Montreal Pride Update August 12- 16, 2010. Club Taboo is worth a second look.

[eeyore]

Montreal Pride Update August 12- 16, 2010

Club Taboo is worth a second look

 

This was Pride Weekend in Montreal. The Community Day street festival on Ste. Catherine's St. on Saturday was full of fun and energy. I'll post some stills and videos later when I get them organized. The rains held off for the parade on Sunday. Unfortunately, the spectator crowd seemed a lot larger this year, so I was unable to get a good spot for shooting photos or videos of it. Ste. Catherine's St. is a traffic free zone during the summer months. Most of the restaurants and bistros have built decks that extend onto the street for dining alfresco. Trees, flowers and plantings are brought in to spruce things up. On a warm summer night the atmosphere is festive and magical - eye candy everywhere.

 

Most of my club time was spent at the Campus and, surprisingly, Taboo! On Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights there was a small but nice repertoire of boys at Taboo. I'd say about ten or so dancers each night. They were all personable and friendly. They were circulating well without being overly pushy. Body types were mostly smooth, fresh, defined twink and inbetwink. In the traditional Taboo fashion, they performed some very nice artistic pole dances - a refreshing change from the 'Stock Shuffle.'

 

The club was about half full of patrons on Thurs - Sat. nights. Sunday was fairly dead as far as the patron crowd, but there were still some nice dancers who were circulating. The noise level is at a more acceptable level, but one of the dancers said that was because one of the speakers was broken (maybe it will stay the way..).

 

I had a pleasant time with Sebastian/Pascal, Julien/Julio, and Zac. Pascal is more of an inbetwink, about 26 or so, with a nicely defined body. Julien is a tall slender swimmers build, totally smooth and soft, and a genuinely sweet and gentle person. Zac is a blond, blue eyed, smooth, perfectly defined Abercrombie type - he could go right into the catalogue. He's a perfect ten in my book. He doesn't circulate as much as the others, but is very pleasant to spend time with if you approach him.

 

I had satisfying and nicely interactive lap dances in the back with all three, within the traditional limits of Taboo. I will qualify my report by reminding you this was a major event weekend, so my experience may be atypical. But hopefully things are turning around for the better.

 

I briefly stopped in at JPs about 7:00pm on Sat. and the place was completely dead. I walk around a bit and checked out the outdoor patio upstairs. You can go up there without being accompanied by a dancer and hang out there if you wish. I did strike up an impromptu conversation with one of the Montreal locals while having lunch at Villa Rouge and he said JPs was improving and worth checking out. I guess it is still a hit or miss proposition. Anyway, nothing new to report about JPs.

 

Much has already been reported about the Campus and I have nothing more to add. I had my usual good time with my regular, Adrain. It's still a very pleasant way to spend the afternoon/early evening. I stopped in later to check out the after 9:00pm scene. It was wall to wall patrons and muscle boy dancers.

 

Club Stock has never really been my favorite place. It certainly was busy on Pride weekend. The dancers were all beefy muscle boy types. My 'voyeur' park bench on Ste. Catherine's St. opposite the club has been removed making an outdoor assessment of the dancers on break difficult -- horrors...

 

It was a fun weekend, and I recommend giving Taboo a second look on your next visit.

[jerryskater]

eeyore,

 

Thank you very much for the report on Montreal. I enjoyed reading it very much. I was thinking of posting to ask what's going on in Monrtreal when lo and behold there was your post.

 

I have very fond memories of Montreal. Would love to hear anything else you can think of as well as from other members.

 

Jerry

[Cooper]

eeyore,

 

Thanks for the thorough report on Gay Pride in Mtl... That's good news about Taboo but sad about JP's... Why do you think JP's just can't get their act together?

 

Coop

[Guest gymac]

Eeyore has given an excellent report on Montreal Pride. I spent more time at Taboo than any of the other strip clubs. Many dancers at the other clubs were aggressive in wanting to take you to the back for a lap dance. It is important to be specific about the number of songs you want to spend with the dancer as it is hard to keep track on your own and then make sure the dancer agrees with the count. In one case at Campus I thought I made it quite clear I wanted one dance for $20. However when it came time to pay the dancer argued he had given me 5 dances and wanted $100. As I only had $60 with me I gave it to him and left. At Taboo the dancers circulated chatting with different patrons. They weren't agressive and in many cases would sit and chat before moving on to another patron. Had an awesome lapdance from Sasha.

St. Catherine's Street in summer is magical with the restaurants and bars using the sidewalks for patrons to sit outside and enjoy a drink and meal. The roadway was filled with people waqalking up and down the street.

Although it looked and felt like it was going to rain, the rain held off until the parade was over. Basically Montreal Pride is for people who speak French. Some of the litereature is in English and French, however, an English speaking person wasn't able to enjoy the entertainment put on for Pride. Even in the parade it was impossible to tell who people were or what they represent as it was all in French. However, it was a great time and is well worth attending.

[eeyore]

Welcome to the message center gymac. I'm happy to see an independent verification of my Taboo experience. I think we would all like to see the club make a comeback. Regarding dancers who have trouble counting, I had a similar experience at the Campus last year. The problem at the Campus (and I think also at Stock) is that the back rooms play a separate sound track that blends in with the music outside in the stage area, making it difficult to determine when a revenue dance starts and ends, especially for the musically challenged like me. Like you, I always specify in advance how may dances I wish to spring for and tell the dancer to stop and let me know when our songs are up. This usually works fine but occasionally you get a dancer that is mathematically challenged. Fortunately, this seems to be the exception rather than the rule. But occasionally you may have problems. On the one or two occasions where it has happened, like you, I reluctantly compromised and split the difference to avoid a scene. But I think if it ever happens again I'll stand my ground. That said, I have always had a very pleasant time with the boys during the afternoon/early evening shift at the Campus. Many are good at spending table time with you and playing host.

[eeyore]

eeyore,

 

Thanks for the thorough report on Gay Pride in Mtl... That's good news about Taboo but sad about JP's... Why do you think JP's just can't get their act together?

 

Coop

 

My timing may have been off. It was around 7:00pm on Saturday and the street festival was winding down. I think a lot of people were still doing outdoors stuff - the weather was quite pleasant. I forgot to mention that JPs no longer has a cover charge so there's no harm in dropping in for a look see. I had some nice experiences there last year. It seems to be hit or miss, but certainly worth dropping in to case the joint now that there is no cover.

[eeyore]

Street festival videos

 

I couldn't get any decent videos of the Pride Parade this year because of the crowds, but here are links to some iPhone videos I took at the street festival on Saturday:

 

Country Western Line dancers dancing to "Sex on the Beach" ...lol

 

Some more line dancing:

 

Gay men's chorus:

 

And just to liven things up, my favorite clip from last year's parade featuring Ralph Woods on the Sky Bar float. The other boys aren't bad either:

 

Also from last year's street festival, some cute TD Ameritrade boys in front of the Campus:

 

Lots of fun and energy on Ste. Catherine's street on Pride weekend!