Students rave to release exam stress, gives local DJs a platform to perform

A rave held Tuesday night offered Ecuador freshman Camilo Cobos an outlet to release stress from studying for finals.

“I love techno music and I have been listening to it ever since high school,” Cobos said. “I’ve been to two big raves and a few little ones in clubs.”

The rave was held in Woldt Hall’s lower level room and was organized by Ravenna senior Jordan Kantola, who has hosted Rave to Release the Rage the week before finals for three consecutive semesters.

To Cobos, there are many forms of techno, some mainstream and others more underground.

“Tonight there was a lot of guitar style which I did not like,” Cobos said. “There’s a lot of techno and house, but the guitar is loud and takes some of it away. Basically, house and dub step have a lot of lyrics, while techno is all the sound mixed together.”

Kantola said the rave has gotten more attention recently.

“The biggest thing is the advertising, trying to organize the DJs and ordering everything,” Kantola said.

Kantola said he is hoping to use future allocations to get go-go dancers, hula-hooping and glow-poi, and also said renting out another venue such as Finch Fieldhouse is an idea for improvement.

“It would be nice to get Finch,” Kantola said. “But we would have to get the college to support it first.”

The rave included two DJs, Troy sophomore Doug Eng, and Lake Orion senior Joe Hertler, who produces as DJ Dry Bones.

“I got into DJ-ing a year ago,” Hertler said. “But I have always been into electronic music.”

Some raves have videos for the DJ to send a message for a song that does not have lyrics in it, Cobos said.

“One of the main messages is ‘Make a Peaceful World,’” Cobos said. “So they use the videos to get that message across.”