Hell-o All

[wilhelm k]

hello all, my name is wilhelm k. if any of you ever cross over in to the techno,rave,etc scene then you might be familiar with my name. currently i live in upstate ny, but i am moving back to detroit in august.

out here i do a weekly event called "nokturna sundays" which is your standard industrial,ebm,goth,etc night.

we do a good number of shows, icon of coil,cruxshadows,razed in black,bella morte,etc etc etc.

beyond the club night i also do fetish events with performers ranging from...

burlesque,suspensions,drag,vaudville,etc.

when i move back in august i plan on doing events in the detroit area.

so,beyond a hello to everyone i pose the question...

what would you like to see/hear?

[Troy Spiral (13)]

First off hi, nice to see a new "face". =)

Due to the mixed nature of this post im sure it will end up in Music or Nightlife rather than "introductions" but anyhow...

Me personally i don't go to shows much these days so wont be much help answering that last question if i go out its usually to socialize.. which doesn't work well in the context of "a show". If i do go to a show its usually because the promoter or someone in the show or friends have bugged me enough to go, rather than me of my own motivation.

Although just as a general thought i think the big turnout is for , as expected, the big acts. Also a very heavily fetish show seems to get a good turnout around here, but the key seems to be promotion, which some are good at, and some not so good in this area.

I've long felt that a crew with a massive Hollywood style promotions engine could clean up. While many try, I've rarely been all that impressed with the local underground scene's marketing.

[Destroit]

Wow...a scene savior! It doesn't matter what you do, we're easily amused, just entertain us good and we'll all be there. The scene here started dying out for awhile, but I've noticed it was kinda stable and now there's more coming back to the metro detroit area little by little. So whatever you do, I'll be there, look forward to seeing a new face. Around here though, I'd have to say fetish shows are probably the most common non-concert, non-club thing around, but drag shows? I'd LOVE you for them, drag queens are in my top five list of favorite types of people in the whole wide world.

[Head Wreck]

hi there, welcome to DGN

[wilhelm k]

First off hi, nice to see a new "face". =)

Due to the mixed nature of this post im sure it will end up in Music or Nightlife rather than "introductions" but anyhow...

Me personally i don't go to shows much these days so wont be much help answering that last question if i go out its usually to socialize.. which doesn't work well in the context of "a show". If i do go to a show its usually because the promoter or someone in the show or friends have bugged me enough to go, rather than me of my own motivation.

Although just as a general thought i think the big turnout is for , as expected, the big acts. Also a very heavily fetish show seems to get a good turnout around here, but the key seems to be promotion, which some are good at, and some not so good in this area.

I've long felt that a crew with a massive Hollywood style promotions engine could clean up. While many try, I've rarely been all that impressed with the local underground scene's marketing.

i agree with your thoughts on promotion. promotion is always key. the big acts will always do well.

the cruxshadows always draw well out here.

the fetish events i do here do ok, we average about 240 paid. but,there isnt much of a underground "fetish" scene here.the turnout is goths,a few punks,metal heads,and people wanting to play dress up.we do get a small amount of people who live a bdsm lifestyle,but not many.

i really like the lab, but people seem to not like the place.

why?

[wilhelm k]

Wow...a scene savior! It doesn't matter what you do, we're easily amused, just entertain us good and we'll all be there. The scene here started dying out for awhile, but I've noticed it was kinda stable and now there's more coming back to the metro detroit area little by little. So whatever you do, I'll be there, look forward to seeing a new face. Around here though, I'd have to say fetish shows are probably the most common non-concert, non-club thing around, but drag shows? I'd LOVE you for them, drag queens are in my top five list of favorite types of people in the whole wide world.

i dont know about saving anything, but i would like to do 1, maybe 2 events a month.

the last fetish ball i did we had an awesome drag performer and some suspensions.

the drag performer(miss kokoa channel) did an incredible job,she m.c.'ed our costume contest too,she was hilarious.

in my post i was also wondering what people wanted to hear. every scene plays the standard...

vnv,covenant,combichrist,wump,wolfsheim,etc

are people happy with that? or do they want some more old school industrial, goth/deathrock, metal?

[wilhelm k]

hi there, welcome to DGN

Danke

[ju5+1n6.7]

as far as promotion, i think you'd be all set with Dubtechs reputation of bad ass parties..

how that merges with the industrial/ebm scene, i'd say mix it up a bit..

you got the connections for techno and that scene was huge back in the day, try up for the old school style parties, but have industrial groups, powernoize, etc..

if you could coax it, Scandy, Stromkern, Atari Teenage Riot, Terrorfakt and Bile..

sounds bizare enough, but Scandy being Combichrist electro side project, electro beats to Stromkern for hip hop industrial beats, to ATR digital hardcore merged by MC's, then techno industrial powernoize of Terrorfakt, to powernoize industrial metal of Bile, it progresses with more intensity and cuts through most of the genras of electronic..

