Apple-Q instead of Apple-W, an unthinking "discard changes" and oops, I'm out the entire original writeup. In theory the second time around will be more focused and straight to the point, which is probably what it should have been in the first place. Had it been, it would be up as opposed to ether.

Name : Violent Seduction
Night : Wednesdays
Venue : Z Lounge, second floor (was Memphis/Zythos).
Address : 2108 E Carson St
Cover : $5
Doors : 2100
Flavor : 80s/Electro/Goth/Industrial

Losing the writeup puts me in a foul mood, which is probably where my head needs to be, as I've been pretty pissed off for no good reason both times I've been to Violent Seduction. Probably something to do with getting drunk on the South Side on a weeknight, which is almost never a good thing. If I'm drinking on the south side, it's usually at Dee's and it's almost always on a Monday or Tuesday night, since that's when I'm least likely to be accosted by South Side Drunkards (SSDs) - the walking advertisements for birth control that occupy Carson street and associated gutters Wednesday night through Sunday morning. More likely it's that paranoid part of my head that runs predictions on every situation I know I'll be heading into - that part that runs contingency plans on those predictions, the worst-case-scenario sort of stuff that has you not just ready for the bomb but hoping that it'll hurry up and drop.

Let me make this clear : I'm only talking about Violent Seduction insomuch as it's the backdrop to my experience with the Z Lounge, which is the current incarnation of Zythos. I'll aim for a more accurate, more objective overview of Violent Seduction when venue issues are resolved (read that as "when the vibe is less creepy" or "when they bother to restock the bar").

VS is at whatever the current owner of what used to be Zythos is calling the Memphis Lounge. He ought to keep calling it The Memphis Lounge, because it's still the same wobbly bar stools - the sort of cheap amusement park ride that's no good if you're into actually sitting - the same tables and chairs, the same malfunctioning plumbing. Add in an arcing air conditioning vent for some zat-zat, zat-zat flavor and punctuate with the aberrant refusal of the owners to keep the bar actually stocked and the place takes on a seedy Eastern Bloc feel. I'm sure there's a reason that whoever's "running" the place has let Was-Memphis run out of well whiskey and I'm sure there's a reason that, given an entire week, whoever buys the booze couldn't be bothered to pick up Jack Daniels, either. This amazing display of managerial competence has me pining for Elaine, Keith and George, the previous staff and previous owner- an era in which the bar was never out and the only annoying thing about the place was that you heard Weezer every. Fucking. Night.

I don't miss that bit. I'm happy about the lack of Weezer. The progressively depleted booze magazine, on the other hand, is cause for alarm. The fact that the Z Lounge is a stripped-out Zythos with two turntables and a paint job is pretty depressing - almost as depressing as the hoodies-and-baggy-pants crowd that's taken over the downstairs. The persistence of SSDs is just as annoying - but SSDs aren't venue-specific. They're a fucking cancer on the ass of Carson street and they come with the territory - you drink in Birmingham, you roll the dice. Even, some ignorant alpha-male shitwad who repeatedly calls a corset "them pooshup brawz" and his buddies ooze in on a trail of Pabst. Odd, it's a trail of Iron City and they're in for the night and you're likely to see them again. Because every goth night needs a polokhaki asshole. It just ain't PGHGoth without at least one.

So Violent Seduction is at Was-Memphis, which is where it used to be, which is above what used to be Zythos and is now the Z Lounge. The whole building has had a nasty vibe ever since George fired Elaine and Keith and replaced them with his wife, and that vibe hasn't changed with new management. If anything it's been amped up a few notches... doubtless some sort of psychic residue, mental leftovers of people who were either expecting Zythos, Jack Daniels or some other non-Coors Light beverage, or (more likely) both. I hit the place two Wednesdays in a row - the first Wednesday they've got an eighth of a bottle of Jack Daniels split between the upstairs and downstairs bars; the second week they're out of Jack, out of Well, and down to Jameson's. Plenty of traffic, plenty of time to restock. I'm sure there are excuses, reasons, even - but hearing them isn't something that interests me at this (or any) juncture. Were it not for VS I'd have nothing to do with the place, and managerial incompetence is a reason that's easier to articulate than my general, low-level unease.

The Z Lounge and Was-Memphis are a gutted shell of what used to be Zythos. I say this mostly because I liked Zythos, but also to provide some context for Violent Seduction, as this sort of gradual venue decay is one of the reasons I started Dead City Radio. Somebody has to tell it like it is, dammit.

That said, it's hard to shake the feeling that Violent Seduction is some kind of power grab, another arm wrestling match in the endless pissing contest that is the under-the-hood behind-the-scenes long-smouldering war of egomancy that passes for the PGHGoth "social" scene. VS is - using a whopping two nights as a sampling base - frequented by two PGHGoth clans : what I'd call the Upstage Regulars and a second, smaller group that rarely if ever shows at Ceremony. Like any social group, I can sustain a conversation with one or two members of the clique, and don't talk to the rest, ever, for whatever reason. The reason is almost always that I got sick of these sorts of games in high school, and watching The Scene rev up for another round of egomancy after a peaceful multi-year lull doesn't excite me all that much. If anything, I'm resigned to keeping my ears open and documenting this latest convulsion of the corpse, if for no other reason than it gives me a good basis for talking about Laga, The Roman Room, and other venues that Were. Context, context- one of the personalities behind or somehow involved with either the Z Bar or Violent Seduction is the Strand Theater's old head of Security. The guy heading it up - whose name, if I ever knew it, has slipped my mind - is permanently associated with bruised ribs and White Wolf, and the context for that is a Red Elvises show at the 31rst Street Pub, many moons ago. The fact that he apparently knows everyone and I've seen him a total of three times as of this writing (both VS nights and the aforementioned show) says more about the cliquish nature of "The Scene" than it does about the scale of Pittsburgh goth culture.

The idea of a decent goth night being within walking distance of my house - where I keep the Contingency Gin - is tantalizing. I'm sure that in due time Violent Seduction will find and settle into its groove, attract some new regulars and hopefully manage to keep the SSDs either out or to a minimum - and hopefully while this groove-finding is going on, the Z Lounge will get pro-active about its liquor supply issues. Until then, I've had my fill of girls I barely know rummaging through my notebook (I'm not even going to try to take home anyone who has such a gross disrespect for privacy, kthks), I've had my fill of the mating calls of polokhaki assholes, and while it was good to hang out with Greg again, the middle if the week is a damned inconvenient time to be soaking my liver in cheap whiskey.

Some of the time, anyway - for most of the year I've had every third Thursday off, so this week was a great time to go out and have a few. I probably would have had a better time if higher octane booze and reinforcements had been available, but the venue and staff currently preclude the possibility of either.