Once again, Trannyshack reared its fabulously coiffed head to prove that the sick and twisted San Francisco set just keep getting, well, more sick and twisted.

Tuesday May 8 saw the Stud transformed into St. Tranny High for an evening of "Endless Love." Peaches Christ and Trannyshack founder and Ricki Lake Show veteran Heklina hosted Trannyshack's first High School Prom since 1997. Having blacked out from too many stiff Mandarin and Cranberries (warning: The Stud makes killer drinks) last time I hit Trannyshack, I kept myself to a two-drink minimum, determined to see the show. As usual, Trannyshack, voted the Bay Guardian's Best of the Bay Editors' Pick for Best Drag Show 2000, did not disappoint.

The show opened with Heklina introducing Peaches Christ as Principal Christ, overseer and disciplinarian of St. Tranny High. They reminded audience members to vote for Prom Queen and King 2001 (and yes, there were ballots), and then promptly brought out last year's Prom Queen Martiny, who danced with her king to Journey's "Open Arms," the last slow dance of their reign.

As we watched the two sway back and forth, a baby began to wail off to the side. Sirens blared. Within seconds, two drag king police officers stormed the stage and arrested Martiny, dragging her away and leaving us audience members wondering what the hell was happening.

My stomach churned. When that happens at Trannyshack, it usually means the show is about to turn fabulously foul.

Principal Christ emerged back onto the stage, holding a metal garbage can, the kind one would find in a high school bathroom, up in the air. Olivia Newton John's "What Child Is This" began to play. She waved the can back and forth while pulling out bloody strands of toilet paper.

Then it happened.

Principal Christ pulled out a baby (doll) covered in fake blood, complete with red, twisted, and all-too-fresh-looking umbilical cord hanging down. She held the baby in the air, then proceed to place him/her at the top of the cross that loomed over the St. Tranny High gymnasium turned Prom dance floor.

Other performers of the evening included Electro the Pop and Lock King, who did Peter Schilling's "Major Tom" while running around the stage in a foil covered rocket; Kennedy who dedicated he performance of Julie Brown's "Homecoming Queen's Got a Gun" to Columbine High; and of course Heklina, who rocked the show's closing with Alice Cooper's "School's Out."

Before Heklina's performance, the winners of Prom Queen and King 2001 were announced: Kennedy and Electro. Apparently though, the ever-popular Kennedy rose in popularity a little too much that evening. Heklina informed me via email that she revoked Kennedy's crown for election tampering. "Kennedy had several friends in attendance who all filled out in excess of 20 ballots or more in her favor!" exclaimed the exasperated Heklina. "I mean, we all know if that election had been run honestly I would have won!"

Tsk, tsk Kenedy.

I stayed to dance and socialize afterwards, leaving at about 2:45 AM. DJ Pinky Ring spins an eclectic set before and after the show, ranging that evening from various house tracks to the Go-Gos' "This Town." Rumor even has it that Go- Go's drummer Gina Schock was cruising around the club that evening. You just never know whom you might run into at Trannyshack.

The Stud, 9th and Harrison Streets, has hosted Trannyshack every Tuesday night for the past 5 years. Cover is typically $5, except for special events like Prom. For more information and to view some great photos of Trannyshack, visit www.heklina.com.
 

At 2:15 AM I left to head over to Sugar. Happening every Saturday night from 10 pm-4 am at The Stud at the corner of 9th and Harrison Streets, Sugar's only a short two-block stroll from Eklektic. After dancing to some UK garage for a few hours, I needed to hear some house to make my evening complete.

On this particular evening, I arrived right as Lewis, started his set. Going on at 2 am, he would bring everyone from the peak hours down to closing time at 4 am. I worked my way through the masses of gyrating cute boys and the sprinkling of girls to the front of the dancefloor to dance and watch Lewis throw down his unique style of slamming, hard, techy house. I saw one of three friends up there and joined them right as Lewis dropped in Moby's Bodyrock over whatever other track he was spinning, giving the Moby song and everyone dancing a swift kick in the ass. It was truly one of those beautiful dancefloor moments as everyone just plain seemed to go nuts.

