Dead Cow

[octothorpe]

I was having an interesting IMversation (no, that's not a word) with notdefined, and the subject turned to leather bars. A lot has been said over the years about the golden age of leather bars and biker bars, and how today it's just not the same, blah, blah, blah. A few interesting points came out of this:

• A lot of people know what a leather bar/biker bar is "supposed to be", but they always fail to make what they've got, into their ideal. This isn't a problem with the owner, it's a problem with the patrons who think this. If you don't like it, *change* it. A bar owner only provides a venue, the rest is up to the people who go there. I've gone into straight bars and made them gay bars for the evening. Nothing is stopping anyone from making their bar into their ideal.


• We're a much more "out" and open population. We simply don't need to sneak around dark alleys looking for sex in dodgy places. Of course, some of us still want to.


• Bars-as-hookup-spots have been made totally irrelevant by the internet. Why bother going through the cruise dance, when your sex partner can be delivered to your door, not unlike "Fresh Direct"


• There is a lot of nostalgia (and I mean this in the correct sense of the term, not just "memory") out there for that "Golden Age" of dodgy leather/biker bar. This is an age that never *actually* happened the way people like to think it did. Today, people either weren't alive when it was all happening, or they're just remembering their fondest bits. Many of the memories people have, are actually second-hand stories of "how it used to be", mostly because those who were around "back in the day", are sadly, no longer with us.

Discuss!!

Comments

[theoctothorpe.livejournal.com]

I was hoping you'd chime in. Thanks much!

I think you slightly missed my point though. I didn't say the "golden Age" didn't happen, just that it didn't happen as people remember it. It's in our genetic make-up to forget the really bad things and concentrate on the good things. Hell yeah, great things happened, but nostalgia makes us think that those supremely-mega-awesome times happened every moment of every day (until they stopped). If the life of the bar was taped 24/7, you'd see a bell-curve of good/bad/interesting/boring times.

A question about the Faultline… It *was* a biker bar, then the twinks came in… so the bikers decided to leave. Why do they need to be encouraged to stay? If they thought it was *their* bar, why didn't they put up a fight? As a bar owner, my best interest is making money, and allowing everyone who is willing to pay for a beer do so. Ultimately, the people who make it their home create the vibe.

I do agree though, that yes, there is some "influence" the bar owner can have… Hell, every bar has a "theme", subtle or not. That theme sends out a vibe, and people who pick up on that vibe, come. So did the owner of the Faultline suddenly take all the biker bits down, and put up huge posters of smooth blonde 18-year-olds?

[furr-a-bruin.livejournal.com]

Oh, I agree that even with a bar in a "charmed phase" or whatever you want to call it, the place isn't a non-stop party party PARTY!. As someone who didn't live in SF, I probably had a different perspective on the Lone Star than someone who did - but I was a frequent visitor.

As for the Faultline ... well, that's actually a rather complicated story. There once was a "homomasculine" bar called Griff's, where Gower dead-ended into Melrose at the corner of the Paramount lot. The bar loses its lease and moves into new digs (which had been a gay bar under various names for some time) a ways east, on Melrose near Vermont, and keeps (and expands) its long time clientele. Griff's is the home bar for many LA motorcycle and other clubs. There's actually a small leather shop out on the patio. For a slice of the gay male population, the Griff's sunday beerbust is THE place to be.

Then the bar is a victim of the plague - both the longtime bar manager Wes Kuney and then the owner Dick Griffin die of HIV complications. (Both men were also long time members of the Satyrs M/C, the oldest continously operating gay organization in the USA.)

The bar is bought and renamed the Faultline, and the existing crowd pretty much remains. Unfortunately, the new owner fails to maintain the relationships with the local motorcycle and leather clubs, and many of them over time remove their colors from the bar. They might still have events there, but things have stepped down a notch.

Thus, when the twink invasion hits - the clubs aren't in the mood to put much effort in maintaining the bar's culture, and despite the management's continued statement that it's a bar for people into "leather, levis, bears, bodybuilders, body piercing, bikers, cigars, tattoos, and, above all Rock`n Roll" - there was less and less of many of those on display in the place because there wasn't any action backing up those words. Basically, the message was sent that the management - however they described the bar - didn't really care who filled their tills.

In the midst of the Twink Invasion, I was there at one of the uniform club beer busts, and two women in CHP uniforms came in. Just as I'm thinking it's cool they're comfortable about being there, I hear a faggy voice behind me say - loud enough for as many people as possible but the women to hear - "I smell FISH!"

I snapped around and barked, "I'd rather have a HUNDRED women who get what this place is about here than ONE little bitch-queen like you!" I even got a bit of applause. It was, however, the only time I observed something like that happen in terms of "defending" the bar's long-standing culture.

More recently, I dropped by on an ordinary Saturday night... for the several hours I was there, I saw only ONE other patron in a full beard, a few close-clipped goatees, and a number of bare faces that would have been embarrassing in years past. No motorcycles in the parking lot. I was the only one who lit up a cigar out on the patio.

So no - it wasn't a change of decor, but the message that the "old guard" who'd mostly stuck with the place from when it was Griff's got from the management was "don't need you, don't care" - and they left. If the bar had still been tight with the clubs, things might have been different.

For a long time, the Faultline was actually closed on Mondays and Tuesdays; only comparatively recently have they managed to be open on Tuesdays - still closed on Mondays. As the bars in WeHo found ways to create places for patrons to smoke, a lot of the people who just wanted a place to smoke, drink and gossip returned to the watering holes closer to home. I've got no idea what kind of clientele that bar is pulling in these days, but most of the people I know prefer the Eagle LA now - the ownership of which welcomes the motorcycle and leather clubs. (It's the bar Satyrs M/C day runs use as their anchor point now, for instance.)