let’s travel back to 2001. I was 18 years old with 40$ in my pocket, a High school ID from James Madison and sitting on the train at about 9:00 Pm headed to Madison Square Garden. Now I wasn’t actually going to the Garden but about a block a half away from it. It’s night time and the city lights are still bright. People are still living up the night on a Friday Night. The city smells like it’s random scents of this and that and yet I am just taking it all in.
I walk with people who at the time I called friends. Most em I can’t remember the names of but I still have a pretty clear memory of the faces. We get to a club that went by two names. Bat cave/Down time..
It was a goth club and at the door one of the biggest bouncers I have ever seen in my life. He asked for my ID looked it over for two seconds tells me to lift my arms and used a metal detector on me. Says I’m fine go in and I walk into a hall with a young woman sitting at what looked like a school desk. She’s for 5$ and if I was planning to drink which I wasn’t at the time. Keep in mind this is still early 2001 and cameras aren’t that important yet…hell cell phones are barely a thing and really most people used em as radio phones.
the place was dark with flashing lights everywhere. The music very loud and from the entrance I could see two stair cases. One downside with dancers and bar the second upstairs and I couldn’t see what was up there from the entrance. Everyone seems to be excited and ready for a good time. We went up stairs to another room with another bar only in this area people are dancing and the music changed because a different DJ was playing upstairs as opposed to downstairs.
To be honest thinking back on it the place looked like a fashion show. Everyone was dressed up in leather, lace, black clothing and neo colors. Contacts, fangs, and lasers on a few. It was like living in a sci Fi film but better. I loved it and I spent a majority of the night just watching people, having conversations about music,video games and movies.
The night ended at 4 am everyone was def and drunk. I was just thinking about how to get home. Most of the trains didn’t start to move till about 6 am. Now why bring any of this part of my life up now? I was thinking about how formal things have gotten. How judged everything goes by eyes we never see.
Im sure clubs are still a thing that most young people go to. I’m sure people still enjoy music same as always but I wonder if it feels the same. Last few concerts I went to felt different. It felt so structured and less chaotic. Like all the moving parts had to be a particularly odd way. Maybe it’s my age or something else entirely but I do wonder.