Other highlights of the evening included watching my co-worker's girlfriend's roommate Faith dance one the elevated ledge that runs the length of the Stud's dancefloor. She looked quite fly in her black PVC/vinyl pants, tight, black, midriff-baring T-shirt with an icy road sing on it and the words „Out of Control‰ written along the bottom of the T-shirt. And dancing one person over from her, also on the ledge, was Kennedy of Trannyshack infamy. She's a towering, 6 feet tall, gorgeous drag queen who that evening looked Beyond Planet Ghetto Fabulous in her silver sequined micromini and equally micro-sized top. Her main accessory was a belt black that loosely hung around her hips and sported her name, Kennedy, written in bright, silver studs or rhinestones. I couldn't tell from where I was dancing. And sandwiched in between Faith and Kennedy? This adorable little queer mod boy, complete with scarf tied around his neck.

Dancefloor diversity at its finest. The great mix of people at Sugar is one of the club's many highlights, as is having Lewis and Ellen Ferrato (who was not there this evening) as rotating residents. The classic Ms. Pac Man video game, still only 25 cents after all these years, is another highlight. Of course, Ms. Pac Man is available to be played on any given evening at The Stud.

One of the only drawbacks to Sugar is that it's one of the few choices in late night dance spots for queers to gather on Saturday nights. But it's been going strong as a weekly for well over two years now, and will continue to do so. I highly recommend checking it out.

It'll breathe a bit of freshly sweetened air into your weekend nightlife.

"You realize tonight is officially the start of our very own 'Last Days of Disco,' right?" I asked my friend Mouse as we climbed into her '85 Honda Accord that's covered with stickers like Mean Corporations Suck and Good Looking Records.

"HUH?" she responded.

"Think about it. It's 2001. We're heading to Portland's first true 'massive.' Headliner: LTJ Bukem. At the Portland Expo Center. Capacity, several thousand. " I was on a roll here. "A party this big, in Oregon. It's over for raves. It's like it's 1981 and disco's died it's last death."

Sure, I was exaggerating, but I got Mouse to laugh and see the parallel between my pop culture references.

But it was true. We were on our way to experience "rave as huge rock concert," something neither of us had really done before. We'd experienced both good and bad large parties before, but never one quite like this. Could it be done, especially in a smaller city like Portland, which had never seen a party at a place as large as the Portland Expo Center before?

We were both a bit skeptical. She has 9 years of raving under her belt; I have 7. Coming of Party Age on the Chicago-Milwaukee-Madison circuit, we'd both been through the huge party experience before-including the old arguments of the scene selling out to corporate sponsorship, parties losing their spirit and vibe by being held at suburban Chicago soccer arenas, etc.

Reading an article about this party, Spiritualize, in the free weekly Portland Mercury caused the skepticism. When told earlier that week we were going to see LTJ Bukem, I was expecting a smaller club venue-like the Justice League for Bukem's San Francisco show-not a massive party. A Los Angles-based group called MillionWishes World Wide (www.millionwishes.org) threw Spiritualize with local Portland promoters Direct Drive Entertainment. According to the Mercury story, MillionWishes provides an electronic music festival package to the local promoter and takes care of publicity, booking, and marketing for a portion of the profits. Proceeds from a certain number of presale tickets benefit a local charity; in the case of Spiritualize, MillionWishes chose a homeless youth shelter.

Sounds like a lovely culmination of everything one would find on Planet PLUR, right? I thought it sounded like a recipe "the-party-that-thought-it-could-but-couldn't," especially when you throw in the glossy 20-page booklet, complete with punch-out letters on the front that spelled Spiritualize, produced for the party.

But not wanting to be the bitter, jaded, geriatric ravers, Mouse and I focused on the immediate positives: seeing Billy Nasty and LTJ Bukem for me, and seeing PFM (in, according to Mouse, his first ever U.S. appearance) and MC Conrad for Mouse. She even brought along a well-worn vinyl copy of PFM's 1995 track One and Only, hoping to get it signed. On the way there, we also tried to ignore that the party cost $25, and that it ended at 2 am. (Remember, rave as rock concert.) It didn't work. In fact, it made Mouse decide that we would only stay if PFM had not gone on.

Twenty-five minutes later she had smooth-talked the parking booth attendant into letting us in to see if "a certain DJ had gone on yet," and I was sitting in the idling car in front of the Expo Center waiting for Mouse to return with news on PFM. Surprisingly, only one security guard approached me to ask for what or whom I was waiting. I gave her an honest response, and she left me alone. You've got to love small cities; in a larger city, I would have been eyed suspiciously and been told to move on.

