It’s more alive than ever, I’d say. Just about any weekend in the Milwaukee/Chicago area has at least a couple parties. Proper underground shit. Not sure what it is, exactly, but it’s been feeling like a time portal back to the 90’s and I love it. Drop Bass Network and Chicago Redline will keep you plenty busy.
This rings in Minneapolis. The midwest definitely has a solid, consistent scene for house/techno/electronic with DJs bouncing between Minneapolis, Madison, Milwaukee, Chicago for sets.
The demographic is definitely millennial, with maybe ~25% being Gen Z.
It's also definitely not... popular. The biggest nights have a _way_ smaller turnout than college bars or city clubs. I'm not sure how strong the crowd actually was 10-20 years ago, but these clubs aren't in the mainstream appeal. Maybe from lack of marketing, maybe taste+preference.
Created an HN account just to ask... what are the entry ways to know what sets are going on in Minneapolis? The person you replied to mentioned Drop Bass Network and Chicago Redline, both of which have easily follow-able accounts. Anything like that in this area?
Yeah, I'm in the UK and there are still regular late night dance / EDM nights in my city.
I was at one a couple of weekends ago, 11pm - 4am.
A good mix of ages too, people clearly in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s. Everyone having a great time, I would guess at least 70% of the people were on something too, (MDMA, Ecstasy etc).
That applies to most tablets too. Not sure why mdma tablets warrant a different when other drugs in tablet form that often come with other stuff don't.
MDMA being the substance, Ecstacy being the delivery, you could simplify it as. Ecstacy always have MDMA in it, but typically also other stuff. MDMA is just MDMA, and in itself have different purity depending on how it was made.
Last time I checked, ecstacy is usually how it is called when in pill form, with the idea that it is not pure MDMA. That is, it may be cut, a combination of drugs or something else entirely.
MDMA/molly is usually in crystal/powder form, with the idea that it is more pure.
But how drugs are called on the street and what they are in reality is constantly changing, there are countless myths, and dealers are not exactly a reliable source of information regarding what they sell.
In reality, that's essentially the same thing. If you look at https://www.drugsdata.org/ you will see that it is mostly just MDMA, the form doesn't matter much.
even though MDMA is the real technical name (and Molly + Ecstasy are nicknames), the name "Ecstasy" is kinda misleading because it's usually MDMA mixed with other stuff, and that's not always good...
the name "Molly" has a pure vibe to it. It's like a warm hug from a friend.
Dr. Andrew Huberman said in his video that MDMA is not actually ecstastic, rather it produce warm feelings and promote inner acceptance and peaceful connections with others.
In papers maybe, but in the streets, Ecstasy is the pill form of MDMA and is usually cut with other substances (e.g., speed, LSD, etc.). Therefore, when saying "Ecstasy," someone would expect a pill in a funny shape, whereas with "MDMA," they would expect powder.
I would never expect powder when I said MDMA, I would expect crystals or pills. Ecstasy is often said to be cut with other substances, but almost never is, because most other drugs are more expensive and less potent than MDMA. There are often impure batches containing meth or other amphetamines, often other "designer drugs" being pressed into pills and sold as ecstasy while not being MDMA, but rarely intentionally cutting the MDMA with other drugs.
Drug pro-tip: anything powder is garbage, crack comes in rocks (crack users aren't all that picky though, from beeswax to swiss cheese to chalk, from white as snow to bright yellow, usually off-white, it comes in a variety of appearances and textures and users savor the cut - the most favored stuff is usually not the purest), coke comes in chunks (white, off-white, even yellowish, good quality stuff has a flaky structure and pearlescent shine), heroin comes in chunks (from white to tan to black, occasionally gooey), weed comes in nuggets (but used to come in chunks, maybe still does if reggies/illegal weed still exists in your area), meth is long usually clear crystals, molly is shorter and more cuboid crystals, usually colored (pink, tan/brown, only very rarely clear).
You are right, I used the wrong wording here. I meant crystals, not powder. I used the word 'powder' unconsciously because when I was raving, I would break those crystals into powder form to control the dosage better.
Anyway, regarding the difference between ecstasy and MDMA, from personal experience, I cannot remember a time when the effects were the same. Every time I took a pill, the effect was totally different from MDMA. MDMA provided a more 'pure' experience, whereas with advertised 'ecstasy' pills, I experienced hallucinations, memory loss, and a very heavy hangover.
