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Dead by Dawn, the Early Years This is culled from several different interviews Under did for some 'zines and e'zines. A brief intro: Andrew Davidson (Under), David Applegate (Applejack), and Chris (DJ X-Lax) started to throw underground dance parties in the end of 1992. We formed the production company named 'Dead by Dawn', after a quote in the movie 'Evil Dead 2'. We threw a series of five events in Philadelphia during this period. The events, in order: Wonka, Tronic, Jolt!, Wonka 2, and Kool Rave. Starting Out - Wonka: We'd never given a thought to security, or any other issues about the space itself. Party went off OK (admittedly, this was near 7 years ago - the graphic details of the party itself are faint memories) people had a good time. I sweated & worried. I worked the door. I talked to the cops if/when they drove up ; "Just Band Practice, officer...".
The huddled mass of 7-10 people meandering about outside quickly launched back into the space, with me shoving. I didn't see the guy, but supposedly, he aimed the gun at the crowd & started to shoot at us. Luckliy, no one got hurt, and everyone made it inside safely. One of the residents of the warehouse later admitted to having _his_ handgun ready & he ended up running around looking for our perp later. Sure, the cops show up around 2 minutes later, and quickly roll out to search for the guy, with an eyewitness in the car. Nothing like a little gunplay to kill the vibe of any party. With the cops sirening about the neighborhood, most partygoers took the opportunity to make thier own exit. Party ends quickly. A week later I hear that some poor girl had gotten shot in the back as she was leaving in the squealing car. I never got her name or any other info, but I felt really bad about it. (As a sidenote - many years later I discovered I knew the driver of the car. He gave me the graphic & gory details of that night from a completely different perspective.) As for the benefits of throwing the party itself, all in all, the 3 partners lost $10 each. We'd overspent on the bells and whistles of the party (_2_ video projectors? _free_ candy & drinks, _only_ $5 admission price?) Even though this wasn't extremely profitable, it was a great party, and inspired, we threw a couple other parties through the end of the year. Tronic: Jolt!: We were poor, though. We hadn't paid our voicemail bill since we'd gotten it for our first party (much thanks to American Voicemail!) Of course, they turn it off at 9pm the night of the party (around 4-5 hours after we'd put the map point on it - thereby cutting off any info about the party. We had a lackluster turnout, partially due to the voicemail fiasco, partially due to the blinding rain storm hounding the east coast that weekend. Even I'd spent an hour wet & dreary at the gas station acting as the map point guy. We gave up early, with no voicemail, and horrible weather. After this many successes, you wonder why we continued...but we did. The building super (who'd babysat our 'production' for the owner) caught on (who wouldn't - there was no video crews to shoot our music video!), but was cool with it. He offered to help us next time around - this time, we cut out the building owner - and work straight with him. Cash money - bigger space, more everything. Thus was born Wonka 2.
Wonka 2:
We had 2 sound systems, rented extremely expensive (and utterly useless - they never worked for us!) GoldenScan Lights, we even got a smoke machine & the fog fluid. We had vending (Popi sold Smart Drinks) - we had it all. We made a couple mistakes this night. First mistake was charging $8. No one carries $8 in ones, and we _never_ had change. The line started to creap out the door & down the block - and we had the entrance on Delaware Ave. Two people working the door couldn't get the people in fast enough - especially since we had to scoot the folk with exact change to the front so we could let the people waiting with $20 bills in. Inside, the party was rocking. The lights still didn't work in the main room, but the sound was working. Same with the 'chill-out' room in the front. Then L&I and the Fire Marshall showed up. Seems the fog machine made it appear as if the second floor of the warehouse was on fire & someone from the Movie Theatre had called it in. Party's busted, & we all try to sneak out quietly while the Fire Marshall grinds the poor building super about permits & legality. All in all, party ends around 1am, and no one is ticketed/arrested. At least I was home and in bed before 3am... Kool Rave: Dave and I spent a week cleaning the place (in sub-freezing temperatures). It had junk everywhere, and nails & broken glass, etc. When it was all said & done, the place was _way_ better that when we'd gotten it. We rented porta-pots, 3 kerosene jet heaters (to heat the space). We even rented a bus (with driver) for the night so we could drive center-city based partygoers to the North Philly space. We borrowed a friends cafe as a front to sell tickets/act as map point for the night. Our sound/light guys started by showing up late. They ran around like headless chickens as they tried to set up the lights/video projector/speakers/amps in time. Dave bought a pager for the party, I borrowed a cell phone (so we could stay in touch through all the craziness) Little good it did us as within 45 minutes of the sound getting going (we started extremely late - around 11pm.), our good friends at the Fire Marshall & L&I showed up. Frank Antico from L&I (same guy who made news recently with some L&I scandal or another) was the man in charge this evening. He took Daves & my info, meanwhile an Inquirer Reporter (following Dave & I for the week before the party for an article about the exploding underground 'rave' scene.) was taking notes & an Inquirer photographer was snapping photos. This was probably the only thing that saved us from a quick arrest & drive downtown in the paddy wagon.
People burned our color flyers in effigy outside of the space. Ah well. At least it was an industrial neighborhood, not a ghetto. You had to walk _through_ the ghetto to get back to civilized society. (Hee hee) We lost mad cash (barely made enough to pay for all the stuff we rented, let alone the rent & the exorbident $600/mo _costs_ the warehouse generated. ($600? For _barely_ one night of energy use? Please! Fucking Realtors!) It financially killed us, and any hope of future events. About Dead by Dawn: Our experiences did spawn the Dead by Dawn Newsletter (and east-coast rave 'zine which later turned into 'Slurp!'). But that is a different story. Obviously, both Dave & I are still on the peripheral of the 'rave scene' today, both as DJ's (something we _really_ should of started back when we threw the parties we could have been spinning at), me still as a flyer designer (duh...), and general ravers (very old-school, yo!)
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