Oz dazzled the crowd with a memorable theme and a lineup of talented DJs on February 23rd.

Words by Michaela Baxter / Graphic by Tim Kruken

Chrome goggles, tinny crop tops, and metallic latex; these are some of the retro-futuristic frills one could expect to see at house venue Oz’s cyberpunk-themed night on February 23. The venue first appeared on the scene in 2021, imagined by Bandier seniors Vir Batra, Sam Parrish, and Nick Beebower. Syracuse Newhouse senior and disk-jockeying aficionados Waffle Vaflya and Crome dazzled with their setlists effusing sparkling deep house techno from artists like Nectax and Sempra.

Making your way to the front of the room where Crome and Vaflya were turntabling inside a mesh cage wouldn’t have been possible without cracking a couple of skulls and elbowing some ribs. A labyrinth of steely pipework tubed its way throughout the room above the heads of the riff-raff. Bodies in rapture danced to the sentient beat of recently deep-cut house tracks like “Don’t Wake The Babies'' and Cloud 9’s “Blissful Ignorance.” The basement walls were covered with drunken scrawls, smudged profanities, and signatures hieroglyphic under the frantic light. Party-goers made a point of not pressing their backs up against the wall at the risk of becoming walking (stumbling) stamp canvases.

As a disciple in the crowd, you were as much a part of the show as you were a voyeur to it. Attendees were encouraged to dress the part, for they too would be expected to perform: dancing frantically at the room’s center, draped dramatically on the rickety stair banister; For their finales, the DJs dished out tracks like “Give it 2 Me” and “Just a Vision” before moving their way into the pit to join the throng of revelers.