Leather bar 1979 & Dance club 1994
It's been ages since I've gone out and been impressed or entirely entertained by a new bar or dance club. But this Saturday we stopped by the new BIG LUG bar to meet up with some friends. BIG LUG is NYC's newest addition of a bear/leather bar, 'specially considering NYC only has one other leather type bar, the Eagle. How sick is that! The competition and diversity are quite welcumed. I hope this new bar does well. And I know BIG LUG is not brand new so bear with me as the late cumer, as is obvious by the myriad of other gay blogger's BIG LUG reviews. Besides, I'm not one for being an early adopter. But on to the show...
I was clueless that BIG LUG hosts a Leather night on Saturdays called MACK with a "strickly" enforced dress code. I was wearing sneaks, my grey robot army tshirt, and some green army pants. I was warned by the guy at the door, but he let me in and said if a really big doesn't stop you immediately, then I guess you can stay. So we walked down the stairs and entered the darkly lit bar. I guess they liked my mug 'cus no one told me to leave, woohoo! As soon as I walked in, a definite "aroma" hit me in the nose. It was the scent of Man, and pretty thick. But it is a leather night, so what should one expect, right. The layout of the bar is nice and roomy enough to get around easily. On the immediate left is the bar itself, which is decently lit but not obnoxiously bright. Following the bar is a stepped up area and the DJ booth after that. And here I really have to give props to the DJ. The music was all circa early 80s but not your typical pop music. Three of us are 38 years old, so we all had similar musical reference points. I heard Eurythmics' Love is a Stranger, followed by some other choice 80s grooves like Billy Idol's Flesh for Fantasy. OMG I was creaming. Now all I needed to hear was Grace Jones' Slave to the Rythym and I'd have shot my load.
To the right is more room stepped down, the bathrooms, the "dark" room in the back, and I haven't seen this in bar in a looong time and I love it, actual seating booths, 3 of them! I love that. BIG LUG gave me the complete impression as if i'd been thrown back in time to 1979. Maybe not completely authentic, but that's how I felt and I liked it. Shit, I was a mere 11 years old in that day, so what the hell would I know of a leather bar in 1979? Keep with me kids, I'm just extrapolating from images and movies I've seen. We're not going for realness here, just retro.
Now on to our next destination, ELEMENT aka The Bank on Houston Street. I honestly didn't know what to expect, nor was I particularly in a "party" mood.
As we waited outside for one of our friends to arrive, we noticed the rather large line outside. It was a very mixed crowd, gay (and then a lot of mixed within that) and straight. I became even more clueless as to what to expect inside. Then a new young cute dragqueen approaced us, well actually I think she was mostly interested in RoboPapi and our friend Michael, the two daddies of the group, unless you count me as a baby-daddy. Rainblow, I think was her name, and she was really cool. She reminded me of a very young Miss Understood. I wonder if she is still around, hmm. She chatted us up for while and then offered to get us in for free, woohoo again!
The music was great, but we had to stand on coat check for about 20 minutes. I'll skip some of the uninteresting moments, but my overall impression was there was an excellent energy in this place. I was immediately struck by the sense that I was clubbing "back in the day" of the early 1990s, when club energy was high and the crowd was mixed but also just very fun. The crowd was predominately gay, although very mixed-gay of all types. And a lot of young gay guys, probbaly 25-30 in age, which for once was really appealing to me, which I cannot explain...hmmm my eye has been checking out the younger guys lately but I sitll love my 35-50 mens.
We even bumped into a whole group of guys that were on our Atlantis cruise, it was like a mini reunion. I wound up sticking by these yummy hot guys and dancing with them most of the night. I was offered some "enhancement" by some guy I just met, but frankly I wasn't really looking to party this night. I kind of wish I was, but I was sticking to my weed and liquor tonight. This 38 year old is aware of his physical and mental limitations. We left just pre-4AM which was fine by me since I wanted to feel fresh as a daisy for Sunday blunching and more shenanigans at the Eagle's beer blast.
