Hot Mass is an electronic music dance party held weekly since December 2012 below Club Pittsburgh, a private gay club and bathhouse in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The event indirectly grew out of Pittsburgh's LGBT, disco, and electronic music subcultures of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Critics have noted the experience and quality of music at Hot Mass is difficult to find elsewhere in the United States, comparing it favorably to European nightclubs and parties, including Berghain.
Hot Mass is usually held weekly on Saturday nights into Sunday mornings. [1] One night per month is called Honcho, a specifically gay party. [1] Hot Mass and Honcho parties take place on the second floor of a building at 1139 Penn Avenue owned by Club Pittsburgh, a private gay men's club and bathhouse. [1] The party can legally remain open past the 2:00 am closing time imposed on bars and nightclubs because it is hosted at a private club; Hot Mass organizers charge an entrance fee for a membership. [1]
During the 1970s and 1980s—at the height of disco's popularity and prior to the AIDS pandemic—at least three private social clubs in Pittsburgh which served gay clientele used their spaces to legally host afterhours dancing and drinking. [2] [3] These three clubs—Lucky's Transportation Club, House of Tilden, and Travelers—were owned and operated by Robert "Lucky" Johns and were popular nightlife spots frequented by LGBT and heterosexual patrons alike coming from as far as Ohio, West Virginia, and New York. [2] [3]
Throughout the 1990s there was an electronic music subculture in Pittsburgh which likely traced its origins to similar Internet chatroom-based movements in Detroit, Cleveland, Minneapolis, and across the United States. [4] [5] [6] Pittsburgh promoters and DJs organized raves in warehouses, ice rinks, barns, and fields which eventually attracted thousands of attendees, some of whom were high school students or even younger. [5] [7] [8] As the events grew more popular, they drew internationally known DJs such as Adam Beyer and Richie Hawtin. [5] Pittsburgh rave culture itself spawned at least one well-known artist, the drum and bass DJ Dieselboy, who attended the University of Pittsburgh between 1990 and 1995. [4] [9] Eventually people began using raves as places to buy and sell drugs—including MDMA and Rohypnol—leading to Pittsburgh Police crackdowns on raves in 2000 and 2001. [5] [6] [10] Continuing drug busts and new legislation put a stop to these kinds of events and, therefore, Pittsburgh's dance music subculture by 2002–2003. [1] [5]
Aaron Clark moved to Pittsburgh as a college student in 2003. [5] He was interested in house music and chose Pittsburgh partially because of its reputation for large raves, but he arrived too late to witness all but the vestiges of the 1990s subculture. Over time Clark met and started collaborating with Pittsburgh-based producers and promoters such as Steve Simpson, Paul Fleetwood, and Shawn Rudiman, who continued trying to book premier DJs for shows at Pittsburgh bars and clubs. In the late 2000s Clark became part of a DJ crew called Humanaut which eventually hosted its own electronic music parties, first at mainstream nightclubs and then at smaller venues. [5]
Around the same time as Clark's move to Pittsburgh, artist and DJ Lauren Goshinski returned to the city from an exchange program in London, where she frequented Fabric nightclub and became enamored with house music. [5] Looking for a similar milieu in Pittsburgh, Goshinski discovered afterhours live music at Shadow Lounge, a coffee shop allowed to host afterhours events as it did not have a liquor license. [5] Eventually Goshinski started DJing and designing audiovisual experiences at Shadow Lounge and other Pittsburgh venues, ultimately leading to her founding the VIA Music Festival in 2010. [5]
Clark and Goshinski met because Goshinski attended Humanaut parties, while Clark began working with her on the VIA festival. [5] John McMarlin, the manager of Club Pittsburgh—inspired by the private Pittsburgh discos of the 1970s and 1980s and his experiences at DJ Larry Levan's "Saturday Mass" shows at Paradise Garage in New York City—convinced Clark to make the party a weekly occurrence. [1] To manage the work needed to plan and host weekly parties, Hot Mass was split between four or five different rotating crews, including one known as Pittsburgh Track Authority. [1] [11] [5]
Since 2014 the party has attracted many DJs to Pittsburgh, including The Black Madonna, Daniel Bell, Mike Servito, and Theo Parrish. [1] [12] Electronic music artist and DJ Yaeji credits Hot Mass with her "indoctrination into nightlife"; she regularly attended the party while studying at Carnegie Mellon University. [13] [14]
Hot Mass was on hiatus since March 2020 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, with the exception of a virtual New Year's Eve party held on the night of 31 December 2020—1 January 2021. Hot Mass resumed holding weekly events in May 2022. [15]
Critics have noted the experience and quality of music at Hot Mass is difficult to find elsewhere in the United States, comparing it favorably to European nightclubs and parties, including Berghain. [1]
Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric piano, synthesizers, and electric rhythm guitars.
House is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by a repetitive four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 120-130 beats per minute as a re-emergence of 1970s disco. It was created by DJs and music producers from Chicago's underground club culture and evolved slowly in the early/mid 1980s, and as DJs began altering disco songs to give them a more mechanical beat. By early 1988, House became mainstream and supplanted the typical 80s music beat.
