Skip to main content[CEREBRAL DANCE] A dance party is perhaps the most basic and pure collective musical experience that exists. It's physical and sonic harmony: ass to ass, hip to hip, ear to ear. (Inanimate Portland indie rockers, don't knock it till you've joined in the shake.) And, after a year of cerebral throb, Holocene's semi-regular dance night, Boombox Friday, has proven itself to be the finest eve in Portland for finally surrendering to a beat.
Yeah, the beat's gotten a bad rap over the years—blame top-40 crud (go ahead and torch me, but Justin and Missy didn't save anything), or ridiculously bare and (often) mindless trance, or drum 'n' bass. But Boombox Friday—though rarely abstract enough to keep the radio kids and ravers scratching their heads outside—showcases some of the most complicated techno brains around. Bills have included Nice Nice (one of only a few American acts on London's revered Warp Records), Solenoid (a father of the local electronic scene), E*Rock (the gentleman behind the Audio Dregs label), (alleged time-travelers) the Cascadian Knights, San Francisco's (truly) live techno duo Eats Tapes and, well, the list goes on. E*Rock's appearance at this Friday's anniversary party will, in fact, be the night's only repeat—fittingly so, as he headlined the very first Boombox Friday.
But, despite the fact that it now seems like a platform for Portland's dance music avant-garde, BF's roots aren't exactly in what you'd call progressive dance music. The night started after its co-founders, co-curators and resident DJs, Manny Reyes (a.k.a. DJ BJ, Atole and one-third of Do N' Dudes) and Paul Dickow (a.k.a. DJ P. Disco, Strategy), ended a strictly disco night last winter at Crush. According to Reyes, the two DJs figured out pretty quickly that their new night would have to go a wider route and be a "full-on dance night" for it to work at the relatively mammoth Holocene.
Yet, the night's been overwhelmingly successful in maintaining its self-proclaimed "underground" status. Reyes says it's a lot of the same faces on the dance floor for every show—a consistent, comfortable scene of friends, regulars and friends of friends. But that means the party's still not busting out of the club's walls, which also means that some Portlanders are still stuck in stone on these exceptional Fridays. Hopefully you're not one of 'em.
Dat'r, E*Rock and DJs P. Disco and BJ play Friday, Feb. 23, at Holocene. 9 pm. $5. 21+.
WWeek 2015