My Night with Hetero Hipsters

This past Saturday night I went to The Red Palace on H Street with a couple of friends to see Milkmachine, a local hipster band. Though I’ve lived in DC for nearly a year now this was my first venture to the Red Palace. I blame it on living inGeorgetown: getting to and from North East is difficult and/or expensive. I wasn’t sure what to expect other than a lot of breeders.

H Street is a strange little melting pot of a scene. Coming from San Francisco I’m used to seeing hipsters all around me, but here in the District the elusive [straight] hipster is a bit harder to find. Apparently, they’re in North East. Which I guess makes sense because I have been to Sticky Rice and that’s quite possibly the most hipster restaurant in the metro area. Anyways, I digress, there were an awful lot of hipsters around me, except—in typical DC fashion—half of them seemed to be more on the would-be hipster scale. As in half ironic fashion sense and Urban Outfitter dresses and half flared jeans and straight dude t-shirts. And there was a surprising lack of facial hair (except for the band’s singer who’s voice resembled DavidDraiman’s—the singer of Disturbed—he had a bird’s nest attached to his chin).

It was not a bad crowd, but I quickly noticed how all the girls had to size me (and my more androgynous friends) up, I forgot how easily annoyed I am by straight girls in masses. One on one they’re much easier to navigate, and I’m not that gay girl who falls for straight girls. Well, except for the random ones with short hair and a more ambiguous look—those sort of straight girls always throw me, and I kinda want to call them teases. Cuz, in a way, they are. And yes, there was one of these short-haired, minimal makeup indie girls in the crowd that night. She made all three of us tilt our heads. She definitely fell in the “My Type” category, though, a little on the femme side but hey. Then she was all over some guy who was snapping pictures ofthe band with his iPhone. Question answered. Straight. Tease.

The band was fun, and the tuba-playing-cute-dress-wearing girl was a badass. The drummer, in his white button-up and tie, impressed me with his solo. It was a goodnight, and definitely worth the $8, though I have to say, I’m looking forward to this weekend in DC, filled with lots of detoxing queerness. Come Friday I’ll be dancing at my favorite queer girl party, She.Rex and Saturday I’ll be nursing my sore feet and losing my voice at Roller Derby. Holy gaycation right here at my doorstep (or, my friends’ doorsteps, I still live in Georgetown).

Featured photo courtesy Brooklyn-based artist Miss Maro.

Sarah

Sarah is a fiction writer who moonlights as a freelance journalist. She’s been the Transgender Relationship Examiner for Examiner.com since May of 2009, and she helps keep DC classy via Meets Obsession Magazine. She can also be found at SarahMarloff.com. In the rare moments when she’s not writing she’s dancing, dying her hair, singing with her headphones on, or possibly climbing trees. She’d like to remind you all: only boring people are bored.