An open letter to entirety of KG

[judas gnb]

If i may spin it like this,as i was talkin to a bat today i had metioned that the drop off maybe in that sanctus is now four years old.In that the people around sanctus are four years older some may have kids now or lives outside a club night have become more importnat i.e. jobs that start early in the morning or there lives have taken a differant path.It may not be bout changing the clubnight itself it maybe just the people who came to said club night have changed.
just something to think bout

[Hardcoregirl]

Good point judas...I mean, I'm a 25 year old single mom with 2 jobs and I hate to say it but "successful goth scene" isn't high on my list of priorities. If I was really profiting in any way from it I suppose that I would be more concerned, but so far, more non KG people than KG people seem to be supporting the shop. Maybe we are all just too apathetic for our own good...lol.

[The Fallen]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Sanctus held Sunday? No way anyone out of town can even think about doing that unless they had Monday off.

Which is why I always take the Monday off after Sanctus

[vicious_blood]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Sanctus held Sunday? No way anyone out of town can even think about doing that unless they had Monday off.

Which is why I always take the Monday off after Sanctus

Good for you, but I only get 10 days off a year...no offense to sanctus and the KGB, but I'm not wasting them (not all of them anyways) on staying up late and getting drunk.
If everyone else wants to do it then cool.
Or if everyone else wants to stay up late AND go to work the next day, then cool. I personally need my job too much then to be coming in all blurry-eyed and slacking.

I agree with Morgan and Dustin, too. Times changed, people changed. And it will continue to change. Which is why maybe a little bit of change every once in a while for Sanctus may be a good thing.

[Jack]

So, if you want Sanctus to continue, then GO.

Sure. As long as:

1) Better music gets played.

and

2) Attractive, intelligent girls who will talk to me despite not having leather pants, looking like the Crow, or talking loudly about how fucking awesome I am would show up.

...

OK, admittedly, I am capable of talking loudly about how fucking awesome I am.

But, in all seriousness, I noticed a growing trend at Sanctus towards superficiality. Most of the people, especially the newer attendees, constantly acted as though I didn't belong because I didn't look goth enough. Not just girls, but nearly every stranger I tried to talk to gave off a vibe of "You're not talking about how good everyone looks, especially me. You're like, trying to talk about intelligent topics. I'm going to go pose by the bar now."

Obviously this is not necessarily the fault of the promoters or DJs. But it is how things turned out.

The Old Sanctus was a place where I often met many diverse and cool people. The New Sanctus makes me feel like a Smiths fan at a My Chemical Romance concert.

I don't have any good ideas on how to change that other than what I have said over and over again. Include more people. Bring in the very large Knoxville new-wave crowd - the 20-30somethings who worship at the altar of Morrissey, Sonic Youth, REM, They Might Be Giants, Camper Van Beethoven, Ride, Gang of Four (and not that crappy new reunion song they have that sounds like Fugazi covering Tool), Operation Ivy, Dead Kennedys, My Bloody Valentine, James, the Melvins, Jane's Addiction, the many modern dark bands such as Interpol, Dead Meadow, Stars, Death From Above 1979, and the many modern danceable bands such as Out Hud, !!!, Boards of Canada, and hell, even guilty modern pleasures such as the Killers, and hell, even The Bravery have a good song or two.

Bringing in a large crowd of diverse people who, gasp, might have something to talk about other than whether the new NIN album is good would only help business. Think about it - the Pilot Light almost never has shows on Sunday. The Pilot Light kids love to dance, drink and screw, because, as Jarvis Cocker so elegantly put it, there's nothing else to do.

All-goth all-the-time, in a city like Knoxville, is doomed to failure. Period.

[Bigun]

Sunday is just a bad day to party.... period.

Too many of us do have jobs, and cherish our days off. I get 12 days off a year and only have 5 or so saved up. I'd like to have 10 before I start enjoying them, and even then, it's once a month.

Hell, hold something Friday..... I think Friday would be 100 fold more doable.

[cutelittlepsycho20]

IMO, if yopu go to TEMPLE then your ass better be at Santcus. No fucking excuses.

I was sick as hell yesterday, So I was in bed all fucking day.

HOWEVER...I have been bringing this subject up for the last few months and it keeps getting shurgged off.

