The Rave Museum

Jesse Walker | November 29, 2007

God did not give us the Internet for porn, political fundraising, or pissing off the RIAA. (*) He gave it to us so we could assemble amazing archives of beautiful and weird Americana. To that end, the other Jesse Walker (**) has posted a great gallery of rave flyers from Idaho Falls in the early to mid 1990s. It's well worth visiting, even if you don't care for that kind of music.

* Those were Al Gore's contributions. Thank you, Al!

** The other Jesse Walker is a DJ in Salt Lake City. We correspond from time to time, and he seems to be a nice fellow -- certainly much nicer than the other Michael Moynihan.

Comments

|11.29.07 @ 12:07PM|#

Can you imagine what it was like living in Idaho Falls before the interweb?

Can you imagine the isolation, the boredom?

Wow

|11.29.07 @ 12:08PM|#

But everyone knows that raves are merely vehicles for corrupting America's youth! Why, it says so right here

Jesse Walker|11.29.07 @ 12:34PM|#

Yes it was a boring and solitary, but it made the parties that much more exciting. Being very into music at the time, it made us feel connected to a cultural movement far removed from our true reality.

Also, in 1993 my mother printed off a bunch of research on Rave culture from the interwebs at her work, Lockheed Martin at the time. I like to think that the defense industry helped inform the scene.

Jesse Walker|11.29.07 @ 12:35PM|#

I'm Jesse Walker (**) by the way.

|11.29.07 @ 1:12PM|#

FWIW, I have a collection of thousands - if not tens of thousands - of rave fliers from back in the day. Most are from the US, although some are from overseas. Tripotronic, Ultraworld, Storm, Catastrophic, etc. Good times.

dhex|11.29.07 @ 1:15PM|#

lords of chaos is a good yarn if you're not into black metal and won't be offended by the travails of the other mr. moynihan.

sidenote: some of the blood axis stuff is quite good.

shecky|11.29.07 @ 1:30PM|#

I love this kind of ephemera. I could spend all day looking at this kind of stuff online.

|11.29.07 @ 1:41PM|#

I used to have a big stack of rave flyers from ~'91, but I'm pretty sure my folks threw them away a long time ago. They weren't too thrilled about the whole thing.

|11.29.07 @ 1:46PM|#

Whew.

For a moment there, I thought the headline was The ROVE Museum.

As if presidential libraries weren't bad enough...

ed|11.29.07 @ 2:29PM|#

Third rate art next to 60s psychedilia. Yes, I browsed the gallery. Uninspired, most. Maybe it's a direct reflection of the music? Don't know. Wasn't there, didn't care.

Bhh|11.29.07 @ 3:12PM|#

The visuals were really cool at the time - like they were beamed in from the future.

jimmy|11.29.07 @ 3:31PM|#

wow...ripping off a copyrighted cartoon figure and putting him next to some boring fonts...truly great art, almost as inspiring as the repetitive noise that passes for music at these events. i wish i could take some E and jump around like a zombie and look at these posters for ten straight hours. what the hell does this have to do with anything?

Brian Sorgatz|11.29.07 @ 3:39PM|#

Playboy Bunnies? I'm sorry I missed that gig.

|11.29.07 @ 4:09PM|#

I've seen better...

P.S. Taktix was my DJ name circa-2001. Drum N Bass, ruwd boyz!

dhex|11.29.07 @ 4:14PM|#

i wish i could take some E and jump around like a zombie and look at these posters for ten straight hours. what the hell does this have to do with anything?

you forgot the giving nubile girls backrubs for hours part.

also hey guyz this was like 10+ years ago. of course the art looks dated.

DJ Voton|11.29.07 @ 5:28PM|#

I'm Jesse Walker (**) by the way.
These are beautiful, Jesse. Thanks for putting them online. Sigh...those were the good old days...these kids nowadays, they just don't know what fun is, etc., etc.
i wish i could take some E and jump around like a zombie and look at these posters for ten straight hours. what the hell does this have to do with anything?
Q.E.D.

DJ Voton|11.29.07 @ 5:50PM|#

Taktix was my DJ name circa-2001. Drum N Bass, ruwd boyz!
Happy hardcore, circa right now, baby!

pdog|11.29.07 @ 5:54PM|#

zombies jump around? they always move quite stiffly in the movies

|11.29.07 @ 8:01PM|#

Thanks for the memories, Jesse.

what the hell does this have to do with anything?
Well, the entire dance music subculture that sprung up in the late eighties and early nineties was about as DiY, and for a time - as anarchistic, as it gets. It was the last great large scale independent (by that I mean originating from the ground up) youth phenomenon, and IMHO probably the last.

|11.30.07 @ 1:16AM|#

Can you imagine what it was like living in Idaho Falls before the interweb?

Can you imagine the isolation, the boredom?

Wow

I grew up in IF. Not that bad really. It's not even that small - about 55,000 people, 4 high schools. Lots of good snowboarding and outdoors stuff. I don't recall being particularly bored; there was plenty to do, even if you weren't into the rave scene (I wasn't). There was other local music (punk and hardcore, which I was into), and you could always drive to Boise or SLC for bigger acts if you were into it. It's not like living in NYC, but big cities have their own good and bad aspects.