"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.

"Everybody, everybody! Oh yeah!
Stand up, don't be shy.
People, people, people!
Get up! Get up! Get up!
Everybody: TESTIFY!"
-- Repo: the Genetic Opera, We Started This Op'ra Shit!

Dark Shadows

So I got to enjoy another evening of Dark Shadows on Friday (7/15/11).

DJs Melting Girl and Daniel Skellington have built a fine industrial and gothic club night with DS, and I look forward to it continuing for some time. And, as always, the Visceral Vixens were a treat to watch (I've started giving my favorites nicknames, since I don't know most of their real names - maybe I'll start doing a little "Vixen of the Month" entry?).

The only issue (and some secondary sources seem to agree) was that this third night of SF's newest (and already tied for the best) goth night was extremely crowded. I observed some element of this in my last post on DS as well: the way the Cat Club is structured makes the space extremely tight. And Dark Shadows' seems to be already falling victim to its own success on this account.

Is this something that can be fixed without costing DS attendance? I'm not sure. As I mentioned in that previous post, having a vendor take up one whole "sitting section" of the Cat Club certainly exacerbates an already problematic situation. But the crowd was big enough that I'm not even sure this fix would help in the long haul.

Or maybe I'm crying "fire" over a candle. Maybe the other night was simply an unexpected and irregular (but still good for the promoters) attendance spike and, with time, as DS becomes more of a fixture of the scene perhaps this will become less of a problem...

But now it sounds like I'm actually hoping against their continued success and that's not the case at all. I want DS to be wildly successful. And I always want there to be a crowd of awesome and interesting gothic folk keeping it strong.

So maybe I should just shut up about it?

Moving on...

Solace

I finally got the opportunity to attend Solace last night (7/16/11).

The short version for the tl;dr folks: Solace is lovely and charming and intimate and Meph plans on making it one of his regularly attended events.

Now the long version -

Happening once a month at the Vagabond Ballroom in Oakland (which it co-inhabits with other monthly events such as the Vespertine Circus and, my newest indulgence, the Cell), you already know that the event is going to be intimate and comfortable.

And DJs Persephone and Darkmoon have absolutely focused their energies towards taking advantage of these attributes of the venue.

Solace might be more aptly considered a salon (much like the Cell), in the classic sense of a group of people gathering in a comfortable space, listening to music, and indulging in company and conversation (from politics to art to philosophy... I even spent an hour discussing all-shows-geek with one fellow). Between the tenor and low-volume of the music (don't expect much industrial here, children!), the insistence on a dress code (no jeans, no sneakers!), and the open, genial nature of the attendees (who are a very welcoming but still close-knit crowd), it almost seems silly to call it a "club", at least in the modern sense of the word.

No thumping beats. No go-go dancers. No yelling over the music to a bartender that doesn't care who you are so long as you pay for that drink (speaking of which - while the selection may be a little limited at the modest little bar, the drinks are fair priced and well-mixed for your money).

No. Solace is for those with an interest in a more classical and elegant Romantic Goth scene (think Byronic and Victorian) involving pleasant interaction more than loud music, conversation more than gyration, and a warm and welcoming atmosphere more than the dour "isolation in a crowd" that many a club (and maybe a bit too much of the scene in general) offers.

Along with the natural ambiance of the Ballroom, the music that provides the mood for Solace tends towards swirly and "classic" goth, classical and neo-classical, ambient, and chamber music - with a smattering of little charming bits from things like the soundtracks of Labyrinth and Legend. And the dancing ranges from the well-known and flowing "goth style" to twirling waltzes and cotillions - it actually makes this dark soul want to learn ballroom dancing so that he can join in.

And now, my favorite part - the attendees. Never have I walked into a club and been so warmly welcomed and made to feel so comfortable and relaxed. Half the attendees know each other, but, instead of sitting in a little clique and excluding the irregulars, these lovely people are among them - personally welcoming them, asking how they like the club, and initiating (and sustaining) pleasant conversation in little knots throughout the venue space.

I would like to personally thank DJs Persephone and Darkmoon, Lorelei the Bartendress, the lovely Alexis (of Alexis Berger Designs), the delightful Madame Deidre Anaid (of the Cell) and Steven, Eve, Charles #1 (the dashing doorman), and Charles #2 (my geek-fu conversationalist) for making my first evening in attendance a lovely and thoroughly bewitching one.

