Be:Barf

TNG is taking a much needed break from Dec 19-Jan 4. TNG will return with new content on Jan 5. Until then, please enjoy this post from the past year. Original publish date: 4/7/2008.

Et Tu, BeBar? When I first moved to D.C., I had limited gay bar experience and most of it was bad. I found myself talking to a lot of rude guys at oddly-decorated spaces filled by music that felt like screws in my head. However, BeBar was a pleasant exception. Though its decor suggests the year 2040 as imagined by an 8 year-old, the people there were nice, the owners were friendly, and the music never eclipsed one's ability to have a conversation.

Though I haven't been to many gay bars in the last six months or so (producing this site reminded me that I don't need to,) I thought it would be fun to go back to BeBar on Saturday and have fun like I used to. But what happened to the fun? The theme of the night was Be:Bad, which once again lived up to its name. An early inception last June provided a nice way to dance around to The Cars and Basement Jaxx while meeting new people, but my experience there on Saturday was nothing short of a full-scale sensual assault on par with dropping acid at a roller rink.

Be:Bad is a sort of fetish party, and I understand that earlier in the night there was a drag performance, appearances by pornstars, and maybe some on-stage, semi-clothed simulated sex. When I got there, though, there were only a couple guys walking around shirtless or in harnesses trying to engage with the 40 or so customers remaining at the bar. The ooncha-ooncha music made conversation next to impossible, and the lighting made me feel like I was trapped in Picasso's blue period.

I understand that Town is providing competition to many of D.C.'s other gay bars, but I don't think the way to counter that is to clone it. BeBar once drew a crowd because it was providing people with something that wasn't there — a gay bar experience that, for better or worse, was unlike any other in D.C. Now, its just a paltry imitation of the kind of gay bar that gives gay bars a bad name. In October I had the dubious pleasure of going to a high-octane gay bar in New York called G Lounge (as in "Gee, these men are wearing a lot of cologne") and was relieved that DC didn't have such a scene. So what makes people think we need that now?

Last April, I had the best gay bar experience of my life at BeBar's "Be:Abba" night. Wall-to-wall cute guys packed the space, dancing to the greatest hits of Abba. Not pointless dance remixes of Abba, not "Does Your Mother Know" with an unrecognizable 10 minute intro, but the actual songs. Everyone at the bar was having fun, and I was sad to leave by the night's end. Two months later I went back for a second Be:Abba and it was changed completely. There was a name DJ, stupid dance remixes and no one was there. I understand that Bebar's new Wednesday lesbian night drew a great crowd. Maybe if they keep doing something new, instead of the same old, a customer base will follow.