Fifteen minutes later, we were inside the lobby, having gone back to pay our $5 parking fee and having found a relatively close spot to park. Mouse wanted to check with yet another person to make sure PFM had not gone on. We stopped a young-looking guy who was wearing headphones-all official looking.

"Hey do you know if Mike Bolton has played yet?" Mouse asked him.

"Huh? Who? Michael Bolton ... that old pop star?"

"Nooooo!" Mouse rolled he little junglist eyes. "No. Mike Bolton. PFM. I want to make sure he hasn't gone on before I pay."

Headphone boy turned away, talked into his headset, and answered in the affirmative.

"Yeah. He goes on at 11:30."

Mouse and I immediately checked our watches: 10:15 pm. Plenty of time. In fact, I don't know if I'd ever gotten to a party that early before. So we paid our $25 and entered.

"Shit. It's empty in here," was my first reaction. We were in a HUGE space. BIG.

But then ... "Hey, the music's ... really good," was my second reaction. Billy Nasty, who was throwing down some hard, driving techno ala Richie Hawtin's Decks, EFX, & 909.

Might we actually end up liking this party? I've worked past my cynicism toward the whole superstar DJ thing. We've created it. Big names like Bukem produce excellent and amazing tracks. Superstar tag-team DJs like Sasha and Digweed make me cry when I see them because their music is powerful and emotional. We've turned them into electronic rock stars. As long as they're good, why not work it and become successful?

For whatever reason, some small part of me still is cynical toward large parties; I guess I prefer to see the Big DJs in club venues, where there's more of an illusion that the DJ will show up.

I swallowed my cynicism and stared across the football field-sized space toward the far end, where the DJ arena stood. I say arena because that's what it was. The DJs spun on an elevated stage, separated from the throngs of dancers by a wall of gates and a few security guards-very concert-like. Along with the driving techno, five huge video screens that rose behind and to the sides of the DJ arena pulled Mouse and I forward. Blasthaus, from San Francisco, supplied some of the most amazing visuals I have ever seen at a party. The atmospheric videos progressed along with the music and were divided into eight distinct chapters, starting with "Prenatal Dreamscape" and ending with "Integration." Fused together, one flowed into the other every hour.

As we danced and walked around, it became evident that this party was working. Quite well. Tons of people were dancing, especially all the young ones (the party was all ages). People weren't copping attitudes; they were friendly and had smiles on their faces. No one seemed overtly cracked out, either-a refreshing change. Sure, there were the few standing around mesmerized by glow sticks, staring blankly at the person in front of them who was putting on the glow stick show ... but every party has a few of those.

We did sadly notice that very few folks were dressed up. Sometimes I miss the days of brightly colored hair, multiple facial piercings, funkier clothes-but that's another era in raving history. Two people did stand out: one guy up front who wore plaid pants and some big shoes, and another who was dressed like a fairy, complete with pink wings, pink tights, a pink tutu, and of course, lots of glitter. He had a wand, too. But I can't really be one to judge, showing up to Spiritualize wearing just jeans and a T-shirt.

Other plusses of the party included the huge, clean, well-stocked restrooms. There was never a wait (at least in the boys' room). The party sported a well-staffed first aid station as well, which supplied a never-ending flow of free ice-cold water and cups. Even when Mouse and I hit the free water at 1 am on our way out, plenty of cups and full jugs of water were to be found. The also well-staffed information table had their own never-ending supplies-of party booklets, DJ schedules (that had the location of the free water printed on them!), flyers for other parties, and friendly volunteers who acted as an information booth.

One odd thing about the space that must be mentioned: the concession stand. It seemed kind of cool that we could get a pretzel or a $3 soda if we wanted, but it also seemed down right weird. We couldn't decide, so we didn't. We opted for the free ice water instead.

After touring around wearing our cultural anthropologist hats, Mouse and I headed back up to the DJ arena. Our watches had hit 11:30 pm-time for PFM. As we neared the edge of the arena, Mouse heard the music slow down and MC Conrad's voice boom over the PA. I lost her as she bolted forward and bounced through the crowd to the likes of "Hey girl, chill" and "Watch where you're going."

