The northeast techno scene is alive again!

item one

Location: New York

Two rather new weeklies (or mostly-weeklies), both on Fridays. One is called We Are Robots. The robots are in the basement of a French restaurant, where the smoking ban and substance control do not apply. The drinks are reasonably priced (for NYC anyway). The lineups are usually slamming, and the residents have skills. The other is called The Bunker, at a place called subTonic. Similarly slamming guests, similar $5 cover charge. No idea about the smoking. Meanwhile, fucking SURGEON is also coming to town on a FRIDAY so I can actually go. (There is a pattern of amazing techno DJs coming to New York on weeknights for some reason. Saturdays are also off-limits.) Thomas Fehlmann (from The Orb) is playing the same night! PTOOEY

Random trivia: last Friday I went down to see Jeff Samuel play at We Are Robots.

Not long ago, the only weekly techno event in the city had closed up shop, and things were looking bleak. Things still aren't quite normal. The legendary Sonic Groove record store closed up not long ago and there hasn't been much to pick up the slack. Internet stores like Planet X, iTunes, Beatport, and Warp are seriously kicking the ass of anyone who has to pay rent in Manhattan.

item two

Location: Boston and suburbs

Wednesday nights at the Phoenix Landing bar in Cambridge used to be the place to be, but everyone involved either moved away to the West Coast or Europe or just plain dropped the ball. After 7 years and missing one or two weeks, the promoters hand off the night to a rotation of four weekly promoters who have started packing the place again. Dan Bell played not long ago. Agent Orange, Marco Carola, and Marco Bailey are either new veterans or coming soon.

House music at more mainstream venues isn't hurting either. Derrick Carter is playing tonight, and Colette is playing next weekend.

Other new underground events are popping up. A new Friday night party starts up tomorrow night with Legowelt as their guest! Hopefully that can keep running.

There are a number of other things listed on the Mission Control website, but that place has become rather unreliable lately.

item three

location: Rhode Island

Rhode Island doesn't have many successful club nights. It's hard to pack a room, and most bars operate on a tough enough margin that anything that isn't going to crowd the place isn't worth it, especially since fire code regulations became extremely strict after the Station fire. The local weekly jungle club closed just before New Year's after bringing in Bad Company as their last hurrah. The local house night survives only because it's on a Sunday. Plastic, which tries to make everyone happy, had their club close; fortunately they moved to another one across town.

Crap, that sounded awfully dire. Things really are looking up. A former college kid meat-market has been transformed into a much nicer lounge with house and techno two nights a week. The guys who run Plastic have started throwing legitimate all-night events in Providence. The URI crew I helped start has finally organized an event with enough lead time and lineup stature that people might actually go.

item four

My skills have gotten much better, even in the last year. I was asked to play at one of the Providence weeklies last night, and afterwards asked to return next month. The only problem with this is competing with my friends in other areas. I'm not so much afraid of causing problems, as I doubt that will happen, but it does suck to not be able to attend an awesome event because I'm playing in rinky-dink Providence. :\