[kj] KJ in LA --

[T.B.]

"sade1" wrote:



>  Those Bauhaus shows of '98 were the first time i had ever seen a goth'ish 

> concert

>  where the Black Army was arriving in all sorts of luxury cars (even a 

> Maserati, i think)

>  and standing in line having major post-graduate level career- and social- 

> themed conversations, and i don't mean that at all patronizingly.

>   I've been in line for a lot of clubs/gigs/concerts/raves and ya just 

> don't hear that level

>  of talk often in that kind of situation.

>

>  Or maybe i don't get out enough...


I've seen my fair share of bands that would fall somewhat in the "Goth" 
catagory throughout the years.  The Cramps used to get some pretty 
stereotypical goth-heads, as would The Lords of the New Church, early Nine 
Inch Nails and even The Cult during their "Love" tour but those kind of 
bands usually had a pretty wide following that also included classic 
punkers, new wave knuckleheads, even metalheads so it wasn't so much like 
stepping into the Twilight Zone.

However, I was really floored at the overall percentage of guys and girls 
who really went to a lot of trouble to dress up for this show.  I'd guess 
about 70% of everyone at the show looked like some variation of Bela Lugosi 
or Gary Oldman's Dracula or one of the members of The Addams Family. 
because it was such a hot night, I simply wore a loose tank top, shorts and 
flip flops.  I probably looked a bit like Goddamned Sammy Hagar.  But I had 
the last laugh as by about halfway through the show, it was so hot in the 
Palladium, that all these goth nut's makeup started running down their faces 
and all that hairspray holding up the hair gave out so many people looked 
like psychotic clowns by the end of the show.  By far though, the weirdest 
thing was some family (man, woman and young boy) wound up stripping 
completely naked (not a pretty sight) and everyone around them gave them a 
very wide berth.  Oh yeah, the smell of hair spray and clove cigarrettes in 
the crush up front near the stage was fuckin' toxic.

But it was still a great show.

Probably the only other band that would come close to that kind of audience 
would have been Christian Death, a band I wish I saw back when Rozz Williams 
fronted them.

T.B.