If you went to Santcus before TEMPLE...then you have no fucking excuse not to go now. Your job wasn't oh so fucking important then. You asked off for work then...why can't you do it now?

If you are oh to cool for Santcus...then you are oh too cool for the board. Plain and fucking simple.

i love you Coor. and i also am feeling sick as a dog, but i went anyway.

[Zeo]

IMO, if yopu go to TEMPLE then your ass better be at Santcus. No fucking excuses.

I was sick as hell yesterday, So I was in bed all fucking day.

HOWEVER...I have been bringing this subject up for the last few months and it keeps getting shurgged off.

If you went to Santcus before TEMPLE...then you have no fucking excuse not to go now. Your job wasn't oh so fucking important then. You asked off for work then...why can't you do it now?

If you are oh to cool for Santcus...then you are oh too cool for the board. Plain and fucking simple.

I disagree. It's that kind of mentality that can drive people away. I certainly don't like to feel obligated to go to any club where I'm spending my money to drink and have a good time, regardless if I post on this forum or not. If I'm wrong in that, I'll simply stop posting.

I try to attend Sanctus at least every other month or when I can afford to do so, and I have noticed attendance dwindling here and there.

I really think there could be more done to promote Sanctus rather than relying on people to promote it by word of mouth. You can plant the seed and watch it grow, but if you don't water it now and then the flower will whither.
I'll say this, myspace is free and there are hundreds of people from all over East Tennessee who would potentially be interested in going to Sanctus.
I'm not going trying to sound like an infomercial here, but you can start event pages and invite people to RSVP to the event. People can also use a lookup tool to see events going on in their area.
I've found it to be a key promotional tool, and regardless what some people have to say about it, it works, and gets the word out. I shamelessly promote any event I DJ on there and the past couple I have done at Temple were totally successful, and myspace helped a lot.
Granted, some people have work and other obligations preventing them from being able to attend a Sunday night event, but the potential is always there to do more to promote and bring in new people who may not have heard of Sanctus or KG.

[iblis]

you guys need your own bat signal.

but barring that, the flyer thing does sound like a good idea.

i have to admit, the "working early the following monday" thing has almost killed my own attendance. if it's still around when i get some more vacation time, i'll try to remedy that.

[Coor]

Ooh. I feel oh so important. So...I shall reply. Not to all of them because most of the comments in referance to my post are mildly redundtent.

First off. I agree with JC 100%...

Second. To the feeling that "You should pay your dues comment." That is my personal take on things, and I was under the impression that I was voicing my opinion.

Also, I don't run KG...nor Santcus...To my understanding I'm not even a Moderator. So, don't let my personal opininon keep you from going out. By all means.

Third. I think that promotions are a HUGE part of the problem. I have offerd to help with that. Just as I have helped with TEMPLE in handing out flyers on campus and around Downtown. However, promotions weren't a big issue over a year ago.

Fourth. Not everyone can make it out everytime. Shit...I missed last Santcus due to being sick and HAVING to do a 3 mile run at 5 am. That's a damn good reason in my opinion. So is having a child with no babysitter. So is having an important meeting at work in the morning. I have to be at work by 9 am. I get up regoddamned stupid early to work out and shower before work. However, I can still make it part of the time...most of the time.

People have classes. People have jobs. People have lives that don't revolve around Blue Cats.

This isn't an open letter to people who casually stopped coming over the years. I think it goes to people who just decided that another night of the week was more convient. (IMO)

Another point. Friday is Blue Cats biggest night...Most goth club nights that are on Friday's usually get shut down because the venue can't make money off of it. Granted, that's not in all cities...espicially not the major ones, but I've seen it happen over and over again. And I'm only 20.

Fifth. If you have a problem with the music...You see the playlists everytime. You know how to contact the DJ's. If you've contacted them about the music slection and been ignored...then damn right you have a reason not to go out. I just find it hard to believe that everyone complaining about the music variety has contacted a single DJ...outside of casual converation at Santcus...and sent them personal feeligns on the music. If you have and had reasonable requests denied...then I wouldn't go out either.

Like I said these are just my opinions. Athough, they make for intresting points...and if you are offended I suggest that you stay away form the Junkie Christ thread...the Film forum...and

[Shadow]

IMO, if yopu go to TEMPLE then your ass better be at Santcus. No fucking excuses.

