During its ‘90s Manila heyday, rave culture was often characterized by its sheer randomness. Party whereabouts were divulged, crime caper-style, on-the-fly or until further notice. Frequently, they popped up in empty warehouses or abandoned buildings, in the same way a cluster of mushrooms might emerge from a decaying tree. 
 

Given a rave’s spirit of bleak happenstance, it’s no surprise it’s enjoying a resurgence as of late. Kids who were merely a flickering hormone during their parents’ partying days are queuing house classics on Spotify, blowing techno up on TikTok, and DIY-ing day-glo outfits for the next EDM festival. 
 

And why not? As democracies crumble and our world’s expiration blares its alarms, electronic music once again offers a proper escape. Not to mention, a reason to move the legs we’ve gotten back, post-lockdown. Like a shock from an ER defibrillator, thunderous synths are delivering much-needed resuscitation to nightlife. 
 

But while the music is similar and the motivations are varied, a new book documenting the peak of Manila’s rave scene is proof that today’s revelers may be dancing to a different beat. 

Published by Archivo 1984, When We Danced archives the c.1990s rave circuit in Manila shot by Eddie Boy Escudero, a photographer who was as ubiquitous to its parties as a heap of empty water bottles.

The title is a misty-eyed reference to an era where complete surrender to music was possible, be it trance-inspired or chemically induced. Certainly, a time when smart phones and one’s strategic broadcast of self on social media simply didn’t exist. 
 

Hopping across claustrophobic Makati clubs or through friends’ apartment parties in golden age Malate, Escudero’s Minolta 35mm was one of the few fixtures entrusted to capture all dance floor goings-on. His lens, a witness to all the drama, regalia, and myriad intimacies that unfolded past the crack of dawn. 
 

“It was a great moment to capture…the last time the city truly let its freak flag fly,” shares Jerome Gomez, a magazine editor who became witness to many of Manila’s festivities. “Eddie Boy Escudero has it all on film. In the half-decade or so that the ‘90s club scene ran its course, he produced the most memorable images, the most striking snapshots of nocturnal revelers in all their tongue-kissing, breast-exposing, uninhibited glory.” 
 

From a photo of makeup-smeared fashion models writhing and clutching Evians like trophies, to a camo-clad pair in a moment of beat-driven bondage, you can almost feel the bass vibrate from each photo and your throat dry up from FOMO. 
 

When We Danced flashes a rose-colored strobe of nostalgia to a time when people showed out not to portray their nocturnal lives for the ‘gram or to test a TikTok dance in a sea of people, but to jump right into a rave’s rabbit hole; hands flailing and body moving like it doesn’t care to resurface.  
 

Escudero’s isn’t so much sounding the death knell of spontaneity in nightlife, but reminding us of the thrills and vibrancy we could miss from constant digital distractions. One glance at your phone and it’s gone.  

“When We Danced” by Eddie Boy Escudero is available at UNIVERS One Rockwell.