[MUSIC PLAYING]
Oh man.
Let's move.
Oh my-- I've never seen it like this.
Jeez.
It's a lot bigger than I remember it being.
This slab up here, this is the stage.
When I died, I wanted my ashes to be like ground up like grind
up a part of this and put my ashes into this middle section
because I thought this would be here forever.
[THEME MUSIC]
I've never seen a nightclub like this.
It had a feel.
JOE VIRUS: There's chandeliers.
There's stained glass.
There was this mystique about it.
There's mystery in the air.
This is my place.
This is my home.
JBABE: It was just like an orgasm of life.
It was, I think, summer of '86.
We're all skateboarding out in my driveway.
And we all had the jam box out there cranked up.
And then it went to the stupid commercial.
It came back from that with a chainsaw ripping.
We're all shouting, "Timber!"
Because DOA had a song called Lumberjack City.
No, timber happens, and we're like, what the hell is going on?
And all of a sudden this like kick drum just kicks in.
We hear this howling.
It sounded like the devil was like coming
through the speakers.
We run into the garage and get the phone.
We're calling the station and waiting for 15 minutes
like for them to answer.
And finally, somebody answered and we're like, hey,
you started this set off with there was a chainsaw.
It sounded like the devil.
What was that?
They're like, that was skinny puppy chainsaw.
It was just mind blowing.
And I'm like--
And it was that moment when I started wearing black.
DON NEDLER: I was a kid.
I was about 11 years old, and there was a lounge near my house
where I grew up.
And I used to ride my bike over there after school.
And they would be setting up the club.
And the band would be rehearsing and they'd
be putting the ashtrays out and washing down the rubber mats.
And I thought, this is the coolest thing ever.
This is what I want to do, right then and there
that I wanted to be in the nightclub business.
I worked at a club called After The Gold Rush.
I was 18.
And I would do shitty jobs, cleaning the bar mats,
scrubbing the floors.
Terrible jobs.
But I was there all day, every day by myself.
And so I used to go into the DJ booth and I would play records.
And I sort of taught myself how to DJ.
And one day, the DJ was sick.
I said, I can do it.
They're like, you?
And I'm like.
And they said, all right.
So I DJed.
And After The Gold Rush, it was like 1976.
It was the disco era.
And I just got up and banged it out, man.
I hit a home run because I thought
the coolest job in this whole nightclub is the DJ.
Well, now I really have the coolest job.
Well, I just picked up the new Stevie Ray
Vaughan live from Montrose CD, so I'm
more into rock and roll and rhythm and blues,
but I also like dance music.
I was a DJ for 10 years before I was a club owner.
Oh yeah.
RON STANLEY: If you were in Deep Ellum in the early 80s,
it would not look like what it looks now.
At that time it was warehouses, cheap rent.
It was just kind of a shadow of its former self,
being the famous Deep Ellum of the 1930s.
[LOUIS ARMSTRONG, "DALAS BLUES"]
LOUIS ARMSTRONG: (SINGING) I got the Dallas blues
and I'm feeling mighty, a bit mighty.
I mean sad.
I got the Dallas blues and I'm feeling mighty sad.
Deep Ellum has just such as incredibly rich history
from blues being there, and that sort of--
80s when it was sort of being revived,
making it a kind of destination.
There was no Goth scene.
In the time we called it industrial.
Goth, really, I don't think was coalescing yet.
And it really took the clubs to do that.
Clubs that were operating in those early 80 years
were a reaction to the prominent way in which Dallas
thought of itself.
All of those people who didn't fit
in to a sort of traditional nightclub
would find people like them at the start.
DON NEDLER: The Starck Club was groundbreaking.
What they did was really innovative and way ahead
of its time.
Philippe Starck designed the space.
It was an incredible space.
Everything about it was glamorous.
Many people who went to star Starck spent like all day trying
to figure out what to wear.
There were certainly some people who
were dressed somewhat in Goth.
But musically, I think the Starck Club really
broke new ground.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
RON STANLEY: It's music that was descendant
of synthpop and disco.
DON NEDLER: That music that was so innovative and so
progressive, we incorporated a lot of it into The Church.
Starck set a tone that the church and Lizard Lounge
sort of carried on.
Everything about Starck Club inspired me.
Everything.
JOE VIRUS: In 1988, dad decides that we're
moving back to Arlington.
And it was like the first couple of weeks of school.
I'm in English class, and this guy would show up late.
And he had this just total disregard for everything look.
He just looked cool.
I see that he's wearing a Skinny Puppy shirt.
And I look over.
I'm like, dude, you like Skinny Puppy?
He's like, yeah.
You know Skinny Puppy?
And I'm like, yeah.
And I show him my book.
I had drawn the logo on the cover.
A couple of weeks later, he's like,
hey, what are you doing Friday night?
Well, there's a party, you should come.
And I'm like, OK, cool.
And I go to this party.
I'm like scared.
And I'm looking at everybody, and they all
look like heavy metal rock stars.
And the girls all look like rock star video girls.
I look up, and there's my friend coming through the front door
with ice.
I'm like, dude, I don't know anybody here.
I thought this was like high school party.
He's like, oh, no, this is Vinnie and Daryl's place
from Pantera.
He leaves again, and I'm just sitting there.
And all of a sudden this girl falls out of heaven or something
into my lap.
And then she says, hey, let's go to Empire.
And I'm like, OK.
I'm like, I don't know where I'm going.
And I got to be home by midnight.
And it was like the long way to get to downtown Dallas.
It's just so unreal.
It's unreal how big these buildings are all lit up.
And it's beautiful.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
So we pass downtown, and we go into this bridge.
And then everything is like lower buildings.
They're like two, three story high,
but like a lot more neon and a lot of graffiti
and a lot of punk looking people.
And I'm like, oh, this is cool.
What is this?
And she said, oh, this is Deep Ellum.
And we're driving through, and I'm
seeing people with Mohawks and different colored hair.
And I'm just like, I'm tripping out.
But I got scared because all of a sudden
it went from being this neon jungle of punk
and new wave looking people everywhere
to nothing but warehouses.
And I'm like, they're going to kill me.
They're going to tie me to a pole and kill me.
And we turn down from good Latimer.
We turn on to Swiss Avenue.
As we turn the corner, I realized that, oh,
there's another club here.
And we walk in and my mind is completely blown away.
There's chandeliers.
There's stained glass.
I look at the spiral staircase going up
to the second floor with this little chandelier hanging there.
And I'm like, this is gorgeous.
This is amazing.
There are all these people dancing.
And I hear the music.
I'm like, this place is so awesome.
She goes, this is just the entryway.
And I'm like, OK.
And she takes me in.
And it was just this big room with moving lights everywhere,
disco balls.
