Boom

The gay youth culture likes to migrate. It's a thing they do — like water buffalo tromping across the terra in search of the next friendly watering hole: places where it doesn't matter which bathroom you use and you never have to go alone; where the music is loud, the drinks are strong, and the lights are low and strobing. Three years ago, it was Cathode Ray. Then it was Kashmir and then China White. Now, and on Wednesdays especially, the culture has circled 'round to what should have been its spiritual home all along: Boom, right in the beating lavender heart of Wilton Manors, in the same plaza as Georgies Alibi, Java Boys, and Gay Mart. Enter through the video bar and observe the folks gathered on their barstools, chatting over the ass-vibrating bass rumbling through the walls from the adjacent room; move beyond the video lounge onto the bouncing, flashing dance floor and take a seat along the wall beside the island bar, or tread around it, up to the subtly tiered platforms where a crowd of twinks, musclemen, bears, assorted fans, and all their girlfriends and boyfriends are bumping and grinding in a friendly, exuberant way that seems simultaneously more casual and more gleeful than similar scenes in the queer youth hangouts of yesteryear. But thats just Wednesday, at the newly inaugurated Bump Party, where the scenesters displaced by the sudden disappearance of China White have been drawn by the promise of a $20 All You Can Drink night. Only slightly less happening are the clubs other nights — what might be the citys most entertaining karaoke on Mondays and Tuesdays; Saturdays with DJ Paulie; Retro-Infusion with DJ Rich and Trannie Dance, hosted by Diva; and Thursdays with Big Ass Ice-Ts and DJ Brian Reyes. — Brandon K. Thorp