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Since 2014 the party has attracted many DJs to Pittsburgh, including The Black Madonna, Daniel Bell, Mike Servito, and Theo Parrish. 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. 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. Ĭlark and Goshinski met because Goshinski attended Humanaut parties, while Clark began working with her on the VIA festival. 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.
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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. Īround 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. 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. 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. 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. Origins, growth, and present day Īaron Clark moved to Pittsburgh as a college student in 2003. Continuing drug busts and new legislation put a stop to these kinds of events and, therefore, Pittsburgh's dance music subculture by 2002–2003. Eventually people began using raves as places to buy and sell drugs-including MDMA and Rohypnol-leading to Pittsburgh Police crackdowns on raves in 20. Pittsburgh rave culture itself spawned at least one well-known artist, the drum and bass DJ Dieselboy, who attended the University of Pittsburgh between 19. As the events grew more popular, they drew internationally known DJs such as Adam Beyer and Richie Hawtin. 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. 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. 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. History Background ĭuring 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. 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. 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. One night per month is called Honcho, a specifically gay party. Hot Mass is usually held weekly on Saturday nights into Sunday mornings.