This weekend there’s a gothic festival here in Utrecht. I’m not sure why they chose to hold a goth fest in a quaint Dutch city. It seems like Transylvania or just about any place in Germany would be a more appropriate venue. On the other hand, the weather is kind of rainy, grey, and depressing here.
I’ve never really seen the point of “goth”, it’s obviously a distinct subculture, but it seems to be centered around nothing more substantial than wearing black and being sad. It’s like emo with pseudo-intellectual overtones. Hell, even punk pretends to be about things other than music and fashion.
Nevertheless, yesterday I was in the Domplein and there was a big goth fair there. Also, I found out that they were having a concert inside the Domkerk, which is an authentic gothic cathedral building, so that seemed appropriate.
The band was a group called Persephone. They were fairly decent, and not what I was expecting. They had two cellos, an upright bass, a percussionist and a redheaded vocalist. The whole performance was pretty overdramatic, with the singer handing out flowers, and dancing around. The lyrics were overwrought goth stuff, “When will my soul stop bleeding…” but musically they were not bad.
Anyway, I took some pictures.
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- Goths in the park
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- More colorful than average
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- Stage inside the church
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- Stained glass window in the church
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- The band Persephone performing
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- Giant, ornate organ behind the stage
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- The string players
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- Lead singer of Persephone
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- I got a photo with her after the show
I think the problem with the goth scene is the same sort of problem with the metal and punk scenes which is co-option by corporations who feed it to kids who have no idea about the history of it or ideas behind it (see also Hot Topic).
This isn’t always bad, because eventually some of these kids will be interested enough to go beyond the surface- but most probably think liking Marilyn Manson and dressing in black makes you goth. I will give you that goth is mostly about the music and the fashion- but there used to be a lot more ideas in that whole scene. And I will additionally say these people seem to be closer to true goths, but working so hard to fit into a fragmented subculture of any sort seems silly to me (goths aren’t even as ridiculous as “punks” with liberty spikes and chains… want to desperately fit in much?). Blah blah… rambling again. Sorry.
~Steve