Right on 10pm, the entry to Night Mass: God Complex was packed with an eager crowd standing in the rain just waiting to get inside. As they entered, they had a choice to go straight up a set of stairs or shoot off either side through large, draped, white curtains. For those who chose to go upstairs, they were greeted with the entry to the maze or a bar off to their right.
Many of the early punters chose to hit the bar first, just like I did before I entered the maze. Once inside the maze, they found a gender-neutral bearded chap by the name of Daddy. Dressed in a female’s leather bondage outfit consisting of undies and a bra, they made everyone get on their knees and then selected one eager participant to have their eyebrows waxed. An unruly young chick was kicked out very quickly as she reached for the bandana on his waist and then tried to touch him on the arm. This is a safe space, and there is no time for that nonsense in here.
Following the eyebrow waxing, a few of us headed back into the maze and ended up in a mirrored room where we were handed a map to the maze by a couple of lovely young goth girls. The map made no sense at all, but I managed to find another room that looked like an orgy room, except there was no orgy taking place. Might have been a bit early, or it might have just been that I was alone in there. Kinda helps to have a few friends in that type of environment.
The next location in the maze featured a surreal shark sculpture with a clear globe in its belly, which showed a couple of pillows within. This alluded to the fact that there might be someone in there later tonight. Off to the side of the shark, there was another room which had a big slippery slide to take all the punters downstairs. Unfortunately, the line was already too long, so I just turned around and walked back through the maze to find a staircase, which was hopefully a way out.
I eventually made it outside to an area where several convict-looking characters were walking around pushing a trolley with radio equipment and junk in it, doing a few odd things like drawing a squiggly line on the road for the trolley to follow. Everyone’s attention was then shifted to a bride on the rooftop who started singing above an inverted cross and the words “Save Our Souls” were illuminated on the side of the building. How she could sing while sucking down a filthy death stick still puzzles me.
Just under the bride, another doorway that had just opened to an upstairs bar, but the line-up was too long to even consider trying to get in. A security guard had been posted at the door to the Bang Band bar, but I was quickly informed by him that it was not opening until 11 pm soI decided to walk myself back inside. I found a hidden alley to nowhere which was pretty much just a voyeur window to watch everyone outside. That is a little weird if you ask me, but this is Dark Mofo, and this is Night Mass: God Complex.
After walking around lost for a while in a couple of the large rave halls, I found a lolly bar hidden in another hidden passageway, which also had a gaming lounge in the back of it where people were playing some kind of Simms game. This was not really my jam, so I headed back to the main part of the main venue and its two main stages, which were both pumping out seriously loud doof doof. It is very much just like a warehouse rave in here, which again is not really my jam.
Went back outside to try the Bang Bang bar again, but it had a massive line-up. Luckil,y though, I was able to flash the old press pass and get VIP entry. Turns out it was literally just a bar about the size of your local coffee shop. A nice warm Negroni that helped warm me up was a pleasant touch.
After a couple of drinks, I bailed out of there into another line-up next door, which was called the Cuddle Huddle. It was the floor of the Odeon Theatre which had been converted into a lounge room with couches, beds and bean bags and a really weird montage video on a big screen.
Not long after getting comfortable, I was summoned by a Goblin Fairy, or maybe a Satyr, dressed all in white, who took me upstairs for a personal “art” experience. As it turns out, I had to squat and crawl through a tunnel, which eventually placed me in a very dark room with a mysterious lady wearing a fur coat. After introducing myself, she pointed to a clipboard on the floor which contained a script. I then became an actor in a scene where she was busting her cheating husband, me, and I had to eventually run back out of the tunnel away from her. That was interesting, to say the least!
After my acting debut, I made my way out of the Odeon and back over to the mysterious upstairs bar, where I again managed to gain express VIP entry. This place was a little weird and had what appeared to be see through curtained off Orgy booths and a wall of those bunny ear type vibrators. Again, I was not lucky enough to catch an orgy but was I able to eventually enter one of the booths and pick up a little light adult reading.
Another room off to the side of this one had a wall of sex toys, X-rated trans porn playing on vintage TVs, and bean bags so you could settle in and watch the show. The main room was fitted out with a bar, a stage, another wall of sex toys, and a catalogue of porno mags. After being weirded out a little bit, I headed back into the main venue and upstairs for a three second ride on the slippery slide that took 20 minutes to line up for.
At one point, I found another hidden staircase which took me up to an “All Gender” bathroom complete with a peephole wall. No reel peeps were on the other side of the peep holes, just a handful of nudie cartoons, unfortunately. There was a massive blow-up doll in the room beside it as well as a weird multi-boobed blow-up art piece. A band was also playing on a stage with a whole heap of lamps behind them.
With what I could figure was all I had left to see, a mystery show in the shark room, I returned there only to find out that there had been an “incident” earlier and that it would not be reopening tonight. That sucked, but I then realised that I had just lost 4 hours of my life in what seemed like a few moments. And since it was way past my bedtime, I decided it was time to walk back to the hotel and hit the hay. All while my mind was ticking overtime about what I had just experienced, what else I could have experienced, and what I may have missed.
In a nutshell, it was all just a part of the mysterious and infamous Dark Mofo experience that you should all look to tick off your bucket list one day, sooner rather than later. See you all next year!
