This renegade was planned between shows to celebrate the release of Armacat's Cataclysm. He went by Ambedo at the time and later changed it.
This was still during the time where we wanted to utilize the spot under the bridge as much as possible. Now, something like that seems impossible.
We got too much attention and people started getting more upset a lot quicker whenever we did events there. I still dream about doing it, but the risk is too high.
I haven't made up my mind.
At this time, I was rocking two 5' tall Sunn cabs on top of two peavey subs powered by a Yamaha EMX512SC powered mixer. Nothing was strapped in... but for the first time,
we all saw the foreshadowing of what a stack could be. To us it was glorious. Maybe a little too much so.
We all went to the 100-gecs show at the complex with 25 or so cardstock flyers in hand. I was all buzzin because I had stayed up the entire night before trying to hack into this bitcoin wallet
while working on my music video for the XXX EP. It was defeinitely a honeypot but I was using some website that allows you to send SMS authentication codes to a sploof number and one of the texts that came through
led to some site with about 1 bitcoin in its wallet. Definitely a honeypot but I was too wired to think about that in the moment.
I gave one of the flyers to a raver sporting the OG ETA merch.
A bunch of us stood outside the gates of the complex yelling "FREE RAVE" "FREE RENEGADE RAVE" "RAVE UNDER THE BRIDGE TOMORROW" and 70% of the people thought it was a stupid scam or
something. I heard people saying things like "ew" or just being turned off by the idea of a dance event that wasn't handled by grubby capitalists. Interesting social experiment I guess.
A bunch of alt kids took flyers of course. Some people were absolutely stoked on it.
The next day, I loaded up my car and Stacy's SUV with the speakers and equipment we needed and got to work. Someone had to drop out of the lineup so Ganky played first for about an hour and a half.
People were pretty hyped about it and just filing in. Next up was a hybrid set between me and Lambo. I had just taught Lambo how to DJ that week and forgot to mention anything about gain... more on that later.
Hearing the Pulsar 23's kick got the kids absolutely riled up. They all started screaming, pushing each other, moshing, kicking dirt and dust into our teeth. Again people were hungry for some sonic violence. And Lambo and I
were delighted to give it to them. Throughout the course of our 20 minute set, I had an increasing number of people walk up behind our table to tell me it sounded crunchy, something smelled bad, and it was hard to hear.
Thinking that was just mine and Lambo's style I shrugged them off. "It's fine! That's how it's supposed to sound." Another five minutes go by. "It sounds really bad. Like something is breaking." I check things out and find that the speaker's coils have likely
overheated so we turn things down. As I reach for the knob, I noticed Lambo had CRANKED the trim on all channels. Hard right. Uh oh. I look up and a girl was thrown into the stack stage left. EVERYTHING comes toppling down. But the music keeps going...
I hurried to help her up and put the Sunn cab back where it belongs. The 1/4" jack was pushed into the speaker and the metal plate completely deformed. A plume of smoke billowed out of the speaker. That's done.
After everyone got resituated and without a break in the "music", I looked up and all these kids were still moshing, still jumping, still going nuts.
Part of the reason I was so hellbent on this event goin on was because it was also a message. The first Fervor event was taking place in the warehouse directly next to us and I thought it was the snobbiest thing ever. I got some passive aggressive texts from
people involved in the organization and I told them we weren't moving our free event just because it was rambunctious and messing up their vibe. I still think the notion was a bit funny lmfao.
Looking around, even though everyone was still losing their minds to sizzling high hats and... well nothing else, I decided to pack it up.
Over a year later I reconnected with the person that toppled the speakers and learned they were too embarassed to go to another event! I always thought it was an awesome memory.
Looking back, I think this is the only disaster ETA has suffered that never made me feel upset. Sure my speakers were destroyed but we moved on to better things. They still sit unused in my studio.
You can see all the damage on the sides.
At the end of the day, this rowdiness drew the attention of Jesse Walker who decided to include us in the next Neon Rodeo. That alleyway event still gets brought up to this day.