The music was Lucretia, My Reflection.
I remember the song.
This is my home.
I want to be here.
And this was 2424 Swiss.
JEFF K: To me, Empire at that location at 2424 Swiss kind of
became the club extension of my radio show, pre Lizard Lounge.
It's 3:30, and you're listening to KNON 90.9 FM Dallas.
My name is Jeff K. Time once again for Thud Slap.
Everything I played had to have
that kind of electronic almost aggro beat, bands
like Xymox, Tackhead, The Neon Judgment.
Well, there was only one place in Dallas
that those bands played and that was Empire.
JEFF K: That's right.
We're here with Xymox.
And remember, folks, they're playing this evening at Empire.
It's good to have you.
How is it in Dallas today?
Pretty hot, isn't it?
WOMAN: Oh, yes, yes.
JEFF K: Too hot for you?
BAND MEMBER: I'm melting.
JEFF K: You're melting?
Well, that's interesting.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
DON NEDLER: I got a phone call from a guy named
Frank Rigney who told me I heard from a real estate broker
you were looking for a space in Dallas.
And I have a space.
Originally, it was a trolley car repair station.
And it wasn't so much a repair station.
It was like a parts depot.
There's a trolley track that runs right
in front of the place.
In the 1940s, it became a furniture warehouse.
And in 1974, Frank Rigney redesigned that space
to convert it from a furniture warehouse into a dinner theater.
And they brought in this baccarat chandelier,
which when you walk into that space, it's breathtaking.
It was really opulent.
It was a beautiful room with the red carpet, the red drapes
and gold chains.
I mean, it was very Gothic looking.
And it was 2424 Swiss Avenue.
What's up, Joe?
Good to see you, man.
How you doing, man?
Doing good.
It's been a while since I've been in here.
It's emotional walking in here.
Obviously it stirs up some emotion.
I spent 28 years in this room.
I was here every night.
I remember the first night I had the keys to this building.
My partner and I sat in chairs right here and right here
and just looked around this space.
And we couldn't believe it was ours
because I had come in here in 1988 when it was the Empire.
And I love this space.
And I just wouldn't have believed you
if you told me then three years later,
I would be operating a Lizard Lounge out of this very room.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
JOE VIRUS: I was still in high school.
And I heard about this place called the Lizard
Lounge that was opening.
The advertisements were all techno and it was just like--
RADIO: Tonight the Lizard Lounge presents tickets are only $5
for over 21 at the lizard Lounge.
2424 Swiss Avenue live The Lounge.
I've never been more nervous in my life, but we did it.
And we opened December 19, 1991.
It was packed.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
And I connected with a guy named Jeff K.
And Jeff was a guy who really opened my eyes
and taught me about rave culture.
It really all starts with the first two performances
that Don and I worked on together,
and that would have been the prodigy in 1992.
And then later that same year, Moby.
The first artist that really got my attention was Moby.
RADIO: He is considered by many to be one
of the true pioneers of techno.
Moby.
And he's coming to the Lizard Lounge.
When we booked Moby, we had 1,000 people in line.
And I'm out in front of the club.
I saw Moby walking under the freeway.
He came up and he said, man, that's some line.
I said, this is the line of people who can't get in.
And he said, well, what are you going to do?
I said, I have no idea.
When it was time for Moby to show up to the venue,
he saw so many people that he said,
you know what, why don't we do two shows?
That really gave me perspective
as to how significant the whole EDM scene is.
And I saw the future right there.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
JOE VIRUS: Don really had his finger on the pulse,
knowing what was going to be the next big thing, the Lizard
Lounge, techno, DJs as rock stars.
He predicted all that you would get.
Paul Van Dyk, Armin van Buuren, Steve Aoki, LMFAO, Dead Mouse,
tons of Moby, Moby.
Don was one of the first people
to start bringing electronic acts to Dallas.
He would bring the people to perform that were
just records up until then.
No one had seen them perform.
No one had knew what they looked like and everything.
You would get high level DJs like Paul Oakenfold.
I love that venue.
That venue, the setup, the white is pretty intense
to perform there.
The Dallas crowd are fantastic.
They're really into electronic music.
This city was a pioneer in club culture.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
MAN: Club culture.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
DON NEDLER: Guy named Larry Siegel called me up
and he said, hey, I've got the space in Miami.
I know you've got that Lizard Lounge concept.
We think it's a good fit.
And we went to Miami and we opened the Lizard Lounge.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
On Sunday night, there was a nightclub called Velvet.
And inside Velvet, they had a night called The Church.
I thought the music was incredible.
It was heavier, harder, deeper.
Yeah, way darker.
CARLOS MENENDEZ: It wasn't particularly a Goth club per se,
but it was a big ingredient of the night.
You had your college kids.
You had your Goth kids.
You had your hip hop kids.
And everybody got along.
And we loved The Church.
We went there every Sunday night.
But eventually, the Lizard Lounge in Miami failed.
When I came back to Dallas, I was broke.
And I said, we had this experience in Miami.
Let's try to take something positive from it.
So I reached out to Carlos Menendez and I said, look--
I wanted to create the feeling I got when I walked into Miami,
and the idea that we took forward was The Church.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
The Church breathed new life into the Lizard Lounge.
Slowly but surely, just grabbing any customer
we could get to tell them we got this really cool thing
happening on Sunday night.
You should come check it out.
The way that I would describe the church to people from out
of town that want to know what our club's like, I said,
watch any of those movies from the late 90s when they go
to this massive club with all these people and vinyl
and spikes and leather and really cool looking clubs.
The church was that in red.
There was this mystique about it.
There's mystery in the air.
Magic.
There's also decadence and debauchery and indulgence.
But there's this energy and this connection between everyone
there.
Because you would see all kinds of people,
punks, and new wavers and goths.
Everybody was like their super selves.
I remember hearing about The Church.
I was in my last year of high school.
It was 1994 and there were radio ads for it.
RADIO: Give her what she knows, not what she does.
An industrial strength dose of divine intervention.
Sundays at The Church.
It's one of the few times that the ad
rings true because it was all of these people sort of ironically,
wearing a religious clothing.
But we didn't really have a religion, of course.
There were several Satanists.
They had this huge, massive statue.
And he's looking down at the crowd.
And it's just menacing and huge.
You see how everything is designed and decorated.
All of that plays a part in creating this atmosphere.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
DON NEDLER: We presented ourselves
like we were really a church.
And I think to some degree that's
where the sense of community started to come in.
Walking into that club for the first time
and seeing that dance floor and how many people that were there
dressed up.
There was no hot topic.
The women, they would have to make their own clothes.
You're either in gowns that you probably got at Goodwill
and made look Victorian and Gothic.
