Review: "Be: Bad" Lives Up To Its Name

I happened into the "Be:Bad" fetish party at BeBar on Saturday night. I'd been to one before and really enjoyed myself, but that was only because of the music which was played that night. I returned this past Saturday in the hopes that they'd have the same DJ. Alas, it was not to be. So I was left to evaluate Be:Bad on its own merits. And the results weren't pretty.


First of all, it wasn't much of a fetish party. When I think fetish party, I think audience participation. This party drew the same old A&F crowd, dressed in the same tired A&F gear. The only leather items to be found on these guys were their belts and shoes. It seems at BeBar, their theme nights are only for the employees: the attendees don't need to participate. It's like being invited to a pool party and when you show up it turns out to be a swim meet. It was fetish spectator sport night. I'm really glad I didn't wear my friend's rubber tank top.

Besides the bar staff being all dressed up in leather-goth-punk gear, the other entertainment of the evening was cage dancing. But who was in the cage? Jock boys with white briefs on. Um, you call that fetish? Any gay guy who isn't turned on by hot bodies in skimpy underwear is either dead or a eunuch. Somebody call Calvin Klein, this is an emergency!

Secondly, I felt bad for the actual fetishists who were drawn out of the woodwork. I'll be kind about them, but let's just say that the fetish gear was the only thing they had going for them. (Meaning only attractive to guys who break for harnesses regardless of whose wearing them.)

Finally, the music. I was disappointed by the music. I admit that I had high expectations after the great music I had heard at the previous Be:Bad night, but I would have been disappointed regardless. I didn't know anyone still listened to that screaming diva *thump* *thump* style of music anymore. I don't hear it blasting out of car windows on 17th street... I had figured that, since Velvet Nation closed down, there was no longer a target audience for that soulless crap. Alas, it was blaring on Saturday at Bebar, even out onto the sidewalk. (BeBar actually has a speaker embedded in their awning. Smart, actually, so music snobs like me can choose to walk away even without having to open the door.)

So, here we have it. A bar packed to the gills with stereotypical guys squeezing past each other to the beat of some screaming diva, and trying their hardest not to get accidentially pushed up against one of the two geezers in leather vests while hot jocks in briefs and goth-leather bartenders objectify themselves for tip money... What more could the New Gay ask for?

Hey, BeBar! If you really want to have a fetish night, why not encourage audience participation. Give people something free if they show up in a leather harness or buttless chaps. If you are going to do it, DO IT. Otherwise, save everyone the trouble and just serve drinks like a normal bar.