Why does Saturday night suck?

[vicarz]

We have a great night on Thursdays, and while the music varies from good with periods of crap to nothing-but-crap-all-night – the crowd is always at the least numerous and entertaining. Thursday nights kind of suck for many of us, well not the nights per se but the subsequently hellish FriDAYs. These FriDAYs suck for those of us who hold these crazy things called jobs. Still, this is our best location and largest reliable crowd every week. You would think that if that was a Thursday, then Friday and Saturday would be great!

Fridays don’t have jack unless you like Bound. I hate that whole U street area myself, and Bound takes a certain mood. The fetish overtones keep a lot of people away who might otherwise go. Still, that’s just one event, and no other has appeared on Friday’s horizon. I don’t think I’ve even been to Bound there since it was at Bar nun. I should visit.

Saturdays have historically sucked. They suck incredibly right now, amazingly so. I have never heard of so many people leaving DC to go to Baltimore to club. When I was in school people left B’more in droves to hit DC despite the insane commute. Now the opposite is true. The reason why is well-known and simple to understand: we aren’t as large and profitable a crowd as a more mainstream group, so we don’t have the numbers to take over a major club space. Why that is I don’t understand – the numbers ARE there on Thursdays. Where the fuck does everyone go on the weekend when you can actually get away with the excesses that we refer to as clubbing? I’m part of the problem, since it seems that each and every Saturday someone is having a fun private party which pretty much takes precedence over a club now that I’m an old geezer. Still, we easily have enough people on Thursday to maintain a smaller venue on Saturday. So, why are we stuck with the meeting place?

I used to think Catacomb sucked, with a blah location and too much synth-pop. They moved, it was a better deal but the numbers didn’t support a night so out the door we went. For amusement’s sake, we were replaced with a hip-hop crowd which had incidents that resulted in their being put in the paper and shut down by the city of DC. Yo yo to you too, mofo.

Now I can’t believe how much Midnight sucks. To their credit, they did buy a dancefloor light, and I must admit I can’t believe how much of a difference that makes. The place looked horrible with the spinning Spencer’s red and blue lights – and reminded me I could just stay home and watch cops. Now I’d call it bearable. They have also had guest DJs that I like for a couple of weeks. I always did like the fun bartenders and the way the club seems to treat us in general. But good holy god does that place suck.

The regular dj’s wouldn’t know alternative, goth, or industrial if it bit them in the ass. The bizarre disjointed sets they play seem to scream musical venue ignorance, and that’s when they venture into the unexplored realms of ‘not synth-pop.’ If I’m not mistaken, each one of the regular DJs only plays synth-pop. The biggest mystery on that list would be Gothique, who has this GOTH name but plays synth nearly to exclusion – leading you to suspect that’s all she wants to play, and the other things are just to pacify people that like a smidgen of variety? Why not name herself Synthique?

Synth-pop is a mystery to me. I don’t actually hate it, but I now react to it strongly since it seems to be so prevalent amongst DC DJs. Synth people don’t play a song or two, they do 2 hour long stints of the crap. It’s so cheesy, why not dress up like Emo? Why dress in scary looking leather, vinyl, pvc, and fetish gear to listen to light erasure with a bouncy beat? I also don’t like many of the synth-pop dancers, well perhaps I should say really know them. They don’t seem to be friends with anyone I know so it’s not something I pursue much. I do wonder why the few that get really weird hair and clothes then dance so poorly. Shouldn’t you learn to dance while you gradually develop your club style, rather than just buying the uber-freaky gear while you still do what looks like an off-beat Texas two-step?

The other mystery is why everyone is so incredibly ugly. Granted I’m no prize myself, but good god what an incredibly unattractive crowd. Again, Nation has at least something to look at on every night it’s open. For some reason Saturday night in DC is the night of the aesthetically challenged. Bad bodies, bad faces, horrible clothes…it’s a nightmare. Every time I bring up this subject people agree loudly, often saying “Oh I feel so bad for feeling that way, but it’s so true…” If you really want to feel guilty for what you feel then go ahead, I suppose, me I say these things out loud.

I just don’t get it. Thursdays work out fine, so why is it that Saturdays are so awful? We have the numbers in and around the city to have an event at SOME location. There still is a goth / industrial scene in every other city in the country. That whole black weird look is more accepted now than it ever has been in the past. Clothes and music have never been so accessible as they are now. Any city I get stationed in has a better scene, and plays music I like. Some are more rivitey then others, some more ethereal, but all play a generally enjoyable mix. Every city has a more attractive crowd (I’m skipping the whole brains vs looks debate – one thing at a time). Why is our scene there on Thursdays, and totally dead on Saturdays? I’m baffled.

I think I’ll post this on DCFreaks just so they can debate, and all agree on what a complete asshole I am.

“How dare you talk about how people look.” Everyone does – I do it without whispering.
“It’s people like you who ruin the scene” I’ve contributed for ages, but yes, people who vote with their voices and dollars tend to ‘ruin’ things they don’t like or find worth their support. People who ruin the scene include those that don’t allow criticism, and stick their heads in the sand.
“If you don’t like it quit your bitching” Blow me and swallow.
“Judgmental bastard” Yup, but let’s not pretend others don’t think these things.
“There is always a great mix, just check our playlist” [Wretch – my eyes!]
”Did you make requests?” Why should I train you? Learn how to DJ and stop assuming you already know. You couldn’t read a crowd if it trampled you on the way out the door at a Great White concert.
”Why don’t you do something about it?” This is what I do, hope you liked it!