Every weekend I thumb through a barrage of social media invites for various club events and EDM concerts, deciding carefully which flown-in headliner suits my fancy for the weekend. Last Friday night, I decided to sift through my normal news feed frontrunners to find an event a little more hush-hush and a lot more underground. Not quite an after hours and not quite a rave, the True Family Unit 22nd anniversary loft party “Rumspringa” became the destination for the evening.
Rumspringa
Rumspringa
With no address posted on the internet, my companions and I obtained the coordinates from a friend and ventured to the near west-side destination, the ‘Hoyne loft’. After walking up four seemingly endless flights of stairs, we paid our cover and walked through the clandestine entrance. I immediately seemed to be experiencing a flashback, as the lighting setup paid homage to the visual rave experience of yesteryear. A single multi-colored laser projected vibrant animations of dancing figures, geometric patterns, and malevolent shapeshifting creatures onto the soot-streaked wall. On opposite sides of the laser setup, projectors blasted random, chaotic images and animations onto white screens. Props with smaller, more subtle lighting effects were scattered about the venue to support the main visual barrage. Despite my brief distraction with the omnipresent retinal candy, my ears began to focus on the resonating beats.
Brian Brovelli aka Dj Turbotic
While I unfortunately arrived too late to see opener Lyrek, I walked into Brian Brovelli and Danny Diggable tag teaming to warm up the diverse crowd with some funky house and techno. Halfway into their set, the crowd sang along about how their life got turned upside down when Boogie Vice’s “Bel-Air rmx” blared from the speakers. Next, Mega Mike and Layer laid down a low-frequency bass dubstep set; the speakers punished the loft with the rolling basslines. Afterwards, Microdot and Eddy Riot returned to the audience a lethal dose of aggressive techno. The tag team theme ended at 2am when Alex Kislov stepped up to the decks and riled the crowd up with solid house tracks; even a few throwback tracks made it into his set such as Technotronic’s “Pump Up The Jam” remix. Amy Unland continued on the trajectory that Alex had started as she had the honor of opening for the legendary house producer and DJ, Paul Johnson.
Paul Johnson – date unknown
With famous tracks like “Get Get Down” and “Follow this Beat”, Chicago native Paul Johnson has been a staple in the rave and club scene for 30 years and continues to erupt the dance floor every time he approaches the mixer. Paul Johnson continued his trend of underground promenade puppeteering at Rumspringa; even the wallflower attendees in the loft converged to the dance floor to participate in the house-driven madness. As the dawn began to finally peer over the brick window sills, Adonis Childs closed the night out with his patented eclectic mix of techno. Before everyone knew it, the lights came on and the collective squint of the party-goers signaled an end to an exhaustingly successful night. After the party dust settled, I was finally able to sit down with Adonis to ask him a few questions about True Family Unit and all other things music related.
Shawn B: Rumspringa was the 22nd anniversary of True Family Unit. How did it all start?
Adonis C: True Family Unit started out as New Sun Records when Brian Brovelli and myself hung out during high school and started doing punk shows in Dekalb. We started dabbling in electronic music and changed the name to True Love Family Unit in late 1994. Eventually it was all live electronic music, using drum machines and other equipment to do college parties. I started DJing in 1997 around the time we met Brian Balli. The three of us changed the name to True Family Unit and threw our first big party ‘Divine’ in 1999 at a roller rink in DeKalb. Since then we have grown in size and members have come in and out, but the love still remains the same.
Shawn B: What do you strive for when you throw a party?
Adonis C: To get like-minded people together and show them the new music of our crew and to show people the underground
Shawn B: What’s your favorite party that you threw?
Adonis C: Our “Pride” party series that we used to throw on pride parade weekend. We had house divas come in like Dajae. The crowd was out of control. It was awesome.
Pride Flyer – 2002
Shawn B: What are some of the key things you like about ‘underground’ parties?
Adonis C: The music and the freedom. All the bad elements of the EDM scene are missing. The vibe is heavy and the parties are more about the music instead of the hype of commercialism. Underground parties are about the music and the growth of the dance scene and culture, not about the deterioration of dance music to make a buck.
Shawn B: Of all the ups and downs of the underground scene in the past 20 years, what do you still see as remaining the same?
Adonis C: The vibe still remains the same and the music is still underground. Chicago will always have elements of house and techno, where the beats have that urban feel to them. In my eyes, the Midwest is the mecca of dance music!
Shawn B: Thanks for your time Adonis. When can we expect the next party?
Adonis C: Peace, Love, and Music 69 on February 14th. It will showcase Danny the Wildchild, Orville Kline, myself and Mr. Bobby, Amy Unland, and a lot more. Check it out!
For the latest information on True Family Unit check out their Facebook page.
For the latest music from True Family Unit check out their Soundcloud page