#1062 • February 29, 2012 It’s jocks and more (and less!) at Game On!, this year’s installment of TPAN’s annual Chicago Takes Off event, Sat. March 3 at the Park West. page 29 Mr. Union Suit Manhole’s 2012 at Touche. Phys Ed. at page 12 Hydrate. page 8 PLUS CHESTERFIELD’S RELOADED 6319 W. Roosevelt Rd. Berwyn, IL 708-317-4242 Antronios-Bar-and-Grill Cheer on your favorites as the Sidetrack staff competes in the... Wed, March 7 • 8pm Drink sampling, swag give-aways & much more. PLUS, YOU could win a trip to sunny Palm Springs, CA! Sidetrack the Video Bar 3349 N. Halsted • SidetrackChicago.com That Guy by Kirk Williamson Remember community ally (and super-sweet @mosphere celebrates a full decade of decadence human being) Merry Mary at 2 pm, Sunday, (Is that where that word comes from? Sorry, just March 11 at Cell Block. Join together with friends had an etymology epiphany) this Sunday, March and well-wishers to share stories of this esteemed 4. See divas Angelique Munro, Regina Upright, member of Chicago’s Gay and Lesbian Hall of and Tori Sass, along with hot male dancers Fabion Fame, whom we lost too early last December at and Jay, DJ David Byrne and Tomas the Magician. the age of 77. Congratulate Charlie on 10 great years! For all of you who have accused me of being fake, you may be right. After all, I had to be ... wait for it ... “made up” at Scot’s. Mikey had a swanky face-paint- ing station at this year’s Mardi Gras karaoke. We both agreed that one simple design on the right cheek was the way to go. Asymmetry is all the rage this year in fashion circles. Well, fashion trapezoids anyway. And for the guy who accused me of being classy (with a heaping teaspoonful of sarcasm), I present this shot of me getting some fresh air at Jackhammer’s annual Undie-oke. I strive for a sort of classy classlessness. I think this look hits the nail on the head! [email protected] PUBLISHER Tracy Baim ASSISTANT PUBLISHER nightspots Terri Klinsky MANAGING EDITOR #1062 • February 29, 2012 Kirk Williamson ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVES Terri Klinsky, Kirk Williamson, Amy Matheny, Dave Ouano, Kirk Smid MAIN COVER IMAGE NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Chicago Takes Off poster boy Rivendell Media 212-242-6863 Photo by Doug Birkenheuer, DIRECTOR OF NEW MEDIA BirkenheuerPhotography.com Jean Albright OFFICE LOWER LEFT/RIGHT Meghan Streit Photos by Kirk PHOTOGraphY Mel Ferrand, Kat Fitzgerald, Kirk, Kizzy, Anthony Meade, Dave Ouano, DJ Res-5 CAST OF CHARACTERS Andrew Davis, Homer Marrs, AK Miller, Marc “Moose”Moder, Jennifer Parello, Peter Pointers, Copyright 2012 Windy City Media Group/Lambda Publications Inc. All rights reserved. Reprint by permission only. Back issues available for $3 per issue (postage included). 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While we encourage www.WindyCityMediaGroup.com readers to support the advertisers who make this newspaper possible, Nightspots/Windy City Times cannot accept responsibility for advertising claims. [email protected] /nightspots ouanodave photography fashion fitness portraits modelmayhem.com/daveouano daveouanophotography.com [email protected] 773.860.0162 and Chicago Spirit Brigade “Step Back In Time” to raise money for FCAN. THE CALL Photos courtesy of The Call Get a good sniff of these jocks from Manhole’s Phys Ed. party. HYDRATE Photos by Anthony Meade 8 nightspots February 29, 2012 BE FASHIONABLY L AT E OPEN UNTIL 4 AM Come try Kristine Hengl’s Horchata Martini $10 for 10 oz of fun! (Soy or Cream Available) EVERY SATURDAY IS PLANET EARTH 80’S NEW WAVE CLUB CLASSICS 3534 W. BELMONT AVE. WWW.LATEBARCHICAGO.COM DANCING ABOUT ARCHITECTURE HIGH CONCEPT: by Marc “Moose” Moder FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD’S WELCOME TO THE PLEASUREDOME On a recent episode of WBEZ’s Sound Opinions, hosts Greg Kot and Jim DeRogatis explored the birth of “the album as art” in the year 1967. Born that year were classic albums by The Velvet Underground (w/Nico), The Beatles (Sgt. Peppers) and Pink Floyd (The Piper at the Gates Of Dawn). Music LPs went from a mere collection of singles and B-sides to full-fledged works of art on par with classic novels