Lots of long, flowy skirts.
Lots of electrical tape covering private parts.
People who knew who they were and seemed
very accepting of everyone.
You had people that were non-binary and people that were
binary.
You had drag queens.
You had people that were straight.
You had people that were gay.
We had a guy that used to do pony play.
He had these pony hooves, and he had a saddle.
And people used to ride him around the club.
The whole idea behind the church
is always sort of like misfits island, everyone Welcome.
And it was like that in the very beginning.
The fact that there's this club for outcasts.
And that's what I think most people-- most of us
were in high school and middle school and stuff.
It's funny now that I come here, and I
was an outcast in high school.
I never was popular.
And all of a sudden I'm popular now here.
People like to dress up and play a personality, especially
a dark personality.
I had a guy when we first opened The Church that
used to dress like a Unabomber.
He had a hoodie and sunglasses, and he used to hide
and dart around corners.
He also dressed as Ed Gein.
He would dance on the dance floor
with the shovel and the hat.
A real shovel.
And then there were the people that
were playing masquerade all over the place,
and they were dressed like vampires.
They'd all have their notebooks with them,
keeping track of everything.
And it's like, oh, don't talk to me.
I'm invisible.
OK, so.
DON NEDLER: We learned that there
are a bunch of people who don't fit in to mainstream society.
And The Church was becoming the center of community
to the Gothic alternative crowd in Dallas.
Honest, this is the best club in America.
And it's ironic that it's in Dallas, Texas.
There's a stereotypical view of Dallas, Texas.
Yeah, we're Kennedy killers.
We're Cowboys.
And that's probably been the fertile ground
that has bred The Church.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
(SINGING) I would follow you forever.
I was raised in a very conservative Southern Baptist
family, and I'm Wiccan.
So it never really--
I never really fit in my family or in the town I grew up in.
We hold no bias towards religion, race, creed,
or anything.
Anybody is welcome.
Our main goal is that you have fun.
I work railroads.
I make steel.
I work in steel factories and stuff like that,
but no one-- everyone there, it's like everyone's in a suit
and hard hats.
No one expects it.
There is nothing more exciting and passionate than the fact,
getting under the spotlights, center stage,
hearing the music pounding behind you,
and feeling that energy come up through your veins.
Rule number one of dancing is don't give
a damn what anybody thinks.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Can you do it tighter in the middle there, baby?
Hey, man.
Thank you.
How you doing?
[MUSIC PLAYING]
In 1997, I moved into my own place,
first time living by myself.
And I bought this dry erase board.
I mapped it out a weekly schedule.
Sunday at the top, it said, take over The Church.
And then you'd go down to Thursday, take over the church,
because I want it to be the DJ there.
And one night I'm there, and Leo, the general manager,
is there.
And I knew him already.
I had already met him before.
But I would go up to him like, hey,
man, so when you want a real goth DJ,
a real DJ here, give me a call because I felt that there was
a lot of music that wasn't getting
played that needed to be played.
So I was like, I want to take over The Church.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
LORD BYRON: I don't remember the first time
I walked into the space.
I actually cannot remember.
I don't have a very good memory for a lot of reasons.
What I do remember was the atmosphere.
It was club lighting.
It was a feeling of these are my people.
Helen used to be Don Edwards' wife
asked me if I would be interested to DJ at The Church.
And Don created a night for me.
It was called PTL.
Praise the Lord.
And my DJ name and still is today is Lord Byron.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
It was no secret to everybody about how much I used to drink,
but I did that abusively while working at The Church.
And my last night at The Church was during an alcoholic blackout
where I was informed I was throwing music or records out
into the audience.
I ripped Helen's earring out of her ear.
And then friends threw me into a vehicle and got me out of there.
And that was my last night.
I disconnected from night light completely
until I ended up with my fifth DWI,
and that's when I got sober.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
About 3 and 1/2 years into my sobriety,
I really miss nightlife and not as a patron, but I wanted to DJ.
I wanted to be a part of that energy the way that I used to.
I initially approached Don about the idea of Panopticon.
I said, listen, I'm sober, and I would
love to have an opportunity to DJ again.
I'm not even sure he fully believed me at that time.
I mean, I don't blame him at all.
I don't blame anybody.
I'm not sure anybody who knew me really
knew that I could be sober.
And also the early days of Panopticon, I just--
I was sober.
I wasn't social.
I couldn't talk to anybody.
So I led a very closeted life.
Later I was dating who's now my husband, Yuri.
And through that relationship I was able to come out.
After I was able to bring Gary into the mix
and walk into my own club night, holding the hand of somebody
that I truly cared about, I felt like I
could breathe, not just in my club night, but just in my life.
I was honest with everybody.
And I was so well embraced.
It was like not even a big deal.
I look back and it was kind of ironic
because I created this night called Panopticon, certainly
inspired by The Church, which is a safe space for everybody.
I just still wasn't comfortable enough in my own skin.
I can see how people have struggled
with alcohol and drugs and mental illness,
and it's just not always the easy thing.
Panopticon just evolved into one of these safe spaces
for people too.
I didn't know it.
I didn't put a sign out there.
It made me feel really good that Panopticon turned
into this place of non judgment and anybody
could walk into the doors of Panopticon
just like at The Church and feel they could be themselves
without judgment, without prejudice.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
It was nice to go into The Church
because I didn't have to explain who I was,
and nobody ever asked.
But I could have gone to The Church from day one
and explained who I was, and everybody would
have loved me just the same.
[PHONE RINGS]
One day I get a phone call.
It's Leo from The Church.
And he's like, hey, you still want a DJ here?
And I'm like, of course.
He's like, all right.
Let's start you the first Thursday of January.
And I'm like, OK, cool.
All right.
All right, cool.
See you there.
So I'm like, oh, this is the start.
This is the start.
This is the start of everything.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
LORD BYRON: Joe is absolutely a master at his craft,
and he's great about bringing a room together and just bringing
power into a dance floor.
JOE VIRUS: I always felt like I was going to get fired.
That they're trying to replace me because Don
never really talked to me before.
I had this weird intimidation factor with him.
One night, tanked the room, nobody in there.
So I'm like, OK, I'm going to play Baby Got Back.
Crowd went nuts.
And I'm just like, this is awesome.
So then Clint comes over to me, and he's our door guy.
Clint comes running over and says,
hey, Don wants to see you outside real quick.
And I'm like, shit, I'm getting fired.
Don's calling me out on the carpet.
I get out there and he's like, Joe,
what made you decide to do this Goth hop thing?
Well-- and he's like, well, whatever you're doing,
keep doing it because that's awesome.
And I'm like, oh, I didn't die.
I do remember a lot of nights where
there wasn't a packed dance floor
and I'm like waiting for Don to come running down the stairs.