some cross over stuff to convert kandie kids to the dark side and industrial metal to the electronic side..

scene assimilation tactics over several regular events that would start leaning more to the tech world then as that scene gets bigger, get bigger old school industrial headliners.. introduction down to old school, it would combine the turnouts, convert the clubbers and boost the overall scene support for bigger and better events..

just a theory, i'll see it in practice the night of the 26th at an afterparty i'm playing with mostly dj's, live pa's, then we're breaking it to diverse industrial electronics and the ravers are gonna be like "huh?"

as far as spinning the standards, there seem to be enough of those 4 on the floor beats at the clubs regularly, doing more diverse stuff would be awesome as long as it has a good set progression..

just a few ideas to throw around.. way too expensive ones most likely though lol

[Troy Spiral (13)]

i agree with your thoughts on promotion. promotion is always key. the big acts will always do well.

the cruxshadows always draw well out here.

the fetish events i do here do ok, we average about 240 paid. but,there isnt much of a underground "fetish" scene here.the turnout is goths,a few punks,metal heads,and people wanting to play dress up.we do get a small amount of people who live a bdsm lifestyle,but not many.

i really like the lab, but people seem to not like the place.

why?

One problem thats talked about occasionally is that here in Detroit we have a problem that other areas dont have. That is many suburbanites are scared to come into the city. That has been changing , but its still a very common problem , especially "downtown". Even people that aren't necessarily scared, figure Detroit has nothing to offer them (a modern extention of the previous "white people got no business in Detroit" mentality) Bad venues , bad management, bad crime... bah why go down there?

The lab in particular has been plagued over the years by abrupt management decisions to close/open , seemingly at random and/or without warning various dates, nights etc. But of the people that actually frequent the lab, when its actually open , I've mostly heard good things.

But the lab is also fairly unknown, in relation to other venues. I've not really heard much negative feedback about the place itself , more the management drama surrounding it. If i could get my city-club social club to switch to the lab i'd probably have been going there instead all these years (that would also assume them not changing their goth night, opening and closing at random as well), especially in the summer when the mine-shaft CC is basically hell, without the good lighting.

In terms of fetsh in general. From what I've read the BDSM thing has been picking up in terms of nation-wide popularity. Not sure if thats reflected locally or not. But in terms of getting a show to go off.. just need paying bodies to walk in the door right? Dont really matter if they are just tourists... the can be corrupted and turned to the dark side once in the door? That is what has kept CC busy for decades , 90% gawkers/weekend weirdos.

[Scary Guy]

i really like the lab, but people seem to not like the place.

why?

OH GOD, THE DRAMA

Wrong question to ask, prepare for a mini novel.

Once upon a time way back in 2000-2001 it was the happening place to be. I was a City Club regular and had heard about another club in the same building and had to check it out. I met some awesome people there, saw a lot of cool shows, etc...

Over the years however I began to see the club and building and owner for what they were, which was a slum and a slumlord respectively. Like most club owners he's cheap and it shows. I remember one story of ceiling tiles falling on one of the bands that played there. I also remember personally squeegeeing the water into the sewer drains before NYE (though in it's defense it hadn't been open for like two months prior). The lab has gone though many managers and changes as Troy has said, and each have tried to do what they could to fix it up usually spending their own money to do so.

The lab is used as a venue for one reason and one reason only, it's cheap to rent (at least from what I've heard).

You're better off going to any other venue than lab if you want to throw a show. Hell if you get a big enough act you can even throw it in City Club for the right price (hey at least it's cleaner than lab).

Ok didn't write as much as I thought I was going to. I'll leave most of the other stuff out but that's the jist of it.

[wilhelm k]

as far as promotion, i think you'd be all set with Dubtechs reputation of bad ass parties..

how that merges with the industrial/ebm scene, i'd say mix it up a bit..

you got the connections for techno and that scene was huge back in the day, try up for the old school style parties, but have industrial groups, powernoize, etc..

if you could coax it, Scandy, Stromkern, Atari Teenage Riot, Terrorfakt and Bile..

sounds bizare enough, but Scandy being Combichrist electro side project, electro beats to Stromkern for hip hop industrial beats, to ATR digital hardcore merged by MC's, then techno industrial powernoize of Terrorfakt, to powernoize industrial metal of Bile, it progresses with more intensity and cuts through most of the genras of electronic..

some cross over stuff to convert kandie kids to the dark side and industrial metal to the electronic side..

scene assimilation tactics over several regular events that would start leaning more to the tech world then as that scene gets bigger, get bigger old school industrial headliners.. introduction down to old school, it would combine the turnouts, convert the clubbers and boost the overall scene support for bigger and better events..

just a theory, i'll see it in practice the night of the 26th at an afterparty i'm playing with mostly dj's, live pa's, then we're breaking it to diverse industrial electronics and the ravers are gonna be like "huh?"

as far as spinning the standards, there seem to be enough of those 4 on the floor beats at the clubs regularly, doing more diverse stuff would be awesome as long as it has a good set progression..

just a few ideas to throw around.. way too expensive ones most likely though lol

i agree that scandy could be a good crossover dj to book. i have had terrorfakt & bile play for me here &

both shows did not go to well. do they do well in detroit?

are you playing the meat beat show or a different one?

