San Francisco Goth parties & gay nightlife. Wicked Grounds, Cat Club.
Yikes, I’m extremely back-logged with blog posts… but they’ll come hot and heavy from now on, I promise.
Let’s go back in time, to our Wicked Grounds drag performance party. Then I’ll run through the best Gothic, alternative and LGBT nightlife in San Francisco. Sounds good? Strike a pose, vogue, and let’s go-go-GOTH.
You’ll recall that some of my best friends and I gathered in San Francisco over Memorial Day Weekend (you can read all our SF adventures to date).
We learned a big travel lesson: it’s extremely stressful to travel during this American public holiday, since the rest of the country is doing the same. Hotels were booked solid, traffic was choked up… It took far too many hours to pick up this birthday cake with a boot on it (don’t ask why) and drive the short distance to the venue.
Still, Die Schwarze Frau managed to get dolled up, and vamped in the alleyway before her big American debut.
We got to Wicked Grounds, the San Francisco kink cafe, and immediately felt at home. The space is a gathering-place for the alt community, and has regular events such as themed munches. Plus, they serve yummy food and drinks.
We took full advantage of the human-sized cage, and tested out the selection of floggers…
Die Schwarze Frau’s performance was tiger-fierce. She whirled around, screamed at skulls, stripped, and did drops to the ground. I’ll show you more photos from her Tokyo performance soon, and perhaps a video!
To open the show, Naomiyaki did spooky live drawings on bodies, such as an overturned bottle of poison. (She also took most of the photos in this post.)
Naomi asked the audience to participate and made body-art the spot, based on this girl’s personality. Thanks to everyone who came to our event, and to Wicked Grounds for hosting us: we loved meeting you, and hope to be back soon!
After, the shenanigans continued at Dark Shadows, a much-loved San Francisco Gothic night at Cat Club. Such a pleasure to meet many readers and friends at this event.
We’re quite the motley crew to party with. Can you spot in this photo: a bear, blood, Covenant, unicorns, Frankenstein?
The DJ played some of our favorite synth-Goth tracks, like Mylène Farmer’s Désenchantée. On the right: “Despite all my rage, I’m still just a… bat in a cage.”
If you aren’t ready to commit to a permanent tattoo, Goth body-art lets you be expressive for a night.
Things with Trevor got a bit blurry…
I’m wearing a hakama, or traditional Japanese skirt as seen on samurai. It’s a modern interpretation by J-Goth brand Despair.
The MUNI (San Fran subway system) was an easy way for us to club-hop. We weren’t in town for Death Guild at DNA Lounge (every Monday), but we managed to see Bianca Del Rio at Trannyshack. Remember this post about how we met the RuPaul’s Drag Race winner?
I adore retro culture — can can dancers, top hats, burlesque — so we stopped by an Absinthe Party to honor Autumn, the designer behind San Francisco’s Dark Garden Corsetry.
She was traveling to Paris to further study the art of corset-making. (Soon, I’ll do a post about the shops we visited in San Francisco, including vintage and Jpop boutiques).
We raised a glass of the green fairy, and bid her bon voyage.
On another night, we went to Bondage-a-Go-Go, held every Wednesday night at Cat Club. BaGG has been running for 21 years, and is a fixture in the “kinky, fetish-y, gothy, nerdy, punky, leather-y” San Fran scene.
Photos aren’t allowed unless you have special permission, so be assured this is a safe and private space for play. That night, we saw dungeon demos by people in masks, and Go-Go dancers in cages.
The only San Francisco nightlife that didn’t live up to our expectations… was the Castro gay district. Long lines, unfriendly bouncers, and a slightly dingy atmosphere. Stick to the Goth / alt scene, and the lively T-shack drag shows, and you’ll have a grand time in this city.
Have you experienced San Francisco’s clubs and bars? How do they compare to the scene in other cities?
If we missed out on anything in this round-up, let us know in the comments! Coming up: coverage from New York, Cape Town, Taipei, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Seoul…
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LA CARMINA
36 Comments
These are freakin’ AWESOME, La.
Thank you Dan
OMG!! amazing
A truly amazing time and wonderful memories!!!
<3
So much fun and loved seeing you in SF!
We loved having you at Wicked Grounds. Come back any time!
I’m recommending Wicked Grounds to everyone – keep up the fab work!
Looks like you two had a great many adventures in SF. Thanks for posting about staying in the Buddhist center too. I didn’t know they rented rooms, it looks like a fun place to stay.
yes, it was a very meaningful experience! hope you and friends can try it out – it’s an inexpensive and cool way to stay in SF.
really cool stuff
LOVE
Your the best!!
awww
Wicked ground was my home
That was the best time :) it was lovely meeting you :)
A pleasure!
Great having you in the city. Glad you could make Autumn’s party.
Thanks for having us!!
Great times were had! Thanks so much, and come back any time!
We went to the 80’s night on Thursday night at the Cat Club – dark alt music was on at the back, as well as Dark Shadows on the Friday night. Both really fun!!
Ahh I miss it already!! Yeah the music was very fun, a great crowd…. and can’t go wrong with the name Cat Club!
You should check out Dark Room! It’s the last Saturday of every month at the Stud. It’s a queer (straight friendly) goth night hosted by Lady Bear!
Oooooh that sounds awesome! I hope to be back in SF soon to check it out :)
LOVE
xxxxxx
beautiful xo
xo
am always excited for your travel diaries!!
can’t wait for the rest of your SF trip.
yes, shopping post to come1
#love your piccys
Hello! Another Lovely post. Thanks for always sharing such fun adventures! May I ask where you got the mandarin collar dress you are wearing in a picture towards the end? LOVE.
Yes it’s from a Chinese boutique.. more pics here! <3 https://lacarmina.com/2014/07/kirameki-magazine-asian-makeup-fashion-model/
It was nice saying hello again to you at Dark Shadows! You and your friend looked beautiful! I really hope the whole trip to SF was wonderful and that you visit again.
Thank you so much for this wonderful piece!
I do not wish to spoil the party, but I must say something: We went to BaGG once, and we will not go back. We were dressed for the occasion, but we did not feel like going into the play area, and just stayed out on the main dance floor.
We, mostly my friend, were harassed by two creepy guys. The somehow assumed my friend was fair game, or “for hire”.
She engaged them in the most boring small-talk, on the assumption that if she shouted (or even hit the guys), that would have been precisely what the guys were after.
I did not feel comfortable engaging them fully either, because I feared that would have started a bar-brawl.
Yes, maybe we could have spoken to someone at the bar. Maybe we could have spoken to the people supervising the play area, or retreated there. We just left, because we felt unsafe.
I do not want to blame the people running the BaGG, and I do not have a solution to the issue. But the idea that we could go somewhere, dressed up the way we like and have a good time did not work out at the BaGG.
:(