House Music All Life Long
Nocturnal Wonderland flows eternal
I was 19 when I first started going to clubs and underground parties. I dipped my toes in New York’s famed Tunnel, a trendy den of jacked house music and an impenetrable door policy. In Montreal, I was invited to a speakeasy called the Peel Pub, and I will forever remember the local hospitality during my 48-hour layover.
Back home in LA, I found my tribe at places like Mac’s Garage and Water the Bush, all legendary names to my generation of Hollywood kids. I felt young, especially when clubs of that day were typically held in venues catering to 21-and-over customers. Everything about the scene was new to me.
Fast forward to this past weekend, and I’m 75 miles east of Los Angeles at Nocturnal Wonderland, watching a mix of ageless ravers and 20-somethings, yet you could barely tell us all apart. And if the gray hairs gave us away, nobody cared. At the risk of putting off the carefree cool kids, we were all drinking from the same dance-music fountain of youth.
At one point, I approached a group carrying a sign that read, “QUE VIVA, LA RAVE-OLUCION!” After taking their picture, one dude complimented me on my appearance but noted that I didn’t look like a newbie. He was seeking advice on longevity and, I assume, maybe saw a little of his future self in me. I didn’t discern if his question was about maintaining good skin or partying into your 40s, but I said something about taking care of your body, and your body will take care of you. I could have added, keep dancing, as movement is the key to a long life.
The underground scene can be as unforgiving as it is life-affirming. Dance music and illicit substances will always be in cahoots, even as younger fans ditch harder drinks and become “sober curious.” Before the scene went mainstream, we dragged nitrous tanks to events and named parties after amphetamines. This magazine routinely held tongue in cheek when discussing drug use, even as we wrote vociferously about the increasingly damaging over-use of the same drugs.
In an ongoing campaign for legitimacy, today’s events ban illicit paraphernalia, have drug safety booths (I saw one this weekend), and patrols of caring observers whose job is to help struggling fans. At events like Coachella, non-alcoholic bars are rising in popularity. But even as many ravers shun substances, find cleaner ways to party, or opt for less dangerous trips like psilocybin, people will still find ways to die.
Nocturnal Wonderland was Insomniac’s first large-scale event, dating back to 1995. It was eventually overshadowed by Electric Daisy Carnival, aka EDC, now held in Las Vegas, Mexico, Korea, and elsewhere. But to me, Nocturnal still carries the heartbeat of an earlier scene, which seems intentional. The festival’s official “Camp OG” has its own stage and lineup of local DJs.
Old-schoolers need little encouragement and play an active role in an event some of their adult kids attend. I witnessed the best energy in the Rave Cave, where Bunny from the seminal Florida group Rabbit in the Moon was spinning. The dayglo-draped area was unabashedly classic, with a limbo line, breakdancing, and a whistling raver in a Dr. Seuss hat.
Earlier this year, while at EDC Vegas, I noticed the same blurred generational lines among the 175,000 attendees. But as much as Vegas has shown the full global potential of electronic dance music’s scale and epic-ness, Nocturnal’s comparatively stripped-back approach (fewer fireworks, no bottle service, etc.) echoes some of the scene’s early innocence. Even its setting among green rolling hills heralds back to quintessential 90s parties like Paw Paw Ranch and Organic. Those events set the bar for the era’s move from warehouses to the great outdoors, now an expected component of large-scale electronic music events.
The stereotype is that dance music gatherings, raves especially, are off limits for anybody besides the most current generation, along with the odd aging stowaway who refuses to vacate the dancefloor. But that image fails to reflect today’s come as you are culture. The generational fluidity is apparent when you attend an EDC or a Nocturnal.
Even as electronic music events appeal to a consistent stream of young fans, as any healthy scene wants, participation has no expiration date. Keeping people coming back even as they age is also a sign of vitality. Maybe it’s a reflection of how I see myself, but as I surveyed the field at Glen Helen Park, I didn’t see age as a handicap or as an OG status symbol. I saw a dance music community that kept us all thriving.
Are you still going out? What events still appeal to you? And if you’re newer to the scene, what have you observed? I would love to hear from you.
All photos were taken at Nocturnal Wonderland at Glen Helen Regional Park, San Bernardino, on September 16, 2023. © Raymond Leon Roker
Love that Pasquale & co are doing things like Camp OG, and that the younger gen are discovering our scene's roots through some of it's most influential peeps. I', coming up on 50, have a kid in college and one in high school, and they get a kick out of hearing my stories and seeing pix of me (with hair), a whistle in my mouth, jncos (that they now buy themselves),giant plastic wallet chains, and a bunny backpack. I still go out, though admittedly much less frequently than the every weekend growing up in Los Angeles, or my 5 nights a week in my 20s. Plus now that i live in upstate NY, the trek to a party takes a wee little more planning and effort. But i take my kid to an annual rave in an actual cave (the advantages of living in the country), where she's danced to the likes of Reid Speed, DJ Dan, Joeski & Mike Dearborn, and i hit up special events & festivals with buddies my age - like the occasional boat party, Time Warp in NYC, or Carl Cox playing in Central Park. I also took my older daughter to Europe this past summer, where we got to experience sweaty new school hard techno at an Amsterdam squat, Detroit techno vibes at the legendary Tresor in Berlin, and i even managed to sneak in a few days in Ibiza to soak in DC10, Pacha, Cafe Mambo, & the legendary Amnesia. I can't go til 10am anymore like i once had no problem doing, but i can get in a disco nap, dance full on til 3 or 4, and then head home feeling the same kind of awesome i did when i was her age.
I mostly used just dance around in my kitchen while cooking; these days since my accident I just listen to music as I do PT. When I was in the hospital I shared with my night nurse stories of the yesteryear’s events. I told him to not be surprised when more senior ravers start showing up in the orthopedic wing. I said “We’re coming...”