Get Down to the Underground: Warehouse Parties Hit Las Vegas

Looking for an alternative to the same superstar DJs in heavy rotation at all the major Vegas clubs? With EDM dominating the Strip, fans of techno, tech house and deep house are craving a more underground sound. Fortunately, there’s the crew from After to bring it to them.

The afterhours club already caused a viral sensation earlier this year with their list of DJ Rules banning mainstream clichés. Now After is bringing the scene back to basics with a series of warehouse parties, an homage to the ‘90s rave days. The events are purely about the music, says After’s managing partner Thom Svast—no bottle service, no dress code and no hassle. Just dope underground artists and dancing.

“We’re choosing to do the warehouse parties between residencies to have the freedom to educate and do the types of parties we want to have,” says Svast. (After will pick up their regular afterhours events starting New Year’s Eve at a new major casino location to be announced.) “[With] the restrictions that some of the other places have musically, we’re taking it back to its roots.”

For the first installment, Barcelona’s Coyu brought a delicious taste of tech house, with fans playing up his Big Cat nickname via “kitties wanna dance” shirts and a giant black-light-reactive banner. November’s event welcomed Halo and Dance Spirit for the space-themed “AfterWorld,” complete with alien antennae and astronaut ice cream. If that sounds like your kind of shindig, mark December 12 on your calendar for After Presents: A Jeweil-tide Carol. Techno musician Julian Jeweil’s, who’s on Richie Hawtin’s label Minus, will perform a live set as fans get into the holiday spirit, so grab your Santa hat or elf costume.

“The vibe’s been awesome,” Svast says. “It is mostly a local crowd, but we had a big group come up from Tijuana, Mexico. We had groups come from Sacramento, San Diego and LA. We also had a couple groups from New York—one of the hosts at the Wynn recommended our show to them and all they did was rave about it and it was exactly what they were looking for in Las Vegas for music. It was great to hear that.”

So grab $20 and head down to the Artistic Armory at 5087 Arville St, Suite E around 11:30 p.m. December 12. Wear comfortable dancing shoes. For more information, follow After on Facebook.