This Saturday, DJs from queer nightlife crews from around the country will converge on Brooklyn for Red Bull Music Academy's Trade Show. The 12-hour warehouse rave will feature selectors from some of the country's most cutting-edge parties, including Honey Soundsystem (from San Francisco), Wrecked and the Carry Nation (from New York City), Honcho (Pittsburgh), Spotlight (Los Angeles), The NeedlExchange (Washington, DC), Men's Room (Chicago), as well as Detroit's DJ Holographic. The party seems meant to highlight of the gay underground that's been bubbling up across the country over the last few years and it'll showcase the importance of these events in fostering safe and musically fine-tuned queer spaces nationwide.To celebrate, we snagged a juicy mix from the Honcho crew, comprised of Aaron Clark, Clark Price, and D'adhemar. Based in Pittsburgh, the "nightlife cooperative" takes over local club Hot Mass once a month, for a wild house, techno, and disco focused bacchanal that focuses on queer DJs.Honcho described the mix as the perfect soundtrack for "a hazy Appalachian caftan river cruise," pointing back to their early years around Pittsburgh's Pride Weekend and a subsequent boat party they organized and played. It starts with moody ambience, building toward a slamming climax with a italo-tinged track from Cold Cuts. Below, get in the mood for the party with the mix and read all about the Pittsburgh scene and how Honcho came to be.
Honcho: It's summertime—get a pontoon boat from someone, or go to some sort of dumpy riverfront and have a picnic Is synesthesia a real thing and if so, what color is this mix?
Probably? Chartreuse.Was there any specific concept to the mix?
We're a month out from our pride boat party, so that was on ours minds. It's a hazy Appalachian caftan river cruise. The cruise always starts a little later in the day so by the end of the cruise it's always dark. Over the course of the mix, we sort of mimic the setting sun into darkness vibe that's on the boat. Do you have a favorite moment on the mix?
Our favorite moment is the ending, the final transition into the Cold Cuts track.Can you tell us about the history of Honcho? How and when did it start?
Back in 2012, we decided we wanted to add something to pride weekend that was more of a late night rager territory; something that went for proper underground music, as the gay scene was pretty bleak. Same old story as most of the other US gay parties foundations—everything else in town was top 40 and pop-oriented. It was really just the one main pride organization doing stuff, with no real ancillary events like other cities. We built this thing from the ground up. We marketed it for months before Pride and created a really good buzz. Unfortunately, the party ended up getting shut down before it really had even started. Luckily, we had the space that is now Hot Mass, reserved just in case anything should happen and we hustled. Volunteers helping us move sound, drag queens passing out drinks, it was amazing to see. We were down, but we weren't out; that was really a light bulb moment for us. There was all this negativity being directed toward us because of the shutdown, but it was our friends and community that propped us up and got us over that hump. Most of the people that had shit to talk had never dabbled in an underground party before, and never came back to a Honcho again. We think the party is better because of lack of those attitudes.It wasn't until months later that we officially started Honcho as a monthly at Hot Mass, Gay Marvine was our very first guest!What's one of your favorite moments ever from the party?
Back in 2015, we had Mike Servito play Honcho. The party that night was a designated Pre-Movement party so we had 2 tickets to give away to the festival. Mike proposed the idea of doing a "hot mix" dance contest near the end of the night, kinda like a take on the "New Dance Show." So when the time came, Mike ramped up the BPM and people watched from the sides of the dancefloor. The dance came down to two people: my friends Gage and Baronhawk. In the end, Gage won, but immediately ran to the garbage can and puked from dancing so hard. Word on the street is that Baronhawk puked too, but he was kind enough to do it off screen. Why do you think it's important to create spaces for queer nightlife?
It's important because every other space is built for heteros. These are the spaces where you get to grow up as a queer person and feel comfortable being yourself. They're just as much teaching moments for us all as they are incredibly fun places. We've all worked out so many personal hangups because we had these spots. We have to protect these places, keep building them, and make everyone feel welcome.How would you describe the Pittsburgh scene?
