Brightest Young Things

All photos by Bradley Portnoy

The majority of nightlife parties in Washington take a few tries before they find their crowd. But, most parties in D.C. aren’t organized by uber-promoters Karl Jones and Shea Van Horn. (check out our interview/photo shoot with them here-ed)

By 11:00pm on Friday, the upstairs space at the Green Lantern bar was already packed with patrons who turned out for the premier of the new monthly party Raw. By 11:30pm, shirts were being stripped off as the crowd began to dance to dark new-wave and dirty disco. Actually, there wasn’t much room left to dance after Jones and Van Horn packed the place with a massive crowd that they built alongside fellow promoter Bil Todd. However, that didn’t stop patrons from writhing to the beat underneath a darkened room of lasers and gritty visuals.

"Most gay bars these days are sanitized and bright," Jones told Brightest Young Things in previewing the party. "We wanted to tap into that energy carried at a time when you had to look around and be a bit careful about who spotted you out at a gay bar." Indeed, the Green Lantern played into that narrative when it threatened to kick-out Brightest Young Things for shooting the event. But, developing his reputation as the bad boy of BYT photography, our photographer Bradley kept shooting the semi-debauchery with the encouragement of party-goers.

While nothing too over-the-top occurred at Raw (with the exception of Jones stripping down to a jockstrap and roller skates by the end of the night), the party succesfully employed the decadant energy of the days of disco. Even the bar's shoddy speaker system (which sadly muffled the talents of Van Horn and Todd) played into the effect of recreating the feel of an underground 1970's venue. Even if nothing too dirty was going on, Raw still felt filthy and fun.

For more information, visit: www.rawdc.com