A Club Like No Other (Page 1 of 1)

Girls just want to have fun. Incidentally, so do young gay boys like me! That’s why I went on assignment a couple of weeks ago for Club Tour 2007. A few friends joined me along the way and we had a total blast exploring the gay and lesbian bars of Knoxville.

The club is very symbolic to me as that’s where I “grew up” as a budding gay man. I gained confidence on the dance floor, met many interesting people (and some total asses) and learned some very valuable lessons. For those reasons, the weekend excursion felt like a homecoming for me.

The Lord Lindsey’s Closet night and Saturday nights at the Electric Ballroom were two of my favorite club experiences from years ago — I am sorry to report that these two events are no more, but plenty of club experiences are available in Knoxville on a typical weekend.

We started our tour at Kurt’s bar, “Your Entertainment Destination.” Kurt’s has a neighborhood bar feel and on Thursday offers a Karaoke competition. Although I’ve heard in the past couple of months that Kurt’s has become a lesbian bar, I thought there was a good balance of gay and lesbian folk. There might have been a two-to-one ratio, but there were plenty of guys there to debunk the lesbian bar theory. Kurt’s also has a couple of cute bartenders, at least one of which is straight (*sigh*).

From Kurt’s, we moved on to Fairbanks. I love a roomy club with a good dance floor, so I am a big fan of Fairbanks. Formerly an art theatre, the space is great for mixing and mingling. Thursday is dubbed “Out Tonight” and the vibe has ranged significantly in the several times I have been there. Once packed with twinks dancing on the walls, this particular evening, the crowd was smaller, but no less fun. We enjoyed the drag show with Mariska and Angel Collins, had great drinks and dancing and closed the club down at 3 a.m. Things got particularly interesting at the end of the evening as our intoxication level reached its peak. Special thanks to one buddy for sharing his mantra: “I never liked flies until I opened one.” Not sure what that means, but it sounds like good journalism.

Friday night started late, after a picnic and a going-away party for my friend Josh. I met friends out at Club XYZ, “Your Place to Be.” With a $3 cover and a decent drag show, this club has a little something for everyone, in keeping with its advertising as a place for those gay, lesbian, bi, trans and straight. The patio is a great gathering place for cool summer evenings, but be sure to bring your single bills for The XYZ Girls performance in the Zipper Room.

As much fun as we had at XYZ, I had to visit the Carousel II to see if it is still the place to be on a Friday night. As usual, the place was packed, but somehow, it had changed. I remember a smokier, trashier, more tragic Carousel. Not that any of these qualities ever kept me away, but now it seemed different. I was perplexed. There’s a Ms. Pacman video game near the men’s room, the crowd’s average age is younger by decades and dozens of cute, CUTE lipstick lesbians were all around, taking the place of the bull-dykes and trolls of my youthful memories. The drag show with India Dupree and Champale Denise was fabulous as always, with one minor change: This time India was the show director. My only complaints are that the bar is still dirty, one corner I stood in to watch the show smelled of vomit and urine, it’s crowded and it has its moments of danger. Push past the rough exterior, and you will most likely have a good time.

Saturday found us at the Rainbow Club West, “Often Imitated, Never Duplicated.” I LOVE the Rainbow Club. Cover is free for the front bar, pool tables and patio. I think it costs $5 to get into the drag bar. Hands down, the Rainbow Club offers a cast of six divas and one divo — Mercedes Alexander, The Lady Geneva, Shantell D’Marco, Miss Gabriel Alexis, Xena, Veronica Rose, and Nathane promise a great show for everyone in attendance. Between shows, the stage becomes “the dance floor for whores.” It seems that every time I go there, I wish that I had come early to get a good seat because it gets very crowded. But of course, once I came about an hour before the show began. I had a great table at the front of the stage and several people crowded in around my table so that I couldn’t see anyway. It’s a small price to pay for a great show!

We rounded out the weekend at Club Legacy, “A Club Like No Other.” Legacy is not exactly a gay club. It offers a little something for everyone. Wednesday is Ladies Night, Thursday is the ‘80s dance party (of course all my friends go to Sassy Ann’s for ‘80s night on Thursday), Friday is Closet Night part 2 and Saturday is Café Mambo Latin night. Not knowing the schedule, we ended up there on Latin night, which was no disappointment. Cover is a bit steep at $10, but our cover was free since we arrived so late. Around 3 a.m., everyone is asked to leave as the breakfast buffet is set up. Cover is $8 for the after-hours party and $5 for those who have already paid the $10 cover. The best part for me was the complimentary “pat-down” at the door. The security guy was pretty cute, so I played it up a little. On the patio, hot boys, both gay and straight, were taking off shirts and showing the rewards that they received from hours at the gym. I left around 5 a.m., tired from a weekend well spent.

I want to hear about your experiences in Knoxville’s gay club scene. Send me an e-mail at tmurchis1@msn.com. Use an obvious subject line so that I don’t lose the message in a spam filter.