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The revival of rock and the decline of the rave scene?

haste

haste

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May 21, 2000
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Have a read of the article....

The garages are jumping

When I first started partying back in the late 80's I was heavy into the hard rock/metal scene and the amount of band venues that one could venture to were countless. There was your typical “nightclub” scene and the emergence of an underground “rave” scene that even in its fledgling days seemed to gather bad publicity regarding ecstasy.

Then two things happened that heralded the ending of the scene that I had known - now this might not be entirely accurate or the full picture, but it was my perception non the less. Firstly the emergence of the hell-spawn Taberet in every corner hotel. Rooms that were once stacked with Marshal amps were now replaced with poker machines, rooms that were once filled with young party goers were now subdued by coin feeding old people. Instiutions in my area such as Bell Street Rock and the Sarah Sands Hotel had been shut down, extracted of its underground feel and a new life breathed into it.

The fledgling rave scene was growing and attracting its new recruits from up and coming teens seeking to explore the wonders of entertainment. The Palace in St.Kilda had a theme night for years on Saturday nights called The Cathouse - it was the biggest collection of hard rockers, head bangers and grunge fans that Melbourne could muster - the nite was huge, anyone who's been to the Palace can attest to its capacity. As the years went on the crowd got older and smaller, there were no youngen's coming through - just the same familiar faces, but older. The older they got the more fell by the wayside through the call of other aspects in life - they soon moved the night to a much smaller venue - something more sustainable.

Now this is not a bands vs rave thread, so please don't reduce it to such a level - I'm after people's own perceptions of how the respective area's are faring today - and this it not just about Melbourne, but all of Australia.

Is rock'n'roll making a resurgence - will we start to witness the revival of the live band scene. Are raves on the decline? Are young people leaving the rave scene in favour of the live music scene. I'm not really active in any at the moment so I put this forward to collective knowledge base here on bluelight - how is your scene faring today. What differences have you noticed since you started?

hoping for interesting viewpoints :)
 
Excellent thread Haste!!! :)

Now, i cant speak of all of what you have written as I am only 21. However, the past, hmm, 3 years, to me, seem like everyone man and their dog are going to clubs/raves, whatever. Everyone is into drugs, even the "normal" people... the same people you used to see at bands/gigs.

I got into bands/gigs etc young and at that stage the aussie music scene was thriving... It wasnt until i tried E that i started to get interested in electronic music and that particular scene... so from 99 onwards i sort of converted. I still loved live music, but it seemed to me, the place to be out and about was at electronic gigs.

I mean, it COULD just be that the period i fell out of gigs/bands etc was because i was caught up in the electronic scene.. but from my understanding, live music during the past few years in sydney, especially live aussie music, has gone downhill. Although i do see this trend being turned around, with the emergence of lots of good new aussie bands, and the old ones still being around.

But then again, maybe its just me noticing the scene more again because i lost touch for a while... *who knows*

Although, there is a significantly less number of live venues, especiall in sydney. Newtown, once a place known for live music, really doesnt have anywhere. And looking through the drum media for small=medium venues, its pretty lacking i must admit. Which sucks.

Live music kicks ass...
 
I got into the electronic scene as a direct result of pills, but shortly after stopping taking pills I stopped attending raves/doofs - the attraction was gone (also I think alot of it had to do with me changing as a person). During my time in the electronic scene I developed a liking for progressive house and breaks which still lives on today - I've attended the occasional Sunny party.

I guess today I'm leaning towards my original roots and hoping that there is a revival in bands/gigs.
 
I've allways been a live music fan and deep down inside my heart I pray that you are right Haste. Dont get me wrong, I love a good DJ now and then, it just that nothing quite compaires to the ambience of a little gig in a cosy little pub. Unfortunately, lately your average Sydney live music afictionardo has found themselves holed up in The Basement making impromtue baricades out of tear soaked bar stools in a vain attempt to protect what little life is left in the scene.

Yet I feel there is hope. I have seen quite a few decent live gigs in several balmain pubs of late and I can feel a backlash growing to the shallow stainless steel odes to consumerism, populated by the narcissistic trash so common to Sydney. I feel the day of the op shop furnished back room with its partially blacked windows and the 5 dollar cover change for 3 bands is returning in all its hallowed glory. The Hopetown is thumping once again and the Bat and Ball has returned to the familiar sound of residents noise complaints (if you dont like noise then why the fuck did you move to Surry Hills?).

