Is Anyone Up? New Year's Celebration
Hosted by Hunter Moore
Speakeasy Lounge, Lake Worth
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Better than: Sitting at home in front of a MacBook, we guess.
"You guys are awkward as fuck," Is Anyone Up? revenge porn site founder Hunter Moore said at one point from the stage as he looked over the Speakeasy Lounge's mix of college-aged scene kids who know who Skrillex is -- the guys wore stocking caps; the girls wore as little as possible -- and a few men who looked like they were in their 40s rolling solo. Yes, somehow a New Year's Eve party dedicated to a bunch of voyeuristic nude iPhone photos posted without permission was awkward.
The music for the evening was overwhelmingly dubstep with some older
dance jams from Daft Punk and Justice mixed in, but this crowd didn't
move -- aside from one guy in a white wife-beater, who might have been
wearing Electric Daisy Carnival lifts in his shoes. Everyone else spent
the first few hours of the party standing around checking themselves out
in the mirrored walls like they were in the middle of a bad, pervy
prom. The line at the bathrooms remained omnipresent, and plenty of
leering and ogling was as well, mainly courtesy of the aforementioned older attendees.
The other common activity was that at least half of the assembled
partiers were sectioned into small groups, seated like wallflowers on
the padded benches along one side, bent over a cocktail at the bar, and
still not dancing. A far more wholesome New Year's Eve unfolded on the
TV screen above the bar, as Lady Gaga in Catwoman mode entranced the
Times Square masses. Would the fans of a site with a serious
misanthropic streak be doomed to follow suit?
At about ten minutes before midnight, Moore began setting up his DJ
gear, and things showed a glimmer of life. The crowd moved closer to the
stage, and several young women eventually stepped up. "Can someone
do a countdown?" Moore screamed at the crowd. "Count down before I blow
my brains out." And a bottle of champagne was passed around onstage as a
few people called out the last half of a countdown. "It's 20-fucking-12!" Moore proclaimed once the music kicked in, and a wave of grinding finally
spread onstage.
Critic's Notebook
Random detail: One girl in a black dress slipped on a puddle of
champagne and took a pretty nasty spill off the stage, but she appeared
to be all right.
Overheard: "I spent six months in Kuwait, and it was more fun than this." "There really are no 'fives' in here."
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By the way: Sources say that all the folks kept their clothes on aside from two young women, who finally showed some skin after Moore begged for a while.
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