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Beltane Rave @ MORTUARY in Olympia, WA

So this is what I get for being single, psychotic and fancy-free on FB in April 2023: only the greatest indoor rave ever.

Put bluntly, I’m trying to go to every event I can get to at this venue.  Incredible.

Allow me to elaborate:

I couldn’t resist finding out more about the venue when the algorithm randomly floated me this flyer as an event “near me.”  I thought, that’s the Goddess calling again, I really have to put my passport to use.  (Coincidentally this is how I found out Amtrak has a line leaving from downtown Vancouver and hitting all points south for quite a way.)

From the moment of admission the spot is a winner:


You know I’m definitely getting “old funeral parlor” vibes, for sure.  But in a good way.  A restful dead kind of way.

The only sign I really need:

Selected literature! The have a zine stand 🤩 I feel like I’m back in Montréal 🫡

Exquisite…you have no idea how relieved I was to find the venue, be let in off the porch couch (they did doors kinda late), and not find a bunch of oogles grinding up twinks for bread.  (This seemed unlikely–from the flyer–but the post-Amtrak-return-ticket-purchasing-snafu-strung mind is a disturbed place.)

Gorg’!  It also kind of reminds me of the basement of a place my friends and I lived in Toronto…we had a couple live shows but the queer rave was before my tenure.  (The glitter lived on.)

Speaking of bedazzling fixtures, it’s a handy rotating seizure inducer:

Just saying, this thing is hilarious. I guess a rave is no place for someone with epilepsy anyway 🤔 at that point why not.

My first sight of the beautific and strangely reassuring bathroom.  I really felt cared for as any-old-anybody attending the rave, just for going, that they had prepped so much and so sweetly.  I’ve never been more tangibly, environmentally invited or appreciated in any venue let alone a show at a collective residence (people are usualy lowkey stress-avoiding engagement with upcoming events in their space and it tends to create a somewhat alienating vibe of “I know I said come in but what are you doing inside of my house?” And I’m very guilty of this myself, I would have liked to have done what these folks did with like a fresh full custom interior design including nice lighting and flowers, and especially a more functional chill/crash space than the subterranean cinderblock dungeon we had at the front of the show space. )

Is that not spectacular? The tub is full of flowers. It took me all night to realize it was a good selfie spot. I didn’t want to smash the flowers anyway 🫠🪷🌺🏵🌷🪻💐

Another toilet pic, no one had used it yet.  I was practically misty-eyed it was all so beautiful.

I went and looked at the other bathroom next…

This is more like what I’m used to:

Delightful 😆

Love the walls in this one.

Ok, ok, first flower crown sighting:

🫡

Kin.

An altar got set up at this point 🥲🥰 I mean wow.

This was another sort of altar space, just inside the chill/green room.

I weep to think of what an oasis this was.  I just so happened to be pretty overstimulated and I was very very underdressed for not dancing, so imagine my inner wailings of relief to have been lovingly catered to in my adventure.  House of healing: delusional faith rewarded, restored and reinvigorated 🥲🫡🇺🇸🦅🧚🏻‍♂️🧚‍♀️🧚🌿

💚💚Goddess bless those punks down in Oly💫

I could cry, who does this?  I know one host anywhere else who makes sure you can have a melty or take a stress nap or whatever somewhere like this at their parties.

Truth be told, my plan for lodgings was to get kicked out, hopefully closer to daybreak than not, having enjoyed the blanket and mattress for a sufficient stay to recharge, not to mention enjoying the vibe.  So, I hunkered down even though I wasn’t entirely in crisis mode physically or emotionally upon arrival.  I felt pretty old relative to the crowd, and foreign, honestly, which put me in even less of a mood to mingle than being wired up and fried from the journey getting to the place.  I just bundled and masked up and zoned.

I felt sort of liminally in and out of shut-down-mode, trying not to burn through my energy dangerously before final curtain on the DJs, and so expending none. But “practically vibrating,” as it’s been said, with speed and adrenaline. “Oscillate wildly” hmm? Probably not what the Mozzer meant.

This is more true to the lighting but the camera corrected one really popped and sang better of how friendly the vibe was.  This illustrates how it was a good place to be a traveler-sized blob in the corner closest to the dancefloor, so the DJs were always visible.

The view from my spot.

