Our First Of The Last Basement Blowoffs

Saturday night, after a six day work week, Bubala took me, a very tired Mumi, down to the last Blowoff to be held in the Backbar in the 9:30 Club’s basement. I don’t know why it took us so long to get to one of these events. I was well aware that they were happening through my interest in Bob Mould’s work. I guess the thought of going just fell more onto the con’s list than the pro’s list.

1. I’m not a big dance music fan.
2. 45 minute drive into not one of the best areas of DC at night.
3. We don’t drink.
4. People can be clique-ish when you’re a stranger.
5. We are both boring married guys who stopped saying “what the fuck” and just going for it.

So, despite what we thought about the potential con’s, we went anyway. It’s good that we did, because we both had a really good time. We showed up at about 10:30pm, and our handsome hosts/DJs made us feel very welcome right from the start. We got familiar greetings from Bob right away, and Rich came over and introduced himself to us shortly after that, which made us feel very comfortable. The place was smaller than I thought, and as the night went on, it got crowded. I’m sure the intimacy of the place was nice for those hot summer night Blowoffs where the guys wore less a lot less flannel and a lot more fur, but since this is December, the flannel ruled out tonight.

The music was actually really good, a great mix of different stuff ranging from electro-pop to glam rock, more on the high energy electronic side. It was not blasting away too loudly, so we could easily communicate with others without having to shout which is always a plus. The best part about the music was no screaming banshee divas from hell, at least not while we were there. Now, you may call me old fashioned, but I have no problems listening to Jimi Hendrix make love to his guitar in all kinds of distorted high frequencies, but I just can’t take all those high pitched female singers/screamers. I just want to put my fingers in my ears and wish it all away.

The crowd was full of a lot of nice looking guys. Some were friendly, and some just looked our way a lot (and I looked back!) Some guys really get off on having other guys cruise them, I don’t like it so much though. It makes me really uncomfortable. (That’s why I don’t go out as much as I used to.) I try to ignore it, which I am sure comes across as me being snobby rather than what it actually is, shyness or awkwardness. I’ve never rejected ANYONE who had the balls to come over and say “Hi” to me though. I’m pretty easy going, just a bit reserved, I guess. Anyway, we had a great time, and I’m sure that, weather permitting, we’ll be around for next month’s upstairs Blowoff debut.

In a foot note to Bubala’s post about Mystery Boy X: This dude loves to tease us gay guys by lifting up his shirt and rubbing his stomach and grabbing his dick through his sweat pants. He knows what he‘s doing, even though he thinks that we don‘t know that. I’m old enough to be his dad, however, so that’s kind of weird. I’m more the type to try to tell him that, “too much partying makes you dumb, and too much sex gives you STD’s.” I did ask him if he wanted to hang out with me this past weekend, get stoned and go check out that new cowboy movie that opened just up. He turned me down though.