Given The Magnolia’s concept — an elegant-yet-approachable, wine-forward neighborhood cocktail lounge — no one would blame you for failing to associate it with goth culture and post-punk/industrial/art-rock, but on the evening of Thursday, Feb. 12, the bar will team up with West Magnolia Avenue record store Panther City Vinyl and South Main Village wine and spirit provisioner Tricks of the Trade for Into the Dark. This goth-themed Valentine’s-week party celebrates Panther City MIXologist Club #2, a cocktail-and-vinyl pairing collab between the two shops.
Last June, PCV and TotT dropped their first Panther City MIXologist Club kit that paired the then-new Vandoliers album, Life Behind Bars, with the ingredients for two of the bourbon-passionfruit-and-bitters cocktail named for its companion vinyl. PCMC #2 pairs a copy of the “indie variant” double-album vinyl edition of industrial rockers Puscifer’s new album, Normal Isn’t, with the stuff to make two of a cocktail called Blood & Honey: a small bottle of La Gritona Reposado tequila, King Floyd’s Black Lava Salt, a bottle of Bitter Queen Thai Spice Bitters, a bottle of Amargo Chuncho Bitters, blood oranges, and one 12-ounce can of Puscifer Sparkling Mead.
That a weird, loud band like Puscifer would have its own branded, canned mead might sound as odd as The Magnolia masquerading as a goth club for a night, but that’s only if you’ve never heard of Puscifer. The band is fronted by Maynard James Keenan, a human being who might himself be aptly described as post-punk/industrial art rock. Keenan is probably best known as the singer of his two other bands, Tool and A Perfect Circle, but oenophiles will likely recognize his name from Caduceus Cellars, the winery he owns in Jerome, Arizona.
Keenan got into the wine business in 2004 and became so captivated by it that he scheduled his bands’ tours and records around his wines’ production phases. Puscifer Sparkling Mead is indeed a keen commercial synergy between an artist’s two main, commercial pursuits — prog rock and wine — which also includes a lot of devotion to his crafts. In a press release about Normal Isn’t, Keenan described the new songs as “leaning into our earlier influences. It’s the place where goth meets punk. It’s where I’m from.”
The “where I’m from” part of that quote makes me very curious about what life was like in the Michigan of the mid 1980s — where and when Keenan went to high school — so maybe the versions of Detroit as depicted in Robocop and The Crow are not too far off, seeing how he turned out and what his various bands sound like. In any case, I suppose “1980s Detroit goth vibes” are what to expect from Normal Isn’t’s four sides, and a slightly fizzy, honey-forward tequila cocktail punctuated with a pair of interesting bitters sounds nice and indulgent for that kind of soundtrack, certainly the sort of drink you’d want to imbibe while indulging in a Puscifer double-LP experience, especially if you’re dressed like a cyberpunk vampire. Or any kind of vampire for that matter.
And speaking of dressing up like a vampire, Into the Dark will have prizes for the best goth outfits, as well as a photobooth and tastings of Caduceus vintages, in addition to the Panther City Vinyl pop-up market and the vinyl DJ sets from Al G and Realm of the Oscure. Purchasers of the Panther City MIXologist Club #2 kit can pick it up at the party — order them from TricksBottleShop.com — and the $114 album-and-cocktail package includes admission to the event on Feb. 12. Otherwise, entry for Into the Dark is $10. The night begins at 7pm with a spin of Normal Isn’t, followed by the vinyl dance party.
I have to add that if you slept on getting Valentine’s Day dinner reservations or suck at planning things in advance, Into the Dark is a pretty fun alternative to eating a traditional, overpriced prix fixe meal at a crowded, popular bistro. Instead, a couple days before, you can crowd into a popular bistro and dance! If The Magnolia can try something new for Valentine’s Day, so can you. Maybe the Panther City MIXologist Club #2 is the push you need to finally go buy a record player. Whatever your impetus is — be it romance, putting on heavy eyeliner and a black dress while listening to Disintegration, or wine by a strangely interesting rock star — drop by The Magnolia on Feb. 12.
