Last weekend I attended Wanna Dance? presented by Minty Boi featuring Baltra, Galcher Lustwerk, CFCF, No4mat, Blue Hawaii, and more.
I was curious to see how Minty Boi would deliver on their promise of a "Rave" (and a multi room one at that) given their history as a pop and rock music promoter, and was fully prepared for an amusing let down. A few days before the event, I was encouraged by an Instagram story featuring an impressive Funktion One stack. I was also encouraged and intrigued that they were loading into the venue about 4 days before the day of the event, which is pretty unusual.
The day of the event the set times were announced featuring some odd choices. For one, the stages were Main Stage and Side Stage, which I thought was a little rude to the side stage acts (like my personal favorite, CFCF). I'll get into the rest of the programming choices later.
One such choice was that No4mat was playing 2 sets - one 10-11 on the Main Stage, and one 1:30-2:30 on the side stage. I was curious to see what he would open with, but my friends were not about to be at the rave at 10pm (understandable), so we arrived around 11pm.
Upon arriving, we quickly went through security, presented our tickets, and stepped into an outdoor courtyard with the portas and a very welcome sight: three picnic tables with benches. A complete and utter lack of seating is one of my biggest issues with the modern warehouse party scene in Los Angeles, as I think that seating areas encourage connection between attendees, and gradually works to create community within the underground. Anyways those tables ruled. I would later find a very nice bench behind the sound booth at the Main Stage, which was unreal.
We quickly sussed out the layout, checking out the cavernous Main Stage warehouse before settling into the more compact Side Stage warehouse to dance for a while to Brian Vidal B2B Holodec - presumably friends of the promoters. I was impressed to find both stages had impressive Funktion stacks, and looking at the CDJs I saw a familiar logo - Higher 9. I immediately breathed a sigh of relief as in my opinion Higher 9 provides the best production in the underground. My first familiarity with them stemmed from my experience at long running full moon desert party Moontribe, where Higher 9 long had provided world class Funktion One stacks for their monthly gatherings in the Mojave. Having used his services for my own warehouse events, and observed Dan and his team's ascent into higher and higher echelons of event production via Instagram I was eager to assess his work for this event in person. Brian Vidal and Holodec were playing a collection of house classics not dissimilar to a top result for a google search of "what is house music", but the mixes were solid, and those tracks always work (Brighter Days, Percolator, I Get Deep, for example).
At Baltra's slated set time, we went back to the main stage and caught the end of the previous act which we thought was Take Van's live set. Waiting for the changeover as I was hoping to catch the start of Baltra before locking in for CFCF, I admired the production. An impressive combination of LED screens, Truss, LED bars on both the truss and the natural features of the warehouse, staging, and Funktion stacks produced the illusion of a full on nightclub. As a longtime VJ I am very critical of LED screens and video in the context of rave lighting, but in this case the content was deployed tastefully, acting more as lighting than attention demanding visual content, which in my opinion is the ideal use case for on stage video.
When Baltra was supposed to go on, instead a female vocalist took the stage with mic in hand and began performing to a mix of UKG tinged backing tracks. I assumed this was a special guest filming a music video or something like that. The quality was not to the standards I expect of an event of this caliber, and after a few tracks it became clear that perhaps THIS was Take Van starting her set about a half hour behind schedule. Bummed that I would likely miss Baltra, I went back to the Side Stage to catch the beginning of CFCF. A bit odd to book two of the headliners in direct opposition to each other, especially when they have so much in common sonically, with CFCF even remixing Baltra almost exactly one year ago, but it happens. I might have done CFCF -> Baltra -> Galcher Lustwerk on the Side Stage, and kept the Main Stage ravey with Blue Hawaii leading into No4mat, perhaps with Dr Gabba mixed in, but enough Monday Morning rave promoting for now.
As Brian Vidal and Holodec reached the end of their set, they took a hard left turn away from house classics, dropping into some Hessle tinged breakbeat, electro, and UKG. It was a sudden change up that didn't entirely gel, but the tracks were pretty good. Felt like the opening act sneaking in a few tracks that they knew didn't fit an opening set vibe, but that's an understandable move.
CFCF took control right on time. I am a huge fan of CFCF's production, particularly his Memoryland cycle (including Liquid Colours and the bonus tracks), but recently saw him DJ for the first time at a Lights Down Low event with Jacques Greene. He completely blew me away with his DJ skills, reminding me of what I imagine a Thomas Bangalter set might have been like around 2003. He did not disappoint this time either. Transitioning out of the UKG played as the last track, he mixed in some UKG, then some French house, building into a wild one from Tracques called 'Aftershock'. That track slows itself down around 110 bpm before working itself back up to a ripping tempo circa 130 bpm. Like any good set, I don't recall it in its entirety, but after hovering around a French/Filter House vibe for a while, melodic elements appeared. I will confess to a significant amount of Shazaming, not willing to be left puzzling like after CFCF's last set, and one Shazam revealed a track by a Ferry Corsten Alias: Kinky Toys - Carpe Diem. I lost my mind. I have been waiting to hear real deal 00s trance at the rave ever since trance was legalized about five years back. The other trance highlight was Saltwater - The Escape (Funabashi Extended Mix), which launched me into outer space. Soon thereafter, I heard the unmistakable cymbals of my all time favorite Chemical Brothers dance track "It Doesn't Matter" aka "Electronic Battle Weapon 1". I played that track when I had the chance to DJ a rave at which I booked the legendary DJ Secret Cinema, and it's an absolute monster. It was a pleasure to hear it on the floor at full power.