It remains to be seen whether this upturn is a quick fad or part of bigger movement away from the soulessness of much of todays nightlife in favour of the community inspired pub and live music culture. But I suppose it doesnt really matter. As long as the bands are playing, the beer doesnt cost $8 for something termed a smiddy that looks suspiciously like a shot glass and the pokies are kept the fuck out of my line of sight I think the only thing that does matter is that we keep on attending and, most importantly, keep on rocking.

=D
 
its all about live music, and even with electronic music i always wanted to see a live perspective of it.

I started off getting into rock, and still will always stick to my roots, being introduced to atleast 1 new artist every 2nd day its amazing to see how much good rock there is out there.

australia is definitelly getting a good dose of rock this year as i suspect michael coppel was sitting around doing coke and said "hey fuck guys, lets get every single band to come to australia this year"

the local scene is on the grow aswell, i am lucky to be surrounded buy amazing musicians and fortunate enough to find a gig every week if i was looking.

but 2004 is the year of Oz Hip Hop (+the suitable few) and hopefully me and taliana will get our game on showcasing the scene.

\m/ rock
 
I'm not much of a rock fan, so really I don't go around looking for news and stuff about the rock scene. But, I've been noticing it more and more, which must mean it really is getting bigger.

Just a bit of an outsider perspective I guess.
 
Well, rock and roll IS making a come back. Starts off with the Strokes and the white stripes for example.. then every fucking record label is signing up new raw rock bands. Which isn't a bad thing, though it's becoming a bit too repetative. In about 2 years time we'll forget all about it and a new wave of comercial music will come along.

So far i remember it going something along the lines of, boy pop groups, girl pop groups, solo artists from boy/girl pop groups, nu metal mixed with rap/hip hop, whiny guy rock bands, nu punk, and now nu rock and roll.

I don't believe the rave scene is dying. Theres always newbies showing up, discovering the beat, trying out new things.
Though in my heart i'm glad that rock and roll has made a come back. Hopefully some new clubs will open up which will play less commercialised music and go back to the underground roots of where most of these bands got their inspiration from.
 
i adore live bands and have been into them since i was a wee teenager. Psytrance kinda rocks my world now though ;)

I still love live shows but when i gave up BDO this year to go to Rainbow it kinda showed me where my preferences now lie :)
 
Rock and roll went away?

;)


Seriously I will have a skewed perspective on this because I was never into clubs - ok, maybe for a brief 3-month period with the friends that introduced me to E, but even then I had no clue, no connection with the music and no desire to connect with it.

As soon as I discovered what fun it was to do E in all my regular places... bars, live band venues, house parties, family reunions ;) ... I went straight back to that.

I think in the outer suburbs rock never really died. You have places like the Village Green and the Hallam Hotel which always had some kind of cover band - they have gone from playing AC/DC and Chisel to Cold Play and Powderfinger, but not much has changed apart from that.


I never noticed a difference on the radio either, being a MMM listener. In fact, I truly had no idea of how big and how diverse the rave scene was until I joined bluelight.. there are a large percentage of people out there still quite oblivious. I guess the die hard fans amongst us just looked on in bemusement at the rave scene and kept playing our Nirvana and Soundgarden.

I think it's great though if it's "coming back", kids need a wide range of influences from all kinds of genres and rock is an important one. And I'm grinning ear to ear at the revival of good old cock rock and glam (now with added irony!) - it's about time music was injected with a sense of humour.

