"I’ve seen the sky just begin to fall
And you say, 'all things pass, into the night.'"
-- Q Lazzarus, "Goodbye Horses"

Yes, I quoted that song. Is it wrong to admit that Buffalo Bill is my favorite character in the entire series of Hannibal movies? If so, I'm not sure I want to be right. (I'm totally dancing naked in front of a mirror in my head right now...)

I got myself out to the first Dark Shadows of the year! Hooray!

The night got off to a slow start, but it eventually picked up. It got a tad crowded, but that's exactly the reason they're doing it twice a month now instead of once.

As usual, people were excellent! Got to see the ooh-la-la Lady Ariellah and the lovely DJ Femme Mystique again; so all-in-all, an awesome-sauce evening for me!

In other crazy news, there's a whole slew of awesome concerts coming up:

1) Jackalope and Left Spine Down at the DNA Lounge (1/22)
2) Emilie Autumn at Slim's (2/2)
3) GIGANTOUR!! with Megadeth and Motorhead at the San Jose State Event Center (2/23)
4) Adam Ant at the Regency Ballroom (2/24)
5) Stromkern at the DNA Lounge (3/18)
6) Everything Goes Cold and Chapter One at the DNA Lounge (3/20)
7) Faderhead and Savi0r at the DNA Lounge (3/21)
8) Aesthetic Perfection at the DNA Lounge (4/12) UPDATE: This show appears to have been CANCELLED.

Find further details and updates on the One-Time Events page!

Also, for all you Club Nocturne fans, Club Nocturne's next installment will be on 1/28 and, this is important, will be at the EZ5 Bar in San Francisco (no longer at the Vagabond in Oakland).

-- Mr. M.

Wow... so... Yeah.

I've been a huge flake lately.

I'm going to try to lay most of the blame on the holidays and related issues, even though many of you probably won't believe me. Hopefully I'll get my shit together and get back into the blog here soon.

Make sure you check out the club, event, and calendar pages! There have been a number of changes with the new year to the event landscape. For instance -

1. Dark Shadows is now 2nd and 4th Fridays of the month.
2. Dancing Ghosts has moved to Dark Shadows' old 3rd Friday slot.
3. Club Nocturne is running in San Francisco at the EZ5 Bar for the foreseeable future.
4. DieMaschinen is no longer at the Cat (and may very well be dead. No updates on their website.)
5. Anti-Life will be kicking off the first Wednesday in January with their inaugural ball and may be running every first Wednesday at Cafe Du Nord.

So keep up with your favorite clubs! I'll keep you updated as I hear more.

-- Mr. M.

"Run around in the radiation.
Run around in the acid rain.
On a Black -
Black planet."
-- Sisters of Mercy, "Black Planet"

Spent a second night in a row at the Vagabond Ballroom, this time for Club Nocturne, DJ Burning Skies' submission to the Oakland goth scene (along with the help of DJs Xiola and Crow1369).

As usual, the Vagabond itself was classy and cozy.

But what do I have to say about Nocturne?

If you like your goth classic, with people dressed in black on black and the music all deathrock and post-punk, then Nocturne is definitely the place for you.

As opposed to the romanti-gothic Solace, Club Nocturne is more like the height of early goth; more 1980s than 1780s, more Siouxsie Sioux than Lord Byron, and far more underground club than Victorian salon in style.

I was only able to hang out for a few hours, unfortunately. I say "unfortunately" because the whole event was excellent. A sort of tenebrous homage to the ideal old-school goth aesthetic. Everyone in attendance was a vision of macabre and jaded beauty, as if I had fallen into some sort of time machine of morbid awesome.

On the plus side, they've already got the next installment of Club Nocturne planned for next month, on Saturday, November 26th, and there's talk of making it a regular monthly club-night. So I'll have plenty of opportunities to catch up on lost time. Don't be surprised once I get confirmation to find it added to the SFGothic.net club listings.

And don't be surprised if you find me there on a fairly regular basis.

-- Mr. M.