A review of Dark Carniville at Downtown 28, also known as Venom Club, in Hollywood on Saturday night.
An Electrolust party is the gateway drug to the alternative/fetish scene. It's that accessible -- nothing here would scare your petty loathers off. It doesn't require a strict fetish dance code! You get anybody and everybody who walks through the door. Their yearly twisted circus event, the Dark Carniville, was full of clowns, freaks, European travelers, punk-rock kids, fetishists, and people out just to have a beer.
Downtown 28, which transforms into Venom Club at night, is not a martini bar, nor a club that plays the top 40. It's an alternative rave party for adults and not the cliché candy-necklace wearing,
pacifier-sucking party monsters. Let's go back to the basics: These ravers are fine folks that lead "a wild or uninhibited social life." And that's where the fetish comes in.
There are adult toys here, and it's an adult playground. What does that mean? You can buy whips here -- but people bring their own. Once you own a whip, consider it an accessory. So, people get
whipped and spanked, handsy and horny -- all condoned. An adult playground is much more than a bar with fine-looking chicks. Ever heard of fetish furniture? Scaffold-type devices are the adult-version of a jungle gym (hang on!) -- and you won't find that at Vibe on Las Olas.
Earlier in the night, lying on a bench, a thinner-faced Gerard
Depardieu was well on his way to becoming a woman with his long flowing mane,
black blazer, no shirt, and black panties -- legs shaven. Richard, a
regular to all industrial nights around town, was not in clown make-up because to wear
clown make-up would mean he would be trying to impress people. An old
goth tried to show his virility by exclaiming: "I had
sex in the parking lot [once]. I was German. She was Jewish. It was
exciting!" The stage show was a bunch of hot female clowns snorting fake blow,
becoming crack-house clowns.
A Vancouver expat found out about this fetish party through fetlife.com, a free social network for fetishists. He wore an outfit made out of nothing but straps (with lights), which he got specially made in L.A in the '90s. All the straps vibrated. He goes by Vibrato. He also had on vibrating gloves. He would ask you if you wanted to stand against him, and he would massage your back while his suit did the work in the front. He will be at the next Fetish Factory party this upcoming weekend -- but "[he]'ll be there very much later. I want to watch the football game first." He's a Patriots fan.
Web Three performed, and a lady in a clown costume said in the restroom: "It is just so weird to hear rap at a fetish party" -- but it blended in well. The Web Three crew dedicated
everything from their T-shirts to signs on stage to their songs to their late performance artist/buddy (it's family) Telle Crooks. At one point, everyone was dancing on the stage with them.
Talking about the lady's bathroom, a girl entering it had said: "There used to be a guy here that wanted to lick my shoe, but he's not here anymore. I heard because no one would let him." She didn't recognize him, but he was there (just not on the floor tonight). He wore a white T-shirt that had "I lick feet" written in black letters, but when he trudged through the club, he had that shirt tucked up inside the collar of the black tee he wore underneath, so you couldn't read it. I caught a glimpse earlier on, but the T-shirt stayed up the remainder of the evening.
A "Seize the Day" guy was on hand. He survived a stabbing that put him
in the hospital for 17 days. His slogan was "Life is nothing more than
an STD. We survive it as long as we can, then we die at the end of it."
It was his first Electrolust party, and he said, sure, why not to wearing a little
clown make-up. He had a chain around his neck. Upon being asked --
What's up with the chain? -- he responded: "My name is Animal." And he:
"believe[s] everyone has their own fetish to some desire whether it be
scratching, biting, clawing."
Like beautiful women in skimpy clothing? Sure the fuck you do. Besides hitting up a dive bar across the street from the Fort Lauderdale Beach at say 2 p.m. for the bikinis -- if you want to see honeys in barely anything, if you want to see creatures of the night -- go to Electrolust's next party: "A Clockwork Orgy" on February 4th.
We have a slide show, if you want to see more Dark Carniville photos.
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