I finally caught up to her: leaning over the arena's barrier, dancing around, and waving her copy of PFM's One and Only track in the air. Perhaps because she was blocking their view with her album, several people around us asked Mouse what record she had. They promptly received a brief education on who PFM was, what the track she had was, and how this show was so important because it was not only PFM's first U.S. appearance, but also the first time she was getting to see him.

By the end of PFM's set, Mouse had a signed copy of One and Only in her hand that read "To Mouse, Love PFM, 2001." She had convinced this sweet girl on the "in" side of the barrier to snag PFM after his set, and she did. As Mouse bawled her eyes out with joy and smothered the generous girl in hugs, I smiled and realized that yes indeed, the rave as rock concert had officially landed.

And I'm just fine with that.

EKLEKTIK AT CAT'S CLUB

Being an avid househead whose best friend is a junglist meant lots of little fights over what played in the tape deck on road trips to parties "back in the day". What I lost in those little tiffs, I gained in appreciation for jungle. The music simply grew on me.

That was circa 1995-98, in Chicago and Milwaukee. Now it’s 2001, and here I am in San Francisco. Because of the drum and bass education provided to me by my best friend Mouse, I occasionally deviate from the smooth flow of the 4/4 and venture into the world of the breakbeat when going out dancing.

So on Saturday, March 10, I checked out Eklektic at the Cat Club (8th and Folsom Streets) for the first time in more than a year. In fact, last time I went, Eklektic was still happening on Thursday nights at Rico’s on Minna Street.

Upon entering the club, it struck me how Eklektic had grown up since my previous visit. The club is now three years old (its first full-color glossy flyer debuted in January 1998), and it radiates a much sexier, more mature vibe. It’s now also 21+, while one only had to be 18 to attend at its former location. Perhaps that’s why it felt all grown up to me. The Cat Club is also a proper nightclub, whereas Rico’s was more of a, well, a pizza place, from what I’d heard. Regardless, I preferred the proper nightclub vibe, being 25.

Two distinct styles of music can also co-exist peacefully at the Cat Club without getting in each other’s way, because the two dance floors are far enough apart. Showcasing the talent that would represent Reflex Music Group at Miami’s upcoming Winter Music Conference, the back room that evening had some hard, crazy, dark, dark, dark jungle going on every time I ventured in. However, I didn't have any earplugs to protect my eardrums from the sonic assault spitting forth from the speakers. The music in the backroom had to be the loudest I'd ever heard in a club; which was one of the evening’s only drawbacks. People were packing themselves in, though, thirsty for more, so Eklektic gave its audience what they wanted that night.

On the contrary, I could not resist the music in the front area. Abstract and Noel were cranking out great two-step / nu-step break sets. I adore this. For me, part of my love for dance music is that it constantly evolves, keeps changing, and pushing forward. For me, jungle’s gotten too dark. I loved it in the mid-late 90’s, when I was getting the drum and bass education from my friend. The music made sense to me back then as we pushed toward possible millennial chaos, not knowing what lie ahead for us. Dark jungle provided us with a nice soundtrack to those times.

Now, two-step just sounds refreshing. I truly dig vocally two-step tracks. They’re the perfect union between house and jungle; lots of vocals plus bouncy breaks makes for a happy new sound. The nu-step sound is just plain fun.

Needless to say, I stayed glued to that front dance floor until 2 AM. The DJ's threw down some favorites like DJ Zinc’s 138 Trek, which put several smiles on several faces. I kept expecting to hear that damn Azzido Da Bass track that got played about four times at every club I went to in London last November. But, thankfully, I didn’t hear it. The DJ’s get extra props for continuing to spin even after some jerk set off pepper spray and cleared out the front of the club for 15 minutes, causing the evening’s only major setback.

For more information on Eklektic, visit their website.

The music scene in Boulder is supported by the 25,000 students in attendance at the University of Colorado. I started listening to electronic music when I came to school at CU in 1996. At first it was hard finding new music and other people to show me in the right direction. But soon I started to feel more at home, hanging with People from Detroit who grew up going to Richie Hawten Parties, people from New York with amazing drum'n'bass tapes, and people like me who were new to electronica and wanted to hear more. The house music scene in Boulder is a tight community. The more people I meet who are involved in the house music here, the more I find that everyone is connected through the web of people who love this music.

