Many ASU students spend time at local bars and clubs in the Valley, but many may not know about the darker, underground culture that hides in the shadows.
"We're too hot for velvet," said Justin Baker, of Mesa, outside of "Area 51." The dance night is hosted at Scottsdale's Anderson's Fifth Estate, 6820 E. Fifth Ave.
"Area 51" is a weekly event in one of the two rooms of the club. The industrial dance culture boasts an assortment of people in black with various levels of body modification - from those with a few piercings to the all-out freaky.
Women dressed in corsets, vinyl and killer heals frequented the event. The unspoken dress code seemed to be: anything's okay, as long as it's black. The club featured polls to dance on and a DJ center stage playing the so-called "industrial music."
Industrial music, originally played in clubs in Germany and England, is hard and fast, with a lot of synthesized sounds.
While there isn't a theme to "Area 51," many industrial dance parties are held around the Valley that do have themes.
The group SADISCO recently put on a party with a "Fight Club" theme.
There is also a weekly themed industrial night at Homme Lounge in downtown Phoenix on Tuesdays. DJ NFIN8 holds the event with a group called "Club Hell."
The fliers promised nearly naked girls and bondage.
"Transylvania" is a dance night with black-light reactant artwork on the walls held weekly at The Palazzo Friday nights.
"It's an industrial dance culture," DJ NFIN8 said. "Every one of those three words is important because it sums up what we're about."
Beyond the dance culture, there's a local music scene full of darker bands that mostly classify themselves as something "metal."
One of these bands that calls its sound "melodic," is element a440. With an against-the-grain spirit that has been seen in culture from hippies to punk rock, and now in metal music, the group is your typical rebels.
"I played 'Kitty' at a church talent show once, because my mom made me go," said Katotonic, the drummer.
Venues like The Clubhouse Music Venue and The Sets play host to these darker "hardcore" bands, and there are shows around the Valley nearly every night.
The band Eroticide can get pretty crazy sometimes like when they dress girls as nuns, rip their clothes off and abuse them onstage. It's all an act, of course. It is all part of a dark culture underlying the mostly mild and suburban streets of the Valley.
"There's nothing satanic about it," DJ NFIN8 said.
Stereotypes may exist associating those who wear black clothes and listens to darker music with worshipping the devil.
However, everyone interviewed for this story looked horrified at the thought, and insisted that the culture is about the music and the looks, but is in no way a religion or an agreement on any religious beliefs. The consensus was that this culture is a style, not a lifestyle.
With conservative clothes and a little less makeup, any of the kids at "Area 51" could have passed as an average student.
"[People interested in darker culture are] few and far between on campus," said Aurelia Bradley, an interdisciplinary studies senior.
However, that may just be the way it appears.
Reach the reporter at: jenifer.delemont@asu.edu.
