Brightest Young Things

When Karl Jones started his alternative dance party ‘Taint’ at the DC9 five years ago, he didn’t think that it would last more than a year. “We kept waiting for some kid to come along and say ‘Fuck you, guys. Your party sucks. I’m starting my own.’” That didn’t happen. “When we started ‘Taint’ there wasn’t really any outlet for the gay community for anyone who identified as a hipster, or a punk, or artsy or anything outside mainstream gay culture. So, I think people gravitated towards that.”

Note: Raw debuts this Friday at the Green Lantern

“In New York, parties tend to come and go,” says Jones. “That’s expected. We didn’t expect ‘Taint’ to stick around, but it did.”

After five years, though, Jones was ready to move on. He folded ‘Taint’ with a farewell party last month and this past February he began talking with party promoter and DJ Shea Van Horn about a new venture. The popularity of ‘Taint’ had inspired a menagerie of alternative parties such as Mixtape, Shift, Homo/Sonic and the new party Pink Sock (debuting at the Wonderland Ballroom on Wednesday, November 18) to serve D.C.’s gay community. That freed Jones and Van Horn to explore creating a niche party as they moved forward.

“The nightlife scene in Washington has now developed to the point where there are a lot of choices of alternative events for gay people outside of traditional gay establishments,” says Van Horn. "You can go out on H Street and find a gay-oriented party at the Rock & Roll Hotel or a group of gay friends at a venue like Little Miss Whiskey’s. With so many choices, we see an opportunity to offer a niche party that has a specific music style and aesthetic."

That something new turned out to be something old. Jones and Van Horn approached DJ Bil Todd (who hosts the party 'Nowhere' at the Rock & Roll Hotel) about collaborating on a venture that reflected the gay scene in the days when it was forced to keep itself underground - when just gathering with other gay people was seen as something a bit dangerous and dark. “Most gay bars these days are sanitized and bright,” says Jones. “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.”

The result is the new party Raw which debuts this Friday at the Green Lantern off of Thomas Circle. The vision is a space which fosters both dancing and intimate conversation and perhaps, a lingering hand.

“There is a dark thread that runs through all of our musical selections,” says Todd pointing to the set mix of dark disco, new wave, punk and alternative electro. “The three of us went through potential choices and we’re pretty excited that we’ve settled on something that really works.” A brilliant addition is the splicing of audio tracks between sets (take a listen to a preview here) that drums the collection forward. For the first party, Todd sampled audio clips from, among other items, a 1950s public service announcement warning of the dangers of homosexuality.

Van Horn says the group determined that the atmosphere of the party should be as dark as the music set. Lowered lights will be paired with fog machines and grainy visuals (including vintage pornography) to help set the mood. In addition, patrons will be asked to enter through an unmarked side entrance of the Green Lantern – a bar already located in a hard-to-find alley a half-block off of Thomas Circle.

‘Raw’ is reminiscent of the types of parties that thrived in New York and San Francisco – and, to an extent, Washington – in the 1970s and 80s. With a local punk scene largely rooted in social rebellion, New York saw its underground nightlife scene throw together an otherwise unmatchable collection of undesirables that included homosexuals, punks, sex workers and street kids. That underground culture clash would influence both the politics and art of the 1980s from the formation of action groups like ACT UP to the pop careers of Madonna and Cyndi Lauper.

In forming ‘Raw’ the three promoters recognized that there were large segments of an entire generation of gay men that were raised on “Will & Grace” and had therefore missed out that grittier side of gay life. In New York, programs initiated by Mayor Giuliani in the 1990s ‘cleaned up’ much of the city and shut down gay venues that had kept the sleazy side of rock-and-roll alive (a demise lamented over in the Scissor Sisters' 2004 song “Tits On The Radio”).

In Washington, an entire neighborhood of semi-underground gay bars was razed in 2006 to make way for Nationals Ballpark. “[The City Council] exiled us there in an out of sight, out of mind philosophy,” gay activist Frank Kameny told the Washington Blade in 2004. With their out of sight location, many of those former bars attracted a clientele that included closeted exurbanites, street kids and members of the transgender community that have yet to find a new home in the D.C. nightlife scene.

Jones, Todd and Van Horn may not be recreating the actual danger of the former neighborhood now lies underneath Nationals Park. However, it is its sense of electricity and excitement that they hope to capture with ‘Raw.’

"‘Eastern Bloc’ and ‘The Hose’ in New York are good examples," says Van Horn of the East Village gay bars. Both venues employ a dark décor with equally dark baselines in their musical selections. While much of the actual neighborhood grit of the Village was wiped away by Giuliani, 'Raw' - just like those bars – seek to recreate its former feel.

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Raw - A new monthly party by Karl Jones, Shea Van Horn and Bil Todd
This Friday, November 6th
Green Lantern
1335 Green Court, NW
(Green Court is an alley located a half-block South of Thomas Circle off of 14th Street)

Cost: Free
www.RawDC.com

From the website:
"RAW is a night of sleaze and desire set to a disco beat. RAW happens on the first Friday of each month at the Green Lantern starting November 6th. Enter through the bar’s side entrance located in an alley and find a dimly lit space filled with fog, lasers, strobe lights, and throbbing electro and disco."