I was sick as hell yesterday, So I was in bed all fucking day.

HOWEVER...I have been bringing this subject up for the last few months and it keeps getting shurgged off.

If you went to Santcus before TEMPLE...then you have no fucking excuse not to go now. Your job wasn't oh so fucking important then. You asked off for work then...why can't you do it now?

If you are oh to cool for Santcus...then you are oh too cool for the board. Plain and fucking simple.

I disagree. It's that kind of mentality that can drive people away. I certainly don't like to feel obligated to go to any club where I'm spending my money to drink and have a good time, regardless if I post on this forum or not. If I'm wrong in that, I'll simply stop posting.

I quite agree with Zeo on this. Why would anyone want to 'guilt" someone into supporting a night or scene? I go when I can and don't when I can't. My reasons for attending or not attending are my own. They don't make me cool or non-cool, or anything else for that matter.

I think a lot of good feedback was given in this thread and hopefully it will be taken into consideration and then Sanctus will be better than ever.

[X]

ya know, perhaps my opinion doesn't mean a hill of shit, but i'll throw this in.

I stopped going in the first place, cus well...we all know that fucking story...right? All that jazz didn't really mean shit, next to the fact that i felt disrespected by the security at blue cats....and my opinion is, why put even a penny in their pockets, if they're allmighty better than i (when indeed it is i whom better than they).

Irregardless, when i stopped going, about 3 months of pisstivity, knocked me up to 'taking care of myself' where i lost time 'taking care of the scene'

Now, minus the officiado of the current goings on, can anyone stake a claim that i helped the scene the uttermost i could, sometimes even pulling out of my pocket so 15 or 20 people could sing the songs that get spun at sanctus every month, every month...thats why i get to retort.

The best point made is from my fellow saint, J$, however usually incoherent in his posts, and making opinions that are ungodly horridly backed up, has finally said something impressive (miricles happen everyday). The fact that sanctus attendence is down doesn't surprise me.

When you have the lower age kids, who started out in the scene...oh...6, 7 years ago, they fall into one of 3 categories.

*i have to work early the next day
*other things make it not doable
*i gotta pay the rent, before i can pay for the bandwidth

of course add in, that what, 2 years ago, practically the whole fucking female majority of this board got preggers at once....kids can't come to sanctus.

The new blood thing, eh...could be it....there in again, thats why temple is floating good. I certinly don't think the repeated attitude of "if you don't like the safety dance/99 red balloons/personal jesus, etc etc etc- same tired playlists, then don't come, is helping at all either....i mean, how many times can you watch star wars in a row until you're just like..."godamn darth, just blow lukes ass up and make him die"


My simple guess, and it could be disproven by simply stating "its been posted" is DUDES, how usual has the "week-date" of sanctus been....its the first sunday one month, we're having two next month...second sunday the next...then we're back to the third sunday again....maybe thats just confusing.


eh, who knows if any of this makes any sense....who knows if anyone fucking cares, i mean i only come out like once a year....so therein my opinion might not mean shit.....

[The Fallen]

2) Attractive, intelligent girls who will talk to me despite not having leather pants, looking like the Crow, or talking loudly about how fucking awesome I am would show up.

I'll dismember that remark. Take a look at me, aging geek, wearing black jeans and a tacky vampire shirt and attractive intelligent girls talk to me. Hell that's what I did half of this Sanctus. I don't know why and I'm not complaining

All-goth all-the-time, in a city like Knoxville, is doomed to failure. Period.

Hey, my life in a nutshell. That is so goth, Jack


I like to say that opinions are like assholes, everyone has several... which makes you wonder where to wipe these days.
But seriously folks... you have to remember that part of the equation is the venue. It is a business and they are in the business to make money, and the goth scene is a difficult venture as it tends to make less money then you think.
As for taking Monday off, I wasn't always able to do that, I'd stay til 12:30-1am then head home hating it because I wanted to stay but I did want to keep my job more. But I still came out to support the scene that supported me and still does. Why? Because I'm insane!! Or does everyone like to jump up and down on their furniture and make monkey noises??