The hallway to the right of my spot, complete with strobing lamp.  Parts of this place really do spark memories and associations, damn.  It’s so familiar in the best of ways.  So dear.

Looking back around to the altar and trying to show off the draperies around the doorframe.

But, it’s also like nowhere I’ve been, in totality.  Nowhere’s ever brought it all together like this.  What a night 🥹 what a blessing to have made it to this.

{Here’s when there was a whole ceremony moment; very performance art, very freaky fae-day, pagan forest dwelling witch-creature realness the house}

Now its the Deeeeeee Jaaaaaaaaays 📣📣📣  all of them so certified fresh ✅️ they don’t trig copyright claims on the tubes❗️❗️

Damn, someone who knows what they’re doing.  I’ll never fail upwards enough to make it DJing house parties with people like this around 🤷

Just thinking of the “this is what democracy looks like” chant, but it’s this-is-what-comfortable-looks-like. [Ummmm…😎…I wasn’t trying to date across national lines though so I didn’t want to risk falling for someone–it wasn’t ALL terribly-youngs. There were the DJs and hosts for starters. All lovely seeming and talented people.]

First set is Mauve Decade. Dancey!  Classic!

Wow, incredible kick off to this night.

So: is Lisa Dank gonna live up to the name?

*spit-take* oh so that’s how it is

Well, here’s Lisa Dank absolutely throwing down:

And mellowing out:

Intermission to the nice bathroom–come on a video tour:

Stunned.  Stunning.

Whew, devastating. I might have even danced.

Let’s get some air…

The vibe on the street is convivial.

Okay, but DJ Onslaught Ocelot can’t possibly live up to the name?? Like there’s no way…

FUUU

SNAP this goes.

Lordt…okay…

Here’s a 1 SECOND clip so you can fully appreciate how hard this goes:

Y’know? It ain’t Lawrence Welk.

Oh look…

Someone whose mobility aid was easily accommodated by the space.

Still going…

Ok ok gawd, the name fits! This name ALSO fits perfectly!  This is just inhumane to people who wish they could DJ.

Beast!

I will never doubt again. Not the raw energy of the Onslaught anyway.

Because, how y’gonna follow that?  Doubt it’s happening…

Nooooo dkm but the next one is slaying too 😭 who is this heinously sick?

Gee can you tell which of the DJs I was starting to get uncasually attracted to?  Sheesh.

At this point I feel like these Americans are just trying to kill me.  They’re almost upsettingly good. God, I never used to get outclassed by people from the states like this.  They used to be so uncultured. (Oh wait I was hanging out almost exclusively with unhingedly jockish college types and the weird old burnouts profiting off them; in fact the first time I felt truely met and outclassed by an American peerage it was ten years ago this December at a party in Chicago, but that was by a meagre margin, for reasons I wont go into.  This is a tsunami.  Don’t get me wrong, this gave me years of life back.  Oh fine, IDA is cool too but they’re basically all a million years old and/or not trying so it’s different.)

…there’s a breather for 2 seconds:

Can A.I.R. match the energy or are we human?

Comparatively this is the chilldown tempowise but the skills are still hot. Very cool.

Then everyone shot the shit practically until the sun came up.  Admittedly I pleaded to sleep another couple hours before leaving, and pity was taken.

Saw this outside in the light:

Hmm, I like the subject matter.

Wow, I can’t wait for the rail system to not suck ass. The WiFi didn’t even work, what a mess. What is this, a greyhound bus in 2008?  Don’t get me started on how Amtrak doesnt even pay to staff the Olympia station, it’s all volunteer labor just so they can have a stop.  Fucking wow. Micky-mouse operation fr, eh.  Shouldn’t it be like, a federally operated public transit service?  Guys loosen up about the automotive industry kickbacks and support your public, this is a travesty.  The buses in Oly are free to ride, however, which is exactly how public transit should work.

Anyway, what a night.  What a night 🎰

This was where my year kicked off into high gear.  (That is of course what a Beltane rave is for, to mark the start of the warmer portion of the year and associated boom in activity…but to look back on it and see it so clearly, for it to happen like clockwork as per the calendar…it’s truly magical.) Within a week and a half of this trip I was dating someone in Vic, and she’s all I ever wanted. I must have soaked up some really useful luck or charm or cleansing or something.   Next time I’m buying all the zines and camping elsewhere ✨️

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