It’s holiday party season. That means your nights are getting crowded with Airings of Grievances, general good cheer, hearty doses of wine and eggnog, and generally getting down before the clock strikes 10 p.m. But, if you’re anything like us, that’s when you’re just getting started.
This feature covers some late-late events so you don’t have to miss a thing and still get your dance on.
Friday, December 6
Melting Point presents Neophyte, Rob Gee, and more at TBA, 11:59pm
Melting Point is, for lack of a better term, fukkin insane (misspelling is on purpose). They’re insane in their almost-purist loyalty to hardcore electronic music. They’re insane (or perhaps the most sane) in their totally out-of-the-box commitment to rave activism through their anti-ICE raves and their collaboration with non-profit Al Otro Lado to show solidarity with refugees and asylum seekers. They’re also totally insane because they’re doing a full-on gabber party with some all-time legends and you may be broken physically by the end of the night but, if you chose to come here, we’re pretty sure you like it that way.
This party is the equivalent of a scream, with a rare set from gabber original DJ and producer Neophyte, straight from the genre’s home in Rotterdam. Also headlining is Rob Gee, famous from the 90s rave scene and known as “the hardest DJ ever to play Limelight”. He also looks like this and his newest is called “Ravers Unchained”. If that song turned you off, well, nothing will save you. It was once said, of gabber’s nascency in the early 90s, that everything had been played out a bit and gabber came in to be totally uncompromising once again. What this says about our current state of electronic music is voluminous.
Nails & Wax Third Year Anniversary at TBA, 10pm
Nails & Wax are a local party crew. This much, we are sure, is true. They’re going underground for their celebration of three years, not at some bougie club (no, no) quiet your fears. They’ll be hosting a Berghain resident. His name’s Phase Fatal, an old school darkwave gent. He’s charmed by The Cure, but he’s techno for sure and he lives in Berlin, where they always say “nur”. He’s not the only one, we’ve got Ron Morelli from Long Island (that’s fun). He started a label called L.I.E.S. That’s outsider house, you never know what will arise, but you know you will dance ‘til there’s stars in your eyes. There’ll be other sets too and a free zine just for you. So get off your ass and get into Nails and Wax because otherwise you might miss what’s fresh and what’s new.
Saturday, December 7
Hospital Fest at Market Hotel, 3pm
We would be beyond remiss if we failed to mention this new gem of a local institution, Hospital Fest. The full daylong festival is a celebration by Hospital Productions, founded in 1997 by Dominick Fernow, famous for aliases like Vatican Shadow, Prurient, and Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement (playing tonight). All this not to mention he’s a sometimes member of eminent cold wave band, the aptly named Cold Cave. Right next to the elevated M Train you can simmer in the cauldron of a full day (we’re talking 3 p.m.-to-6 a.m.-14 -hour-full-day) of extreme experimental industrial and noise that includes locals like BOUND’s Katie Rex alongside Hospital Productions, acts like Guilt Attendant, as well as famous international stars like Andy Stott. It’s long, it’s intense, it’s dark. A perfect way to get ready for the upcoming winter and revel in the fact that in NYC, there is a rare opportunity to enjoy this often-sidelined sound in a breadth and depth not often felt elsewhere.
Friday, December 13
ID 5th Anniversary Part II at TBA, 11pm
Romania is a country affected by industry, post-Soviet tensions, and cold weather. These difficulties make for a perfect primer for techno (not to mention new wave cinema if you missed the Romanian New Wave festival at Film Forum). The Romanians are known for an insular scene — one with no need for famous DJs imported from Germany, London, or the US — and one whose sound they self-characterized as “rominimal”. In a nation where minimal and tech-house are considered “mainstream” in urban environments, homegrown talent is essential. Tonight’s underground event with ID for their five-year anniversary features two such artists, Mihigh and Sepp. These DJs boast Soundcloud pages robust in the kind of sound Romania has become famous for but their editorial coverage is minimal (there’s that word again!) at best. Their career stories are emblematic of the classic (and now oft-forgotten) tenet of techno: the DJ is not the star, you are. This party will be minimal, that’s for sure, and it’ll definitely last a long time.
Holy Mountain at Avant Gardner, 11pm
Holy Mountain, or HoMo for short, is a beloved NYC institution that has cemented itself in myth and legend as a torch bearer from the lineage of Studio 54 to Pyramid Club to Limelight to The Tunnel and maybe even House of Yes. It’s a party with a distinct taste for dance, flamboyance, the New York City trademark of high mixing with low and a valuation based on self-invention over money and fame (mostly). It’s supposed to be a mixture of a full-on rave with an incorporative club kyd (my preferred spelling) invitation with high production values at the massive (and rarely discussed here) Avant Gardner space over. Created by the now-legendary Ladyfag, the party has given almost no information to potential attendees outside of it’s date (Friday the 13th) and it’s theme (Witches Sabbath). Holy Mountain’s reputation precedes itself — and that’s all you need to know.
Saturday, December 14
The Spectrum: RE: Birth at Venus in Furs, 10pm
We’ve written heartily about The Spectrum in these pages because it espouses a lot of the values we hold dear like self-expression, radical and unapologetic queerness, safe spaces, and, of course, being a bangin’ party. Over the last eight months, since they lost their former home at The Dreamhouse, The Spectrum has been operating in exile with parties taking place all over the neighborhood. Now they’re settling back in somewhere, at least for this month-long residency at the new Myrtle-Broadway area venue Venus in Furs. We personally know very little about this new space that only just arrived on our radars, but The Spectrum crew says “When we thought we would never find a place aesthetically as manic/ campy as the Dreamhouse we found Venus in Furs”. It’s not a DIY space (sad face) but it will hold the hearts of every little Spectrum-ite new and less new for the month to come.
Cover photo courtesy of Creative Commons.
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