[gwenhwyfar]

i stopped coming for a while for my own personal reasons. last time, i simply peffered to cough up loogies and sling snot in my own bathroom instead of in public.

i think alot of people have kinda "grown out of it" (for lack of a better term). jobs, marriages, kids, whatever it may be, people tend to get wrapped up and move on.
i don't know how to find fresh meat. myspace is a good idea.. my only other thought is to stand outside Hot Topic and hand out flyers (what better place to find supporters than the HQ for all the younguns with extra money that is blown on eyeliner, vinyl, and the latest "matrix jacket".)

new peeps would prolly be happy to dance to sweet dreams and that same covenant song every time as well.

i personally am sick of the music. i made a cd (like 2 yrs ago) of songs played (now insanely overplayed) at sanctus, appropriately titled 'sanctus'.
the last time i attended, EVERY SONG on that cd was played.

but there are other problems about music:

1. i've seen djs play new/ different stuff............and no one dances to it. new dj comes on.......plays the same tired tunes......everybody dances. doesn't make that playlist look very good for the dj. if i were a dj, i wouldn't continue to play stuff that no one will dance to.

2. look at the playlists, prolly atleast 50% of the songs that get played EVERY SINGLE TIME......are marked as requests.
makes it harder to have a fresh playlist when you try to accomodate people and they request the same shit over and over.

just a few random thoughts.

[miz kitty]

I think we've got a pretty good overview of various reasons for the drop off....now let's be proactive. What can we do to help? Word of mouth is always a big plus, but it's going ot take some work on both ends. What can be improved upon? Can some members of the community help in planning, promotions, etc? It has to be a group effort, and we all need to keep an open mind. I think Zeo's recommendation about myspace is a great idea. I've made a shit ton of contacts from it. I believe a multimedia blitzkrieg is in order.Any serious ideas?

[Bone]

Thank You MIz Kitty, as allways you have a way of elegantly pulling things togeather.
Jonathan Jason & I had a meeting yesterday to discuss "the future", and Jason is suppose to already be working on the MySpace. We'll let you all know when it's ready, hopefully in the next day or two. As to Other things we are working out some details, which we will also hope to make some announcements about later in the week, as things are getting worked out/ finalized. Some things are going to change. Some things will stay the same. Some new elememnts are hopefully gonna be added. Give us a little time to get all the ducks in a row, and we'll let all of you know whats up, and where we could use some help.

Most everyone has made some helpful commentary here, Thank You all, for your concern and support. It is greatly appreciated.

[Arkady]

Yes indeed, things are changing...

http://www.myspace.com/club_sanctus is the myspace account. I am working on it as we speak and it's far from finished but please feel free to go ahead and add it to your friends list.

I don't know if you all noticed but the camera policy is no longer in effect. Check the important announcements in general for details.

[iblis]

http://www.myspace.com/club_sanctus is the myspace account. I am working on it as we speak and it's far from finished but please feel free to go ahead and add it to your friends list.

added.

[Jack]

Fifth. If you have a problem with the music...You see the playlists everytime. You know how to contact the DJ's. If you've contacted them about the music slection and been ignored...then damn right you have a reason not to go out.

Damn skippy. Even the gothest requests I've made over the years get ignored.

Heaven forbid we have a Sanctus where someone plays something as insanely danceable as My Bloody Valentine's "Soon" instead of the thousandth playing of "Personal Jesus" or whatever.

Goth clubs I've been to in large cities that succeeded tended to only play two or three "classics" per night. Sanctus, by a casual glance at the playlists, averages more than ten.

The excuse given is that people dance to them. OK, fair enough. But attendance is down. The number of people who always dance to certain songs is a closed system. And that clique has long been regarded as the de facto core group of attendees.

It is obvious why this mentality is doomed to fail.

At any dance night, the core group of attendees should:

A) Always be changing.

B) Consist of people who like to dance and have fun whether they know the song by heart or not.

C) Aren't close-mindedly stuck in the 80s/90s to the extent that, no matter how good a "new" song is, they turn their noses up at it and shut their ears.

[Zeo]

http://www.myspace.com/club_sanctus is the myspace account. I am working on it as we speak and it's far from finished but please feel free to go ahead and add it to your friends list.
.

Awesome. I'll send people that way.