mistressofmuses (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mistressofmuses) wrote2024-09-30 10:54 pm
mistressofmuses) wrote2024-09-30 10:54 pm
Entry tags:
Farewell to The Church
I remember hearing radio ads for SIN Sundays at The Church nightclub when I was in high school. The commercials ran overnight sometimes, and were extremely early 00s goth vibes. ("Denver's longest-running goth and service industry night, SIN Sundays at... The Church." *church bell and bat squeaks*) At the time, young-teen me thought it sounded extremely cool and like a thing I'd love to do someday, but I figured I'd never ever go. It would be too cool for me, obviously.
Then Alex came out here, and wanted to see if there were any goth nights. Not locally in Greeley, where we lived at the time, but there were in Denver! Like... SIN Sundays! At the church!
That was the first goth night I ever went to on purpose. (The weekend after my 21st birthday we had gone to Tracks, one of the biggest gay clubs in Denver, on what was coincidentally their monthly goth night, ha.)
The Church nightclub was located in an actual deconsecrated church. The building is over 100 years old, and it's just an absolutely fantastic venue. SIN Sundays was held in both rooms of the basement. Not sure I can think of a better place for a goth night. (And of course the additional opportunity to say "why yes, of course I go to church every Sunday. :) ")
We went regularly for years! Sadly, after a few years of declining attendance, the owners of the club eventually decided that it wasn't a profitable night. There was a bit of an attempt to rally and show that the night was still popular, but it didn't take off enough to change the owner's mind. (The club stayed open, but focused more on more mainstream-popular genres.)
SIN Sundays carried on, floating around between a few different clubs. Covid kind of wrecked everything, and nothing was happening anywhere for a while. SIN Sundays started back up a couple years ago, now at the same club that some of the other goth nights happen at, but we haven't gone back out. We've missed clubbing, but I don't have nearly the endless energy to handle late nights and drinking and then having to go be an adult the next day as I used to. Sundays would be the ideal night for me, since I do have Mondays off, but it felt wrong not being in The Church, heh.
The owner of the CoClubs has decided to sell The Church (as well as one of their other clubs, Vinyl.) The current usual home of SIN Sundays, as well as the Wednesday goth night, and "Mixtape" Saturdays which is half-goth, is not being sold, so it will continue.
But as a last hurrah for the club, they did one last SIN Sunday there last night.
There was great turnout, and it's a shame that wasn't the case before! Despite not having been out in close to 5 years, there were a lot of familiar faces! We didn't talk to many people... by design, lol. Baby steps in being social, okay?
But we danced, and we drank overpriced drinks (how the fuck is a well drink $11 now?), and it was extremely bittersweet to be back in a place that I've missed, yet know I might not ever see again.
Now, it's possible that isn't the case: the company that both clubs were sold to is also an entertainment venture. Though they seem to focus on electronic music, it could arguably be goth-adjacent... but I'm not going to count on it.
The checkered-floor side, which was traditionally the "goth" side. Tina DJing.
The other side was the "industrial" side. Roland DJing.
(It was more crowded than this most of the night, I caught it at a slow point, ha.)
One of many little alcove type things. The building is a mix of stone and brick, which I of course love.
Stained glass above the stairs to the smoking patio.
The stairs down from the smoking patio.
One more from outside, more of the stained glass in the upper floor.
Just in case, I plan to copy a couple of articles from CoClubs about The Church's history over here. I don't know if they'll leave them up or delete them now that they don't own the club any longer, but the history is cool and I didn't find a lot that was documented outside of the club's website.
Then Alex came out here, and wanted to see if there were any goth nights. Not locally in Greeley, where we lived at the time, but there were in Denver! Like... SIN Sundays! At the church!
That was the first goth night I ever went to on purpose. (The weekend after my 21st birthday we had gone to Tracks, one of the biggest gay clubs in Denver, on what was coincidentally their monthly goth night, ha.)
