Digging the dark side

Around 9:30 on a Friday night, a black-clad and powdery-faced throng has congregated in the parking lot behind an Indian restaurant. But the ghoulish-looking faces in the crowd don’t look as if they’ve come for the aloo gobi or tandoori chicken.

They’re here for Funeral, an all-ages goth club decked out with candlelit tables, fog machines, a glowing jack-o’-lantern, a small bar run by turbaned employees of the restaurant, and a dance floor and DJ separated by a large coffin.

Arriving are a couple wearing black Santa hats swinging the requisite death-rock lunchboxes, a kid in horrific makeup that gives him the look of a mass murderer, one sumo-sized goth, a couple of guys dressed as death-rock droogs, a punk with liberty spikes, plenty of androgynous types who could really go either way, a babe who looks like Angelina Jolie in black lipstick, and some anticonformists wearing gray sweats.

“Dress to depress,” suggests the club’s Web site. “We’re putting the fun back in funeral.” DJs Split and club owner Veronika Sorrow play a nonstandard set of goth, old-school punk rock and new wave, a mix that is one of Funeral’s main draws, along with the club’s do-it-yourself underground vibe.

The playlist includes Jesus & Mary Chain’s “April Skies,” a mix of the Velvet Underground’s “All Tomorrow’s Parties” and Apoptygma Berzerk’s dance version of the song, and the loony “This Is Halloween” from the “Nightmare Before Christmas” soundtrack.

There’s a punk set featuring the Dead Kennedys, the Ramones and Sham 69 and, of course, goth club hits like Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart” and Bauhaus’ “Dark Entries.”

Until January, Funeral was held in the Old Town section of Pasadena. Recently it’s moved to the Dance House in Altadena, where it’s back on track on alternate Saturdays in another all-ages spot only about 10 minutes from the old location.

This week’s Funeral is designed as Goth Prom Night, promising club-goers “tuxedos, gowns, corsages, slow dances, limo rides, broken hearts, tears, pig’s blood, drama.”

“What I like about this club is that you don’t get the same old gothic songs,” says Un(leash), singer for the band Nightmare of the Elf.

“There’s a little bit more variety here,” he says. “This club is a great alternative to clubs [that] appeal to the lowest common denominator. I come here because this is a new, growing, independent goth club. I wouldn’t say that it’s reached a high intensity level yet, but I come here to see if I can stimulate some ecstatic encounters.”

No newcomer to the scene, owner Sorrow previously promoted the goth club Wake, which was hosted in 11 locations over eight years. Beginning in Costa Mesa at a space that was an auto shop by day and a theater/gallery by night, Wake moved to a cowboy bar in Eagle Rock, Q’s Billiard Club in Pasadena, a Mexican restaurant, a couple of gay clubs, a coffeehouse and Lush in Glendale before it bit the dust last fall.

Noticing the number of under-aged goths who couldn’t get into Wake, Sorrow found an all-ages spot to do a new club called Funeral, and crowds of ghoulish children followed.

“The kids now don’t seem as deviant as we were,” says Sorrow, thinking back on her days as a mallternative goth. “We were really bad. We were drinking and doing drugs and breaking bottles outside of clubs. I wouldn’t want to deal with the kids of my generation of goth. The new kids are really supercool and very respectful.”

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Funeral

Where: The Dance House, 787 W. Woodbury Road, Altadena

When: Saturday, 9:30 p.m.- 3 a.m.

Cost: $5 to $8

Info: www.bubastis.com