by Robert Schwoch August 18, 2009
In a city where the cornerstones of the gay late-night scene include an Irish-themed rec room and the post-apocalyptic shell of a Bombay Bicycle Club perched at the edge of nowhere, Madison’s LGBT crowd is ready for a plan B. Now it has one: Plan B, the new gay-oriented bar and dance club at 924 Williamson St., opened Thursday night, and guess what? You don’t have to check your self-respect at the door. In fact, I left thinking of a few reasons why Plan B is more than a worthy addition to the Madison LGBT night scene; Plan B may become the Madison LGBT night scene. (Not to mention a place where you might enjoy hanging out even if you’re not L, G, B or T.)
The building? Actually impressive.
To turn the old Star Photo digs into Plan B, the owners exposed what turns out to be a spectacular slanted ceiling striped with chunky wood beams, and riffed from there with cascading sculptural wood, dark veneer, and vaguely mid-century furniture, accented by lots of whitewash.
It's multi-functional.
Augmented by a front lounge with vast stretches of shiny black upholstery, and a billiards area spacious enough to pull back a cue all the way, Plan B looks to do better than the average dance club at mixing people as well as music. Video screens are adequate in number, and positioned low enough to allow extended viewing without chiropractic treatment. Outside dancing hours, Plan B could make a better-than-decent place to cheer for and/or lust after the Packers.
The actual dance space is lined with round wallflower tables for the shimmy-o-phobic, which was a good thing on opening night, given that few were dancing when I reached my gin-and-Cosmopolitan limit around 11:30 p.m. Granted, that’s early—we gay dudes are usually picking out our clothes at 11:30 p.m.—but there was already a substantial line to get in.
The crowd is peppy.
The crowd for Plan B’s opening night was suitably diverse—mostly male, but across the spectrum from Leather Daddy to Twink On The Loose, leavened with a smaller but seemingly representative sample of women and line-blurrers. I would describe the vibe as peppy, and slightly cruisier than I was expecting, but maybe I was just having a good hair night. The thumpety music is what you’d find in similar places, and not loud compared to most gay dance clubs. Then again, a concerto composed of dynamite blasts would seem not that loud compared to most gay dance clubs.
It's on Willy Street.
Finally, let us pause in gratitude for where Plan B sits. Not only is Williamson one of Madison’s more diverse streets, it’s also easily and cheaply reachable by bus, cab, or even bicycle, paralleling the Capital City bike trail. Meaning that while Plan B has a serviceable parking lot, you don’t have to go there by car, or go home buzzed and sweating behind the wheel of one. I biked to the opening night myself, and whatever din the club was emitting did not reach a block to the trail; in fact, I missed the turnoff. (Paterson is best.) Plan B should blend quickly into its gay-friendly but not yet uniformly club-friendly surroundings.