In very rare form, I was piss drunk at the Eagle on Sunday and barely remember anything except my friend Gus molesting me and nearly breaking my right hand. Oh and course me and my sister Alan cracking up at such nonsense as reenacting scenes from old Space:1999 and Star Trek episodes. Ah such sweet memories.
I was clueless that BIG LUG hosts a Leather night on Saturdays called MACK with a "strickly" enforced dress code. I was wearing sneaks, my grey robot army tshirt, and some green army pants. I was warned by the guy at the door, but he let me in and said if a really big doesn't stop you immediately, then I guess you can stay. So we walked down the stairs and entered the darkly lit bar. I guess they liked my mug 'cus no one told me to leave, woohoo! As soon as I walked in, a definite "aroma" hit me in the nose. It was the scent of Man, and pretty thick. But it is a leather night, so what should one expect, right. The layout of the bar is nice and roomy enough to get around easily. On the immediate left is the bar itself, which is decently lit but not obnoxiously bright. Following the bar is a stepped up area and the DJ booth after that. And here I really have to give props to the DJ. The music was all circa early 80s but not your typical pop music. Three of us are 38 years old, so we all had similar musical reference points. I heard Eurythmics' Love is a Stranger, followed by some other choice 80s grooves like Billy Idol's Flesh for Fantasy. OMG I was creaming. Now all I needed to hear was Grace Jones' Slave to the Rythym and I'd have shot my load.
To the right is more room stepped down, the bathrooms, the "dark" room in the back, and I haven't seen this in bar in a looong time and I love it, actual seating booths, 3 of them! I love that. BIG LUG gave me the complete impression as if i'd been thrown back in time to 1979. Maybe not completely authentic, but that's how I felt and I liked it. Shit, I was a mere 11 years old in that day, so what the hell would I know of a leather bar in 1979? Keep with me kids, I'm just extrapolating from images and movies I've seen. We're not going for realness here, just retro.
Now on to our next destination, ELEMENT aka The Bank on Houston Street. I honestly didn't know what to expect, nor was I particularly in a "party" mood.
As we waited outside for one of our friends to arrive, we noticed the rather large line outside. It was a very mixed crowd, gay (and then a lot of mixed within that) and straight. I became even more clueless as to what to expect inside. Then a new young cute dragqueen approaced us, well actually I think she was mostly interested in RoboPapi and our friend Michael, the two daddies of the group, unless you count me as a baby-daddy. Rainblow, I think was her name, and she was really cool. She reminded me of a very young Miss Understood. I wonder if she is still around, hmm. She chatted us up for while and then offered to get us in for free, woohoo again!
The music was great, but we had to stand on coat check for about 20 minutes. I'll skip some of the uninteresting moments, but my overall impression was there was an excellent energy in this place. I was immediately struck by the sense that I was clubbing "back in the day" of the early 1990s, when club energy was high and the crowd was mixed but also just very fun. The crowd was predominately gay, although very mixed-gay of all types. And a lot of young gay guys, probbaly 25-30 in age, which for once was really appealing to me, which I cannot explain...hmmm my eye has been checking out the younger guys lately but I sitll love my 35-50 mens.
We even bumped into a whole group of guys that were on our Atlantis cruise, it was like a mini reunion. I wound up sticking by these yummy hot guys and dancing with them most of the night. I was offered some "enhancement" by some guy I just met, but frankly I wasn't really looking to party this night. I kind of wish I was, but I was sticking to my weed and liquor tonight. This 38 year old is aware of his physical and mental limitations. We left just pre-4AM which was fine by me since I wanted to feel fresh as a daisy for Sunday blunching and more shenanigans at the Eagle's beer blast.
In very rare form, I was piss drunk at the Eagle on Sunday and barely remember anything except my friend Gus molesting me and nearly breaking my right hand. Oh and course me and my sister Alan cracking up at such nonsense as reenacting scenes from old Space:1999 and Star Trek episodes. Ah such sweet memories.
ΒΆ 8:30 AM |
<< Home