Adonis and Taboo: resurrection or regression to the mean?

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Curious to check out the changes at Adonis and Taboo, I headed east on Ste. Cathérine as Campus ladies’ night began on the Sunday before Thanksgiving.

 

The transformation at Adonis from 3 months ago was clear. The skanky dancers were gone, replaced by cute ones like Ralph and Pierre, and there was no dead time (songs without dancers). But there still wasn’t much energy, and the dancers had contracted Taboo unsociability disease, spending most of their time hanging out with each other at the back, making it awkward for customers to approach them. Undeterred, I cut Ralph out of the herd, complimented his dancing, and offered him a drink – which he turned down. Still undeterred, I suggested that the two of us sit down at a table. After two minutes of desultory conversation, he abruptly asked if I wanted to do a dance in the back. Though he was adorable and snuggly, he didn’t begin to compare to half a dozen I knew at Campus, and I quit after one dance and headed over to Taboo.

 

It’s no secret that I can't stand the Taboo back room and have often found the dancers immature and unsociable. But I’ve always gone back because of the skillful dancing, and I had a particularly good time there once with firecat (I don't mean to imply that firecat was doing the skillful dancing :-)). Alas, as others have reported, that Taboo is no more. There were about 7 dancers at 10 pm. Most were twink versions of Stock dancers – they just shuffled around. Every third or fourth song was dead time, with no dancer on stage. The room was almost deserted – no reserved tables filled with regulars, no one at all sitting stage side.

 

I went back to Taboo the next night, dragged by one of the Campus dancers who wanted to check it out and wanted company (don’t ask me why – perhaps it would look bad to go there alone without older companionship?). It was the same as the night before, maybe a little worse. Criss was the waiter; said he was down to dancing only one night a week.

 

In short, Adonis has become more Taboo-like, and Taboo has become more Adonis-like. I had planned to revisit both of them the following week, but by then I was having too much fun at Campus to bother.

 

In both cases, I’m comparing the clubs on weeknights now with how they were last summer also on weeknights. I don’t know if the weekends are any better. For my money, West Side is now a much better bet for those uninterested in what is to be found at Campus and Stock after 9 pm.

 

By the way, a very reliable source told me that 2 veteran, successful Taboo dancers were interested in buying the club, but couldn’t come up with the price. My guess is that they would be great managers. Is there an opportunity here for some of the Taboo devotees on this MC to become directly involved with saving it?

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RE: Taboo

 

>There were about 7 dancers at 10 pm.

 

I just checked my notes: three of the 4 weeknights I visited Taboo last August there were over 20 dancers working.