Phoenix Rising B.S.

Music On, Music Off
A highlight from Daraj l Fann - the "art stairway"

Word has it Acid re-opened its doors last Friday. It’s good to hear about a place (re)opening up in Beirut, rather than more places (including the Government) shutting down, amidst all the “Lebanon is at the edge of major civil turmoil” and the “the country’s due for its next war” that we’re hearing around.

It was starting to look like a pattern in the last two months, with Acid closing down, then Ahwet l ‘ezez – a symbolic old-style Gemmayze hangout turning into a bank branch – then Basement – a pillar of Beirut’s electronic music scene falling under the real estate frenzy – to mention just these two. Pretty depressing indeed in this gloomy political atmosphere.

What exactly ended up happening with Acid, did the manager come to terms with the owner, the neighbors – and what was the real problem to begin with anyway? I do not know. But what’s reassuring’ about it being back up is that it disproves those who thought it had something to do with it being a gay club.

Apart from a serious identity issue (the
college football font and the rest of the flyer says
it all), the RGB party was ok fun

A few weeks ago there was a tweet about this article that read “One Beirut Gay club down, two sprout up!”. The two clubs in question were RGB in Sin el Fil (tried it once) and Vice Versa in Broummana (haven’t tried), which I believe are both still on. The editor at GayMiddleEast made it sound as another great example of Beirut’s ‘eternal ability to reinvent itself’ or the ‘phoenix rising’ cliché bullshit, and even ended his article with a resounding “Beirut – the super cool gay capital of the Arab world!”.



With all the shit going on in the country (and Acid back up!), this all seems so hard to swallow today!


UPDATE: I found out from Boy Breathing Beirut that they closed Acid back last Monday. Officially red-taped. Allegedly the place "promotes sexual deviance”.