You remember your first time. You walked past Chop Suey one weekend night and saw the line squirming outside the door, the most enthusiastic social ejaculate competing for the fertile inner sanctum of queer culture. You somehow fell into the queue, and after shuffling past steamy portholes on the glass front, you found yourself inside something resembling a bathhouse. The air was heavy with the musk of young men whose taut flesh you saw writhing on the dance floor. In the corner, two faces compounded and separated with a turn of tongue. A flash of bare hip. A sibilance and a cackle. The pounding of full-on disco. Ah, Comeback.
March 31 marks the two-year anniversary of this most famous catamite club night in Seattle, and there are no plans for stopping. Comeback creator and promoter Marcus Wilson (AKA DJ Porq) drops hints that heāll be bringing in more guest MCs and performers from local and touring acts. Heās not just booking entertainment, though; he set out some time ago to champion and nurture new talent that canāt otherwise nd a venue. āItās always been important to be able to provide a space for those who donāt quite fit into common promotersā agendas,ā says Wilson.
Comeback has featured such weirdo acts as NRDLNGR, Stinkmitt, and the International Male (this month itās Fankick! and Bobcats). The party has also consistently provided the best in danceable cutsāelectro, new wave, freestyle, Miami bass, post-punk, hiphopācare of three more of the busiest and best DJs in town: Fucking in the Streets, Colby B, and MC Chompers.
Comeback began as a follow-up to Pho Bang, a successful dance party night for nonmainstream gays. When Comeback hit it big in summer 2004, many clubs around town started aping Comebackās porny-punk aesthetic. Wilson sees the rampant imitation as flattery.
āBeing that there was really nowhere for gays with what I consider good taste in music to go and actually dance, it was a pretty safe bet that Comeback would take off and that it would eventually be imitated or at least āinspireā a bunch of similarly themed nights.ā
Now, everywhere you go thereās some poster touting a list of underground music genres and some degree of receptiveness to āqueers, dykes, trannies, and their friends.ā As usually happens with even the most genuine duplicative efforts, the new nights have been of a lesser and lesser quality, all the way down to the bland and desperately named āAlternative Tuesdays.ā Gross.
Despite Comebackās success, thereās something thatās been bothering our dear Porq. āUnfortunately, Seattle crowds tend to be the most aloof and unresponsive to creative interactionā¦ A lot of people approach going out to a club in the same manner as spending the evening sitting in front of their televisions. Itās like this totally one-sided āentertain meā passive position, where they expect the artist, performer, DJ, or band to expel constant, massive amounts of creative energy to keep them, the passive audience, constantly stimulated.ā
Wilson strives to challenge himself as much as he does the clubgoers. āIām all for encouraging a more involved, reciprocal experience. Maybe Iāll make that my official resolution as we enter year three of Comeback!ā
Get ready for fake-blood balloon fights, spontaneous laser-pen light shows, heckling battles on the micāsomething. But all of the burden shouldnāt be on the promoters. Surely the attendees have something to sayāabout themselves, about the world, about politics. Complex displays of creativity have been de rigueur for gay partygoers for, like, centuries. Costumery alone can serve to interrogate ideas about beauty, gender, and race. Any fool can get drunk. Comebackās DIY spirit should be honored. Thereās nothing so funny as someoneās first time in a drag getup of his own creation and nothing so arresting as seeing someone walk up in a full-length burqa. Fashion Muslim, you say? Warās not over yet, girl.
So come, faggots, one and all. Bring your spangled shows, your cobbled and curious couture. Throw a public fit. This Friday let your brilliance run wild, so that we all may be astonished to be in one otherās presence. It is neither our wrists nor our sex that have gone limp. There was a time when we were a creative force to be reckoned with. You have been gifted with a venue. Let this monthānay, this yearābe our true comeback.
editor@thestranger.com