There comes a point in every girl’s life where she must decide if she is a bar girl, or a club girl. I, Paige Bulera, am a club girl who has been cursed to live in a bar city (Buffalo, NY). To be completely honest with you up until fairly recently, last year, I considered myself a bar girl. I love a spot where I can sip a seltzer and sit in a booth while my feet stick to the mystery fluids coagulated on the hardwood floor. I enjoy observing strangers as they awkwardly approach one another in poor attempts to flirt. I like the occasional game of darts or billiards surrounded by bar stools and dead flies on window sills. But I can not continue to live a life where my only options for a night out are bars that have more teenagers than twenty-somethings, touch tunes, and more importantly no dance floor. Is there a dance floor at Mister GoodBar, sure, but I’d argue that it’s pathetic. I’d also go as far to say that I don’t really like Mister Goodbar, every time I’ve gone in there I have left after 10 minutes or so. I have made my way around the city of Buffalo, taste testing all the popular establishments in order to find my niche and I have come out the other side dissatisfied. I will proudly say that I believe the 716 has a fantastic assortment of dive bars, trendy cocktail spaces, breweries, and pubs- but the club scene just simply doesn’t exist. If you Google “clubs in Buffalo,” the top 5 results are as follows:
Bottom’s Up
Venu
Underground Nightclub
Helium Comedy Club
Sky Bar
Let’s be realistic for a moment, Bottom’s up or any bar on that sliver of Chippewa (Cowboy, SoHo, Rec Room, 67 West, Venu) is so overpopulated by underager’s you couldn’t pay me to go out down there- and hey, I don’t blame them. I by no means condone underage drinking, but I am also not clueless. Before I was of age I used to go out down there all the time, it was fun, absolutely overpriced, but fun nonetheless. I truly believe in my heart of hearts, and you can ask any of my friends my thoughts on this matter. I think if the bars on that strip became actual 21+ bars they would be great. Please bear with me as I pitch the idea of a 21+ Venu to the people of Buffalo, NY. Have you ever been to Venu? Have you ever wondered, why are the bathrooms on the second floor in the least accessible spot ever? Why is the coat check line so long? Why are there so many old men? And most importantly, why the hell is this place 18+? Now I want you to close your eyes and imagine a world where Venu is a club that is not swarmed with children, where the people are free to dance and smoke cigarettes on the patio, where your cover charge includes a drink, and where good DJs come to play. Open your eyes, welcome to reality because Venu doesn’t exist here in Buffalo, but you know where it does? Spain. Today I am going to be talking to you about my experience clubbing in Madrid and how I came to learn that my body is destined to dance for hours to house music while inhaling second hand smoke and drinking gin and tonics. I just wanna know where to find my local club scene. Don’t get me wrong I do enjoy myself a night at the bar, because that’s all we’ve really got around here, but if I had it my way I’d be a Pink Pony Girl dancing at the club (oh mama).
It was a gorgeous evening in the city of Madrid, the air was crisp, my dear friend Kate and I were going out with her friend Liv who was also studying abroad. I had the best steak of my entire life and then we headed to Club Kapital. Aside from my cheap ass Zara jumpsuit’s zipper breaking when I was at coat check, it was one of the most fabulous experiences I’ve ever had at a club in my entire life. There were dancers, a saxophone player, confetti, cigarettes, gin and tonics in glass cups, a cover charge that included 2 drinks, oh yea and five floors to dance the night away. It was such a shocking experience coming from a bar city, even in London and Canterbury the clubs were pretty tame; this however was such a trip I felt like I was in the Lotus Club from Percy Jackson. There’s something so beautiful about a group of strangers congregating in one place, dancing, and just having a good time partying, (I do not partake in party drugs because I have a fear of dying) that energy is unmatched. One of my biggest regrets from traveling was not clubbing in Berlin, mainly because I was scared, but still I really wish I had gone and seen what it was like. Clubbing, going out, dancing, etc. does not require alcohol, you can go out and dance until your feet fall off stone cold sober. I don’t long for a night at the club for $14 mixed drinks, I just want to talk to strangers while jumping up and down to music. Anyone who may be reading this calling me an amateur, please offer me more insight into the clubbing scene.
Recently, I haven’t enjoyed going out simply because I am exhausted from the bars in my city. Once you go somewhere enough times to consider it “the spot” you get comfortable, then you keep going there in hopes that maybe this time will be more fun and exciting. An empty promise, a desperate hope. In college my friends and I used to go to the same bar every weekend, mainly because that’s the one everyone could get into, but also because that’s where everyone else was going to be. I think as you get older it’s natural to lose interest in the places you once considered so much fun! Especially since I graduated college. I'm in this inbetween state, am I too old to go out with my younger friends to the college bars? Am I too young to go out at the upscale trendy spots during happy hour? Realistically I can go wherever I want because who actually gives a shit, I just wish there was some middle ground- like a club. I like to go out, even if I’ve become a major homebody in the last few months, you may love the bars in Buffalo and that’s your prerogative… I, however, don’t that much. Part of the reason I’m going back to Europe this fall is simply to get away from my comfort here at home. I miss being exposed to new things on a daily basis. I know Buffalo has more to offer, and maybe I’m just not looking in the right places to connect with those parts of my own community, but it's hard when you’re stuck in the suburbs. I'm just now getting into house music, techno, and EDM.
I think it’s important to find what you enjoy through exploration. I don’t like tomatoes all that much but I still eat them because they make other food taste better; I don’t like the bars that much but I still go because I like to hang out with my friends and talk to strangers. It’s unfair of me to constantly compare everything at home to things in other countries because they are in other countries, but I do believe better public transportation and more walkable cities would allow for better night life; look at Nashville or NYC. If it’s not broke don’t fix it seems to be the American mentality though when it comes to building community. I think of clubbing that way, a community, similar to rave culture or the punk scene; all of these groups forge a community to bring together like-minded individuals. The lack of clubs in Buffalo allows for little to no club scene or culture, and I’m very interested to learn more about these ways in both America and other countries. So, if anyone who is more versed in clubbing wants to talk to me, please do. Till next time, stay flirty, stay thirsty, and stay up all night dancing until you think your feet might fall right off!
See you soon,
Paige B.
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