That time hide, Heath and Akemi Oshima went to a gay club in 1992 (SHOXX 1999/6 translation excerpt)
[T/N] context: In 1992, Akemi, Heath, hide (and presumably some unnamed friends) were hanging out around The Limelight nightclub in New York.
At that time, the only thing in that place was the remodeled church building. It had a lot of small rooms, so hide, brimming with curiosity, was like "Wow, what's over there!?" and immediately wandered off somewhere. I don’t remember what day of the week it was exactly, but the number of people was tremendous and despite us trying not to get lost in the crowd, it was really frantic…
Having been there before, I seemed to recall another building connected to that one, with a smaller club called “Shampoo”. Everyone was like, “Alright, then let’s go check it out!” and so we began to roam around restlessly in search of the entrance. Instead of us going dancing, it turned into a little expedition of sorts (laughs).
We wandered about for some time, getting lost here and there, until finally we discovered the entrance to “Shampoo”. However, as we went inside, we realised it was a perfectly gay club! What’s more, it was a 4-store building, and with each consecutive floor, the density of gayness increased. On the first floor you could still sporadically spot some girls and the gay couples were keeping it tame. But throughout floors 2 and 3, the aura of obscurity gradually thickened. At some point on the third floor we got a little scared, so we were like “Hey, hide-chan. Let’s stop here”. But he was like “Nope, we’re making it to the top no matter what!”, and contrary to our pleas, he started moving forward even faster than before.
Just as expected, the condition of the 4th floor was terrible. There were only men; half-naked shredded men exposing bare muscles, men wearing skin-tight leather bodysuits with countless studs, anyway, with just one glance you knew for certain that they were all a part of that world. Even so, hide was completely unbothered by it all, he swiftly made his way to the counter and ordered a beer. It was difficult to be there for our girl gang, but as for Heath, who was clad in black enamel, he must’ve been taken for a man of the same tastes, because everywhere he went, he attracted inviting voices (and hands), it was quite a scene.
After leaving the establishment, we confirmed that, save for hide, every single man, with no exception, had been approached by someone in the club. Hearing that, hide made a puzzled expression. “Why am I the only one who didn’t get hit oooon?” He made a confused face, but apparently there was no one in that club brave enough to approach him as he sat there calmly sipping his beer, staring intensely and scrutinizing the men around him.
"Oh, it makes sense”, we all agreed in unison, but hide alone kept questioning it till the end, tilting his head to the side in confusion: “But why?” (laughs)
source (Akemi Oshima's blog)
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