NorCal – Alien Disco ‘n Purple Party
Always a fun time at undergrounds
Over the weekend of September 9th and 10th, 2016, I attended 2 underground parties—Alien Disco and Purple party.
Alien Disco was one of the few remaining outdoor renegade of the summer on Sept. 9th, 2016, held in the beautiful tall pine forests of the lower Sierra Nevada mountains, 45 minutes east of Sacramento. This was High Voltage‘s first ever event and free to all attendees with locals DJs. The location was easy to find and had paved road all the way to the venue which is unusual for many outdoor undergrounds. There were many cars parked along the side of the road as I drew near. I could see the lights and lasers from the stage through the tree with thumping sound as I approached. Once there, I was greeted with a basic sound setup common to many mid size outdoors. The setup was decorated with a hand painted decorations of a flying saucer/aliens and some small lasers playing across the ground with dancers in the bare dirt clearing. This party was held in a large clearing, mostly flat on a ridge top surrounded by towering pines. The warm summer sky was filled with countless stars.
The musical journeys were conducted by Forest Green, DJ Tek 9 (Blake Las), Freddy Silva, DJ Skinny (Chris Moyer), DJ Sublimal (Aaron Burks) B2B DJ Prime Balance (Alec Dumbrowski) and a close out hardcore set by DJ Freakshow (Blake Charlton) to a crowd of about 100 to 150 people.
I was glad to see people show their support for a new promoter and the local presence was definitely high with many people from the foothills communities. Dust was a constant as it is at most outdoors in the Summer. I had my bandana with me which mostly filtered the light dust. This outdoor underground had a nice wilderness feel while not being too far off the beaten path.
It was a fun night and look forward to High Voltage’s next event.
The following night, Purple Party was held at a private venue—200 capacity— in Sacramento. One of many undergrounds happening on weekends during the Summer. It was a fun filled party with lots of excitement. The location was easy to find in a business park on the east side of Sacramento. Unusual for Sacramento undergrounds, it was an 18+ event which included a nice small reasonable bar for the 21+ attendees. The parking lot was filled with cars, which bodes well for the turn out. The front of the venue was black glass with almost no hint of what was going on inside, aside from the soft thumping bass. I was inside around 10PM to a crowd of about 100.
Purple Party was decorated with an artful wall mural as a backdrop behind the DJ setup with large themed purple drapes decorating the sides. I was glad to see so many people there to show their support for the lineup of popular local DJs—DJ Tek 9, Muppet Punk, Freddy Silva, and Clover Beats. I knew this underground would go off well and it did.
Into the second room, there was a quant DJ setup with lots of black light and small lasers. Freddy Silva was playing some awesome house music and I grooved there for a while before swinging out
smoking area to get some air and mingle with the smokers. The smoking area was small but popular. Back in, I found Forest Green on decks much to my delight, as many of the dub heads bailed after Muppet Punk finished and said their goodbyes.
It got a bit steamy with so many people in such a small space, but cooled down as people left. Forest Green really wowed the crowd on the packed dance floor. As the crowd thinned out, No Left Turn from San Francisco took over with an amazing hardcore set and the hardcore heads took over the dance floor.
I left before the end but this was overall a fun underground and I had a great time. I loved the cozy underground feel of the Sanctuary Club.
-BigE Storm