I'm glad to see such great attitudes in this thread to it too - even if we don't understand each other's preferences they're all valid.
 
i know you asked about australia, but worldwide there's an upsurge of interest in rock music with the media heaping praise on every scruffy haired neo-garage band they can find..

even dance music has gotten rockier with bands like the rapture and the whole DFA crew, etc.

good ol' live rock 'n roll can be pretty incredible, and discovering a new band that blows you away is an incomparable feeling . but it seems to me like a bigger gamble than going to a dj gig. at least you'll have a pretty good idea what type of music to expect at a dj/electronic show. the number of painfully bad djs i've seen is pretty small compared to the number of bands i've seen that were having a bad night or were just piss-poor to begin with. there's also something less than satisfying about having to stare at a stage for an hour or more when you could be mingling and interacting with all these people who share your love of the music you're listening to.

i don't think rock will supplant raves.. people will always want to dance and machines are almost always going to be better at providing a steady rhythmic pulse than a human could be.. on the other hand, rock can have an energy and organic rawness that's hard to capture with records or electronics.

so both have their place and i think we'll be seeing more and more acts merging the seperate worlds.. heck, i've heard dance djs spin "seven nation army" lots of times, and everybody digs it.. so i think we can expect more "rock 'n rave"..
 
i havent been aware so much of the rock n roll scene cos i was never really into it.

but if it has been making a resurgence, then good, as long as raves dont start to go underground again. no matter how much the media declares that ecstacy is a thing of the past.
i think that they might reach a point where its equal. that would be good. so ur never at a loss as to where to go, whatever ur tastes might be.
 
^^ thats interesting syntech - I think you're the first person I've come across hoping the rave doesn't go underground again.
 
haste said:
^^ thats interesting syntech - I think you're the first person I've come across hoping the rave doesn't go underground again.
Click to expand...

very very very ditto......

and strawberry- yehhhhh for cock rock! *grins* The Darkness anyone? ;)
 
i think bands are but rocks not.

take a look at the line up for the recent party good vibrations(ed.- !).
funk, rnb, hip hop, breaks, turntable-ists, live live live.

i think raves as we know them have died and been reborn many times already since the early 90s. problem is the apple doesnt fall far from the tree and therefor i am stale and not up for "big events" these days... tho i could be convinced if i thought something different might happen. this is how the groovelicious line up tweaked my interest.



most importantly always moving forward.
 
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What is making the revival is the live show. Take two shows that were recently on. I spent the whole night at Aphex Twin pissed off that is tall guy was standing infront of me and I couldn't see. When I finally got a chance to see I realised that all I was looking at was a bloke standing behind a computer. Boring, so I looked else where to no avail. But just a day earlier Metallica pulled of probably one of the most amazing live shows in a long time. They had fire works and helicopters and everything else under the sun. It's not just the music, but the show as a whole that people want to see/hear.
 
.dR spgeddi said:
i think bands are but rocks not.

take a look at the line up for the recent party groovelicious.
funk, rnb, hip hop, breaks, turntable-ists, live live live.
Click to expand...

Was this particular event known for rock acts in the past? My understanding of this party is that its an U18 dance party - so the line up is no suprise?
 
Interesting thread! It's true that in recent times electronic music seems to be experiencing somewhat of lull in popularity and in the midst of the exodus away from so called 'doof doof' scene (as one of my mates who is a band manager so blandly put it) band music seems to be filling the void. In melbourne one only has to look at the popularity of nites like goo, DV8 and switch. In fact alternative nites seem to be the only new nites popping up, damnation opened up only a short while ago. Furthermore, even clubs like QBH which previously were the domain of big name DJs are even willing to put on an alternative/hardcore club nite, 'Underdogs', with unsigned bands drawn from across melbourne's diverse live music scene. It seems to me that bands that have been stuck playing at melbourne's previously list of declining live music venues such as the arthouse, the tote and such like are finally been given a chance to reach a wider audience by getting to play at bigger venues such as the metro and QBH. I mean even earthcore are going for a 'rock' vibe- see the line up for earthcore in the park (apart from infected mushroom...... mmm *drools*). Whether this is just a passing fad designed by coke sniffing promoters or something more permenant i don't know. What i do know is that a few years back the live music scene was all but dead and for it to be experiencing anything of a comeback then that's great news! Keep supporting live music, god knows those wacky bandfolk need it as they're completely useless at everything else.... trust me i live with one! ;)
*inserts shameless plug*
go see ISOLAR at QBH 'Underdogs' 20th of FEB, they're actually pretty good, with a chunky, rolling, hardcore metal sound that appeals to a far wider audience than pure thrash! There i did it maby he'll pay his rent on time!
 
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it just aint enough to be a DJ these days... unless youre already a "producer duo."
 
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