As can be expected during any club night, long lines formed outside the bathrooms of the King Club last Wednesday, as the fourth installment of Indie Queer Night took over the venue. More than one griping bathroom-waiter questioned, "Which one should I use?!" and received the response, "Does it really matter?"
Indeed, the glam jams and general gaiety (sorry) of Indie Queer Night made one want to scream, "The gender binary is so last year!" But apparently the bathrooms haven't caught on yet.
The club event, which takes place on the third Wednesday of every month, is creator Liz Tymus' DIY answer to the noticeable lack of gay-centric nightlife in Madison. No one-hit wonder, the event has received some attention since its premiere at Mickey's -- and its popularity only seems to be growing.
As one sweaty dancer pointed out last Wednesday, "This is the craziest one I've been to yet -- and I've been to them all!"
The intimate King Club is a perfect fit for the fledgling club night, and by 11 p.m. the place was full. The "craziness," however, was slow to start, despite DJ Tizzy's best efforts.
The general mix of indie dance hits -- heavily featuring Hot Chip, CSS, Le Tigre, Peaches and the like -- could entice only a few couples onto the floor. The rest of the crowd was content to sit back and sip cheap beer, watching the cute girls do the work for them. Not even the Tegan and Sara/Mylo mashup "Walking with a Ghost in Paris" could make the crowd move the way they did when DJ Tizzy dropped the first Justin Timberlake track.
The rest of the night was a shift away from the indie genre, and instead played a track list that perhaps Prince would have favored more. The volume increased, making conversation hard, and people had no choice but to dance. The crowd was joyous, moving from the dance floor to the stage and back again, while a giant portrait of a geisha watched from her canvas on the wall, Mona Lisa-like eyes watching wherever one went.
As the clock neared 2 a.m., the tracks had simmered down, the sound guy had immersed himself in the fourth book of a sci-fi fantasy series, and after nearly two hours of dancing most of the crowd had taken a break to grab a cigarette outside. The night was warm; a thunderstorm seemed imminent.
