yet another part of my continuing effort to make sure there is something to do at/around Baltimore.
If you want to hear industrial/goth music in Baltimore, there are not a whole lot of choices. On Thursday nights, Club Orpheus hosts Shadowplay, with Noir Night for fridays. The saturday night scene in the city appeard to be dead, till Lucifer's Dive showed up and which was rumored to hold a goth/industrial night every Saturday. This was mana from heaven. I dressed in black, wait... I dress in black every day... and headed on down to the Dive.
First a word about the location. While the Federal Hill area has been gentrified, Lucifers Dive is located in a slightly unsavory corner of it. However, I did not have any problems walking the 3 blocks needed to get to the club.
The club is quite basic, you have a dance floor, a small mirror ball, strobes, and a bar covering the entire left hand wall as you enter. The ceilings are low, however, and you could knock the mirror ball down if you tried.
On to the music. The DJ booth is located behind the bar, on the left. The setup is very accessible and is right in front of the dance space. The first DJ was playing mostly goth stuff, Sisters of Mercy, Bauhaus, Alien Sex Fiend interspersed with Skinny Puppy. The second DJ came in at 9:30, with a box full of CD's. The top two items I saw were the Ras DVA "There is No Time" quartet and the WaxTrax "BlackBox." This was a very encouraging sign as most of the DJ's in Baltimore don't own anything in the industrial genre other than Front 242's "Headhunter." The DJ's were quite friendly and they played pretty much everything I asked for, good taste and all that I suppose. I got to hear Haujobb, Mussolini Headkick, X Marks the Pedwalk, Einsturzende Neubauten and Hate Department. This was all quite good and I danced for about four hours straight. In between the sets, I was sitting around at the bar, talking with the owners and the DJ's. The entire atmosphere was very friendly, with no "I am cooler than thou" people around. The crowd was very eclectic, mostly made up of the local goths and rivetheads with some punk/metal and hardcore people. The drinks were cheap, and the restrooms were clean. This was definitely worth the trip and is going on my schedule.
If you know Industrial or Goth, this would be a decent place to vist and hang out. I know I'll be there again.
Lucifer's Dive 1101 Race Street, off of Cross Street, two blocks west of S. Charles Street. Baltimore. phone: (410) 332-4184 email: venusfur@aol.com
Salvation through Napalm