[wilhelm k]

One problem thats talked about occasionally is that here in Detroit we have a problem that other areas dont have. That is many suburbanites are scared to come into the city. That has been changing , but its still a very common problem , especially "downtown". Even people that aren't necessarily scared, figure Detroit has nothing to offer them (a modern extention of the previous "white people got no business in Detroit" mentality) Bad venues , bad management, bad crime... bah why go down there?

The lab in particular has been plagued over the years by abrupt management decisions to close/open , seemingly at random and/or without warning various dates, nights etc. But of the people that actually frequent the lab, when its actually open , I've mostly heard good things.

But the lab is also fairly unknown, in relation to other venues. I've not really heard much negative feedback about the place itself , more the management drama surrounding it. If i could get my city-club social club to switch to the lab i'd probably have been going there instead all these years (that would also assume them not changing their goth night, opening and closing at random as well), especially in the summer when the mine-shaft CC is basically hell, without the good lighting.

In terms of fetsh in general. From what I've read the BDSM thing has been picking up in terms of nation-wide popularity. Not sure if thats reflected locally or not. But in terms of getting a show to go off.. just need paying bodies to walk in the door right? Dont really matter if they are just tourists... the can be corrupted and turned to the dark side once in the door? That is what has kept CC busy for decades , 90% gawkers/weekend weirdos.

im surprised to hear that the suburbanites are still scared of detroit.perhaps people are just set in their ways.

BDSM is pretty big all over the country,im in a college town so we are kind of in our own lil world,so when we do fetish events its the tourists that help things financially.we charge more for people that are not dressed up so the gawkers help out in the end.

i like the lab, but it is a bit ghetto.does CC have any ac or is it just an oven in the summer?

[wilhelm k]

OH GOD, THE DRAMA

Wrong question to ask, prepare for a mini novel.

Once upon a time way back in 2000-2001 it was the happening place to be. I was a City Club regular and had heard about another club in the same building and had to check it out. I met some awesome people there, saw a lot of cool shows, etc...

Over the years however I began to see the club and building and owner for what they were, which was a slum and a slumlord respectively. Like most club owners he's cheap and it shows. I remember one story of ceiling tiles falling on one of the bands that played there. I also remember personally squeegeeing the water into the sewer drains before NYE (though in it's defense it hadn't been open for like two months prior). The lab has gone though many managers and changes as Troy has said, and each have tried to do what they could to fix it up usually spending their own money to do so.

The lab is used as a venue for one reason and one reason only, it's cheap to rent (at least from what I've heard).

You're better off going to any other venue than lab if you want to throw a show. Hell if you get a big enough act you can even throw it in City Club for the right price (hey at least it's cleaner than lab).

Ok didn't write as much as I thought I was going to. I'll leave most of the other stuff out but that's the jist of it.

thanks for the reply. i was thinking of using the lab for a fetish event. i have actually used the lab 3 times since last august for techno events, i have always heard things about the management, but never expierenced it personally.

though i will say the last event i put on there the heat was not working and it was one of those nights this past february that was -20 with windchill.

a good number of people in the techno,etc scene do not like the lab & i have heard the same thing from some of the people i know in the G.I. scene so i figured i would ask about it.

i do agree that the whole building is pretty ghetto, last summer i stayed in the leland and the ac didnt work in any room i went to, they switched my room 3 times.

[Scary Guy]

Oh no, it works, it just doesn't work by design so he can save even more money. My advice is bring your own space heater/window fan if you get a room. Actually my advice is to stay at a friends house or a better hotel.

[Homicidalheathen]

Hello

[wilhelm k]

Hello

Hello

[Homicidalheathen]

The fetish party at Mephistos was ok last Saturday. Good to see someone new here to help promote the techno and fetish scene.....two of my fav things.

Personally I think the fetish shows here are tame. Wicked eve was ok but it is falling apart. There are no other ones from what I have seen where you can go and actually get hurt pretty good.

I also hear the scene can get a bit political.

[wilhelm k]

The fetish party at Mephistos was ok last Saturday. Good to see someone new here to help promote the techno and fetish scene.....two of my fav things.

Personally I think the fetish shows here are tame. Wicked eve was ok but it is falling apart. There are no other ones from what I have seen where you can go and actually get hurt pretty good.

I also hear the scene can get a bit political.

thank you for the input/info.

i'm always open to suggestions,input,etc. i have some really great ideas i plan to use.

im thinking of doing my 1st fetish event out there in september. i move back august 1st, so i figure that will give me some time to get aquainted with the scene.

as far as politics go, that's common in every scene.

i will be surprised if there is no drama with a new promoter doing stuff in the area.