[Dancecult-l] violence

[Graham St John]

Bear Spray? I guess the rural thugs come heavy set and hirsute in Vancouver.

Good question and nice speil tobias. Yes i think your focus might 
need some refining Adam. EDMC is a vast field which, as has been 
noted, includes hip hop, jungle/drum-n-bass and tekno scenes. Some of 
these scenes are high on the machismo quotient, and some European 
teknivals have become unsafe places for single women, which is 
contrary to the original rave vibe.

I would argue that psy-trance events (especially international 
focused) are probably the most peaceful EDM events, many holding a 
great commitment towards tolerence for difference (ie people with 
passports from over 60 countries and of course many Portuguese at the 
2006 Boom festival), often through providing contexts that facilitate 
the obliteration of difference. Trance events appear to be the high 
point in the evolution of the attempt to achieve such orgiastic 
obliteration of the self within EDMC; yet all the while providing a 
context for the opposite process : the staging of the self.

What currently interests me is the pervasive "tribal" trope within 
this scene, a trope which appears to evoke the expression and 
dissolution of difference. Being "tribal" might indicate a particular 
aesthetic, spiritual, sonic, national or cultural sensibility, or the 
dissolution of such difference. In this sense, within the context of 
the psy-trance gathering (and no doubt in other EDM events) "tribal" 
appears to designate a mode of being together which both accentuates 
and attenuates difference. With some caution, there is somethign to 
be taken from Maffesoli in this respect. We also find this paradox at 
the heart of Carnival. Being "tribal" is a process that may be as 
equally hyper-performative (and thus perhaps offering a greater 
likelihood of conflict) as it is boundary dissolving. With psy-trance 
(and other EDM events) "tribal" appears in the place of "carnival" 
(in something closer to its original Dionysian) sense, which, 
contrary to the views of Barbara Ehrenreich (in her disappointing 
book  Dancing in the Streets:  A History of Collective Joy), has not 
passed from the West.

This said, Ive seen violence at trance parties, though very rarely. 
On one occasion, when i was working at the gate of a festival called 
Gaian Thump operated by Psycorroboree near Melbourne, I saw a guy get 
out of one car and take to the rear side windows of the car in front 
with a crow bar. The driver from the second car got out, unscrewed 
his small radio antennae and started using it to whip the guy holding 
the crow bar, who, incidently, appeared to be enjoying this, asking 
for more. They were both restrained. No-one was seriously injured, 
though the guy with the whip might have lost some of his dignity. The 
guy with the crow bar was not admitted into the festival. It might 
have had something to do with road rage.

The other point I want to make is how EDMC's provoke state violence, 
and the tactics that dance activists and corporations alike  adopt in 
response to interventions, from legislation and ordinance to brutal 
paramilitary actions. As Tobias mentioned, sometimes this can become 
quite militant, as with Spiral Tribe, who, indicently, were forced 
down this path by regulatory measures designed to contain the 
flourishing of the nomadic free party lifestyle in the UK (and which 
directly impacted them - they were eventually acquitted of the 
"conspiracy to cause a public nuisance" charge); or with various 
sound system organisations in New York for instance, where holding 
free parties might get you on the FBI's most wanted list.

ciao
graham

>+ yes most of rave culture has had deep ties to the criminal underground:
>all kinds of conflict over drug dealing territory, distribution and
>production; raves used as money-laundering channels; raves used by
>organisations such as the Hell's Angels to do all the above but also to make
>a significant amount of petty cash (i.e., literally a cash bill resource).
>
>+ that the PLUR'red out ravers often knew little about what went on to me is
>in part because of the *ideology* of the PLUR -- that it puts blinders on
>where critical perception is needed. hence the numerous and global attempts
>to counter rave culture, to twist it from the inside to see its potential
>and its weaknesses.
>
>+ now I also agree that one of the attractions of rave culture was its
>ability to create safe atmospheres regardless of this environment, but more
>importantly, to produce autonomous or indie events that had little or
>nothing to do with the (usually large-scale) criminal events. here,
>alternative sexualities and nonviolent atmospheres flourised; but even then
>let us look at Spiral Tribe whom openly embraced a much more punk and
>anarchist ethos hinting at violence against the state through sound and
>occupation and intervention; violence is by no means foreign to rave
>culture.
>
>+ i realise the thesis and at one time supported it, but i now think that to
>equate alcohol with violence might be a sly reduction, for let us say that
>the network that distributes meth and ecstasy and coke undoubtedly has just
>as much violence linked with it, and the reaction to meth / coke can also
>produce outbursts of violence.
>
>+ in the UK acid house scene, as far as I understand it, it became necessary
>to take in & incorporate criminal elements as well as security drawn from
>football organisations -- as raves became involved in football territories
>--; in Canada it became necessary for large events to employ White Knights
>(off-duty police, a la corrupt police essentially) -- point being that
>violence works at many levels even if unseen. the distribution of violence
>evidently differs from locale to locale and it is possible to throw events
>without these elements whatsoever whereas elsewhere it becomes unavoidable.
>studying the contortions of the TAZ in various locales would be interesting,
>for whenever one goes beneath the radar one finds all kinds of creatures,
>some ugly, some beautiful.
>
>+ then there's invasive violence: at many events i threw indoors, we had
>security literally battling "undesirables" we didn't want in; when busted in
>(illegal or otherwise) warehouses we witnessed extraordinary and extreme
>police brutality; and when outdoors in the woods we often had to delicately
>negotiate and seduce local hicks into not turning violent... underneath the
>dj turntables at our outdoor events was bear spray and a case of beer,
>several already, let us say, prepared. when the hicks would show up in their
>4x4s shining the brights on us, gawking at the ladies, racing around in the
>ATVs, whooping and hollering and frightening the sh*t out of the kids, we
>would walk up, give them a beer, but always with one hand fingering the bear
>spray (or, let us say, whatever else we had). and yes there were serious
>incidents of ravers vs. hicks conflicts over backcountry territory with
>people beaten or worse. this pushed some ravers to become more militant,
>some in the Spiral Tribe manner, others in a path that linked meth with a
>more urban, street mentality (the raver methhead was often packin' as much
>as the gansta'). and not all such identity construction is reactionary; in
>NYC, Philly or in the UK dnb scene the identity of the music, like hip hop,
>is connected to conditions of poverty and street territorial violence from
>its inception. not all of it went the Detroit techno route of Going Alien
>rather than Being Real, or rather even in Detroit one had to have protection
>and be on the awares.
>
>+ and then there is protest violence, the violence of Reclaim The Streets or
>wherever soundsystems are used for protest situations, occupations,
>interventions, such as with eco-activists in BC, using the soundsystem to
>block logging roads. ravers fighting truckers was yet another reality,
>nasty, violent and bloody.
>
>best,
>
>     tobias
>
>
>
>
>>  There was certainly a good deal of violence, including shootings, at the
>>  Hacienda in Manchester in the late 80s. Most of this was, according to
>>  the film "24 hour party people" related to drug deals and was solved but
>>  taking the dealers on as security.
>  >
>>  p g-b
>>
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>
>
>tobias c. van Veen -----------++++
>http://www.quadrantcrossing.org --
>McGill Communication & Philosophy
>
>
>
>
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