The Church nightclub was located in an actual deconsecrated church. The building is over 100 years old, and it's just an absolutely fantastic venue. SIN Sundays was held in both rooms of the basement. Not sure I can think of a better place for a goth night. (And of course the additional opportunity to say "why yes, of course I go to church every Sunday. :) ")
We went regularly for years! Sadly, after a few years of declining attendance, the owners of the club eventually decided that it wasn't a profitable night. There was a bit of an attempt to rally and show that the night was still popular, but it didn't take off enough to change the owner's mind. (The club stayed open, but focused more on more mainstream-popular genres.)
SIN Sundays carried on, floating around between a few different clubs. Covid kind of wrecked everything, and nothing was happening anywhere for a while. SIN Sundays started back up a couple years ago, now at the same club that some of the other goth nights happen at, but we haven't gone back out. We've missed clubbing, but I don't have nearly the endless energy to handle late nights and drinking and then having to go be an adult the next day as I used to. Sundays would be the ideal night for me, since I do have Mondays off, but it felt wrong not being in The Church, heh.
The owner of the CoClubs has decided to sell The Church (as well as one of their other clubs, Vinyl.) The current usual home of SIN Sundays, as well as the Wednesday goth night, and "Mixtape" Saturdays which is half-goth, is not being sold, so it will continue.
But as a last hurrah for the club, they did one last SIN Sunday there last night.
There was great turnout, and it's a shame that wasn't the case before! Despite not having been out in close to 5 years, there were a lot of familiar faces! We didn't talk to many people... by design, lol. Baby steps in being social, okay?
But we danced, and we drank overpriced drinks (how the fuck is a well drink $11 now?), and it was extremely bittersweet to be back in a place that I've missed, yet know I might not ever see again.
Now, it's possible that isn't the case: the company that both clubs were sold to is also an entertainment venture. Though they seem to focus on electronic music, it could arguably be goth-adjacent... but I'm not going to count on it.
The checkered-floor side, which was traditionally the "goth" side. Tina DJing.
The other side was the "industrial" side. Roland DJing.
(It was more crowded than this most of the night, I caught it at a slow point, ha.)
One of many little alcove type things. The building is a mix of stone and brick, which I of course love.
Stained glass above the stairs to the smoking patio.
The stairs down from the smoking patio.
One more from outside, more of the stained glass in the upper floor.
Just in case, I plan to copy a couple of articles from CoClubs about The Church's history over here. I don't know if they'll leave them up or delete them now that they don't own the club any longer, but the history is cool and I didn't find a lot that was documented outside of the club's website.
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I, too, went to Church
Our building was constructed in 1899 as a trolley car repair station. They try and say the pandemic killed it but actually, Uber promised Dallas they would set up their HQ in the area and The Lizard Lounge was the site. A lot of frantic attempts to save it were flat out ignored despite its historic value because Dallas really wanted the Uber HQ. The city of Dallas kept jacking up the property tax to get club closed and it worked.
But Uber changed their mind. It was a unique club. The Church was "held" on Thursdays and Sundays - I joked when only the faithful would come. Monday, you could walk into an office and tell from the scent of spilled wine and cloves and patchouli who was in attendance the night before. The Church went so long that people met, married and eventually brought their children there when they were of age.
I'm sure the building still stands but the club still can't afford the prices.
It's almost magical to hear about another Church.
Re: I, too, went to Church
Trolley car repair station is also a really rad historical thing from the perspective of "ah yes, once-necessary thing that absolutely stopped having a reason to exist."
The one here was constructed in 1889 as St. Mark's Episcopal Church, but the church moved to a new location in the 70s, and the building was vacant until opening as a club in the 90s.
It is GARBAGE how that whole Uber thing went. (Places in Denver have gotten jerked around similarly. "Ah yes, this will totally be our new headquarters... definitely... just offer us some tax breaks, ensure that no one else gets to move in to the space we're looking at while we hem and haw for a few years... whoops, just kidding.")
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The last night was definitely really emotional in a lot of ways, but I'm glad that we got it.
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