Last week I got a chance to get some feedback on the Boulder scene from one of the people who have been out front and keeping things here in Boulder moving in the right direction. Hardy is one of the four owners of Soma, Boulder's answer to Space 550 (San Francisco). The club has two floors, a cocktail area upstairs and a DJ Booth downstairs. The whole club is decorated in a sophisticated style with local artists showing work upstairs. Here are some of Hardy's views on the Boulder scene:

What do you think is good about the electronic music scene in Boulder?

Boulder has one of the best vibes in the country. That's not just my opinion. I'm told that every week from the guest DJ's we bring into SOMA. People are really into it from the first beat. DJ's like Nick Warren, King Britt and Christopher Lawrence say it's their favorite place to play in the USA.

Where do you like to buy Vinyl in Boulder?

Bart's CD and Records!! John Martinez and Kurt Yates have made this one of the best stores in the country.

Where do you like to party in Boulder?

My favorite night out is Sundays at SOMA. The party is called Unity Gain. The music is deep and dubby. DJ's Liondub, Psychonaut and Ivy throw down. I spin once in a while. Each week there are special guest live PA's and the décor and visuals make the space. I try to make it to the Humble Souls Summer Sunset parties in the mountains. Summer in Boulder is amazing.

We now have a few quality venues in town but our dance community is still fighting for space amidst a tough contingent of Boulderites who are trying hard to make sure that their town stays the way that they like it. Quiet. Boulder has had a history of making it hard for investors to start bars and nightclubs. When SOMA opened in 1998 they received the first liquor license in downtown Boulder in 15 years. More recently a group of CU alumni tried to renovate the defunct Flatirons Theater into an upscale venue for electronic music. In the fall of 2000 the group applied for a liquor license for their new club, Club Envy.

The local neighborhood association voiced strong concerns about a new liquor-serving establishment in the student area of town, which the Hill Neighborhood Association is currently trying to re-establish as a community business area. The group's official position is that "the Hill (the student area of town) is already sufficiently served with bar establishments." The fear of Hill nightclubs with liquor licenses goes back to 1997 when there were a series of incidents involving large groups of drunk, noisy students and police in riot gear. Alcohol was considered the main culprit and as a result the community is now hyper-weary of handing out any new liquor licenses. It seems like a place to dance might help drain some of the collective student energy.

Unfortunately, most of the residents who live near the hill proper know virtually nothing about the dance/electronic music scene, except what they have read in drug scare articles from Time and Newsweek.

I asked Hardy what he thought the relationship was like between police and promoters in Boulder and Denver. He had this to say, "Boulder is mostly a college town so the police are more concerned with wild keg parties than the tame electronic music scene. Denver on the other hand has some serious problems between the police and promoters. Lately the pressure to prevent raves, nightclubs and underground parties is very high across the country. Denver is no exception. It's the same hypocrisy...if a promoter does a reggae concert and 90% of the crowd is smoking ganja the police don't seem to care. However, the same standard is not the same for DJ parties. I was organizing a trance music festival in the mountains for this summer and as soon as the venue realized the music was coming from DJ's they said the local Sheriff would try and shut down the party. Meanwhile the same venue is hosting two-day rock concerts. It's a double standard."

In Boulder we have a great web of people who love eletronica and there are plenty of people here who know that dancing is not a crime. With the mountains in our back yard and quality people helping to keep the vibe progressive we're keeping the scene tight while we move towards a more tolerant tomorrow.

In the past few months, I have been to a couple of really awesome raves. Parties like "As You Like It", "Rave Forest", and "Santa's Workshop", where the music was superb and I found the love, energy, and vibe that you can only find at raves. On any given weekend, you can find a good rave to go to, but there *is* that risk of a party getting shut down if you're going underground and not commercial. In the past few months, there have also been a number of underground parties that have been shut down; some parties busted an hour into festivities while others never saw the darkness of night after hours of set up.

But how does someone check out their favorite DJ without having to go to a rave or wait all week long for that party? Simple!

