SF Chronicle, 10/29/92 'Rave' Parties Turn to Social Issues (Psychedelic goes political) By Dan Levy and T.

Christian Miller, Chronicle Staff Writers In a cattle pasture an hour north of San Francisco recently, 2000 teenagers and young adults thrashed about in bone-chilling early-morning air to pulsating lasers, psychedelic lights, and pounding music whose refrain asked, "Are you ready for a brand new world?" The question is one of many indications that "raves" -- dance parties mixing psychedelic images, fast-paced music, complex light shows, and a drug called Ecstasy -- are developing a social and political outlook as they spread across the country. "There is potential for a great, great movement to come out of this with political force," said Joel Breton, a 19-year-old who has thrown some of the biggest raves in the Bay Area, including one in June that drew nearly 6,000 people. "It's beyond a nightclub. It's more of a way of thinking and a belief system." "(Raves) are about everyone being equal -- gays, lesbians, bisexuals, blacks, whites, hispanics," said Kyle Edwards, a 23-year-old promoter who threw a rave in August at the Concourse Exhibition Center in San Francisco. "You can act any way you want, dance any way you want, or dress any way you want." In warehouses and at water slides, in fields and forest clearings, three to six raves boom into the night on any given weekend in San Francisco, Los Angeles, or New York. A crowd of 5,000 ravers furiously pumping lithe limbs in time to 160-beat-per-minute music is not unusual. Now, rather than simply throwing huge parties, many rave leaders are finding ways to channel that energy into something socially constructive. Some believe that they are on the verge of a counterculture era akin to the '60s. There are signs that the rave movement may be heading in that direction: [] A "Rave for Choice" next month in San Francisco will donate proceeds to local abortion clinics and a national pro-choice women's group. [] In August, about 500 people in Boulder, Colorado attended a "Rave for the Rainforest" benefit in the downtown Marquee club.
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[] Raves to benefit AIDS education programs have raised a total of $75,000 in Detroit and New York. [] A new San Francisco rave club called "Unleash the Queen" is designed to combat homophobia in an election year in which gay and lesbian rights have become a divisive issue. "I have a vision where I see half a million people dancing underneath an anti-nuclear demonstration banner," said a British-born organizer who manufactures rave scenes in San Francisco. [ed. - huh?] Like other music-fashion movements, raves started in England and were imported to America. Since their arrival three years ago, raves have spawned a culture complete with rave music, rave fashion, and a philosophy reminiscent of the hippie era. Comparision With Hippies To some observers, the hippie comparison is valid but incomplete. "Ravers aren't as naive as the hippies," said a New York record executive Nancy ebber, who said the rave culture reminds her of the punk movement of the 1980's. "Punks wanted to change the world too, but they were much more aggressive." But comparisons between the rave culture and hippies are inevitable. Like hippies, ravers are young, toy with psychedelic drugs and have distinctive fashions and music. To some ravers, wearing costumes featuring Dr. Seuss cartoon characters and Swedish girl-feminist Pippi Longstocking make a connection to their early youth. Others intensify the experience by popping tablets of an amphetamine called Ecstasy, raver's drug of choice. Ecstasy's fans say it helps remove social inhibitions and boosts tactile perceptions. It does not, they say, promote violent behavior. Timothy Leary, the LSD guru who urged young America to "tune in, turn on, drop out," has turned his eye toward raves and the surrounding culture and a new youth movement. Raves "are trying to capture the spirit of the 60's" said the 71year-old Leary, who has thrown three or four raves himself in the Los Angeles area. "They're high-tech hippies." Style and Technology
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The two eras have a similar message of peace love, and communion with all people. But ravers spread it with a style and technology that mixes cutting-edge computer software with images as diverse as Mayan calendars, floral prints, and Cat in the Hat. Information about rave spreads by telephone, computer networks, and graphically complex flyers. Rave flyers from San Diego pop up in Boulder, Colo. A raver in Brandywine, Md. can connect with one in Springfield, Mo. simply by logging on to an electronic mail system. Raves are happening even in smaller cities in Boca Raton, Fla. In Kansas City, Mo., a hardware store owner who has added the latest German record imports to his nuts-and-bolts stock is planning to throw a rave in his store for regular customers from small towns in Missouri and Kansas. Until now, raves have been largely social events, gatherings where anyone and anything is accepted. Not everyone is eager to see them take a political turn. Near Spiritual Experience To some ravers, politics represents an unwelcome intrusion. They say the real core of raves is a near spiritual experience created by hundreds of people all listening, dancing, and sweating to the same high-energy music. "Some people find (enlightenment) through religion or church or philosophy," said Mike Regan, Edwards' partner. "We are coming to that point ... through the dance" And they are doing it, they say, in a peaceful and positive way. "How many other places do you get so many people together without fighting?" asked 20-year-old rave organizer Jason Emole. (Last weekend, police in Newark broke up a rowdy warehouse rave attended by about 500 people. There were no arrests, but police said two people were beaten and three people stabbed.) Others say debates about politics versus spirituality miss the point. They are more interested in having a good time than levitating the Pentagon. "(Raves) are everybody having fun dancing together," said 19-year-old Modesto resident Tina Medieros, standing in line at a recent rave in San Francisco with a belled jester's cap on her head. "I think politics should stay out of it."
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A Lucrative Business Some think that raves are just another fad that will fade as they become too commercial. At $20 a ticket, raves are a lucrative business that can bring in $100,000 a night while costing $20,000 to $30,000 to throw. Many rave fashion and music store owners are in business to expand the market for trendy clothing, not to promote ideas of world peace and racial harmony. "I think they're going to get so large, they're going to collapse under their own weight," said Rye Digre, an organizer of the Higgledy Piggledy raves in San Francisco. But a man who calls himself "Mr. Floppy," promoter of some of Oakland's biggest raves, is encouraged by the swelling numbers. He said his vision is a crowd of 50,000 ravers in Oakland Coliseum as part of a "global education." "There has to be a focus," said Christie Every, a promoter of the pro-choice rave who has also planned a series of Bay Area rock club dates tied to the theme of voter registration. "The whole mind-set is really powerful but it's untapped." And Moby, a New-York based rave performer who is one of the best-known disc jockeys on the scene right now, wants the rave culture to become more than throbbing music and a sea of bodies. "There is a degree of social consciousness already, but it's a more ambiguous thing," he said. "I'd just like to see it become a little more active like it was in the late 60's."

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