My first rave was in late 2003... in an underground club in the los angeles area.. in some big warehouse... this party was insane.. it literally reminded of the movie "PARTY MONSTER"...
there was a big line for the entrance... as you waited in line their was 3 guys... walking back and fourth saying "E,K,... E,K.. E,K... E,K..."... i WAS like what... I never experiencing rolling and the letters they were saying muffled under the breathe was foreign to me. They would actually show you huge ziplock baggies of the stuff... probably containing about 1000 pills in each bag... I was amazed and said this is gonna be one heck of a party! We all entered and their was four nicely sized rooms... TRANCE, HOUSE, JUNGLE, HARDCORE! The venue screamed excitment and the HARDCORE section was off the charts... their was one asian chick doing the most insane dance... jumping nearly 3ft off the floor for about a half hour straight... oh do i ever believe that the ecstasy was much stronger then... containing easily 100mg in each roll!
Anywho, that was my first and most memorable and it led me to seek other rave-like events! I have gone to monster massive 3 yrs in a row, TAO 2 YRS, EDC ONCE, and this is gonna be my first look at NOCTURNAL.... and i've been to a corncopia of smaller events... such as bars and small warehouse parties.
I do agree that the scene has changed in many ways... and a big part of the party culture is not involved in the musik... but just a placed to get faded and get spazzed out on ecstasy. Most hip-hop parties now are largely involved in ecstasy now... hence the sounds of LIL-WAYNE and club inspired songs played on POWER 106