But you know what?
I never used the dance floor as a barometer of success for a DJ.
If you're not going for it, and you're not dumping your dance
floor, you're just not trying.
You can't be afraid to try something new.
I felt like we needed to inject new life into The Church
to start reaching a broader audience.
Live music, we felt, was really important.
Man, so many bands.
It was fun.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Well, I think, first of all, the history, the location,
the background of all the bands that played in.
I think the more everybody plays there, you walk in
and it has an aura about it, the whole feeling.
I was very surprised to see this kind of club
with this kind of decoration and beautiful elements in it.
It's important to us as a band to give
the audience an experience rather than just put on a show.
It was very easy at The Church to create the kind of atmosphere
that we like to create.
It makes me so happy just thinking about it,
and I would get so excited when we had
a show booked for The Church.
The Church was just so spectacular looking.
And it just looks sort of like a place where vampire royalty were
assembling for a ball.
I kind of knew like, OK, this is
one of these clubs that is going to become
part of our weird history.
It was like a very anything goes kind of place,
and I love that about it.
All types, all different flavors.
It was just fun.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
And that's this.
In '86, I told my mom and dad, I'm like, I want to play synths,
I want to play keyboards, and I want to sound like Skinny Puppy.
I'll leave it, I'll leave it.
Turn it down.
Let's get this going.
Don Nadler called me in 2009 about Cevin Key
from skinny puppy wanting to do a DJ gig,
and I was like, hell, yeah, jump on it.
Do it.
Yes.
Don got us in touch.
So he asked if I had any synthesizers
I could bring to the club.
I think I brought my pro one out that first-- no, no, I
don't think we-- because we didn't know each other yet.
CEVIN KEY: You did bring the-- no, it is.
You brought the pro one the first time.
The first time.
CEVIN KEY: Listen, I signed your synthesizer
and played it in the set.
My hero, my keyboard hero is going
to play my keyboard, that I got because my keyboard hero plays
that in his studio.
Somehow I end up back in the coat closet with cKevin.
I remember the first time I brought you out
for that first gig.
I took you back into one of the coat checks
to show you this package I got from this guy, Danny Blue
from Vancouver.
And he showed some pictures of you hanging out with Al Nelson.
I think one of your first girlfriends was there.
And one of the pictures, and there was a--
Oh god, I remember this now, you showing me that.
Because what was really weird is that guy
you got the pictures from was the guy that
formed the original underground scene of late night clubs
and raves in Vancouver.
Oh wow.
I didn't know that.
So I was how is it you got these pictures.
How does a guy in Dallas, Texas, have pictures of me
from before I was even in Skinny Puppy.
This is crazy.
And that's when we kind of like opened up a little bit
and started talking.
We had him back three or four other times.
That first time was amazing.
[CHEERING]
He's gonna ask you a question.
All right.
Do you guys want one more?
Only at The Church.
I can't think of another Dallas establishment
that could house that type of energy or that type of event.
It's just like, what's the right size of room
and the right ceiling height, the right speakers,
the right dance floor.
You had the bass, you had all the bass.
You had everything.
One more time give it up for cEvin Key.
Telling 13 or 14-year-old me that I'd be hanging out with
that dude, I wouldn't believe you in a million years.
So really glad that we brought him out in 2009,
and that we got to bond over some silly pictures.
And cKevin's just a really sweet person.
Anytime you can lure a celebrity
like that in, your street cred goes way up.
One day I'm sitting up in the office
and I see a Black Ferrari pull up
with a very tall guy and a very short blonde girl.
And I'm looking at the camera.
And I said, that looks like Dennis Rodman and Madonna.
And they rang the doorbell, and I let him in.
And I stood over here.
And I said, what can I do for you?
And they said, well, we heard this place is for sale.
I said, well, it's not for sale, but it could be.
But we never did the Lizard Lounge deal.
But there was a deal with Dennis and Madonna and I.
The Cure came in one night, played pool.
Pet Shop Boys came in one night after a concert,
signed a piece of Lizard Land stationery with their logo.
Trent Reznor was one.
I don't remember how we did that.
I think that would just happen.
And movies were filmed there.
Keys to Tulsa was filmed there.
Queen of the South filmed there.
Walker Texas Ranger filmed there.
I knew that Ozzfest was coming to town,
and Marilyn Manson was on the tour.
And I knew that he was engaged to Dita.
I knew that I could book Dita that night,
and we would probably set the trap
to lure Marilyn Manson into the club.
So we were there on the dance floor
and someone came in from the smoking porch and said,
tour bus has just pulled up.
And I'm like, OK, whatever.
But we can no longer dance anymore
because it's too crowded.
And then we all just start looking up and we're like,
oh, it's the Marilyn Manson band, OK.
And that weird moment of like, we want to dance to your song,
but you're here.
So we're just like, hi.
Back in the day, people would say, well,
what are you guys doing for Halloween?
I said, Halloween.
Well, I mean, is it going to be a Monster's Ball,
or is it going to be this, could be that.
That's when I got the idea for Halloween on Halloween.
We do Halloween on Halloween.
And we only do it on Halloween because every night
is Halloween.
But Halloween is Halloween.
Oh, hell yeah, only on Halloween.
We were for many years, the biggest, baddest Halloween
party.
We were always packed.
There was always a line that went down the street to come in,
always the best costumes.
Doesn't matter what day of the week
it is, it's still a Church Night.
But Halloween on Halloween, one of the simplest things
we've ever done, and in my mind, still the most clever
because it's Halloween.
You don't have to do anything.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
We would always try to get people
to dress to come to the Church, and we're always
looking for ways to get them to dress and participate.
And we thought it would be fun to do a fetish ball as a one
off, one time dress up event.
Little did I know that was like the biggest attraction we'd ever
create.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Hansel Von Quenzer was the producer
of the first fetish ball.
The first show was real low tech.
The skits that I wrote were pretty basic
for fetish BDSM stuff.
It mainly consisted of whipping and flogging,
putting people on the leash, some toilet stuff.
And then the other part was me running around trying
to find the props.
And then part three was me trying
to find models that were willing to do this type of thing
on stage.
How much did Hansel tell you?
I mean, not in a sexual way.
I just meant in a legal way.
Oh, I'm already on?
Fantastic.
You're going to cut all this into it.
Great, you're going to use this.
Fantastic.
Thanks.
OK, so first fetish ball was exciting and interesting.
So it's maybe 8:00.
Doors open at 9:00.
And we have all the models on stage.
And so we're rehearsing.
And Hansel has some big kind of skit planned out.
I'd showed up to work on the ball,
and I was working on some choreography and some props
and stuff.
We're kind of trying to figure it out.
