B a c k B e a t
Undead: Omaha’s Dark Nightlife on the Rise
Noir Dance Parties Specialize in Goth, Synth-Pop, Post-Punk and Industrial Music STORY by MarQ Manner | PHOTOS by JEFF GATES
T
he shirt on the patron seated with friends at the table reads, “Old goths do not dye we just fade to grey.” The group was one of a few huddled around tables catching up at Noir, a dance party specializing in goth, synth-pop, post-punk and industrial music. A late December edition of the event took place at midtown’s B. Bar, and the theme was paying tribute to a stalwart of dark electronic music, New Order.
partying in the longform video The Height Of Goth: 1984: A Night at the Xclusiv Nightclub: Batley, West Yorkshire, UK. The bar was a mix of well-dressed theater patrons looking for a drink after attending a performance of “Six The Musical” at The Orpheum and Noir devotees in elegant goth wear — leather, plastic and Nine Inch Nails and KMFDM T-shirts. The bar was set up so theatregoers could discuss the performance at the back and Noir attendees could dance and sing along loudly to “Sex On Wheels” from My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult. Neither seemed to mind the other.
I arrived at the 9 p.m. start time, and the DJ, Revelers at The Verdict dance as Cemetery Gates, was DJ Sado_Naut spins industrial music playing Eighties synthduring January’s Noir event. pop hits and new-wave deep cuts to one lone In 2012, Noir Omaha The Verdict in downtown Omaha. dancer as another patron put This one was aptly titled Desolate started as and remains a candy and chips on tables. Soon Winter and featured Cemetery Facebook group that serves as after, small waves of college-age Gates and DJ Sado_Naut. The a hub for those interested in people entered the venue and event featured industrial music Omaha’s dark nightlife. In 2015, filled the dance floor, singing and deeper cuts of goth, synth Cemetery Gates took things along to songs from The Human and post punk, which is the more offline. Jeff Gates is his name League, the B-52’s and, of course, standard playlist for these events. when not performing, and we New Order. The large lighting rig remained met for coffee to talk about Noir. Two weeks later, a frigid wisely unused for this type of He explained the origin of the Saturday night in January found dance party and a screen behind parties. another Noir event taking place at the DJs showed old-school goths
28
February 2023
“The Facebook page started in 2012 and was put together by a few other gentlemen who are still behind the scenes, but not involved as much,” he said. “They started the page, and it was more of a hub to find out what is going on in the goth community. There wasn’t a lot of activity at that time. I came on board as a DJ probably about 2015 with another guy and we started doing shows at House of Loom. We had many very successful nights there.” In 2018, Gates moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and Noir was down to one DJ and House of Loom closed. The other DJ tried to keep the night going at Lookout Lounge, but stopped when Covid shut venues down. “That was when I moved back to Omaha and started building back what we had,” Gates said. “During that time, I think we had 1,000 Facebook followers that we picked up. It goes back to Jeremy Eckhart. He started out doing a cyber goth night back in the early 2000s at Club Roxbury. That was my first experience when I moved here. I brought him in with Noir when I lost a DJ as he has a great following.” The dance party spent some time residing at the now-defunct