Episode #30: Alien Night 1999 [Techno]

As the nineties rushed on the media hype surrounding raves continued to grow. Daily newspapers as well as the evening news dedicated themselves to attempting to uncover the underground world of the rave scene and educate the public about the events, selling the older demographic on the notion that raves were a danger and a threat. The coverage in many ways created a promotion for the rave culture and as interest in the parties grew, so did attendance, as well as the budgets for hosting these events. In Washington DC, Buzzlife had been successful with their event at the Capital Ballroom. In 1998 the venue was purchased by John Boyle who soon renovated the venue and changed the name to Nation. In 1999, Nation became one of the only venues to own the famous EAW Avalon soundsystem. Unfortunately by May of that year, Fox 5 News did a report which sensationalized what took place inside the venue. They released a report which focused almost completely on drug use and also sited the DC Metro police for being involved as one officer who was on camera was alleged to have had a relationship with one of the ravers who they had been filming. The news report was the cause of a great deal of controversy leading to the closing of Buzz. For two weeks, Buzz patrons protested outside of the Fox 5 studio on Wisconsin Ave in DC. After a few months of being closed the party re-opened. During the same year a Philadelphia production company called Local 13 had thrown one of their largest events called Whistle 2 which was held at the South Jersey Expo Center in Pennsauken, NJ. The venue was sepereated into different rooms called dome: Pleasure Dome, Super Dome, Power Dome, Drum Dome and Industrial Strength Dome. The lineup featured dj's like Green Velvet, Nigel Richards, Frankie Bones, and DJ Icey. In Pittsburgh a company called Downlow had thrown their first party together in 1997 called Intergalactic Circus. Since then they had pioneered new venues that gave a home to many ravers through the end of the nineties. Some of these venues included the Rostraver Ice Garden in Bell Vernon, PA as well as multi-room Paintball Arena near the intersection of 21st & Smallman Street in Pittsburgh's Strip District. In 1999, Downlow hosted Magick! at the Paintball Arena which featured Roy Davis Jr and Felix the Housecat. In Ohio venues like Moda, Metropolis and The Eagles nest had become popular spots for raves. Most of the flyers that were designed for Ohio parties had very futuristic themes, often involving robots in the graphics. Between Cleveland, Akron, Columbus and Cincinnati several local dj's had made good names for themselves. Most parties between Ohio and Pittsburgh were featuring dj's like Tigger, Darwin, Ben Kenobi, Hazey, Deep Blue, and Lemon Lyman. This podcast is an unfinished studio mix that was meant to be discarded nearly a decade ago. It was recovered from an old PC that I was preparing to throw away. The tracklisting is as accurate as I could make it, however there may be some mis-listings. Green Velvet - Flash Percy X - Worklife Frank Dubois - Buckled Steve Stoll - Thirty S.O.L. - Solaris Mijk van Dijk & Thomas Schumacher - Delivery Ade Fenton - The Stalker Yousef & Sharam - Into The Groove Heckmann - Stahlwerk Gerd - Arkest's Blaze Sender Berlin - Nana (Alexander Kowalski Remix)