Club Experiences?

[live2write]

How do you describe your first experience in a night club?

I need inspiration of people's experiences meeting other people, their reaction to their surrounds and the actions and dress of the people?

I creating a science fiction story where a major scene begins as a girl's first time in the city on the busiest night club strip. To go in depth the the main character and her girlfriends just took a drug that opens their eyes to an experience of Exhilaration, ecstasy and sexual desires on overdrive. Note: the drug does not have any regretful after morning regrets.

[superpsycho]

It's been many years since I've done any club hoping and I can only speak as to what it was like for a male at around 21 years of age. Guys are on the hunt for girls and that's who they are trying to talk to. If a guy of that age finds a girl who is willing, via drugs or anything else, he sure isn't going to stick around a club. And as for morning after regrets, any time you have something driving you to do things you wouldn't normally do, the odds are there will be regrets. No drug is perfect or will effect all people the same.

[spklvr]

My first time in a night club was pretty awful. The music was too loud, so I couldn't hear what anyone said. I started dancing with a guy, but he was so drunk he spilled his whole drink over my head while dancing and when I got away from him I discovered that my friends had left because they thought I would be hooking up with that guy. I was a little drunk, so I cried (which I always do when drunk, so I don't like drinking) and went home. My later clubbing experiences with better friends have been better.

[live2write]

what about the environment? What did it look like?

[The Tourist]

Live2write, sorry, I got nothing for you. I've never been to a night club.

Too tame.

[superpsycho]

what about the environment? What did it look like?

Depends on the club. Some looked just like you see in the movies, colored lights, mirrored ball, strobe lights, and everything else. Others a stage, bar, tables and dance floor. Sometimes the floor would be sticky from spilled drinks that were cleaned up but still left a residue. There are so many varieties of clubs you can make it all up and still not be far from describing some actual club somewhere.

[The Tourist]

I think she means sitting at a saloon where mixed drinks are eleven bucks a pop, you sit around in a silk suit with an Italian name even my Aunt Clara cannot pronounce, and you get a bit whoozie sipping an apple-tini while pretending to listen to a millionaire's princess daughter whine about an oil leak in her new Lamborghini.

I think I've tripped over my own two feet, fallen down, and had more fun.

[Cogito]

I don't join clubs, and in clubs I quietly peoplewatch from the shadows. I sleep with a club in easy reach, and also a bottle of club soda.

[The Tourist]

I have to agree with you on that. I don't see where clubs are any fun.

There's a world of difference between a 'scene' and just "being seen." I don't think the young rich bored would be so bored if they did something.

Several years ago when the Kardashians first became popular, someone was surprised when I asked if that was the show about 'the girl with the big butt.' I was obviously out of the loop with pop culture. So I decided to watch the show.

Rather, I tried to watch it. First, I find the nasal whine of these icons abrasive--and I like straight pipes, so go figure. I guess I've hated naggers since my mom.

Having said that, I found out what it means to "go clubbing." It means 'being bored in nice clothes.'

There's no real point to the gathering, the music is canned, the drinks have more glitter than a stripper's G-string, and I don't even want to ask these girls back to house for a romp on the workbench.

This is modern fun?

[superpsycho]

I think clubbing like any other social situation is about the people. If you don't know the people you're not going to have much fun. If you know the club owners, a good number of the people there and the band, then you'll likely have a lot of fun. It's just a party with friends.

[live2write]

I have been to several clubs and many of them I go back to. However I primarily go to Gothic/Industrial clubs where the environment is dark and it feels like a family reunion sometimes. There are people there that are new that come along and some of them or very few act inappropriately. Yes you do get the occasional drunks *pardon me but it happens* and they end up getting kicked out until they sober up unless they sit down and do not cause a scene.

It is a fun experience, I am just looking for other opinions and experiences that would help catalyze my inspiration and will to write the scene.

[superpsycho]

I have been to several clubs and many of them I go back to. However I primarily go to Gothic/Industrial clubs where the environment is dark and it feels like a family reunion sometimes. There are people there that are new that come along and some of them or very few act inappropriately. Yes you do get the occasional drunks *pardon me but it happens* and they end up getting kicked out until they sober up unless they sit down and do not cause a scene.

It is a fun experience, I am just looking for other opinions and experiences that would help catalyze my inspiration and will to write the scene.

And that's the thing, it's going to be determined by who the character's friends are and who they hang out with.They are the one's that are going to establish what that club scene will be like. My club days were back in the 60's that would hardly compare to anything today. New York Club scene not the same as L.A. The people make the scene and you're the only one that knows who they are.

[live2write]

And that's the thing, it's going to be determined by who the character's friends are and who they hang out with.They are the one's that are going to establish what that club scene will be like. My club days were back in the 60's that would hardly compare to anything today. New York Club scene not the same as L.A. The people make the scene and you're the only one that knows who they are.

You have a point with location. But I guess it is also about what is going on around the time. I noticed a transition in the scene between 4 years ago and now. And my spouse has a larger gap where he compares his experiences from the 90s to now.

[superpsycho]

You have a point with location. But I guess it is also about what is going on around the time. I noticed a transition in the scene between 4 years ago and now. And my spouse has a larger gap where he compares his experiences from the 90s to now.