So it's gotten very complicated and everyone's
a little confused.
We were about to open the doors.
And then the doors get busted open.
A detective showed up.
And he says, I'm here.
I'm looking for Hansel Von Quenzer.
I said, hold on.
He said, hey, Dallas Police Department is out here.
They want to talk to you.
Hansel goes.
We're like, oh.
And so everyone's just looking.
And we're not knowing what to do.
I'd done a lot of radio interviews for the fetish ball,
and I guess somebody had tipped off the police or something.
We were five minutes from opening the doors
for the first Dallas fetish ball,
and the producer of the event had just been carted off.
He straight up arrested me.
And if I remember right, Angela Ryan stepped up.
I just let us all out in the fashion show
and kind of just took over.
I guess they thought if maybe they arrested the guy that
was producing the ball that they could maybe
stop the ball somehow.
But the ball went on anyways.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
I think that people are maybe initially drawn
to it just because it's edgy.
Like anyone that's kind of interested in pushing
the envelope or things that are taboo like might
start to discover this.
Pampa, Texas.
It's up by Amarillo.
I come here every year just for the fetish ball.
5 and a half hours, six hours?
So.
When I started the fetish ball in 99,
for the first three or four years,
it was predominantly Church people.
But then it started to attract people just
from the BDSM fetish community.
And what was the motto that we talked about earlier,
anybody can come.
We had an older guy named Craig.
And he used to come in wearing like a banana hammock
and nipple clamps with weights, and he used
to come to the fetish ball.
We had a guy who used to wear a diaper.
You want to wear a diaper, wear a diaper.
You want to live out your fetishes, you can do that here.
So what kind of robot are you?
I'm an assembly line robot, actually.
This is a sex robot.
A sex robot?
Oh, look at that.
Well, now, easy now.
That is the Peter.
That Peter gets a little red when you rub it that way.
Of course, when we first started
bringing in rubber doll in the mid to late 2000,
she was really big because she was very attractive.
She wore all latex, and she would
shoot this confetti popper that would
be like the orgasm of the show.
I think that when someone goes to a fetish ball like that,
there's so many elements going.
There's so much going on.
And then you add drinks to that, and the parties going on.
And that's the success of it.
HANSEL VON QUENZER: We didn't want
people to just show up and watch the fetish people perform
on stage.
I wanted people to show up and actually participate.
I am the mistress of the wheel of pain.
It's a fun game.
Who doesn't love games?
You come up on stage, and you're up there under the lights
and everybody's looking at you.
And you spin the big wheel, and ooh, what's it going to land on?
What's it going to be?
Ooh.
We had the wheel of pain.
We had the flogging bench.
I set up a lube booth.
And then once that happened, people
started coming up with all sorts of other ideas like,
you'd toss the ring and it would land on a dildo,
and you would win a prize.
Every little nook and cranny that you went into, there
was something happening.
You turn around, like there's people
trampling some dude in a cage.
Turn around over here, someone's getting tied up.
There's just people dancing everywhere.
I mean, it was the best party I'd ever been to.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
(SINGING) Under my skin
Under my skin
I want to know where we're going
I want to know where you've been
You want to know what it takes to get under my skin
I want to know where we're going
I want to know where you've been
You want to know what it takes to get under my skin
[CHEERING]
S&M isn't necessarily just about pain.
Pain is just one little stop on that spectrum.
There's bondage.
There's sensory play.
S&M is very much a form of therapy for a lot of people.
For me, it's not sexual.
And it is to a lot of people.
And I understand that.
And I explain to them whenever I first start playing,
it's not going to be that way.
Safe, sane and consensual.
And if someone doesn't want to play, you don't play.
A client of mine, he was a large, muscular, like football
player type build.
And I dressed him up like a little schoolgirl.
And I put on my little latex nun outfit
with my giant flaming purple strap on,
and I tied him to the stripper pole.
And I made him suck my cock.
And I probably threw him down on the floor
and humped his little ass too, like humped him like a bitch
because he was a bitch.
So I made him my bitch right there in front of everyone.
It was 2006, and I went on the very first Girls of the Church
Calendar Night.
Every single person was like their own runway.
It was just like an eye gasm of life.
The first opportunity I had to actually model
was at The Church.
One of my friends, she just kind of came up to me one night,
and I should introduce you to somebody.
Do you know Hansel?
And I'm like, no.
She led me over to him and introduced me.
And she was like, you need to put him in a show.
He told me to get on his site, make a profile.
I think we actually did a photoshoot at Hot Topic.
Back then everybody used to hang out in the girls' bathroom.
You met everybody in the girls' bathroom.
Hansel came in there.
I guess he was looking for me and he asked about, Hey,
do you want to do fetish ball?
And it just felt I was just like, yes.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Walking across the stage for the first time is amazing.
When it came down for my walk and hearing them, it was like,
this is where I belong.
[CHEERING]
Will, he was the photographer of The Church for years and years.
And he said, hey, you need to enter the Girls Church audition
thing.
I'm like, what are you talking about, it's girls.
I'm not going to do that.
I'm a boy.
I'm not going to do it.
And he's like, no, there's people
who would love for you to be involved.
And they think you should.
You represent the church.
I really like that he didn't fit into one category.
And to say Girls of The Church back then
and JBabe being a part of it was groundbreaking.
They did choose me because I do represent The Church.
And I do know that there were people
who was upset I was a part of it because I don't have a vagina.
But I don't think that is a problem at all.
The calendar represents the faces who are there.
DON NEDLER: Well, when we first began doing Church events,
I wanted to come up with a positioning line
to let people know a few words that
sort of describes who we are.
And the words we chose were enter without prejudice.
Without prejudice means coming as you are
and not giving a fuck about anybody else.
Once you step through these doors,
you cannot come in here and be awful to people for the things
that they like or the way that they look or the way that
they're dancing or anything like that.
Try to understand where they're coming from,
maybe understand what they're going through in life.
Come in without any preconceived ideas
about what you're going to see.
Don't be judgmental about anybody.
Nobody's going to be judgmental about you.
HANSEL VON QUENZER: Having that as a slogan
is sort of a reinforcement of the fact
that you're allowed to come here and be who you want to be,
not how you have to pretend to be
when you're around your family.
In my 9:00 to 5:00, I can't dress the way I do.
The real me comes out at The Church.
Enter that prejudice is exactly what it sounds like.
If you want to be prejudiced towards somebody dressing up
or the bondage or everything that everybody
does in this scene, then you're don't need to be here.
Basically.
Yeah.
Get the fuck out but in a nice way, with a smile.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
The vampire aesthetic and concept
before it became a goth thing was about our inability
to understand death and change and transformation.
