebb as well as Lords of Acid, Phuture, Lil' Louis and even some disco & funk. However as time pushed on there was less industrial and more acid house being released. While it was new at the time, acid house was positively received in San Diego however it wasn't until he began playing Belgian & Detroit techno around 1990 when people would go completely apeshit for the music. In 1991 Mark E. Quark was living in a warehouse space at 9th & G St with Brian Weinberg who owned and rented out sound systems for various parties. Brian along with Paul Smith, who was the Playscool arts director, came together as SkinTwo Productions and threw several parties at the warehouse, aptly naming them "Ware's The House." These were some of the first warehouse parties in the city. Around the same time frame a DJ named Daemon showed up to an underground warehouse party hosted at a different location. He got into the party by carrying his records, posing as a dj. Once he got in he was greeted by Mike Lee who took him to the dj area. The previous dj had become too fucked up on drugs to continue holding the crowd and Daemon jumped into the dj booth to help create some movement on the dancefloor. At this point it was announced that Daemon would be the resident for the upcoming MicroRave events hosted by Mike Lee & Claudio Canive. These were considered to be the more underground events and others like them continued to spring up hosted by such crews as Double Dipped, Global Underworld and Outlaw. Until this time period the police had actually, for the most part, accepted raves. They were glad there was no violence and drug use had not yet become rampant. Similarly, any drug use at the time was typically ecstacy which the police saw as a happy drug. On July 22, 1994 an incident would shake the foundations of the San Diego rave scene. At a Moonlight Massive party hosted under the 8 Freeway at the end of Juan Street there was a shooting that killed two 15 year old boys, reportedly over drug money. The murderer had been on acid himself and had reportedly killed the wrong people. Partykids were detained at the scene for several hours as police investigated the crime. The incident showed all over the news and had become a major down-turn for San Diego raves. Promoters became more cautious and sometimes feared throwing events while police and the media began to keep a close watch on parties and venues. By the mid-nineties Global Underworld Network was hosting the famous Narnia events. These events would host such talents as Deelite, DJ Dmitri, and the Wicked Soundsystem. By 1996 Playscool reached their 10-year anniversary on October 4th. The lineup featured six rooms of music which included acts like Rabbit In The Moon as well as Sandra Collins and Planet Soul. In 1997 the American Casualty vs. Kreiger case had come to a close and Todd Zweig had decided to retire from hosting events. This week features a blend of house music from the entire portion of the mid-nineties including some tribal tunes as well as classic house. The graphic for this mix was taken from a flyer for a San Diego based rave that featured Mark E. Quark, Daemon, Hipp-e and DJ Dan. Mr Oizo - Kirk (Intro) Francois K - Edge of Time Peace Division - Faze K Danny Tenaglia - Bottom Heavy Loose Pigeons - The Logical Song (Henry St Remix) LoSoul - Open Door That Kid Chris - Black Jack (Radio Edit) Cevin Fisher - Music Saved My Life (Hard Mix) 95 North - Who's Hoo (Dub Mix) Seeds & Stems - Get U High Static - Anthem (Let There Be House!)