One of the advantages of arriving  on the gay club scene in recent years is that you can judge every  venue on what it is 'now' and not what it 'was' in the past. And so it was with Tease and the Temple bar music center. 'Tease' is running now on a fairly frequent bases, at about 3 weekly intervals. Best of all, is that its on a Saturday night, which provides  an nice alternative to the more crowded venues. Saturday nights are a much coveted slot on the gay social calendar, so I took myself and a friend off to the Temple Bar Music center to check it out.

Ignoring comparisons to Wonder Bar etc,we were pleasantly surprised at the interior of the place. It really couldn't be in a more central location and from the outside looked very inviting. We arrived at about 11.30 to find a good crowd already installed. Entry price was  a bit steep at £9.00 but as we had printed out the flyers from the Gay-Ireland.com site, we got a quid off this. Venues in the Center of the city don't come cheap, so its one of the reasons for the price....... worth paying though

No grief at the door and we were soon into "Wonderland" I use that word deliberately....If the 'George' was described as a meat market, then Tease was 'Chicken Liver Paté' !!!! the cream of the Dublin bunny scene was there. Yes there was a definite tendency to the younger age group and some of them were really DDG (Drop Dead Gorgeous). Ok, so I am biased, I do like  a younger crowd, even if they cant hold their Smirnoff Ice. It wasn't totally ruled by that age group however.

Three bars and loads of chill out space and areas ensured that if  you wanted to escape the music then there was plenty of space to do it. I did like the way the dance floor and stage was separated from the rest of the place. Somebody along the  line designed some good sound insulation between the two halves. The inner dance floor area was nicely full - don't know if the numbers were there for the Steps copy band  or use Tease as a normal night out.

Soon after midnight, there was movement on the stage so we all knew something was afoot! and sure enough it was with Eddie and his dancers. First time I ever saw a promoter actually taking part in an exhaustive dance routine.. fair play to him... those splits must have hurt. The all white dancers appeared several times during the night. STB (Shirley Temple Bar) appears to have a double in the dance troupe as well. On close up inspection, it wasn't her. The pink sneakers were missing :-) Bustylycra, the over sized blond with the annoying fake American accent did a few numbers. The jury is out  on whether she is male or female, but methinks I will go for the latter. The legs are a usual give away!

We were informed by Eddie that the arranged Steps cover band wouldn't be making an appearance due to problems outside his control but we had an Irish group who did 3 steps numbers. I say "did" with caution, cos according to my expert camp music friend (grin) they were errr, emmm ****e. Sorry to say but the replacement didn't do anything for me. The two end guys were about the best of the lot. So disappointment for those that went to see the Uk Steps cover band, but hey, things like that will happen, so I don't blame anyone.

The music played by the Dj was ok, it seemed to be better prior to 1.20 am (when we had the steps slot) than after. Lighting and interior decoration was nice, simple and effective. Toilets downstairs were manned by an attendant. Overall then, it was a nice venue, smoke free and efficient bars with lots of space, nice crowd. The Promoters appear to be putting in a good effort to make it a worthy night out, lets hope it takes off for them.

Minor niggles..Queue for the men's toilet at times. There appeared to be only one cubical in operation. Plastic beer containers, at least as the night went on. We got 'real' glasses early on, a bit similar to the Red Box. Judging by the few that were dropped, its a good job they were plastic. One wonders if they are as hygienic as glass?

Reviewed by 'Pepsi Boy' August 25th 2001