Goth crowd conforming to fascism

At the Munch yesterday, quite a few people showed interest in how the [name redacted to protect the club] first smoke-free Goth/Industrial night would go.

So a little background. Normally I am dancing within the first 3 songs. Usually there are not many people dancing during the first hour, but a few. Many people (very conservatively 70%) of the community smokes, and quite often on the dance floor. Personally, I find that I smoke (cloves) during Depeche Mode and not during MSI (aggressiveness of my dancing).

Last night, not one person danced for the first 1-1/2 hours. During the next 1/2 hour, one friend of mine danced to 1 song. During this time, there were more people outside smoking than there were in the club. That trend continued through the night to the point where there was a constant 20-30 people filling the entire sidewalk in front of [name redacted to protect the club] the entire evening.

About 1/2 the regulars I expected to see didn't show up. About 1/2 the crowd were people I have not seen before.

Quite a few people were complaining about the atmosphere. Some of the regulars left early because of it. The DJ was complaining about it and was discussing maybe putting in a smoke machine. I also heard discussion about them accepting the fine ($500/night, $2000/mo max) in order to keep their customer base. There is precedent for it since the last time Portland banned smoking inside, some of the clubs turned into the equivalent of speakeasys [and they had the largest customer base]. Quite a few people were talking about passing info along if that does happen, that they would drop this (and the other) clubs for one that allowed smoking.

I also was privy to conversations about whether DXFN was going to survive this change, and people making the same comment (give it 1 chance) about it.

There were multiple conversations about how the Goth crowd was conforming to fascism and how they would have loved the opportunity to vote on the issue.

Personally, at about 11:00 I told the DJ I wasn't planning on coming back again - I wasn't enjoying myself at all. He told me to give it one more chance because next week they were going to permanently open the courtyard so people could smoke. I did start dancing (pretty heavily at that) but if the courtyard doesn't work out, I probably won't go back.