2001-03-04 - 00:59:40

Club: The Box

Location: Santa Cruz

As the first part of my end of Feburary adventures Redwood took me to Santa Cruz the day before our Asilomar conference (the annual California Aquatic Environmental conference down in Monterey CA).

On the way down to Santa Cruz from Sacramento we stopped off at just about every WalMart and Target we could find. MON CALAMARI! Not the food sickos, but the action figure! I found a Mon Calamari and a Dinobot Transformer. The latter was on sale for $4, so I went ahead and bought him. The Mon Calamari, well I always "liberate" these guys.

Redwood is a great driver, and even better direction finder. We arrived at the club (located in a venue called the Blue Lagoon or something like that) in downtown Santa Cruz around 11 PM. I was surprised to find the cover to be only $3!

Why can't Sacramento and S.F. goth/industro clubs charge only $3? Anyway the Box was well worth $3. Two dance floors, tv screens with D.M. videos playing, a full bar separated from the dance floors, a few tables and chairs, and two pool tables (both very busy).

The music mix was heavier on the industrial / EBM side, but mostly stuff from 97-99. For example, instead of playing VNV's Empires or Burning Empires, Praise the Fallen was played. Plenty of S.P. and a handful of other groups that I recognize but less I could name. Interestingly no Funker Vogt.

There was also some standby gothic being played. Not just the Sisters, but other good songs that weren't overplayed. Although there was no need for a request list (due to the nice set), I still was hoping to hear some Suicide Commando or Funker Vogt.

After dancing for about 1 hour (with some break time) a woman approached me. She was about my age, kinda short ... STACKED and nice looking. Basically while flirting with me she revealed that she was married, but had been hiding her wedding ring from me. As she put it she was "frisky". Yeah, that begins to describe it.

I flirted some but also didn't think too much about it. I mean I was just passing through.

But it was so nice for her to basically hit on me all night long and compliament my dancing. I remember asking her why she came up to talk to me and she said it was because I was the only new person at the Box that night. In fact, Redwood and I were apparently the only new people in months.

Today Spring told me that this is standard for Santa Cruz. It has a small scene, so people are very curious about newbies ... apparently it is easy to date people. This is so not the case in the Bay Area.

Redwood and I left sometime after 1 AM and arrived at his folk's place south of San Jose around 2 AM. Um, his folk's place is as cluttered as his desk and home. :) I now see he comes by many things honestly.

After a nice sleep in his old stomping grounds I met his folks. They were really shy but also super nice. Funny fact: Spring's dad's Mac uses the track ball invented by Redwood's dad! :) Small world, huh?

Tuesday morning while Redwood was showering, and I was talking to his folks, his dad asked what kind of music I listen to. "Industrial".

He didn't have a clue what it was. I tried to explain it as a cross between electronic based music (aka early 80s stuff) and fast paced guitar with some experimental sounds. I was trying to avoid the words: gothic and death rock. Oh well, they didn't understand.

The odd thing is that Redwood had left his copy of Burning Empires there and his mom had listened to it some, because as we were leaving she said it sounded like his typical music and not his sisters. Anyway, his dad was probably just probing me for why I listened to "underground" music. My guess.

NEXT ENTRY: ASILOMAR DAY 1.

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