After my first tour overseas, everything had changed. Not just the people at the clubs but me and my attitudes towards the whole thing. Your club scene doesn't have to be credible to real life, just in relation to the characters in the story. There is no way you can make it credible to anybody's real experience anyway since everyone's experience is going to be different.

[Amsterdamatt]

Write what you know. If you want to know what the experience of going to a big city nightclub is like, then go to a big city nightclub, keep your eyes open, talk to people, and write it all down in the morning.

Obviously if you are 12, I retract this advice...

[CrimsonReaper]

People go to those flashy clubs with "fake" people because they want the fakeness. They are trying to be anonymous. Sometimes to hook up, sometimes just to vent what they can't at work/home. Those places are designed to all be alike. The booze you get at one is no different than any other. The dancing lets you dry hump strangers, which would be frowned upon at a library or office setting. I only go to such places to find women to sleep with, and feel no guilt over this. That's what those places are for. If I just wanted booze I could go to the ABC store or a supermarket and buy ten times as much alcohol for what those overpriced colored drinks run. It's all part of the rediculous fantasy many people need so they can be sexual. I personally have no respect for anyone who needs to get wasted to get in the mood, but that is me.

[Man in the Box]

"All my senses save for vision and touch were either overloaded or numbed as soon as I walked in. I could only hear the music, which was so loud it felt it was going to tear me up from the inside. My heartbeats followed the rhythm of the techno cacophony, while my eyes looked for faint spots of light to aid in my navigation of the incredibly crowded room. Among those people, I saw women dancing and men with their eyes on them."

Romantisation aside (pardon me for being lousy, but English is not my first language and this was a 2-minute job), clubs are a place men and women go to so they can get laid. That's their only function. If I want to drink, I sure as hell won't go to a club, where I'd pay triple for booze I could as well find on small pubs and markets. If I want to dance, I go take dancing classes. If I want to listen to music, I can do it at home! So clubs are only useful for those who wish for a one night stand, and even then it might be hard for someone to achieve it since many women raise an impassable barrier when they're there. In the novel I'm writing I have clubs because it's a novel about nightlife, but I cast a very negative light on them as places where you're likely to meet your doom.

As for a character's first time on a club and their reaction, the first thing that comes to mind is that, if (s)he's not an extremely self-confident person, (s)he's going to feel intimidated. There's no escaping that.

[Mckk]

I was never a clubbing person, so I've only been to clubs a few times, and when I got there, I didn't drink and had no intention of getting with random strangers. As such, I just bobbbed along with the rest of my friends. Dancing was all right but it's only so much fun to bounce up and down so after an hour or so, I got bored.

So, my impression of the clubs are very... clear, seeing as there was no alcohol involved, ever lol. The music's deafening, there're usually disco lights around, and the DJ is always interrupting good songs with his stupid pointless comments - and they always interrupt at the best moments of the songs too. Some DJs just think they're so good and love the sound of their own voice really. I remember once when a DJ interrupted one song like 5 times - every two lines, the song got paused, you couldn't really dance to it anymore. The clubs are usually danky, black, plain, smokey with fake mist that smelled of chemicals, and it's usually a real effort to get anywhere because it's jammed packed with bouncing people and empty pint glasses everywhere, and bottles. The bars are always wet from spilt drinks, you can never hear what the barman's saying, there're bouncers at the door, and your ears ring like crazy when you leave.

In the UK at least, girls are usually dresses so scantily you wonder how they manage, considering it was like zero degrees outside. Most people are already drunk by the time they're inside the club since they usually have "pre-drinking" round a mate's house so they can get really hammered without it getting too expensive, and most go to clubs to scout for guys/girls and pulling is a little stunt you brag about the next night (or feel shame about depending on how bad your beer goggles were, usually a lovely friend would've snapped photographic evidence of said stunt). Sometimes you might go home with some stranger. Judging from my housemate's stories, it's the norm for the guy to send you (the girl) off in a taxi at 3am when sex is finished. You don't cuddle. Sometimes the guy might just send you off to walk home, the "nicer" ones might call or even pay for a taxi for you.

Oh and doing drugs in a club is cool. The most expensive club in my uni town had a £15 entrance fee and it was known to be where everyone did drugs like heroin and cocaine and whatever the horse tranquilliser drug is called. And gold slagger - an alcoholic drink with pieces of gold in it, so that it could cut your throat as you down it. It's the "cool" thing to do because you're "daring" for doing it.

And when all is said and done, in the morning, you're supposed to brag and laugh about all the stupid things you got up to the night before, bragging about exactly how bad your hangover was, how many hours it took for it to fade, exchange hangover remedies and cringe over embarrassing photos. Next stage, get yourself on Facebook and do damage control by leaving comments that is supposed to make all your friends think of your dumb acts as cool.

I never had much understanding for my housemate's lifestyle.....

So for your novel, your character would certainly get very drunk before she even steps into the club. It's just the norm. Drinks in a club is too expensive, and it'll be the thing all her friends would recommend, because it'd relax her a bit to enjoy herself.

[Rickswan]

I'm editing this post because I did not like what I put here before, so yeah.