Yo DC ravers — what's good?

Your dance music gremlin is back for Issue #007 and this weekend is the kind that requires a spreadsheet, three phone calls to your rave fam, and a genuine conversation with yourself about priorities. Nü Androids is pulling off something genuinely historic on Sunday — Black Coffee doing an open-air daytime-to-evening set on Anthem Row, outdoors, in the middle of DC. If you haven't sorted a ticket or a waitlist spot, do it now and deal with the consequences later. Saturday is a multi-front situation: Chris Lake shuts down Pennsylvania Avenue for the first-ever outdoor electronic show on Penn Ave (Club Glow is not underselling this), BERHTA opens four hours early with Aluna and SG Lewis across three rooms, and Flash runs Daria Kolosova deep into the night. If that weren't enough, Ivy Lab is playing their farewell tour stop at Transmission Saturday night — Sabre, Stray, and Halogenix doing their final DC run before the project closes out for good. Friday kicks it all off with Adiel going open-to-close at Flash and Juliana Huxtable bringing Ethernet back to Transmission. There is a lot happening. Your gremlin is already tired and it's Tuesday. Let's get into it.

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THIS WEEKEND'S DC RAVE ITINERARY (APRIL 17–19, 2026)

Fri April 17 — The underground opens early:

Gremlin tip: This is a genuinely difficult Friday. Adiel is one of the more focused techno bookings DC has seen in a while — Danza Tribale catalog, open-to-close format, Funktion-One at Flash. That's a six-to-eight-hour arc that rewards staying in the room. But Juliana Huxtable at Transmission doing Ethernet is a completely different frequency — dark, experimental, club music that doesn't care about genre walls. If you're the kind of person who needs to be in the more challenging room on a Friday night, Transmission is your answer. If you want to go deep into proper techno, Flash is where you're sleeping.

Sat April 18 — Penn Ave, three rooms at BERHTA, and Ivy Lab's last DC chapter:

Gremlin tip on BERHTA Saturday: Three rooms, four hours of doors-to-midnight, and a lineup that covers basically the full breadth of what "electronic music adjacent" means in 2026. It's murph and Aluna in the main room is the anchor — Aluna's DJ sets have a particular kind of forward momentum that rewards staying. SG Lewis and Never Dull in BANANAS leans disco-adjacent and warmer. Neil Frances running a DJ set in BETTE is the wildcard. You will not see all three rooms properly. Pick an anchor and let the building do the rest.

Gremlin tip on the fork: Penn Ave wraps at 10PM. Flash and Transmission both open at 10PM. The move is Chris Lake until he closes, then either Daria Kolosova at Flash (hard techno, breakbeat, the Ukraine via Berghain pipeline) or Ivy Lab at Transmission (their last DC show, full stop, the project is done after 2026). These are not comparable experiences and both are correct. The only wrong move is not making a decision.

Sun April 19 — Black Coffee on K Street:

Gremlin tip: Black Coffee is sold out and has been for a minute. If you're on the waitlist, genuinely check it — Nü Androids waitlists have moved before. If you're not getting in, Sunday Love at Flash with Cinthie is not a consolation prize. Cinthie is a Berlin-based selector whose Sunday sets are exactly the right frequency for a DC April afternoon. The Sunday Love format at Flash is one of the most consistent things happening in this city right now. Go.

PLUR note on Sunday: The Anthem Row event has DanceSafe on-site, a fully staffed medical tent, and a no-reentry policy. This is an outdoor, daytime, 21+ event with police presence. Nü Androids takes their safe space policy seriously — act accordingly, look out for people around you, and use the resources available if someone needs them.

LAST WEEKEND RECAP — APRIL 10–12

Your gremlin was not in DC last weekend. Your gremlin was in the desert.

Coachella Weekend 1 was the move, and for the first time in the festival's 25-year history, electronic music was unambiguously the dominant genre on the bill. Nearly half the lineup was dance music and its adjacents — and it showed in the crowd, the energy, and the sheer volume of sets worth planning your day around. This wasn't EDM as a supporting act. It was the main event.

Sets that genuinely delivered:

BUNT. hit the Sahara stage Sunday afternoon and delivered a set that moved through house, dubstep, and his signature German techno without stopping to ask for permission. It was an insane dance party from the jump — the kind of set that has the tent fully locked in before most people even realize what's happening.If you don't know BUNT. yet, fix that.

Girl Math — the VNSSA b2b NALA project — ran right before BUNT. and was the kind of set that makes you grateful you showed up early. Two selectors locked into each other's frequency from the first track, melodic / tech house and club edits that moved through genres without making a big deal about it. Crowd was fully bought in.

Kettama b2b Prospa was technically a Framework In The Desert set — the late-night afterparty running out of the aviation hangar in Thermal — and it was the right call to make the trip. If you've been following either of them separately, seeing them go back-to-back in that setting was a different animal. The energy in that room at 2AM with a crowd that was specifically there to hear that music is not something the main festival grounds can replicate.

GREMLIN TIPS + PLUR CORNER

Tip: Adiel's Danza Tribale label has been quietly putting out some of the more interesting techno of the last few years — dub-inflected, hypnotic, not interested in being fashionable. If you're going to Flash Friday, pull up the label's back catalog on the train. You'll arrive properly ready.

Tip: The Chris Lake Glow Block Party is the first-ever electronic music event on Pennsylvania Avenue. That is a genuinely unusual sentence in the context of DC dance music history. Whatever you think of the vibe or the genre, the scale of what Club Glow is pulling off here is worth acknowledging. Show up on time, it's an outdoor setup and sound travels differently outside.

Tip: Ivy Lab's farewell tour is real — the project is ending in 2026, the members are going solo, and this is one of the last chances to see them do it live. Sabre, Stray, and Halogenix built 20/20 LDN into something that mattered for leftfield bass music internationally. If you have any history with their catalog, Saturday night at Transmission is the one.

Tip: Sunday outdoor events in DC in April live and die by the forecast. Check weather Saturday night. If the sun cooperates, Anthem Row is going to be one of those afternoons that DC ravers reference for years.

PLUR corner: Sold-out shows create a specific kind of anxiety that makes people act weird at the door. Whether it's Black Coffee on Sunday or anywhere else this weekend — don't take it out on venue staff or door people if something doesn't work out. They're doing their jobs. Be patient, be kind, have a backup plan. PLUR is not just a philosophy for the dance floor.

That's dispatch #007 — Black Coffee going open-air on K Street, Ivy Lab closing out a chapter thirteen years in the making, Chris Lake shutting down Penn Ave, Adiel running open-to-close at Flash, and three rooms at BERHTA on Saturday afternoon. DC has no business being this stacked on an April weekend.

Reply to this email with your weekend picks, floor pics, any IDs you caught that you can't place, or just tell me what room at BERHTA you're locking into Saturday. Also find me on Instagram at @plurtatochip — DMs are open. Forward this to whoever needs to know what's happening this weekend. Let's keep growing this list.

Stay PLUR, stay hydrated, see you on the floor.

– Your DC Dance Music Gremlin

PLURtatoChip

The Capital City Raver
dcraver.com