It's something to rave about
Byline:   By Gail Robertson Star Staff Reporter
Credit:   WINDSOR STAR
Series:   RAVES: RAVERS
05/18/93
Windsor Star   (WIN)
Edition:  FINAL
Page:     A1/ FRONT
Category: SERIES
(Copyright The Windsor Star)
---      It's something to rave about        ---
 By day, she holds down her rather conventional job.
But well into the wee hours of the morning, she steps into the
unconventional world of a raver - a world where hi-tech
computerized music, ecstasy drugs, vitamin drinks and breaking
down social barriers are part of the lifestyle.
"IT'S THE BEST release of everything," says Amy Sherman of Royal
Oak, Mich., a radiology technician who takes night classes as well
as attending raves every weekend.
This 19-year-old woman has been attending raves for about eight
months after first getting wind of the techno rave music in the
Detroit club scene. She finds it exciting and intriguing being
part of the secretive underground world.
Raves - better known as all-night dance parties - are usually held
underground in abandoned warehouses or buildings. They hit the
British scene about five years ago and only over the last year
have they begun to filter into the United States and more
recently, Canada.
Everyone is joined together via this computerized hi-tech music
with the goal of breaking down social barriers among blacks,
whites, gay, straight, long-haired and short-haired.
IF IT SOUNDS like a mixture of recent hi-tech music and the love
and peace movement of the '60s, you might not be far off track.
It's a scene rife with the youth of today taking on the
establishment via music, drugs and sex.
Welcome to the world of raves where being secretive makes this
lifestyle even more attractive.
You won't see raves advertised in mainstream newspapers or posters
plastered around the area - to be really into this scene you have
to know someone who knows someone. Then once you're a part of the
group, you will find your way easily to the next location.
In this area, raves are approaching a crossroads of either
remaining as a small movement in the underground or breaking out
into larger, more publicized venues.
So what is a rave, anyway?
To the uninitiated it's a bunch of hot, sweaty young people
(usually in their late teens and early 20's) thrashing about in a
cramped building.
But for those in the midst of this lifestyle, it is meant to be a
large gathering of people (preferably more than 1,000) in a secret
location like an abandoned building or an empty warehouse. They
gather late at night and dance till the next morning or afternoon
with music, fog, lasers, drugs and smart drinks (non-alcoholic,
vitamin-based concoctions).
BUT IT'S MORE than just the dancing. Raves are also supposed to
promote peace, love and unity.
"Kids do feel disenfranchised," says Windsor rave deejay Karl
Kowalski, who lives at home with his parents while putting most of
his time and energy into producing techno music.
"Rave and all it entails is taking something back, it's a new
fighting system. Rave music and lifestyle is 100-per-cent
positive.
"Not all of us have great lives so we want to let go and let
loose."
Tim Sheurer, a professor of humanities specializing in pop culture,
says the rave movement isn't happening casually and without
reason.
"This is the first major thing of ritual activity since disco and
punk," says Sheurer, based at Franklin University in Columbus,
Ohio. "It is a counter-culture thrust. Kids are reacting against
the cultural norms. Young people are finding their own youth
culture.
"It's a musical sound, a look and experience that breaks them away
from mainstream culture."
Recently, a group of young Windsorites made their way to an
underground rave in downtown Detroit. Cover-charge was $10 and the
techno music was pounding out of state-of-the-art sound systems as
people danced all night inside an abandoned building.
"I DON'T DO drugs but I drink a lot of coffee. Sometimes you just
have to not sleep at all," says Sherman, the teenager who lives
at home and manages to find time to hold down a full-time job in a
hospital and rave every weekend. Often she leaves from a rave
party to go into work for a shift since her love for the rave
lifestyle supersedes lack of sleep. Sheurer says the ritual of the
raves is what keeps people tuned in to the scene. "They want to be
different than their parents even though their parents may have
been hippies."
 ILLUSTRATION: Star photo Scott Webster/ MICHAEL PRORACKI, Dawn
Desmarais at rave at Vertigo Club/ RAVE & RAVERS
 LOCAL KEYWORDS: LIFESTYLES
Notes:    LIBRARY NOTE: This is one of two instalments in Part
One of the series. EDITOR'S NOTE: Raves are big news in the
underground scene in Detroit and some Windsor and Essex County
residents are finding their way to these events. Windsor Star
lifestyles reporter Gail Robertson decided to look into this up and
coming phenomenon after attending a rave in an abandoned building in
downtown Detroit. The debate may continue over how big this movement
will get, but a two-part series - beginning today - will look at just
what lies behind this lifestyle. Part 1 on today's fashion page - C1
- takes a look at fashion. Part 2 - on Thursday - looks at the
lifestyles of ravers, the club scene, the drugs and the music that
attracts young people.
@Art: CP
@Art: Star photo Scott Webster/ MICHAEL PRORACKI, Dawn
Desmarais at rave at Vertigo Club/ RAVE & RAVERS