and films, raising pop music from teen trash to adult immersion in sound. This era continued, more or less, for the next 15 years via concept albums by Yes, Jethro Tull, and even Donna Summer. By the ‘80s, singles became far more prominent with the advent of MTV and its faster pacing in presenting music for the masses. While there were still highly wonderfully consistent albums by artists like Duran Duran, Michael Jackson and Prince, the concept album or “album as art” had died off, with one exception. Trevor Horn, owner/founder of ZTT records was creating masterworks by his own bands (Yes, Buggles, Art of Noise) and for other New Wavers like Grace Jones and Propaganda. But his biggest concept—and last gasp of the large-scale concept album— came from a mismatched batch of gay and straight Liverpudlians called Frankie Goes To Hollywood, and the gay 13-year-old Moose was in love. FGTH came to our US ears via MTV and the rumors of The Queen herself banning their hot single “Relax” (don’t do it, when you wanna come!). “Relax” came complete with three different music videos from vanilla to full on leather bar with one directed by then hot director Brian De Palma (Carrie, Body Double). Frankie singers Holly Johnson and Paul Rutherford had no problem flaunting their sexuality while the remaining three members seemed to feel good about teasing you into thinking they were a bit gay, which was pretty refreshing and unheard of at that time in pop music. Now with their campy hit single in place, we wanted to hear more but didn’t expect much more than your standard one- or two-hit wonders. We were wrong. The debut double album Welcome To the Pleasuredome was a journey like nothing since Pink Floyd’s The Wall (but for homosexuals). First, you start out with the giant album art by none other than Andy Warhol (see Velvet Underground above). The inner sleeve even had a pleasuredome that looked suspiciously like the head of a male member. Obvious references aside, the actual music was far better than it had a right to be, with each of the four sides holding a different mood and two discs acting like two epic films back to back: The Godfather 1 and 2 of music. Side one seemed like one long track, essentially a 25-minute version of Welcome To the Pleasuredome. If you were gay and didn’t have sex to its quiet pastoral opening and its building sexual crescendo, then you weren’t having sex in the ‘80s, at least not with anyone cool. Side two was the punch, containing the two hit singles: “Relax” and “Two Tribes,” sandwiching a remake of Edwin Starr’s “War” with a Reagan-esque voiceover. Side 3 hit you with a few more remakes, like “Ferry Cross the Mersey,” Springsteen’s “Born To Run” and Bacharach’s “Do You Know the Way To San Jose?” Side four kept the energy going, then relaxed again with the epic power ballad (now a UK X-mas classic), “The Power of Love.” By the time this hour-plus epic was over, you were exhausted and happy. It was the closest thing most of us got to good sex in the ‘80s. After that, FGTH petered out with one more album, the middling Liverpool, then broke up and faded away, and along with it, the giant concept album. Many would try, but no one with the power and vision of FGTH and Trevor Horn again or since. Do yourself a favor and seek out Welcome To the Pleasuredome on its original vinyl and enjoy in order. Unless you actually want to have sex to it, then I’m sure the digital version is far more practical. On March 8 , Moose will be spinning a special Frankie/Duran set at Downtown Bar. 10 nightspots February 29, 2012 An ear for Friday-night fun with Creaoke’s karaoke. BOBBY LOVE’S Photos by Anthony Meade No ifs, ands or buts. That’s no buts with one T. Plenty of butts, though. CREW Photos by Kirk nightspots 11 February 29, 2012 Getting carried away at a most civil Mr. Union Suit competition. TOUCHE Photos by Kirk The new Sundays from the guys who brought you Urbano and Rails! VISION Photos by Peter Miekina 12 nightspots February 29, 2012 Let me be brief ... JACKHAMMER Photos by Kirk JOHN L’s Sexy pool. Photos by Kirk 14 nightspots February 29, 2012 DOWNTOWN Good friends and such. Photos by Dave Ouano Just your typical Oscar night in Boystown.