Not all promoters are starry eyed, kitten hugging waifs who throw parties out of the kindness of their hearts. Some event organizers are in it for the Benjamins. They throw raves to make a mint. They don't earn cash by selling tickets or energy drinks, but by controlling the flow of drugs at their events, just like clubs. Parties are a high risk, low margin business. The only way to make serious cash in the rave world is by helping people get high.

A decade ago, that job went to the bikers, but now that they're on the outs in Montreal, we're starting to see more and more promoters hooking up with street gangs. This is truer of dubstep, jungle, and drumstep events then it is for the psytrance or hardcore scenes. One crew of drumstep boys got in a nasty little argument with one of Montreal's more nefarious gangs a few weeks back, and the gang decided to get some revenge last weekend at one of their parties.

The guy who founded this drumstep outfit was the target of the attack, though several bystanders were also hurt. The founder was beaten, mugged, and pepper sprayed. A random girl at the party who witnessed the attack was beaten after she tried calling for an ambulance, and her boyfriend was almost knifed when he tried to stop the attack. The security at the event did what they could to put an end to the fracas, but they were pushed back. Eventually an ambulance showed up, but the gangster brats tried to shoo it away, telling the driver that they weren't needed.

The medics had to wait for the police to arrive before they could do their job, but by then things had gotten nasty inside the party. One DJ was hit with a brick, and the founder's girlfriend had her skull fractured by a crowbar. The gangsters, meanwhile, threw a canister of tear gas on the dance floor, and the chaos that followed helped mask their escape.

Let's hope that this kind of violence won't become endemic to Montreal's rave scene.