Being a trans woman who identifies with the vamp
aesthetic and like I'm transitioning,
I'm finding something new, I'm becoming something different,
it very much blended into who I was.
I think I must have first found the goth culture in probably
1997.
It was an interesting year for me
because my father had passed away.
And I had a different group of friends
that were the Goth, spooky kind, and they
were able to help me understand that death is a part of life,
and you don't have to be alone in that moment.
One of the things that I had to learn
when I was doing my therapy when I started transition
was my therapist said, make a list of things
that you want for yourself and you want
in a partner, essentially a path for me.
And that path involves helping others because others are there
for me.
I want to pay it forward.
And you roast the seeds.
Well, I've been eating the pumpkin.
You can cook these.
So the Dance Vampire Court is the only vampire court nonprofit
in the country, and we run great charity events
and be a source for the community
to be able to show we're here, we're doing good for others.
We all started at The Church with the Bleeding Hearts Ball
so many years ago.
The first time I went authentically as Danielle
to The Church, it was kind of a blur.
It was kind of anxiety riddled.
I'm in there touching my makeup in the women's restroom.
There was a girl on a bench there complaining
about her boyfriend, and we were just
like giving each other advice and gassing each other up,
going, oh, you look amazing.
This is a place where you can relax, vent, touch up
your makeup, and always get good, healthy compliments
from other women.
And that is something that was very reaffirming gender-wise,
which wasn't taken in a bad way.
When your slogan is end without prejudice,
it makes it feel like you're able to be yourself there.
And that was what I needed at a point in my life.
And moving forward with my vampire court,
we're looking for a new venue.
We're finding new venues like we can do a Bleeding Hearts Ball
here, but it's not The Church.
And there's just-- there's so much of the ambience
of the location that we don't recognize
that we miss until it's gone.
'98, my friend Chris Metz came in and Chris Metz looked like
the villain from The Crow.
The long flowing black hair.
Beautiful, dude.
One night, Chris walks into the club holding a brown paper bag.
He had shaved his head.
He's like, hey, man, I want you to have this
because I don't need this anymore.
I'm like, OK.
And I didn't know what was in the bag.
I opened up the bag.
The rarest, most hard to find Sisters of Mercy merchandise,
like picture disks on vinyl, CD box sets.
And I'm like, dude, this is like your prized possessions, dude.
I can't take this from you.
This is your stuff.
I don't want-- I can't take this.
Dude, you have to take it.
I don't need it anymore.
So that night he comes in and hangs out with me in the booth.
I had met this girl before he walked in.
Her name was Chris.
I introduced her to Chris, and they started talking.
I get home, I do my nightly ritual, go to bed.
I get woken up a couple hours later.
It's the girl Chris.
Joe, Chris is dead.
And I'm like, what the fuck?
What?
What do you mean Chris is dead?
She goes, his mom called me because she found my phone
number in his jacket.
She walked in the room, and he shot himself.
And I was like, what the fuck?
Sorry.
I don't think goth has ever driven anyone
to kill themselves.
But I think that people with suicidal ideation
might very well seek out goth.
So I think that's where the crossroads are.
I don't think the crossroads are someone who's bright
and chipper suddenly goes to a goth club
and starts wearing black lipstick
and then suddenly is suicidal.
I just don't think that happens.
When I was 17 years old, living in a town
where people told me on a daily basis,
you should kill yourself, do this town a favor
and kill yourself.
Do the school a favor and kill yourself.
Do your family a favor and kill yourself.
And not ever having met anyone from outside of that town,
I just assumed that everyone else in the world
was like the people in my town.
And subsequently I felt that I was like they said, a weirdo,
and I didn't deserve to live.
People who are depressed who find the goth scene,
if their experience is anything like mine,
where you spend a lot of your time dancing in a club,
feeling really free to express yourself,
being surrounded by people who are also really creative
and also dressed really wildly, who
are open minded and accept you the way
that you are will more likely than not,
I think, put aside the thoughts of suicide,
realizing that there are good people in this world
and there is fun to be had in this world
and there is beauty to be found.
And if there's one thing that I have learned from performing
here year after year after year, if there's
one thing I've come to expect and to always, always feel
is the incredible sense of understanding and togetherness
that this community has and acceptance.
So New Year's Eve, I'm there, and DJing in the DJ booth,
and I hear some buzzing over here with my friends talking.
And I heard my friend Jasper's name get brought up.
And I'm like, hey, where is that fool, man?
He'd be the first person to come up here and try
to kiss me at midnight.
Where is where's Jasper at?
Oh, you haven't heard.
And I'm like, what?
And it's like, he died.
He ODed.
And I'm like, what?
LORD BYRON: Anybody that knew Jasper just
knew he was one of the coolest people you'd ever want to know.
He knew everything about alternative music.
He was a musician himself.
He was just a beautiful person.
JOE VIRUS: After Jasper had passed away.
I kind of learned the phrasing of these.
Did you hear about, or have you heard about, or whatever,
that usually meant did you hear that so-and-so died.
After a lot of my friends died, I said, fuck this,
I don't want to lose more people.
I don't want to be close to anybody because everybody dies,
and I can't handle it.
And I'm having a hard time dealing with it.
It's hard going to a club trying to have a party when
the people you used to party with at that same club are gone.
Everybody in this picture is dead except for me and this guy
here with the skull mask.
This is my friend Brad, who died of cancer.
And these two took their own lives separately,
different times, years apart.
I could picture my friends where they would be hanging out.
And every once in a while, there'll
be some guy with a leather jacket on and bleach blonde hair
walk by, and I think it's Jasper.
Like, boom, that's Jasper.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
When you start talking about supernatural stuff,
we've had countless film crews of people
that come to measure ghost sightings that
have come through the building.
Big John, the head of security there
claims to have seen the spirit on certain nights.
I didn't actually take it.
One of my staff members took it.
He just took the picture because of how the lights
were shining through the smoke.
And then he looked at the picture after he took it.
And that's when he saw that image.
And he kind of freaked out.
It was at the end of the night.
We were all outside.
And me and Joe were standing there talking.
Club closes, Big John leaves.
He's the last guy.
He had the keys, locked everything up.
And Clint and I are talking and all of a sudden, we hear.
And we were like, did we lock somebody in the building?
And we're like, huh?
OK, second time.
And we're like.
He gets on the phone, hey, Big John,
can you come back here with the keys?
We lock somebody in the building,
I hear somebody banging.
And it was very, very loud.
It wasn't like just a little knock.
It was straight up the whole door was shaking.
Someone was definitely inside a building.
Joe didn't want to go in.
He was like, no, I'm not going in there.
JOE VIRUS: I'm like, I'm going to step outside.
I'll catch anybody if they run out.
And me and John searched the building.
And we shouted out.
