Spirits rise at a monster of a rave

The attendance at the fifth annual Monster Massive rave Saturday was up a few thousand from last year’s estimated 17,000, but a better indicator of recovery from dance music’s post-Sept. 11 downturn was a reinvigorated spirit.

That spirit was illustrated when the escalator inside the L.A. Sports Arena was closed by security. Instead of getting rowdy, the young fans thronged to the pedestrian ramps, with those at the bottom sending Mardi Gras-like whoops and yells upward, while fans at the top shouted down to their counterparts below.

The festival, which filled the arena and the surrounding grounds with colorful, often skimpy costumes, swirling lasers and giant video screens, often took on a surreal quality, with such images as Snow White dancing outdoors with Cinderella during an inspired set by Chicago’s DJ Funk, who made an auspicious L.A. debut.

But therein lies the rub with festivals of this size. Too often the music can be overshadowed by the spectacle. Monster Massive featured nearly 50 performances on five stages, showcasing many subgenres of dance music, as well as live hip-hop from Medusa. But it’s the crowd and the costumes that leave the indelible impressions.

If there was a musical statement, it may have been in the event’s setup. The “Tomb of Doom” stage, featuring largely progressive sets by the likes of DJ Irene and Judge Jules, was on the main arena floor, which last year held the house music stage. So it appears that the obvious, large-scale, arena rock-esque synthesizer hooks of progressive have become the sound of choice in the dance world 2002.

That impression was driven home when Richard “Humpty” Vission and Anne Savage, playing back to back, attracted thousands to the main stage with some nice, but not inspired moments, while outdoors the superlative tag team of Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson was redefining house music with some serious tribal beats and wicked stops and starts -- while their audience gradually dwindled.