California is cool, although i haven't raved in any other state. however i have raved a good deal in socal and more in norcal. and overall i prefer norcal, but i hear san diego is, or at least was, a cool scene too. LA has the bigger, better-ish massives though. Electric Daisy Carnival had well over 30,000, and most people were having an awesome time except for a small percentage of people whom were there for reasons not including love of electronic music. And that is about three times bigger than the main venue for massives in San Francisco: Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, with capacity of about 10,000. And the only crew that really throws massives in SF is Skills, and they bring out a grip of the big name DJs, but their LoveFest After Party isn't gonna have Drum n Bass this year (weak sauce: it makes Nocturnal in Socal so much more appealing, but i know i'll have a good time at either).
I do however way prefer San Francisco's underground scene and the mini-massive scene (2,300+ but that's rare), although there are only a handful of crews that draw me out nowadays, and I only go to oakland parties a few times a year because i boycott venues that have in the past had shootings, armed robberies, stabbings, etc. Also I still need to check out a sacramento party, but i heard last year the party with the best line-up in Sac actually never booked most of the DJs and ripped everybody off, other than that Sac is supposed to be cool. And santa cruz has a PLURy, small, rapidly growing scene, but parties have to end at 1:30, so Santa Cruz is like home of the raging after-party as far as my friends are concerned.
In Norcal my favorite crew HANDS DOWN, is Evolution Entertainment, but their next party won't be until 2008, so all i have nowadays for which to REALLY REALLY look forward are the LoveFest After Party here in SF (because the parade and day festival are free and AWESOME) at the end of this month, and Monster Massive in LA just days before Halloween.
Hope California is all it's cracked out to to be for ya.
P.S.- Is there P.L.U.R.
in the New York scene?
