Day 1: Arrival
The 1999 edition of the annual net.goth gathering got off to a great start on a warm and humid day in the historic old city of New Orleans. I arrived a little late on the afternoon of Friday April 2 after a long and bumpy flight from San Diego. The day before, a storm had rolled in off the Pacific ocean and had dumped a fair amount of rain in San Diego as well as a lot of snow throughout the mountains of the western United States. All the snow on the ground made for a pretty sight as I flew over the mountains at 33,000 feet. At least until we caught up with the storm from the night before. From there it became bumpy, not the worst turbulence I have ever experienced but enough to let you know that there was a storm far below shrouding the land from view.
This was my first trip to New Orleans even though I have been a member of the New Orleans Goth list for almost a year now. As soon as I arrived, I caught a hint of the history of the city. The atmosphere holds a sense of hidden decay, like Dorian Grey and his portrait, there is a sense that there is rottenness hidden by the pretty face of this old place. But in a way that isn't exactly true either. Not all of New Orleans has a pretty face and often, a grand building will sit next to an old lifeless hulk suffering from neglect and falling to the ravages of the weather. This is a city of contrasts, of the old juxtaposed with the new but with a reluctance to truly embrace the modern way of life. In short, I can't think of a more appropriate or decadent place to hold Convergence, this is a Gothic city and it is right and fitting that the annual gothic gathering be here, this year, on the eve of a new century.
 NOLA Skyline at Dusk from my room at the Mariott |
Upon arrival, I checked in to the Mariott which was the second of two hotels to be taken over by the masses of black clad Gothic folk. I waited too long to make my reservations so I missed out on staying at the old and historic Bienville House a few blocks away in the Vieux Carre, the French Quarter. The Mariott sits the French Quarter, a short walk of a couple of blocks lands one in another time. It is easy to fall into the charm of the place and find oneself thinking what it must have been like so long ago when this was a colonial town held variously by the Spanish and the French, finally being purchased by the fledgling United States at the beginning of the 19th century as part of the Louisiana Purchase. The legends of ghosts, vampires, voodoo and the Rougaroux's, the werewolf seem so much more real in this place. This city of old world charm, once walked by the likes of Andrew Jackson, Jean Lafitte, Mark Twain, Aleister Crowley and so many other famous people just echoes with incredible tales.
Having taken care of the administrative details, I set out to track down a few of the New Orleans Goth list members starting with Jason and Alice (aka mAlice), the list owners and moderators. They had flown in from Georgia the same morning and were also staying at the Mariott. With the help of the desk staff, I tracked Jason down and he told me that Alice, her husband Erich, Jason's wife Anne, and their friend Rikk were hanging out in the bar while he was getting cleaned up for the night's festivities. I made my way to the bar and after ordering a beer sat back to figure out who I was looking for. Fortunately it was not too hard to do since the bar is pretty small and there were few people there. Unfortunately, Alice had indulged in a little too much to drink by that time and was in no shape to continue being social at the time. Erich and Anne took her back up to their room and put her to bed to recuperate. Meanwhile, Jason had finished getting ready and came down to join us just missing Alice and crew as they returned to their room. I was still in the bar talking with Rikk when he arrived. We made arrangements to hook up later in the evening for a bite to eat and a cab ride to Jimmy's Music Club for the first night of Convergence 5.
 Anne, Erich and Alice in the Mariott hotel bar, I just love drunken blackmail pictures... |
Later that evening, sans Alice, Jason, Anne, Rikk, Erich and I walked down Royal Street to a little Italian restaurant in the French Quarter called Mona Lisa's. This is a small but good eatery, the smell of garlic comes at you from the place from blocks away, my kind of place I have to say. The restaurant is decorated throughout with many different interpretations of Leonardo Da Vinci's famous painting. Of course nothing goes as planned and we ended up finishing dinner at 11PM. A walk back to the hotel to check on Alice was followed by a cab ride out to Jimmy's Music Club to see the local bands. I am glad we took a cab, there was no way I was going to find this place in any reasonable amount of time if I had been driving. I pride myself on my sense of direction but I have to say after the first few turns I had no clue which way we were going.
The club is in the area they call Uptown across the street from one of the city's streetcar barns. I am told that it is not in the best neighborhood but nobody in the area seemed too intent on molesting any of the many Goths lined up outside the club. Once or twice somebody would drive by and emit a stupid comment as they flew past but nobody really seemed to care about their ignorance and stupidity. Everyone seemed to be excited about the things to come throughout the weekend.
Arriving at the club brought a bit of a surprise, I was greeted by my friend Lance from San Diego. Even more of a surprise was the fact that he told me that he had moved to Lafayette back in February, something I had not known about at the time. But in retrospect, I have not seen him at club for some time so I probably should not be so surprised that he had decided to move on to another place.
 Lance strikes a pose in front of the line waiting to get in to Jimmy's |
Our arrival at Jimmy's was just after midnight so we had missed the first two bands, Falling Janus and New Dawn Fades. I had wanted to see them but sometimes things just don't work out the way you want them to when you are on the road. We were fortunate to arrive just in time for Cut.Rate.Box. Cut.Rate.Box is a very good industrial electronic act that deserves wider recognition. The band put on a short but great show, the crowd seemed to be into it and the somewhat sleazy atmosphere of the venue just rounded things out nicely. I recognized a couple of their songs, in particular "Pill" and "Gravity" as well as a spooky industrial rendering of "The Sound of Silence." ("Pill" and "Gravity" are both available in MP3 format on the Cut.Rate.Box web site, I highly recommend checking them out).
 Cut.Rate.Box looms in the darkness |
 A little lighter through the fog machine haze |
 With a bit of mood lighting |
The patio of the club was packed with many of the notables of the net.goth world. In my desire to seek out Heather Spear, (one of the C5 organizers), I ran into Carrie Carrolin, the creator of the Dark Side of the Net web site and was introduced to Clifford Low who runs Necronomi.com. It just happened to be Carrie's 30th birthday so I granted her honorary membership in the Fellowship of Cranky Old Goths. LaLune, the organizer of the Los Angeles Bauhaus Project was also in attendance at the first night's show and appeared to be enjoying himself immensely.
 Carrie creator of Dark Side of the Net, Cossack creator of Goth Babe of the Week and Heather Spear, one of the C5 organizers. |
 Carrie's back with an important message scratched in for all to see... If you can't quite read it, move your mouse over the image. |
 LaLune and a friend enjoying the show |
After doing the obligatory schmoozing, I went back inside for the final band of the night, Ex-Voto. They also put on a good show and put a great cap on the night at Jimmy's. (Ex-Voto also have a couple of their songs in MP3 format on their web site, I think they also deserve greater exposure, go check them out). From there, it was back to the hotel for a bit of sleep. I had been up for 20 hours straight after a hellish week at work. Even though I know sleep is optional when attending a gathering of this sort, us old-fart-goths need our sleep to keep from turning into nasty, evil, mean people. So with that I will leave you with some more pix from the evening's festivities. Tomorrow as they say is another day...
 Random Goths on the dance floor at Jimmy's |
 Ex-Voto Take the Stage |
 Ex-Voto, in a different light... |
 From yet another angle... |
This Pen and Glass II- Convergence 5 Memorial ring site owned by Dragon.
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