We searched every corner upstairs, offices,
dressing room, and literally did not find anybody in there.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
This was a stair line.
So at this level was the DJ booth right here.
You see this black line.
So coming out to here, this was the staircase going up.
And so the DJ booth is over here.
So I would be DJing.
And out of the corner of my eye, I would see a kid.
And I remember the like a white t-shirt.
I couldn't see hair.
I didn't see the hair color, but blue jeans, like big baggy
jeans, run up the stairs.
And when he got to this section here
would trip and then continue running
and disappear halfway up the staircase.
Across the way, I would see somebody standing
in front of the doorway going up into the dressing room,
and I would see a figure with long gray or blonde hair,
just all in black standing up there.
And nobody would be there.
One of the popular ghost stories here was an old guy in a top hat
and a suit sitting at a table.
And he was always there writing poetry.
But that was really a guy named Christopher.
I've never seen a ghost in my life.
I mean, my theory on that is if there
is another world that we're not part of,
it's like it's on a different radio frequency.
And there are those of us that are not.
JOE VIRUS: I feel that maybe it's a residual haunting there.
Like when you listen to a tape, a cassette tape,
if you recorded something that had a heavy bass tone
or like a kick drum, that was really hard in this one point,
and then you record over that, you'll get a drop out
of that kick drum again.
I kind think that might be it with the building.
Like maybe the way that the couches were,
maybe the material of the wallpaper, maybe the bricks
and the wood itself captured some--
and the kid falling, that might have been his like--
one of his biggest embarrassing moments of his life.
And maybe that registered like a kick
drum on the magnetic field of the club.
There are so many people through, in and out those doors.
And so many people with heightened emotional responses
to things going on.
All those kind of things are boom.
Yeah.
You just keep feeding it and feeding it and feeding it.
It's like a rechargeable battery.
And one night I'm in the hallway here.
This used to be just a hallway with double doors
that swung into this whole big area back here.
So I'm here talking to--
CAMERA MAN: What's going on?
I heard something.
CAMERA MAN: What was that?
I don't know.
It sounded like it was right there.
I don't see anybody or anything.
I hear footsteps.
That's so weird.
There's nothing you can hear footsteps in here.
OK.
All right.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
So several years ago, I met the club
and I had a guest DJ spinning.
And I walked outside to get some fresh air because it
gets stuffy in there.
You get the fog machine going.
And so I walked outside, but there's
this guy, this like drunk guy, didn't look Goth at all.
And he says, Hey, DJ Virus.
Hey, man.
And he comes and puts his arm around me.
And I'm like, what's up?
And he's like, I just bought this place, man.
And I got a question, what are you
going to do when I bulldoze your club?
And I'm like, who the fuck are you, dude?
Don't be an asshole.
I don't fucking know you.
What?
Who the fuck-- get in your fucking limo.
Take your fucking hooker off with you.
I yelled at him.
He got in his limo and took off.
And Don called me up and said, hey, what did this guy say?
What'd he you look like?
And I described him to him.
And he's like, OK, so yeah, this guy did-- he did buy the club,
but we're not going anywhere.
We're not going anywhere.
He would come in unannounced in the middle of the day
with investors trying to sell the building, which is not cool.
First of all, it's a violation of our lease.
It's a four wall lease.
We're responsible for everything from the roof to the foundation.
I couldn't buy the Lizard Lounge property.
The only defense posture I could take
was to buy the property adjacent and stop any development.
But I knew I couldn't stop it forever.
I just knew I could slow it down.
When Westdale bought the building,
we were afraid they wouldn't work with us.
But they did.
But they said, we're building a high rise for Uber
across the street, and we're going to take your parking lots.
And they were going to use the parking
lots as staging for the construction of the high rise.
I agreed to it because I didn't want to lose Lizard Lounge,
but I knew at that point our days were numbered.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
I was in the office and I got a phone call from Onisha Rigney.
She was the original landlord's wife.
She was the designer who did the grand crystal palace dinner
theater.
She called me and said, Don, I need
to come get that chandelier.
I'm going to sell it and leave the money to my godchild.
I said, you can have it, but I need time
to replace it because I had to scramble to explain
to people why someone's ripping the heart and soul out
of our nightclub.
The one thing around here you could
do-- you could break a chair.
You could break a window.
Railing.
You could break a rail.
And I'm probably just going to ask you to leave.
But the chandelier was a touchy subject.
Yes.
That's the only thing that's remained constant in the club
and the pinnacle of the club itself.
Like if the club was a church, that would sort of in a way,
be the altar because everybody dances under that chandelier.
The chandelier was somewhat of the mascot of The Church.
Even though it didn't run around and pump people up,
it sure did reflect the lights nicely.
Who else can say that they were
clubbing underneath that kind of opulence?
The person they get married to, like they come in the early
90s and they meet the person for the first time,
the chandelier was there.
I didn't replace it.
I decided it can't be replaced.
We just decided we're going to let it go.
Yeah, I think it was very emotional when they took it out.
It was gut wrenching for us.
And we were determined to get it back.
One way or another we were going to get it back.
My plan was I was going to try to buy it at auction.
Don had put out a fundraiser type event
to raise money to buy back the chandelier.
What other club has that type of commitment from their patrons
to spend their own hard earned money, not just only visit it,
but to preserve it?
I finally made a deal.
We bought the chandelier for $7,000.
And we rehung it.
We had all the spotlights down on it, shining different colors,
so that it would glisten.
It was just beautiful.
And it was very emotional.
It was a proud moment that the scene came together like that.
And then it was a big dance party afterwards.
And looking back on it, it hurts now knowing that everything
was gone right after that.
REPORTER 1: President Donald Trump
declared a national emergency.
REPORTER 2: And today Governor Gregg Abbott
declared a state of disaster in Texas.
Parts of North Texas are seeing
an increase in positive cases.
Dallas County has more cases than anywhere else in the state.
REPORTER 1: A heightened sense of urgency.
REPORTER 2: Closures of large events.
REPORTER 1: No visitors allowed.
REPORTER 2: The number of cases should not
spike if people don't gather in huge groups.
That Sunday before I was my last show at The Church
and I just played my heart out, had fun, went out
to eat with friends like I always did,
and came home not realizing that was the last time
I was going to be in that building.
I knew months before the pandemic hit the US,
I had a bad feeling because I watched
what was happening in Europe.
We all saw what happened.
In March, we got the shutdown order from the governor.
JOE VIRUS: They kept sending out the shutdown, the lockdown
for longer.
And around April or May, I see a post on Facebook.
And I called Don right away.
I'm like, Don, what's going on?
He's like, yeah, we're having to shut down.
I remember feeling like it's not even real.
Like if The Church ends and if that space shuts down,
I mean it's like truly the end of something monumental.
