Review: The Re-opening of the F Word at Splash + Kylie Minogue

Now, I don’t usually blog on the weekends (or the "morning" after), but for the re-opening of the F Word at Splash featuring Kylie Minogue, I had to make an exception.

When they first announced the move to the infamous venue, I was a bit crushed. Here you have this amazing party with awesome personalities and promoters that targets a heavily alternative crowd. You want to move that to Splash? The most Wonderbread of gay clubs (have you seen a John Blair party lately… no, really, because I haven’t been in years). On the other hand, it’s the only sizable gay club in Manhattan. Well, the only one where you don’t have to worry about people fighting. (look down, Escuelita), so it makes sense from a keep-it-in-the-family perspective. And god knows what Rebel was trying to pull with the promoters. Anyway, I had my doubts about the new venue, but if anyone could put the focus on the pace and not the place, it would be Formika and his team.

A few days prior, they announced that Kylie Minogue would be making an appearance. I expected lines around the block with all the buzz, and I really wouldn’t have gone if I didn’t want to write about it. But I dragged my ass from happy hour at Gym Bar around 10:30 and found that there was no wait to get in! The F Word to get in for free was “Freakshow.” I started singing Britney’s song by that name to the doorman, who gave me the I-don’t-get-paid-for-my-sense-of-humor blank stare and stamped my wrist. However, the bouncer who was scanning IDs actually smiled and gave me a proper greeting. Splash was looking better already.

It seemed slightly more packed than other nights when I’d gone, but it wasn’t insane. As we walked through the crowd, we saw the familiar scene of people dressed to the nines, fiercely made-up queens and RGs, and F Word’s notoriously sexy go-goes.

There were quite a few of the touches that made F Word at Rebel fun, like the public massage table. I never caught their band (The Barebackers), but there was no mention of them. Splash really only has two areas, whereas Rebel had several, so there were only 2 djs. Upstairs was more dance remixes of pop songs while downstairs was all over the place (in an interesting way). The most notable void was the lack of a drink special. F Word started out with a 2-hour open bar at Santos Party House. At Rebel, they had $3 call vodka til midnight. This used to be one of the few parties where, if you were in the know, you didn’t have a cover and you got a drink special on the weekend.

Shout out to go-go Shane Mercado (you know, the “Single Ladies” Youtube guy).

He’s actually quite the performer and really engages and interacts with the crowd.

Kylie herself came on a bit after 1. No opening act, no promoters stalling hyping up the crowd, just her descending from the VIP room behind the DJ booth to an onslaught of camera flashes. And that was hyping up enough for this crowd. I had to almost wrestle a twink on the go-go block to get a view (he wasn’t a dancer).

She was wearing a shiny American Apparel-type dress, and her hair was pulled back into a frizzy bun. Did I mention it was about 90 degrees inside the club? While I was amazed at how young she looked in her new video ("All the Lovers"), I wasn’t surprised to see that she appeared much closer to her purported 42 years in person. A hot 42, but believable. She was beaming, and her energy was infectious.

I expected her to get on stage, smile and twirl a bit, give a shout outs to the gays, thank the promoters, and leave as they played her song. But she asked: “Should I sing along?” which elicited deafening cheers from the crowd. So she sang live (over her track).

Then she asked if the crowd wanted to hear a mega-mix of the songs from the forthcoming album. Was thinking it would be a 3-minute chop up job. I wasn’t watching the time, but that mix must have gone on for about 10 minutes. She sang along to most of the mix before thanking the audience and making her exit to an awesome remix of "All the Lovers" that I didn't hear the name of (damnit!). My own exit wasn’t long after.

While there are marked (obvious, glaring) differences between the F Word I went to a few months ago and the party I attended last night, the soul of the party is there. Mark Nelson, Formika, and their team have worked hard to create an atmosphere and a following that’s pretty damn unique, and I’m happy to see that it didn’t get completely watered down by relocating to such a mainstream venue. And as they build a relationship with Splash, I’m sure that they’ll be able to take more risks and add more details that make this party stand out and succeed. The F Word is definitely back.

But what I really want to know is: how did F Word get Kylie on Friday and Club 57 not get her on Saturday? If this is going to be the trend, I'll gladly save the $15 cover for celeb appearances.

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Click here to check out my night at the F Word at Santos Party House (2-hr open bar?!).