To put none too fine a point on it: Funeral Drive was conceived as an antidote to all of the quasi-goth posturing that has suffused the club scene in Dallas over the past few years and frustrated those of us who remember what it was like before the electronic infestation for just as long. Prior to Funeral Drive there wasn't really any place for people to come out and hear deathrock music in Dallas on a regular basis which is bewildering because Dallas used to have an enormous, thriving deathrock scene back in the mid-eighties and early nineties. There are a great number of clubs in the Dallas area that promote themselves as "Goth" nights but when you actually get there all you hear musically is techno, synthpop and EBM. When they actually do play a genuine gothic song it's usually the most obligatory, overplayed, populous thing you couldn't care less about hearing again. I would personally prefer a knife be inserted in my ear than hear "This Corrosion" played in a club one more time.Feature Menu:
Part One: Deathrock OverView
Part Two: GhoulSchool
Part Three: San Francisco Deathrock
Part Four: Deathrock in Germany
Part Five: Pagan Love Songs Goes to LA
Part Six: Funeral Drive in Dallas
Part 6: Funeral Drive in Dallas
~by Johnny Bubonic
Prior to Funeral Drive we (the djs) were spinning at an event that happened once a month at a bar in Dallas. We spun deathrock, punk, old-school gothic-rock, psychobilly, and whatever else was relative upstairs while downstairs it was techno-as-usual. All too soon the promoters decided to do away with deathrock and goth in favour of playing the more popular synthpop/electro/IDM. The Djs were banished to a corner of an outside patio and then liquidated altogether.
Not long after that, a bar called Spider Babies opened up down the street. How fortuitous is that? We asked the couple that own and run the place if they would be interested in hosting an old-school goth/deathrock event on a weekly basis, and they enthusiastically agreed. Two weeks later, Funeral Drive crawled its way out of the grave and into the consciousness of the Dallas scene. We've been gaining momentum ever since and are attracting more people every week. We're really gratified by the fact that we're the only genuine hardcore deathrock/gothic-rock event in Dallas. Other nights are still using the goth/deathrock moniker to bring people into their events, but looking at their setlists it's just more of the same thump-thump-thumping into the night. We're starting to see groups of deathrockers, punks, and old-schoolers in general who remember what it's all about coming out to hear us play, drink, and just have fun in a really cool setting. We play what we want without having to worry about measuring our performance by who's dancing to the latest cut-and-paste electro band. It's really awesome to have someone come up to you and thank you for playing the Flesh Eaters or T.S.O.L. or exclaim happily that "they haven't heard that song in years," or ask you about new deathrock music from bands like Cinema Strange, Antiworld, Cult of the Psychic Fetus, or Frank the Baptist. We've come a long way to prove that the deathrock scene is still kicking contrary to the opinions of the less enlightened, and we fucking love what we're doing.
We're hoping to be able to bring in some deathrock bands in the future to play at Spider Babies simply because it's the perfect setting for them, and the proprietors, Jake (Ghoultown) and Ellie Mae are two of the coolest people with whom anyone would care to work.
Webpage (including Setlists)
http://www.deathrock.net/funeraldrive/
Funeral Drive is held every Saturday @
Spider Babies
2645 Commerce St.(Deep Ellum)
Dallas, Tx. 75226
(214)651-9220
Funeral Drive is held every
Saturday except for special events. There is no
cover. 18 and up are welcome.
Spider Babies
Funeral Drive
Resident djs:Johnny Bubonic
Crematia (Also, webmistress
for deathrock.net)
Robyn Graves
Ragnarok
and Valkyrie
Deathrock Mailing List:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/deathrock/
2/10/02