A rave is a dance party at a warehouse, club, or other public or private venue, typically featuring performances by DJs playing electronic dance music. The style is most associated with the early 1990s dance music scene when DJs played at illegal events in musical styles dominated by electronic dance music from a wide range of sub-genres, including drum and bass, dubstep, trap, break, happy hardcore, trance, techno, hardcore, house, and alternative dance. Occasionally live musicians have been known to perform at raves, in addition to other types of performance artists such as go-go dancers and fire dancers. The music is amplified with a large, powerful sound reinforcement system, typically with large subwoofers to produce a deep bass sound. The music is often accompanied by laser light shows, projected coloured images, visual effects and fog machines.
Chicago house refers to house music produced during the mid to late 1980s within Chicago. The term is generally used to refer to the original house music DJs and producers from the area, such as Ron Hardy and Phuture.
The Haçienda was a nightclub and music venue in Manchester, England, which became famous during the Madchester years of the 1980s and early 1990s. It was run by the record label Factory Records.
DNA Lounge is an all-ages nightclub and restaurant/cafe in the SoMa district of San Francisco owned by Jamie Zawinski, a former Netscape programmer and open-source software hacker. The club features DJ dancing, live music, burlesque performances, and occasionally conferences, private parties, and film premieres.
Florida breaks, which may also be referred to as The Orlando Sound, Orlando breaks, or The Breaks, is a genre of breakbeat dance music that originated in the central region of the State of Florida, United States. Florida Breaks originates from a mixture of hip-hop, Miami bass and electro that often includes recognizable sampling of early jazz or funk beats from rare groove or popular film. Florida's breakbeat style feature vocal elements and retains the hip-hop rhythms on which is based. The Florida breakbeat style however is faster, more syncopated, and has a heavier and unrelenting bassline. The beat frequently slows and breaks down complex beat patterns and then rebuilds. The genre has been described as being easy to dance to while creating an uplifting, happy, or positive mood in the listener.
Electronic dance music (EDM) is a broad range of percussive electronic music genres originally made for nightclubs, raves, and festivals. It is generally produced for playback by DJs who create seamless selections of tracks, called a DJ mix, by segueing from one recording to another. EDM producers also perform their music live in a concert or festival setting in what is sometimes called a live PA. Since its inception EDM has expanded to include a wide range of subgenres.
The EndUp is a nightclub in San Francisco, California. Opened in 1973, the club is located at 6th Street and Harrison in the South of Market district. Known for its status as an afterhours club, the venue has hosted a variety of benefits and events during its time as part of San Francisco's nightlife community.
Berghain is a nightclub in Berlin, Germany. It is named after its location near the border between Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain in Berlin, and is a short walk from Berlin Ostbahnhof main line railway station. Founded in 2004 by friends Norbert Thormann and Michael Teufele, it has since become one of the world's most famous clubs, and has been called the "world capital of techno."
Nation was a live music/club venue, located at 1015 Half Street SE, in the Navy Yard/Near Southeast neighborhood, of Washington, D.C.
Shelley's Laserdome was a night club in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. It was at the heart of the house and rave scene in the early 1990s, helping to launch the career of DJ Sasha and featuring regular appearances from Carl Cox. It was eventually shut down by Staffordshire Police.
Monika Kruse is a German techno DJ/producer and record label owner, with a career in electronic music spanning more than 25 years. She played an influential role in the early Munich rave scene during the early 1990s and was among the first wave of German techno artists to tour internationally, before moving to Berlin at the end of the decade where she founded her Terminal M record label.
Buzz – once called "Washington's best electronic dance night" by The Washington Post - was one of Washington, D.C.'s longest running dance parties. It was co-founded by DJ/promoter Scott Henry and DJ/promoter and DC music store owner Lieven DeGeyndt at the East Side Club and then relaunched in October 1995 at the now demolished Nation, formerly the Capital Ballroom. At its peak it was one of the largest dance parties on the East Coast and voted "Best Party" four years in a row by then electronic dance music culture magazine URB (magazine). Buzz attracted the world's top electronic dance music artists to Washington, DC.
Clubbing is the activity of visiting and gathering socially at nightclubs and festivals. That includes socializing, listening to music, dancing, drinking alcohol and using recreational drugs. It is often done to hear new music on larger, high-end audio systems than one would usually have in one's home, or for socializing and meeting new people. Clubbing and raves have historically referred to grass-roots organized, anti-establishment and unlicensed all night dance parties, typically featuring electronically produced dance music, such as techno, house, trance and drum and bass.
DJing is the act of playing existing recorded music for a live audience.
In the DJ culture, a resident DJ or local DJ refers to a DJ is part of the staff of employees of the club, unlike a guest artist, who works as freelancer, which means that he or she plays on several clubs. Obtaining a residence implies being part of the salaried staff of a company. Unlike a guest, the resident almost inevitably has to conform to certain musical styles dictated by the hiring company. Instead, the resident's sponsorship rests with the club itself, which will probably means greater investment in marketing than if it worked independently.
Kathy Yaeji Lee, known professionally as Yaeji, is an American singer, DJ, and producer based in Brooklyn, New York City. Her style blends elements of house music and hip hop with mellow, quiet vocals sung in both English and Korean.
Babalu Club was one of the most well-known nightclubs of the early German techno scene and was located in Munich's Schwabing district from 1990 to 1994.