Does the “rave” party scene (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rave) still exist nowadays, the way it did in the '90s? If so, what’s the best way for a newcomer to a given city to find a rave club and/or party?
(I’ve never been to an underground, quasi-legal, advertised-only-by-WOM rave party, but I used to go to a couple of perfectly legal rave clubs on Franklin Street Mall in Tampa – until one teenage girl on GHB passed out, cracked her skull on a wall and died. The city council then banned any kind of club from staying open past 3 a.m., and the rave clubs had to shut down. Stupid overreaction, IMO.)
Should this kind of question go here, in CS, or in GQ?
Seattle still has a rave scene. In fact recently there was gruesome murder that happened at a rave after party that really shock up the scene.
That thread dates from 2000. I wouldn’t go by it.
That’s the join date.
Oh.
Atlanta’s scene has mostly died down. It had a major drug problem and the cops eventually cracked down on it and it mostly died out. There are still a few locales I have heard of via friends in the scene. The best way to find these things is word of mouth, I doubt you’ll find much organization in any kind of way.
Most states have a local message board somewhere, poke around on the internet - also, grab flyers from record stores and join the email lists of the promoters.
Also, don’t call it a rave ‘party’. 
In Florida? I don’t know what to tell you, other than the way the Floridian authorities came down on the scene in '98 was legendary in the Midwest.
It was my understanding that things were pretty much dead there ever since.
There are still a few parties here in New York, though the scene is nowhere near the size it once was. From what I can tell the Midwest has pretty much bit the dust, though those plucky Wisconsinites still have the occasional party and there is a small but still thriving Psy-Trance scene.
Even Hyperreal’s once venerable GRID (Global Rave Information Database) is no more. Your best bet is to go to your local record shop (local RECORD shop not your local Virgin Mega store) and poke around. Did you miss the World Music Conference? There were a ton of events going on for that, though not exactly what I would a “rave”, still a lot of good DJ’s were down there. I’m pretty sure it’s always in Miami, so you can check it out next year.
Sound advice Viridiana, but geez I don’t think I’d champion calling it a rave either. In the Midwest, at least, raves were always called “parties” and if there was any doubt, one might have asked, “Is it a ‘party’ party?” LOL
You could always tell if someone was from outside the scene (i.e. a tool ) if they referred to a party as a rave. And an “after-hours”, was always another party (only smaller and later). With a sound system and a DJ. It was not a bunch of people hanging out at home after the bar closed! Not that we didn’t do that too, only we called it “everyday life”.