I mean, how does that end?
It was during lockdown in COVID.
So I got out my phone and I found the Spotify playlist
that Joe Virus did.
And I just danced in my backyard on the patio,
smoking my clove in memoriam of The Church.
And it hurt.
I basically grieved like I had lost somebody.
It was a death to me.
The church was who I was.
It was created, who I became.
It was my home.
It was the only place I felt safe.
And I definitely feel like I've lost something
that was very important to me.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
We cleaned the club out.
And then we decided that we would give everybody
an opportunity to come back in.
And I think it was really important for The Church
community to have closure.
JOE VIRUS: And there was a line of people
all the way around the building, outside down the street.
People wanted to go in and pay their last respects.
And that was the last time I went there.
We did that last walkthrough.
That was like a viewing.
It was like a viewing at a funeral allowing people
to go in.
And I just stayed in the dressing room
and wrote my name on a wall that was eventually
going to be torn down and just cried until they forced me out
of the building.
I mean, there will be people 40 years from now
when you talk to them, that'll remember being there.
I didn't think it would affect me, that and--
I've sort of made peace with the emotional part
and the emotional component of this building.
I've let it go.
At the end of the day for me, I have so many great memories
here, and that's what I carry forward.
I don't dwell on what I lost.
I like to think back on what we had
and all the great things we did here.
We immediately went out and started
looking for a new location.
And that's when I acquired the Italy club because I
knew when I looked at it'll do that, The Church
would do well there.
I was really upset that he was going
to reopen The Church already.
And that he was going to call the night at It'll
Do The Church.
I'm like, dude, why.
Let's let The Church die infamously.
Let it die legendary.
Let The Church die, the name die with the building.
And It'll Do.
We're back to our roots.
And we're really more of what we were originally,
which is just a place to dance, drink, and socialize.
I hated it when I walked in there the first time
when I first saw it.
I'm like, man, no, this place, no.
But now it's like with the people and the vibe
and the music and the lighting, it just, yeah, it works.
It felt like being at home again in a different home.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Listen, I support Joe in his decisions.
There are personal decisions that he
has to make for his life.
And I support him and encourage him.
I wish him the best.
And I'm sure it'll be good for him.
But we're going to miss him.
It's weird to talk about.
I don't know what to say, so give me a second.
It is what it is.
It's time.
Oh my God, it's been so long.
So long, Byron.
You look great.
You both do.
What's up?
Movers come on Wednesday.
And we leave Thursday.
Right now that this is the last time in a long time
I'm going to see these people.
This could be the last time I get
to play my heart out to them.
All my whole shit.
Everybody's fucking here.
What the fuck?
The question I'm getting all night long is like, why?
What happened?
Is it a job?
Is it whatever?
No, I'm just-- I just always dreamed of living in California,
always wanted that.
And my wife always wanted a mid-century modern home.
And we found a mid-century modern home in California.
Fucking yay.
And I'm going to go and do what I can to take over California.
So I'm going to miss you all so fucking much.
And we'll see what happens.
We'll see what fucking happens.
I want to play some fucking three T's because it's
just that good right now.
I love you.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
OLGA: Hey, this is Olga from Skinny Puppy,
and you are being infected by one
of the most disgusting diseases by DJ Virus at The Church.
CEVIN KEY: Hi, this is cEvin Key.
And you're listening to Joe Virus at the church.
ANDY: Hey, it's Andy from Comic Christ.
You're listening to Joe Virus at The Church.
RONAN: Hi, this is Ronan.
Welcome to the House of our Lord.
Welcome to The Church.
You're listening to the beautiful sounds of Mr. Joe
Virus.
GINGER FISH: This is ginger fish from Marilyn Manson.
And you are listening to Joe Virus at The Church.
BILL LEE: Hey, this is Bill Lee from frontline assembly.
And you are being sonically accosted
by listening to Joe Virus at The Church.
GROOVY: This is Groovy, man, from my life with the thrill
kill kult. And you're listening to Joe Virus.
MAN: (SINGING) I whisper your name across them.
It's so natural that it looks unnatural, I guess.
It looks-- it reminds me of Angkor Wat.
But that's a temple that was made by man.
This is just made by weather.
I lived in Euless out in the Metroplex,
and I really pretty much just went
shopping, went to restaurants, went to the club,
and that was it.
Here, I come here maybe once a week just to chill,
just to come out here.
And sometimes I'll just park in the parking lot over here
and just sit and look at it.
Sometimes I'll get up and wander around.
I miss my friends.
I miss the club.
I really miss the club.
I miss the crowd.
Both clubs.
I miss 2424.
I miss It'll Do.
I miss the crowd there.
I don't miss the traffic.
I have a good, group of friends here.
An awesome-- we're like a family, supporting each other.
It's just awesome.
I get to hang out with them a lot.
I moved here to a desolate desert,
and I'm not alone anymore.
And I was more alone in a big city.
That's what I'm trying to say.
Yeah, exactly what you said.
So if I had to put the story, the legacy,
the story of The Church into words,
it's really difficult for me.
But I really think it's just about how
one venue, one place, one building,
one night in this one building, how it brought all these lonely,
ostracized, the weirdos, the freaks, the geeks, the nerds,
the lonesome, the lonely, the sad, the forgotten
and the displaced people.
The building gave us all a hug.
It brought us all in and pushed us together
in a way that I've never felt that anywhere.
I tried to be tough about it all, the whole time.
I really missed being--
I miss it so much.
Fuck.
I'm looking for a brick to take.
I want a piece of the building.
Yeah, this one's good.
This is my brick.
I just missed this place.
I love this building.
I don't want to let it go.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
MAN: (SINGING) Welcome
We live on the other side
When cities sleep
We come alive
When cities sleep
We come alive
In our secret place
We congregate
In our secret place
We congregate
Every night to celebrate
Enter without prejudice
No sacred words mean more than this
No Sacred words mean more than this
Just take a seat and listen close
Enjoy some spirits with the ghosts
You, you belong to the night time
Moving through the shadows of the street lights
You dance till the moon starts to fall
You run from the lightning
You belong to the night
You, you belong to the nigh time
Moving through the shadows under street lights
You dance till the moon starts to fall
You run from the light when you belong to the night
Echos of the sound and lights
Echos of the sound and light
Shadows dance in pure delight
the rhythm is what pulled you in
The rhythm is what pulled you in
Don't let this feeling ever end
Don't let this feeling ever it
You, you belong to the nigh time
Moving through the shadows under street lights
You dance till the moon starts to fall
You run from the light when you belong to the night
You, you belong to the nigh time
Moving through the shadows under street lights
You dance till the moon starts to fall
You run from the light when you belong to the night