First time Basement, NYC

Hi dear community,

I am a mostly passive but avid reader of this sub, and I wanted to share my first experience in basement, nyc from last saturday. Although I now feel a bit sick, it was a blast of a night. I was there from 1 am till closing, and these are my observations, note that I am a big techno fan who used to live in Europe/Germany so I went there with relatively low expectations in order not to be too disappointed lol:

1/ I arrived there around 12:30, queue was ok, waited for about 15 minutes. I went solo as I don’t know many people in the city and enjoy that anyways. No one before me got rejected whereby most groups were either solo or two. The bouncer asked whether I have been there before, and what DJ I am there for. That’s all, everything else went smooth.

2/ The room and sound system were great. I sticked to basement as I don’t like the music played in Studio, but went there to take a look too. The ceilings, pillars etc give the space a cool underground vibe, lighting was great albeit simple.

3/ Crowd was different depending on time, I would say busiest was 1-4 am then went less and less busy. Starting 4 am, I started really enjoying it very much due to Henning Baer playing a great set but also thanks to the great crowd. It felt more local, experienced and gay, and while I am not gay, I am comforted by a high gay presence in a techno crowd. I think next time I would go around 2-2:30 depending on who plays when etc.

4/ From what I could observe, most people were either sober or on drugs, very few were drinking, the bars were not busy even at peak times. I was sober most of the time as I don’t have a good plug yet in the city and wanted to take caution, while also not minding dancing sober as I love the music.

5/ Toilets/Smoking areas were not very busy even at peak times, and one can drink water for free.

In total, I would say it was a very enjoyable experience, and I am really happy the city has such a club and crowd. I was afraid of disappointments and I should say I was not disappointed! Thanks for those with whom I shared a dance, was great!

PS: hmu if you’re in nyc, into techno and raving the style I described, I a (28m) recruiting a small raving crew!