Banz, Peter, Scott and I went down to DC friday night (Oct 13, 1995) to hit the Roxy. Well, what do you know, the Roxy was closed down cause of a big fight there a couple of days ago. So we find a DCpunk, get the city paper off of him and notice that there is the Buzz going on at the Capitol Ballroom.
Off we go, down to 1015 address on Half Street, a block or so away from TRACKS, in SE DC. Note that this is not the same locatoin as the Buzz two years ago. Parking is there in plenty, but do realize that this is SE DC we are talking about here. The first thing you see is this huge warehouse, with iron grillework/netting on the corner, which allows you to see in. Two lines, under 21/over 21. The security is pretty tight, they will pat you down and get knives/et al, but they are pretty decent about the whole thing. Then comes the cover - $9. (Apparently its $7 before 12 Midnight). Again, fairly standard for something this size. You get a ticket and enter the ballroom proper. A huge room painted the obligatory matte black, with a DJ cage in one side and a big dance floor, complete with lighting/smoke machines. This was playing mostly jungle and house. Then you go through the back past the bar ($2 beers/cokes), into the main dance floor. The DJ was an asian guy, playing an amazing set, all dub, tech. They have the smoke machines, strobes, decent lightshow. The set was excellent but the vibe was quite low, though lots of dancing was going on. The sound was very well done, no bass dominance, it was loud (the music was making the walls of the warehouse shake), but very clear. About 1000 people in and around the area, mostly highschool. Free water - this is very important, if you are dancing for a while, you'll appreciate it. The capitol was in the background, surreal picture. This is _not_ a true Rave, more like a club/rave fusion. But the important thing was that the music and dancing were very good.
Chemlights, earplugs were available. MDMA/LSD/THC were available. However, this was NOT a drugfest. There were lots of people. If you are not familiar with the rave underground, don't bother hitting the buzz. The Capitol Ballroom has plenty of different events scheduled on other days, including a college night, but that I'll have to check on first before reporting.