Preview: Blowoff
Blowoff is a monthly gay dance party at the 9:30 club, organized by the now-DC-based famed punk/rock superstar Bob Mould (Hüsker Dü, Sugar, The City Paper), and singer/songwriter/DJ/producer Richard Morel.
Blowoff started off years ago (2003) on Sunday nights at the Velvet Lounge, on U St. between 9th and 10th, and my notion of it at the time was a night where two DJs/musicians would mix recordings and with live music. (Sadly I wasn't able to ever attend Blowoff in the early years, because I was always working on Sunday nights.) The massing crowds quickly began splitting the seams of Velvet's tiny performance space, and Blowoff relocated to the downstairs bar at the 9:30 club. Somewhere in there, Blowoff lost the live music aspect and exploded, morphing into a full-on dance party and moved to the main space upstairs at 9:30. The thing that hasn't changed is that it's always been a true alternative to the monotonous DC gay scene. More details about Blowoff below the fold.
One interesting aspect of the night is its marketing. Each event has a very high-quality poster/image created that is showcased on their website. This "signature artwork" always features a very large burly man, either bearded, graying or both, who is flexing his muscles, shirtless. This man is always somewhere between barrel chested and apple-shaped. The ad for their St. Patrick's Day party featured not only a man matching this description (with red hair and green pants, of course) but also two burly midget-leprechauns.
As one would expect, the night seems to draw a crowd which identifies with these ads. But not exclusively. I've definitely seen handfuls of younger, skinnier, cleaner-shaven guys dancing and having a blast at Blowoff.
The music played is unique to gay dance spaces in DC. The set lists are (nearly) blissfully free of the same soulless pop music played at other gay bars in town. For example, the most recent set list includes tracks by M83, Badly Drawn Boy, Cyndi Lauper, Jimmi Hendrix, Sneaker Pimps, etc. But don't go hoping to dance to indie-rock favorites like songs by The Rapture, Franz Ferdinand or !!!: Blowoff is heavy on club music, featuring songs I haven't heard of, remixed by people I haven't heard of. Blowoff definitely enters into "serious dance music" territory, a land upon which I am not qualified to comment.
Thanks to nearly 5 years of hard work by Morel and Mould, we have a monthly alternative dance party. I wonder how it will fare since Town opened. My guess is that Blowoff will hardly bat an eye.
The next Blowoff is on December 15, 2007, at the 9:30 club, 815 V. St NW. Doors at 11:30 PM.
1 Comments:
i don't want to start a big debate on nightlife again (or maybe i do), but i find you endorsement of blowoff a little strange. i'm aware of your views on pride and on places like nation, that they're often magnets for a destructive amd shameful part of gay culture that many (if not most) gays do not take part in. how is blowoff different?
when i went to town, i did not care for it. it was a nice and respectable looking place but i just could not stand the music and the size and sceney-ness of it. but, at first glance, it didn't seem like a place i should be embarrassed about. there was some shirtlessness, yes. maybe someone somewhere was doing drugs. but i would have brought my mother there if she wanted to have some drinks and shake her ass to the new britney record. would i bring her to blowoff? absolutely fucking not.
i have not been to blowoff very much, i will admit. but the times i have been there it has looked exactly like the kinds of leather and harness pride floats that, in my opinion, make gays look like we're nothing but sex-crazed fools. i'm all for people being able to do the leather thing. i'm all for guys who don't look like abercrombie and fitch models being able to take off their shirts if they want. but it sounds like you think blowoff is ok and town is not just because the music is a little less vapid? or beauce people there don't have the abs of the average towner.
let's discuss . . .
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