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Rampart Leather Tribe Dance Party

Every Friday of each month, 10:30PM-1AM at Shooterz.

Leather Tribal dance, with music with lyrics and melodies that appeal to folks who remember the Good Old Days, but everybody is welcome!

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Date: Fri, 26 Nov 1999

From: Papa Tony

Subject: Rampart Leather Dance Cover Charge Removed...

As you probably already know, I host the weekly Rampart Leather Tribe Dance Party at Shooterz (30th and University) on every Friday night, starting at around 10:30PM. I don't have any financial connection with Shooterz, so please don't think that this is a sales-pitch.

I was just speaking with David (the owner of Shooterz) and he has agreed to drop the Friday cover-charge for the winter months (with the exception of the New Year's party on Friday, December 31st). I think that this is a dandy idea, because there have been some hurt feelings when the young, non-leather guys at the door would let SOME leather-covered folks in for free, and not others. This seems a lot fairer to me.

In case you are not aware of Rampart's many charms, here's the brief version:

About a year ago, I got really tired of not having a pleasant place to go dancing. I don't feel comfortable and welcome at Rich's or Club Montage (I feel like the oldest person in the building), and I missed the good old days at the Bulc, which was a leathermen's dance-bar that closed about nine years ago.

So, starting in February of 1999, David and I started up Rampart, which has been a diverse, fun and attitude-free place for gay leathermen (and friends) to get together and sweat. By the end of the evening, there are usually a bunch of men with their shirts off, and if I've done my job right, every single person has been greeted and welcomed properly. I do this because I miss the very good old days, and want to bring them back in any way possible.

Rampart Leather Dance Parties, Reviewed

From: Papa Tony

I have had to wait an extra 24 hours before writing this, since I was still so high on natural endorphins that I couldn't settle down!

In short, the event was a smashing success.

First, the background:

I have been hyping the coming of Rampart, the weekly Leather Tribe's dance-party at Shooterz for several months. It has been one of my personal hobby-horses, and I've been riding it very hard. I don't think there has been a single one of my columns where I didn't mention it somehow, and I've spoken to several hundred men at the gym and out at the bars, selling them on the concept and getting their responses.

I've had a secret agenda, all wrapped up in several concepts:

- I want a place to dance that I feel comfortable in, with music that I love.

- I want to re-live and re-create some happy times that have seemed gone forever, shared with dance-buddies who have died and left me behind.

- I want to see the Arena and Wolfs getting an overflow effect of more business. I want San Diego's Leather District to become the equivalent of San Francisco's South of Market section in the public's mind, with the Crypt on 30th, the Arena, Wolfs, Rampart & Sabbat at Shooterz becoming part of a whole effect that will shake the sleepy suburbs and help spread the word that things are becoming more focused. Maybe we can attract even more such businesses to the area.

I want all of this (even though there are those among us in the recovery community who don't like any bars at all, and I respect their viewpoint), because I know that I'm not the only one who wants these things. The responses that I have gotten from so many men have told me that there's a hunger for a sense of tribe. My 1970's/1980's tribe of hot-dancing gay leathermen went away, and now that I have grieved for them, I want to find the rest of us who feel the same way and welcome them into the new 1999 tribe.

They sure showed up on Friday night. There was a constant flow of men coming in, checking everything out VERY carefully, maybe dancing (but mostly not, for the most part, except for us hardcore dancers, who never left the floor), and then moving on. For a first event, it was a big crowd. I'd be curious to hear the doorman's viewpoint on how many came through during the evening, but I'm guessing several hundred, with up to around 40 or 50 within the bar at any given time.

Dean Barton, David Heinen and I had arranged to have images of hot Leather Tribe on display, with photographs by Donatel and paintings by Hubie arranged around the dance-floor and the outdoor patio. This was very well received by the men who arrived, with folks wandering the entire length of the floor, inspecting each image very carefully. Next time, we need to have cards indicating how to contact the artists so that they get more publicity.

The evening started slow, but I really blame the shyness factor for this. Many of the men who arrived were DESPERATELY wanting to believe that the Good Old Days were going to come back, but then hid their shyness and insecurities (bulging waistlines, sore backs and knees, lack of physical toning, gravity and all of that other middle-aged stuff) with gruff complaints about the late start and the music.

Tony Ruiz was in the DJ booth sweating bullets, rassling with hardware that was uncooperative, and worried that nobody was out on the dance-floor for a relatively long time. Lee (surely soon-to-be-Empress Tiffany Daniels) and I were out there dancing together, being the exact opposite of shy and awkward, but others were still hanging back in the shadows, but watching avidly.

I kept dashing back to reassure the DJ and give feedback and tips, but the big breakthrough came when he played an old, popular song and the whole place shifted onto the dance-floor. The dancing never let up after that. Any time there was a guy standing at the edge of the dance-floor shifting his body around to the music, we aggressive dancers would go up to him and invite him to join us. He'd protest at first, join in, and then stay there for a long time, grooving on the feelings.

In the midst of all of this, a lot of non-Leather Tribe dancers showed up - Women, young dudes in circuit-party gear, and thin, nellie guys who were wearing lots of cologne. Somehow, these didn't diminish the pleasure the rest of us were experiencing at all. In fact, several of us went to the women and started dancing with them - They started singing and hollering along with the music's divas (rather nicely, really), and we all had a great time. I don't desire to be territorial, driving away folks in a manner that says "You don't belong here". I just want to know that I'M welcome, which has been the missing link at various dance-clubs for too many years.

The rest of the evening was a blur of pleasurable dancing, with some really, really accomplished and tribal dancers doing fancy moves and old-time traditional embellishments like blowing whistles, doing fan-dances with t-shirts, loud hand-claps and yells, and dry-humping to the rhythm. Two guys even mimicked handing a bottle of poppers back and forth and snorting from it - Of course, now that we're older and know better, we don't do the real stuff any more. We lacked only a tambourine and a guy with gold fans!

I took only a few pictures before the batteries in my digital camera ran out, but the images were very revealing - The men who were in those shots were grinning VERY widely, showing lots of teeth. They weren't doing this for the camera - I saw them grinning like that, long before I got the camera out. These guys were completely plugged into their pleasure centers, high on the pleasure we were all experiencing. I don't drink, do drugs or smoke, but I'm addicted to endorphins.

The bottom line was that our mission was accomplished. We all want to believe that we have a place in the 1990's that includes getting contact-highs from being around an approving crowd of fellows who like us and want to have fun with us. I met a bunch of folks on the dance-floor that I will gladly see again each week, and we'll all tell our friends. I think I danced for three or four hours - My thighs are still sore!

Since the above review was written, there have been two more of the same dance-parties. I'm seeing folks showing up who really, really want to feel that they belong, and they are being welcomed. This is something that has been overdue for too many years!

Send your feedback to Papa Tony