Welcome to Rave Zero.
The year that shouldn't have been.
At the onset of Year Three, the big
question was; "Who are we gonna get to live here?". The answer was;
anyone. There was a core group of people who had been there at the
very beginning and still wanted to keep the dream alive. But the
dream had been a nightmare for most and for those there would be no
return to Red Zero that year. Zalph, Straight up D. and Sanchez moved
into a warehouse and began to host punk rock shows there. Aptly
enough, their house became known as the punk rock warehouse. Chris
and Chip moved in and shortly after Chris moved his girlfriend Meg
in. They were married a few months later. Kim moved into the attic
and somewhere across town No-Joke G had started up a house with
multiple roommates. It was the era of satellite houses, very similar
in some ways to Red Zero, but altogether different. Red Zero Year
Three got off a shaky start when the house became polarized as
communication fell apart between the two floors. A secret plan was
formed to separate the saucer from the ship; to divide the house into
two separate apartments. Monkey. Steph and Scott P. got jobs selling
food at Woodstock that summer and on the weekend that they left the
house was in a state of total war. The word; "UNITY" was spray
painted above the house bulletin board and many angry notes were
posted below it. When the smoke cleared the house was whole again.
Monkey and Steph had started dating as a result of their uncanny
experience at Woodstock 94. There were some casualties though. As a
result of the conflict, Buffy D. moved out and started her own house.
This heralded the return of The Chief to Red Zero, but what he found
there was very different from what he remembered. There was a new
presence in Red Zero that year; the rave scene. What started as a few
remixes and a couple nights out at the local dance night became a
whole new entity at Red Zero. Kevin and Tony Sparks started out with
going to a few raves and ended up becoming local rave promoters. Thus
Pure Love, their rave promotion company, was born. The empty rooms in
the house were filled with rave scenesters and those who remained
from the previous years became involved as well. It was an all
consuming scene and as such it reached it's climax quickly. At times
there were as many as five to six people living in the small basement
space of Red Zero. A massive party was held that winter in a downtown
warehouse; it was called Snow Bear. Attendance was in the thousands
as ravers from all over the east coast made their way through a
blinding snowstorm to attend the party that night. Shortly afterwards
Kevin and his girlfriend; Molly imploded out of the crowded basement
and moved out of town. Others would follow.The scene was in a
downward spiral. Things were getting out of hand. Bills and rent were
not getting paid. The monkey had successfully negotiated with the
bank and the rent was down to $1,300.00. Later that year it was sold
to a man called Francis. He was a very no nonsense white man and as
such he could not imagine why anyone would have difficulty paying $70
a month in rent. In a gesture of cross cultural good will and sheer
ignorance, the monkey volunteered to sign each floor up with it's own
phone line under his name. When things fell apart the monkey was left
with over $1,700.00 in debt to the phone companies. Not even the
monkey could imagine why someone had called Malaysia for over 7
hours. To blame it on the scene would be short sighted. The people
who moved in and ditched on the bills and rent couldn't be blamed.
Who could fault them for not being loyal to people they hardly knew.
They were not friends, they were scenesters and when the scene left
Red Zero, so did they. It was Red Zero's unwillingness to die that
planted these seeds of destruction. By having these people move in to
keep the house going, Red Zero nearly went under. The original core
group remained as the phone and utilities were cut off. Eviction
seemed imminent. Chris and Meg moved out to begin living alone as
husband and wife. A zero hour replacement was found in the notorious
Gimp. As seven roommates held down a house once occupied by 16,
things seemed grim. Francis agreed not to hold those who remained
responsible for those who left. The utilities were turned back on and
the phone service returned under Kim's name. The monkey and Kim had
both just graduated from college and they felt the call of the west.
They were going to move to San Francisco with Steph and The Gimp and
start a Red Zero West of sorts. But the other houses formed by former
roommates were not doing that well. All over town the satellite
houses were falling apart. People who had once cursed Red Zero and
it's way of life were now talking about returning. As Year Three drew
to a close the question was not; "Who can we get to live here?" but
who has to be turned away as the "never again" alumni began to
resurface into...
Keep in mind that this history of Red Zero is not intended
to be %100 accurate, objective or all inclusive. There were things
that were too personal and or illegal that happened in the course of
this history and as such will not make an appearance here.