I should mention that the lighting at this stage was exceptional as well, with a series of round LEDs hung vertically behind the booth, running a series of colored chase patterns. I am extremely critical of overdone rave lighting, and this setup threaded the needle perfectly, providing plenty of visual stimulation without being overwhelming or too bright.
Near the end of the set CFCF indulged in Séverine's now legendary, arguably thoroughly rinsed mashup of Barker and Ariana Grande 'Look How Hard I'm Into You'. It was a pleasure hearing the Barker instrumental, but the magic trick of the vocal has worn thin for me personally, and the amount of phones that went up to film the moment did not help that dynamic. After that track I heard the opening of Unicorn Kid's remix of DJ Khaled ft Drake "I'm On One" and lost my mind for the third time. I have been a huge fan of Unicorn Kid since he burst on the scene (before his Coachella booking induced breakdown and subsequent retirement), and with the 00s trance resurgence of the past few years from acts like TDJ and Doss he has been on my mind. Hearing maybe my favorite track of his on a big soundsystem was a dream come true.
To cap the set off (after a brief apologetic 'one more' negotiation with the eager No4mat), CFCF launched into his brilliant mashup of his own "After the After" instrumental with the a capella of Craig David's "Fill Me In". It's a pretty transcendent mashup and it was a treat to see CFCF sing along, clearly feeling the full emotion of the vocal, but I must confess that I would have loved to hear the original of "After the After" on that soundsystem, as I think it's one of the finest pop tracks released in years. It was a remarkable set, and further cemented CFCF as one of my favorite DJs, immediately joining the ranks of Erol Alkan, Four Tet, & Floating Points as a can't miss booking. This set was not quite as tight as his set for Lights Down Low, but the full on trance section in the middle more than made up for any difference in overall quality or consistency.
After CFCF's set we took a breathair on the patio to find it was fully raining. This rendered the picnic tables more or less useless, but there was a nice shade structure to shield us from the wet. Some friends took off, and I went to grab another bottle of water and assess the rest of my night.
The line for the bar was ridiculous. After some creative line merging I managed to get my bottle of water, but while it's one thing to have a long line for alcohol, it's really not acceptable to put that kind of barrier between ravers and their water supply.
The bar was at the mainstage and while I was waiting, I noticed that the floor was thoroughly damp and slick, which made it exhausting to simply stand on the concrete, much less dance, as the body was constantly doing microadjustments to maintain balance. I saw a few shufflers eat shit, and it put a damper on an otherwise lovely warehouse space. Interestingly the Side Stage was spared from this wetness. Not sure how.
We checked out Blue Hawaii, who was playing the Main Stage 1:30-2:30 (pushed 30min late). I was not familiar with them other than a brief Spotify skip thru, and when I checked them out they were performing their trademark dance-pop pastiche, ranging from house to full on hardcore, all with bubblegum vocal hooks, and a few bat mitzvah friendly remixes (Hollaback Girl for one). It was wholly unconvincing, and felt more like a parody act than a headliner at a world class underground rave. As a fan of pop dance bordering on parody like Danny L Harle, TDJ, A. G. Cook, Lil Texas, I think I can fairly assess that they simply did not measure up, and I frankly found their booking and timeslot a little bit insulting. Even moreso considering that they were functionally opening for Galcher Lustwerk.
We left after about 20 minutes to soak up some of the post-trance stylings of No4mat, who I had never seen before but had been playlisting and djing the productions of for about 5 years. Stepping into the more intimate, darker & better sounding Side Stage, I noticed that No4mat had entranced up the more MDMA leaning attendees who were gathered in the corner, hypnotized by a deft LED poi spinner, sitting on something or other, smiling, and holding each other in the most adorable way. Love to see it. I understood why as No4mat masterfully held the audience in a suspended state of bliss, weaving trance melodies that maintained a kind of euphoric haze, while mostly avoiding the trademark peaks and valleys of the genre. When he would keep to this holding pattern he was the most successful, while the flashier moments fell a bit short of what the genre is capable of. The static trancey haze he was able to achieve was quite impressive, and a mirror of his productions, which maintain a certain level of euphoria without ever quite breaking through to the transcendent highs the genre can evoke.
After a while, I went back to hopefully catch the beginning of Galcher at the Main Stage. When I found Blue Hawaii was still playing, I sat on the aforementioned Bench, which was of remarkable quality, and waited for their frankly painful set to run its course, again insulted by their set time robbing Galcher of the kind of peak time crowd his prowess deserved. The choice to lead into Galcher with full on hardcore gabber pop is another matter entirely. Anyways they finally ended and Galcher took the stage, but with the wet concrete floor, the set time, and the slight dip in audio level (presumably at the instruction of the warehouse owner), I only lasted 4 or 5 tracks. Those tracks demonstrated a mastery of house DJing, and I wish I could have heard them at full volume, and full energy. I will be sure to catch a full Galcher Lustwerk set when he comes back to town.
In summary, it was a pretty great 'rave.' Bouncing between two well appointed stages brought me back to the halcyon days of the 2008 Los Angeles rave scene, and Higher 9's production (from the lights to the benches) made up for some questionable booking decisions reflective of the promoters background in Pop and Rock promotion - highlighting mediocre live acts over the veteran DJs that likely would have cost less and delivered a higher quality experience. That said, a look at Blue Hawaii's Spotify listener counts indicates that their likely Tik-Tok derived audience may have underwritten the whole event, and if that's what has to be done to finance a multi room rave with production at this level, then so be it. I look forward to whatever is next from Minty Boi and their fledgling Rave imprint 'Wanna Dance?'