DarkSide was a Dallas teen dance club whose owners attempted to wrap it in a legal spiritual envelope to stop it from being shut down. In the Dallas Observer, Anna Merlan looked into “The Bizarre Life and Troubling Death of DarkSide, the Dallas Rave Church That Never Was.” Here’s the best quote:
“The media made it out to be a sex-infested, drug-infested underground rave club that was run by a pedophile and raver kids who didn’t give a damn,” (DJ John Wayne) says now. His voice rises a little. “That’s bullshit. Yes, there were drugs. Yes, Tommy is a pedophile. But there was a deeper purpose, a deeper meaning, a deeper connection. This wasn’t just something we did on weekends. This was our life.”
Reminds me a bit of the Nine O’Clock Service, a cyberdelic early-1990s rave church in the UK that fell from grace after the minister was investigated and ultimately confessed to abusing young women in the group.
“The Bizarre Life and Troubling Death of DarkSide, the Dallas Rave Church That Never Was” (Thanks, Vann Hall!)