-- Mr. M.

"Stay loyal to the night,
Lost in the shadows."
-- Lou Gramm, Lost in the Shadows (The Lost Boys)

Dark Shadows

So, I'm sorry to say that I missed the inaugural evening of this new club night last month.

But rest assured that DJs Melting Girl and Daniel Skellington have put together what is definitely competition for the spot of "Meph's favorite club-night". That's right - you heard it here first, children of the night - Dark Shadows is easily as good as Death Guild, in my not-so-humble estimation (if only it occurred as regularly - though maybe that's part of the draw for the crowd?).

The Visceral Vixens were in attendance as ghoulish go-go dancers (as I hope they will be regularly). For those who haven't had the opportunity to see the Vixens, I heartily recommend the experience. Even for those that prefer men - because the Vixens have those, too. They're all a pleasure to watch. My compliments go out to Mistress Fushia (edited for sand the rest.

The Cat Club seemed a little tight for the number of people that were in attendance, especially since they had Eye Scream Jewelry vending in one of the bigger sitting areas. Obviously, few venues can compare to the DNA Lounge for both space and versatility - but I do think the space at the Cat Club could be utilized a bit better (most notably by removing the vending space entirely - or at least moving it to a smaller area... say by the mirror?).

First Annual Pirates' Ball

This was a very successful "first annual" event, in my mind. Coterminous with the Northern California Pirate Festival in neighboring Vallejo, the ball draws a lot of visiting Pirates from the surrounding Bay Area.

We had a performance by Tempest, a fairly popular Celtic-rock band in the area. If that's your bag, they performed well and their music was fun and in-theme (songs about Captain Kidd and Captain Morgan among them).

The night was end-capped by Swoon, who also, if I recall correctly, performed during the Witch's Ball (also put on by the Pagan Alliance) this year. I'm not sure how to classify Swoon, but if you like a little fiddle/violin and cello in your pop-rock, they'd probably be a good place to start.

We also had several burlesque performances by the beautiful ladies of Haus Serpens - ranging from saucy classic-cabaret-style pieces to a fun (if raunchy) pirate sing-along to a couple of very pirate-themed dance numbers that were especially enjoyable. My hat goes off to these lovely dames, especially to Madames MoJo and Sophia. I say without reservation that I hope to see considerably more of Haus Serpens in the coming days.

I had three complaints with the Ball, though... well, make it four (though the last one is outside of their control).

1) Their sound issues were positively awful. Seriously, it took 40 minutes just getting Tempest ready to go before their first set. And then Swoon took another 30 minutes at the end of a very limited-time evening. Shouldn't this have been done earlier in the day? And shouldn't a reputable sound guy be able to keep track of which instruments and microphones are plugged into which lines?  Maybe I'm harshing over-much on the sound tech. But I've seen a lot of faster sound checks and I used to work in the event industry alongside bands and sound technicians.

2) The Pagan Alliance seems to do a really bad job of advertising. I only saw the flyers appear maybe two weeks before the ball was set to occur - and that was only in a handful of goth clubs. I honestly think this event could have been much bigger had they even bothered to put it on their own website (the Pagan Alliance's couple-of-times-a-year Hunger goth club-night suffers from this same lack of attention). I'm giving them more online advertising presence than they do themselves.

3) No seating for non-VIPs. I understand that they sold a bunch of VIP tickets, which came with reserved seating. But there was a giant tent that no one was in. That could have been chair space. Seriously, folks. More butt-space for sitting. Most of the attendees had been walking around the Pirate Festival all day. Did they really need to be forced to stand around some more? Especially during those god-awful sound checks?

4) This one is beyond the promoters' control for the venue - I like the Benicia Clocktower. It's a good space and it's fairly cheap to rent from what I understand (especially if you live in the area). But a midnight cap on a weekend festivity? Ouch. I passed up going to Solace in Oakland, who would have kept me entertained until 2 a.m. (with food, cheaper drinks, more seating, and less sound-bullshit).

So, that's all I've got for now, kiddies. In the words of my favorite Mistress of the Dark: Unpleasant dreams!

-- Mr. M.