Pittsburgh is small, but has a really young, savvy scene right now. It's been really fun to watch people who were on the periphery or didn't have much interest in dance music start digging their heels in and embracing it. The dance music crowd is remarkably open minded, DJs who have played at Hot Mass often comment on how eager and willing the crowd was. I think we are a little spoiled in that regard. There have been a lot of players that have gotten us to this point. Promoters are respectful of other parties and events and do their best to avoid conflict, which keeps it friendly. It's a really special community that we are proud to be a part of.
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THUMP: How are we meant to enjoy the mix? What's the perfect setting?
Honcho: It's summertime—get a pontoon boat from someone, or go to some sort of dumpy riverfront and have a picnic Is synesthesia a real thing and if so, what color is this mix?
Probably? Chartreuse.Was there any specific concept to the mix?
We're a month out from our pride boat party, so that was on ours minds. It's a hazy Appalachian caftan river cruise. The cruise always starts a little later in the day so by the end of the cruise it's always dark. Over the course of the mix, we sort of mimic the setting sun into darkness vibe that's on the boat. Do you have a favorite moment on the mix?
Our favorite moment is the ending, the final transition into the Cold Cuts track.Can you tell us about the history of Honcho? How and when did it start?
Back in 2012, we decided we wanted to add something to pride weekend that was more of a late night rager territory; something that went for proper underground music, as the gay scene was pretty bleak. Same old story as most of the other US gay parties foundations—everything else in town was top 40 and pop-oriented. It was really just the one main pride organization doing stuff, with no real ancillary events like other cities. We built this thing from the ground up. We marketed it for months before Pride and created a really good buzz. Unfortunately, the party ended up getting shut down before it really had even started. Luckily, we had the space that is now Hot Mass, reserved just in case anything should happen and we hustled. Volunteers helping us move sound, drag queens passing out drinks, it was amazing to see. We were down, but we weren't out; that was really a light bulb moment for us. There was all this negativity being directed toward us because of the shutdown, but it was our friends and community that propped us up and got us over that hump. Most of the people that had shit to talk had never dabbled in an underground party before, and never came back to a Honcho again. We think the party is better because of lack of those attitudes.It wasn't until months later that we officially started Honcho as a monthly at Hot Mass, Gay Marvine was our very first guest!What's one of your favorite moments ever from the party?
Back in 2015, we had Mike Servito play Honcho. The party that night was a designated Pre-Movement party so we had 2 tickets to give away to the festival. Mike proposed the idea of doing a "hot mix" dance contest near the end of the night, kinda like a take on the "New Dance Show." So when the time came, Mike ramped up the BPM and people watched from the sides of the dancefloor. The dance came down to two people: my friends Gage and Baronhawk. In the end, Gage won, but immediately ran to the garbage can and puked from dancing so hard. Word on the street is that Baronhawk puked too, but he was kind enough to do it off screen. Why do you think it's important to create spaces for queer nightlife?
It's important because every other space is built for heteros. These are the spaces where you get to grow up as a queer person and feel comfortable being yourself. They're just as much teaching moments for us all as they are incredibly fun places. We've all worked out so many personal hangups because we had these spots. We have to protect these places, keep building them, and make everyone feel welcome.How would you describe the Pittsburgh scene?
Pittsburgh is small, but has a really young, savvy scene right now. It's been really fun to watch people who were on the periphery or didn't have much interest in dance music start digging their heels in and embracing it. The dance music crowd is remarkably open minded, DJs who have played at Hot Mass often comment on how eager and willing the crowd was. I think we are a little spoiled in that regard. There have been a lot of players that have gotten us to this point. Promoters are respectful of other parties and events and do their best to avoid conflict, which keeps it friendly. It's a really special community that we are proud to be a part of.