In light of recent attempts by city officials to rejuvenate Boston’s nightlife economy, this paper examines one subcultural scene—underground techno—with a foundational role in global nightlife culture, yet a complicated relationship with Boston. I investigate how the city’s material and regulatory constraints shape the formation and sustenance of underground techno, highlighting the importance of local collectives. Despite a young and transient population, a comparative lack of infrastructure, and strict legal codes, the scene has nonetheless persisted. While existing scene studies tend to highlight either the social (community, identity) or the spatial (urban geography, venues), this paper analyzes how material constraints force the social to adapt to external pressures, revealing how distributed agency across human and non-human actors contributes to subcultural scene formation. Actor-Network Theory, Dynamical Systems Theory, and spatial theory help identify the emergent self-organization of socio-material networks, reframing genres, collectives, and scenes as dynamic processes rather than static categories. Drawing from autoethnography and interviews with organizers, DJs, and dancers, I argue that subcultural scenes materialize through the repetition and iteration (both key sonic aspects of techno) of networks—the same process by which space becomes place. As humans confront a rapidly shifting technological horizon compounded by increasing isolation, understanding the forces that keep people connected becomes crucial. Ultimately, it is the momentary 1-to-1 connection between two individuals confirming each other’s realities that seeds any network, which through continual reproduction and iteration, reaches temporary states of consolidation that we register as genres, collectives, scenes, and places.