we have just returned home from another wave night at backstage, the only venue hosting a goth/industrial/etc. dance night in maastricht. every two or so weeks. we don’t make it there every time, either, for various reasons. anyway, we left a bit early (it ends sometime around 3am) due to neo-folk and “medieval” music, which we hate.

it doesn’t sound like it at the moment, but we did have a good time. when we got there, oh happiness, there were 4 songs in a row we liked before a spot of neo-folk. and many many more good opportunities to dance. i would probably like neo-folk more if they wouldn’t play the least danceable of it at a dance night.

but on to my subject heading. wave night here in maastricht has a strange phenomenon i haven’t yet seen elsewhere, although one person i asked about it said it’s done in germany. i’m not sure where in germany, as i haven’t seen it anywhere I’VE been dancing there. but it’s a big country. the strange phenomenon? goth line dancing. i’m serious. picture it: the floor is empty (long breaks between songs often occurring)… the song begins. the goths file out to the dance floor, forming, as they go, two lines, facing one another, with about 3-4 feet between the legs of each dancer to the sides, and about 6 feet between the lines. this leaves little space for someone to get between them, not because there really isn’t space, but they get very upset when you disturb their lines, and try to nudge you back out, and awkward space behind each line, crammed against walls and wallflowers.

ok, that’s the line. now to the dancing. boys and girls both dance, making a “V” with their feet: start feet together, then right foot forward-out, then back, left foot forward-out, then back, repeat. boys do this while their arms are (usually) held behind them, although a few move them. girls do this while their arms move rather like an R&B backup singer, with the direction of the feet. since often the song beats are quite obvious, this easily becomes (i hope accidentally) synchronized. then they really really look like backup singers.

it’s currently safe for me to make fun of this dancing style, because no maastrichtenaars are yet reading this journal. hell, probably not many others are, either. oh well. but i made fun of this to one of the people from here that i’ve met, when we met at wave gotik treffen in leipzig, and her face closed down. it is clearly not ok to heckle them. very touchy. no, she was very nice and friendly, but this subject made her very grim-looking for a couple of minutes, until matt so subtly changed the subject. heh.

i’m not saying that most cities don’t have an easily recognizable dancing style. i mean, who hasn’t joked about the “minneapolis hop?” but this one, wow. i wish i could videotape it for everyone without really making enemies where i could really use a few more friends instead. at one point, it looked like one of those aisles made for weddings or formal old dances, and matt and i locked arms and were going to go down the middle blowing kisses and waving. it would have been funny. for us. we decided not to, just to be polite. silly us. shoulda just done it.

anyway… it was a good night. plenty of good stuff to dance to, not too crowded, so plenty of space on the dance floor, but not too dead, either.

tomorrow we must choose between a birthday party here in maastricht, or train up to amsterdam so we don’t have to wake up early sunday to catch the train in time for another friend’s birthday brunch in the morning. why is it there’ll be nothing to do for weeks, and then everyone’s got a birthday the same weekend? 3 hours apart? i mean, usually we’re pretty bored, weekends. we WERE planning to try to find ourselves some new used motorcycles this weekend, and i agreed to cat-sitting a friend’s boyfriend’s cats for a few days, and now…

well, who’s complaining? if i sound like i am, i’m lying.

i’m also hopped up on redbull. at least it’s not apple juice. i get fighting mean on apple juice. 🙂

ciao.