Last night, Minnesota Hard Dance lit up the Twin Cities with ripping, cutting edge electronic music stuffed into an old school format. Ostensibly, the excuse was Halloween, though  half these partyers looked liked they dressed in costume almost every weekend anyway. A wide assortment of rave flavors could be sampled last night, hardcore (by yours truly), drum and bass, Psytrance, sub-ground, techno, happy hardcore, hardstyle… I’m missing a few here, but trust me, between the two rooms you had ear candy waiting for you at anytime.

Though taking place on a Saturday, “This is Halloween” was the name of the party, just to help attendees plan their circadian rhythms accordingly. This was important because magnetic musical artists would be making marks on memories until 5:00 am. As I had a flight the next day, all logical sense of responsibility told me that I should leave shortly after I played. I made the critical, we can’t really call it an “error” because I was the better for it, but I stepped into the middle of DJ Darkmatter’s (not to be confused with L.A.’s Darkmatter Soundsystem) psy-trance set and it was off-the-hook! I cancelled my ride to the hotel and proceeded to bug out to the early morning, sleep-be-damned!

It occurred to me that for the underground to thrive, a wide mixtures of styles is not only more interesting, but necessary. It was a well-attended event, but with all the parties going on the Halloween weekend, its in everyone’s interest in the rave scene to merge the styles because in the current commercial climate only the really big more commercial parties can specialize on a consistent basis. The great thing about this party is that the crowd seemed to appreciate all the styles, too. There was rarely any drop off at either of the sound stages.

So if you were at “This is Halloween” last night, I congratulate you! I bet there was no place in the Twin Cities last night that was as supportive of good music, on shredding sound systems, and with an embrace of the creativity we need to thrive. Big ups to Minnesota Hard Dance for another great party!

Photo by Rad Timmah