We are developing a new club that will be 5k sq ft, and my question to you, simply is, what features of the club would you define as goth. We will be focusing on new music a couple of nights (open mic also), there will be a DJ, and as the world wants to ban smoking, we are attempting to include a smoking area...Mwah hahahaaha...

I'd really like to know what your ideas might be. I've only hit a couple of clubs that claimed to be Goth, and they turned out to be anything but... Britney Spears? Seriously? A few people who I knew from the scene were also there, and they were drunk and dancing... I thought it funny when I showed them the video and the music in the background made them cringe... they learned a valuable lesson, but I digress...

I know the bar business, and I am ATTEMPTING to work up some truly gothy drinks, but I want others 2 cents on this. Couches? Chairs? I think a coat room will be a nice touch... gargoyles, accent lighting, black lights maybe? Oh BTW, this is a dream come true, enough money, a liquor license, and a place big enough to start from scratch, 2 levels, and a market that has NO other goth scene, hell, no even a biker bar in this town! LOL... just preps and English/Irish pubs...

Off to the grind...

Off the cuff mad ideas:

Smoke machine in the patron areas. Not so much that everyone stumbles around, but enough to pad out the space and give atmosphere. Subject to OSHA (?) regs and litigation issues.

Theme it for your target market:

Cyber? - illuminated scrap circuit boards, industrial ducting and techo-scrap (very cheap to do)

Trad - go for black drapes, cheesy plastic bats and classical wall mouldings. Works for romantic as well.

A coat room (cloak room as it's known in the UK!) is a good idea.

Whatever you do it's got to be safe, cheap and replaceable. The first pubs/clubs way back when just had everything painted black with band posters plastered everywhere. A small platform in the corner for the band.

Good luck and fortune with your business! (never forget it is a business )

Can someone clarify "techno-scraps"? I googled it and got nothing...

What I mean is dumpster diving after some company has done an air-con refit. Lots of wires and ducting that you can spray different colors (dayglo if using black light) Just go view any '80s trashy post apocalypse sic-fi movie for inspiration (spacehunter, hardware, mad max etc)

Here's an idea I'll pitch to you:

Not everyone is going to want to get drunk while there, so perhaps you could invest in some teapots and quality tea to serve out as well? I imagine if you have any kind of Goth crowd show up at all, it should get at least a couple requests! I would certainly do so, were I able to come visit.

Why don't you see if you can get some nice, big posters of well-known Goth bands? A rather weak idea, but it is something.

If you end up building somewhere for people to sit down and eat/have drinks, you could go for an 80's diner look with a strong Goth touch perhaps?

If the place has windows, you could get some typical Goth icons/designs on the windows I wager.

I'll post more later if I remember and think of any!

Snakebite and black. This is vital for a goth club.

It ain't a goth club without that fizzy transformation fluid.

Since I am not sure exactly how big that is, I will give my two cents, though I'd defintely give LS' advice excellent and mine is less so.

In Jacksonville we have a club that is very large called Burden Street Station (Most just say Burden Street). Inside this club is a main club, then LOTS of side clubs. Their are different rooms in it to serve different types of people. There is an alternative club, country music club, a jazz club, a lounge with nothing but open mic, a pop music club, and another room that i think is just sitting. It is a great place, sadly none of the clubs inside fill my tastes.

Maybe you could do something like that for your club. Create different rooms 'mini clubs' and have each club call to a different type of Goth.

Cages and stripper poles, and stretch racks for tables...

No, just buy regular tables, but please do buy the hanging cages!!! They are so much fun!

Dress up a few plastic skeletons in fishnets & boas, and put em in cages. Stencils may work with jazzing up plain tables (skulls or like a blackjack table). Midi, your idea ain't bad - any business has to bring in the punters or else it goes bust. You may have to cater to a range of people, too specific a market means less or no profit.

Especially if there is no such bar in town or nearby now. That could mean that there is low demand for something like that. If that is the case, Midi's idea is quite brilliant in its simplicity. It's a way to have it all. Goth club and a sound business

Or It can turn into a Mecca... People will travel far and wide just to go there, I would, if its in Vermont...

Right now, where I am, the closes thing you can get to a good night club up here is this gay bar which is many hours away. Its the only place that has raves, the only place for the LGBT community, the only place where it does not have almost any fights... Its all you got, unless you want to go to the honkey tonk bullshit country bar that is across the street, and people drive really far just to go there to dance to trance music...

I stick to the idea of, build it, and they will come...

Las Vegas is no exception...

The reason I brought up the idea is because this is how Burben Street is designed. Everyone goes to Burben Street because of its wide range of musical preferences. The country music club, for instance, even has a bull-riding thing, and the popular music club has pole dancers. The jazz room has a disco type ball with real exspenive lounge chairs. The open mic room was really simple and very homely. The club I didn't go into was red but since I didn't go in I don't know what music, if any was played. All the walls for the different clubs were sound proofed so each club had its own feel. The hallway going to each club was actually not as noisy as you might think.

I went there maybe twice before, by the way. I doubt there is a person above 18 who hasn't gone. I know in high school all people did was talk of Burben street and how there were going when they turned 18...which is what I did. It was a great place. No punk music though, which sucked. I was really huge though so their might have been a metal club. I only really visited the country, pop, and open mic rooms, the others I just peaked in kinda fast due to the crowd I was with.

So a goth bar with a bunch of clubs to suit the needs of many different goths would be a good idea if it could be pulled off. A club for victorian/romantic, a club from trad, a club for EBM, etc...a smoker's lounge...I think it has potential...if the city has enough cilental to keep it running. it doesn't matter how many Goths it calls to if there are no goths around to go to it. Perhaps a mini club from regular rock, altern, and metal might bring in more people as well.

I dunno, just a thought.

One of the goth clubs in Miami was 16 and over, So is club Exit... As for the Gay bar, its 18 and over, they still sell alcohol... So this kinda gives you an idea, you have to check the local laws, in my little town, bars allow kids in as long as they are not a pain, but they can not drink...

Check local and state laws for that, because I am 18 and I have been to a lot of places, and got in just fine...

And how many of us have actually had one of those? I feel less Goth.









Nah, I don't!