Raves have been such a big influence on dance culture. Many clubs around the world have fashioned their clubs play more forms of electronic music. Many DJ's who started out spinning at raves also spin at clubs. Any night of the week, anyone can catch that "DJ who spun at that rave I was at on Saturday" or "DJ who's spinning at the party on Friday" spinning at some club in the Bay Area. So now instead of going to these clubs that cater to the radio station crowds and play "club" music, there are now more clubs out there that cater to the electronic crowd.

So what is going on here in the San Francisco? Before I get into the clubs and weeklies, there was actually a commercial party that happened out of a slew of Trance parties since the beginning of the year. The most recent one would be the "Superstars", a party thrown by Rave Pic. DJ D, Tom Slik, & Dyloot, were amongst an Awesome line up of DJs who spun that night. I heard San Francisco called "Trance Francisco" because of the Groovy Trance DJ's here!

Gianni and DJ ICON are part of a whole list of Bay Area Trance DJs that know how to tear up the crowd! You can actually catch Gianni spin at Wednesday weeklies in Santa Rosa or occasionally at Spundae at 1015 on Sundays. Rooz and Armann The Brain Child spin Trance on the second Friday of every month at Recycle at Space 550 in the green room. Armann throws his own weeklies as well in San Jose.

If Deep House is what you seek, another monthly party you may want to check can be found at 177 Townsend. The Wicked crew throws parties at this space. Groove to Jeno and Garth as they take you on a set of Deep House. The fun part about this club is that the DJ booth usually changes locations. So you never know if you will be dancing next to the DJ in the middle of the dance floor, in the corner, or by the stage.

Supposedly, Sacramento is having all these Cool Drum & Bass parties, but there is never a location post about it anywhere. Instead, there are these Drum and Bass weeklies happening at a few clubs Lower Haight on Mondays. Saturdays, Eklectic is going on at Cats club on Folsom Street. They have a drum and bass room in the back of the club. I think the club opens at ten o'clock and you may probably want to get there early. I got there around one in the morning and found myself dancing on a platform because it was so crowded on the floor.

Speaking of Eklectic, resident DJ Ms. E will spin the most wicked breakbeat set you'll ever hear. If you want to catch her spin anywhere else, be on the lookout because she definitely is not a DJ to miss with her Sweet and Sour mixing style. Felix, another resident at Eklectic, will take you on a journey of hard Trance, Techno, and hard NRG. That night I was at Eklectic, I found myself dancing so hard to his set next to these S & M punk rockers who probably got confused what night it was at Cats, but stayed anyway. Cats Club is a punk rock club on Thursday nights.

AndyW. is famous for spinning techno! I have noticed him spinning a lot at Mad Hatter on Tuesday nights in Oakland. I have also caught him spinning at Raves thrown by ASR. More recently, there was a DJ Battle at Mad Hatter, where he did battle and Forest Green was among one of the contenders. For DJs who want to show off their skills, you can do so by dropping your name in the hat of the Mad Hatter. Hopefully you'll be the lucky name drawn and get to spin your set.

Speaking of the East Bay, Blake's in Berkeley is becoming famous for their Wednesday night parties, Ascension. Thrown by the ACME crew, you can catch everything being played: Trance, Techno, Deep House, Hard NRGY, and Breakbeat. Check out resident DJs Alex Van Dune, Johnny Bravo, BRD, and Mighty Mouse spin the most incredible sets that made you glad were out and not a couch potato. Blake's is also the home of Space Monkey on Thursday nights, which features 2 Step, Downtempo, Deep House, and Breakbeat. Charlotte The Baroness recently spun there and took you on a journey from Disco House, Progressive Trance, Old School Hip Hop, and then back to Disco House. The Baroness also spins at The End Up on Sundays!

This is basic listing of hot spots in the Bay Area, not a complete summary! Going to these weeklies on the weeknights pretty much gets me psyched for the weekend when I actually hit a rave. Also, the DJs tell you what party they'll be spinning at over the weekend. For all you Groovers and Shakers out there, this is a perfect opportunity to go dancing every night of the week!

Go into a clothing store like on Haight or Telegraph and look at the stacks of beautifully designed fliers for what's happening throughout the week. So if you get that itch to let loose and let go after a hard days work, you really do not have to wait all week long for that Rave that might get busted to finally get your Groove on. That DJ is spinning somewhere and you know you will have the most amazing time for a Monday night.

Who says the weekend has to end or not start early???

Remember, It's All About The Music!