Running a goth night is hard

For the last year and a half I have been helping run Phenox and now Alchemy which are the local weekly “Goth Nights” at Effex Nightclub. I wanted to write up a bit about the nights and how things have gone, and where we want to go.

I started working at Phenox by accident mostly. I think I was standing in the back one day talking about how much better it could be if they just put some more work into it; At the time for visuals they were just looping music videos that were on the house laptop which consisted of mostly popular hip hop and rap videos. Not the best background videos for a goth / industrial / alternative club night. I didn’t realize it but one of the guys running it was nearby and said, well why don’t you help out? I thought it over and said, yeah I can throw down some visuals next week. A year and a half later I now co run the night with Kenny. What a strange ride its been.

First off I wanted to thank Phenox / Daniel for starting this whole night. The goth scene had been mostly dead and there had not been a weekly night for some time. Out of nowhere Daniel got the biggest nightclub in town to give us Wednesdays to throw an event. It started off slow, but we all built an amazing night together.

Today we run every Thursday downstairs at the main room at Effex. We moved to Thursdays since we had noticed less people were able to make it out Wed nights, and Thursdays was always the traditional day for these nights going back to KGB and before. We have a number of rotating DJ’s, a resident VJ (me) and a number of helpers and support staff.

Running an alternative night is not as easy as I had expected. We do this for free because we love the scene and the music. I have not made a dime off of this night, and I have spent countless hours making flyers, websites, logos and branding, and visuals for the night. I just wanted there to be a fun place to go for us alternative folks who can listen to good music, have a drink and dance or relax. Regardless I am happy with what we have been able to make, and the awesome support of Effex and our DJ’s / crew. Without Kenny, Daniel, Carlos, Pi, Brian, Spencer, Marino, Ehrin, Kate, Paul, Defiant and everyone else who has helped out in any way we would not have this night.

I hope in the coming months that we can continue bringing you some amazing rotating DJ’s and some new events and theme nights. We want to keep adding to the night and have some more things going on to entertain people. We have some theme nights in the works to spice up the weekly events, and are working on getting some stickers / shirts made for giveaways. Check out the Alchemy Facebook Page and NMEBM.com to keep up to date!