I lived among the Goths

So of all the mixed up adjectives people have used to describe the Dawson killer, we'll stick with Goth ok? Not just because that's what it looks like to me -kind of- on his web pagebut also because it's the same website where that 12 year who killed her parents met her boyfriend and accomplice on and *they* were widely described as Goths so... eh? makes sense.

I spent a rather hefty chunk of the 90s three stories underground, in a 1000-person capacity danceclub that was once a movie theatre. It was called Blondie, and I've mentioned it in passing before. Blondie was dark, rank, cheap, and located in the poorer old city core of Santiago. It was where you went to avoid judgement. Anyway, that's the way I saw it because no matter what you were like, you couldn't possibly be the worst looking person in there. I loved that place.

Like I said, I spent a loooot of time there. I became friends with the party promoter, the owner, the bouncers, with the barmen, with the girl who sold the tickets, not to mention with other partygoers. Mostly, we just ordered cheap drinks and sat on the steps that led to the dancefloor, or in dark spaces near the walls, until we were ready to dance and then we just let her go until closing at 5 or 6am, as deep into the club as possible. It was occasionally visited by rich kids from waaay uptown who discovered it as they entered university and opened their worlds a bit. Those kids stood out like a pimple in the hazy sea of black that were the regulars. And they danced -safely- nearer to the bar, and the stairs leading back up 3 stories to the outside world. If you knew what's what about Blondie, you wouldn't be caught dead there. In a place built to be a refuge, tolerant and accepting, the only way to be really uncool was to, I don't know, wear white sneakers.

Anyway, Blondie was a favourite with goths. There was a lot of industrial techno, and the pop was mostly 80s music (Siouxsie and the Banshees, Joy Division, This Mortal Coil, etc). Everyone had a vampire story, it was ridiculous. Too much white face makeup, in hindsight. But honestly, no one in that club was scary. The scariest guy I remember wore a military beret, combat boots and a trenchcoat (what can I say, he did) and everyone said he was around 40. In a club catering mostly to 18-25 year olds, that was a bit creepy. I spoke to him a few times, both of us being regulars and all. I confirmed his age, and I got the impression that the scariest thing about him was that he liked young girls and was himself rather gross. But that's it.

For sure, a lot of us down there had issues. But mostly we were in our 20s and not really sure what to do with our lives (shocking!) and so we drank, and danced and felt pretty damn good for a few hours every week.