Gather round, my gay children - and Mama will tell you a tale of an ancient gathering place that is now almost extinct. It was called the gay "Video Bar", and these magical places existed in cities all over the United States of America back in the late 80's/early 90's.
The Video Bar was, ultimately, a place for cruising. What is "cruising", you ask?? It's what you anti-social little bastards now do on the internet. But back in ancient times we used to have to take a shower, shave, put on gallons of Drakkar Noir and go to the gay bar to do our cruising. We had it rough - kinda like the Pioneers but with sleeveless t-shirts.
The great thing about Video Bars was that the fact that if the cruising was not particularly good that evening, there was something to do/watch until Mr. Right Now arrived.
The other great thing about Video Bars was the fact that it was the only place to see videos by gay and/or dance artists. MTV certainly didn't/wouldn't play them. That's right, my gay children - MTV use to show music videos. Exclusively. I know, right?!? So, sadly, the gay Video Bar was probably the only place where you could see videos by tacky 90's dance artists like Army of Lovers (below), Saint Etienne or The Shamen.
Anybody remember this little ditty? I think I must have seen this video at Uncle Charlies (on Greenwich Avenue in the West Village) about 5,000 times...
13 comments:
I for one, STILL listen to St. Etienne!! Foxbase Alpha rocks!!
St. E's "He's on the Phone" was practically the story of my life for a while there. Sigh...
Nowadays, I won't go to a gay bar unless it is a video bar or had a video room (Sidetrack in Chicago is great, but pay attention to their always growing nights of showtunes so you can better occupy your time).
OMG! i love this post because it accurately described what it was like going out back in the video bar days. thanks for the post. :)
i have been to a video bar- they have one in royal oak, if i remember right it's called 'pronto'. the time i went there i was so mad that i missed a peen video when i was in the loo- i mean seriously, that was the closest to peen i had seen in a while....
xxalainaxx
I like these "informative" posts about your past. Thanks! :-)
OMG, first of all, when i came to Dallas in 1991, i used to go to a club called the Wave. It was where i first saw the video for Crucified by Army of Lovers. I bought the album and have loved it ever since. I also saw videos by Enigma, Mitsou and other obscure artists. It was also in a video bar where upon entering we saw the aliens redux video for Abba's the aliens, a redux of various slapping scenes including dynasty and bette davis and also my favorite, Sorority Girls from Hell, if you have not seen this video, youtube it. It is fantastic. Not to mention walking in and seeing Mommy Dearest, "Don't Fuck with me Fellas..." Yeah, truly a dying art...the art of cruising and watching videos while on the dance floor.
Thanks David for you blog, I love it.
I actually have some tapes from a gay club in Ky... memories
hilarious. i had no idea that things like this existed ~ i thought the "video" part of "video bar" was going to be videos patrons recorded of themselves in order to meet mr. right now... kinda like those telephone bars from back in the day, where you'd call the table of the hottie you wanted to hit on. anyway, sounds cool ~ really it could be just as interesting now, if it included random things from youtube, LOL.
This will sound so fucking lame. But, I have never been to a video bar. I've been to one titty bar in North Dakota where I had bigger breast than the female dancers.
So my wish? To go to the hottest papi club of all "URGES"! Will you take me when I come Sis?
Tug -
All you gotta do is show up, and we're THERE. FYI: my birthday is August 26; that would be a perfect day.
XOXOXOXO
OMG~ LSI- I had forgotten about that one! Thanks for reviving an old drag queens hazy memory of a Gay ole time!
Oh, PS.. there is a still one video bar still blazing in all it's glory.... The Bourbon Pub in NOLA has replaced the CRT's with plasmas, but when a really good one comes on, the screen still rolls down....!
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