Blacklight no more.

This note is starting to pop up all over the seagoth journals, blogs, and communities after it dropped into our mailboxes last night:

Hi Everyone – This Friday and Saturday nights will be our final nights at CHAC. Monny & I have decided that we just can’t buck City Hall (we have been getting noise/nuisance complaints since the day we opened the door), and neither CHAC nor Blacklight can afford to pay the exorbitant fines the City Council is contemplating for any infractions by the nightlife in this town. Our contract is up, so we are going out with a bang – June 29th is FabulousFetish Friday hosted by General Bek and DJ Paul Aleinikoff, and of course June 30th is our New Wave Dance Party with DJ Evan Blackstone. Friday we will be upstairs in the showroom, Saturday we will be downstairs in the lower level/lounge. Come on out and dance!

Love, Monny & Shawna

This is really sad to see. While I’ve only been around to see about six years of it, Monny and Shawna have been providing a home for the seagoth scene for the past twenty-some years through the Blacklight, The Vogue (in at least two locations), and it’s quite likely that there were more projects before that that I’m not privy to. Admittedly, while the Blacklight never felt as much like ‘home’ as the Vogue did, it’s sad to see it fold…especially for those reasons. This can’t have been an easy decision for Monny and Shawna.

I can’t really say that I’m overly fond of the forces pressuring them to get out of the business, though. People that move into a hip, happening, club-heavy area of town because they are drawn to the atmosphere, then call in noise complaints against the very clubs that give the area its fun, funky feel. A city entirely too focused on gentrification at the expense of the people and businesses that helped make the city what it is. And, of course, a City Council that seems determined to over-legislate every bar or nightclub in the city into nonexistence.

As long as I’m not too tired after work, I’m going to see if I can make it out both nights this weekend. I may not have been one of the die-hard regulars, and I’m not one of the ‘core’ members of the seagoth community, but through their clubs, Monny and Shawna helped me find some places where I felt at home when I first moved to Seattle, and I met quite a few friends through the Vogue. I’d like my chance to say ‘thanks’ as well.