Bearracuda Seattle
Posted 4-Jul-2010 to Reviews, TravelRating: 3 out of 5 Bottles of Water
by Leif Wauters
It was a dark and stormy night… Actually, it had been one of a few gorgeous days Seattle had seen in quite some time, and it had extended into a lovely, t-shirt evening. Since my travel buddy Steve, and local tour pals Wes and Jeff, had a few stops to make we got out the door early – before 10. After hitting the soon-to-be-closed Seattle institution, C.C. Attle’s for some beers and bear watching, we rolled down the hill to The Seattle Eagle to catch the northern eddition of Bearracuda.
This Bay Area standard for bears, cubs and other wildlife has spread it’s furry tentacles to other cities, and in Seattle’s case has adopted an appropriately grungy establishment as it’s home. With two stories built of narrow walkways where you have to get close to get by, it’s a fine venue for this bar-hop. Plastered with iconic Bearracuda posters and sporting a tasty spread of gummy bears and pop-tarts, it appeared as if the Eagle’s masculine edge had been assimilated by beary goodness, but upon closer inspection the two seemed to dance together fairly well.
While husky and aggressive members of the Eagle’s softball club, the Muffin Tops, pimped out rosy jello shots in giant syringes and wholly inappropriate images of smooth party boys from a Channel 1 Releasing trailer DVD played on the screen, a cross-continental DJ pairing was taking turns manipulating the crowd. We’d come to hear Sydney insert and friend, Matt Effect, spin his Northwest debut, but as they were playing back and forth in hourly patches we only caught two tracks of Matt before Seattle’s Freddie King of Pants took the decks.
The small second-story dance floor, barely cleared of it’s normal resident – an air hockey/pool table – was woefully sparse, so my friends and I had plenty of room to stretch out and lend Freddie our energy. But although he kept the beats high, the barrage of girlish vocals and GaGa anthems worked against building a true carnal groove. Instead, it was just music to bounce by, and since other Saturday night options seemed to have won over this event, there weren’t many chances to grind had the music been more manly.
I’d say the Seattle Eagle is a great space for Bearracuda, but if last night’s installment is indicative of the experience, I’d encourage more seductive lighting, grittier visuals, and a forceful soundtrack to maintain the momentum this event will need to keep pulling them in. Or I’m holding Seattle to San Francisco standards where they simply don’t align, in which case they should keep doing what they feel is right, but keep in mind what people going to the Eagle on a Saturday night might just be looking for. I somehow doubt Lady GaGa is it.
