Whether it was Club Kinetic in Chicago where I'd gotten in underage by knowing the DJ, Batcave at Medusa's Lounge (way before I knew what kind of person the owner is), Das Bunker (before it turned into a hipster-Darkwave/Futurepop club), Spellbound in DC, Malediction in L.A, random Industrial-Dance meetups at Agra Halle - Leipzig, it was a fun and sweaty night.
The crowd was gender mixed. I enjoyed the clash of black-pvc cyber-cenobites, as well as the Day-Glo Cybergoths with dramatic cyberlox/dreads. I would be a mix of both.
So many nights were spent dancing to Wumpscut, Psyclon Nine (INRI era), Hocico, Velvet Acid Christ, Encephalon. I could name so many. Pulsing, driving, Aggrotech. Dark, ambient, but still very danceable Electro-Industrial.
Personality wise, in contrast to the more Trad/Deathrock spaces, Cybergoths were always more fun. It wasn't a crime to be eclectic. Many of the people I'd hang out with also liked Anime, Visualkei, doing more outdoorsy things. Because it was such a subculture built around dance/movement, the people that inhabited those spaces would be willing to walk around town, go to other shows. It really was an anything-goes subculture. I'd run into many of the people I'd seen in Chicago clubs at EDM raves. There also was a cross over with Scene culture. Scene was a blend of Cybergoth, Emo-Crunk, Japanese inspired Decora, and Rave.
It really has changed. The vibe has shifted like so much of Americana. Much like how walking through a shopping mall has lost its magic, the loud/vibrant/colorful LED glow of the shop logo has been replaced with dull, "Millennial Gray/Beige," Industrial clubs are not colorful anymore.
It's not gender-balanced anymore. It's 90% male. Androgyny is not really common anymore; men don't wear makeup. The dress is mostly lazy, if not hipster, then denim pants and t-shirts.
Aggrotech and Electro-Industrial has been replaced by depressing, whiny, hipster DarkWave.
Manic-Depressive music like Boy Harsher, the Industrial/EBM equivalent of Millennial Gray from musicians like Kontravoid. Dance nights have been replaced by gigs/shows. Shows that you can barely see, because it's mostly guys rushing to the front of the stage, holding their beers. It's become like Metal.
Or, on the flip side, there's a forced Fetish theme. Where it's only women being sexualized by a hypermasculine, usually hairy, "dom" on state. That same, boring, tired, trope. And given a few months, the promoter/owner of the club turns out to be a sex pest or has bigoted political views.
It's so boring and depressing.
So can it be saved? I don't think so. Club DJs are too stubborn. They're mostly dudes that don't understand how expensive it is, how uncomfortable it is, and how disappointing it is for femme people that want a space to dance and dress up like before.
It's become a mens' retirement home, or just like going to any metal gig. Where you stand around and drink gaining empty calories, then go home and eat junk food and gain 20 lbs.
The solution is finding other counter-cultures that have the same dark vibes, whimsy. For all the bad-mouthing Gen X and Millennials do about Gen Z, they're not as dumb as my age group and the age group before me, thinks.
They know that the spaces are brash, full of machismo. They know that the drinks are bs prices, that sectioning/bottle service in clubs are lame, they have a pretty good radar for sex-pest culture and find all the unequal BDSM bullshit to be gross (thank god).
So a lot of the newer alternative scenes tend to gravitate towards Gen Z or younger Millennials. It sucks how my generation are becoming the next lead paint generation, stuck in our ways, giving up on life, not having better expectations, and socially and culturally 'retiring.'