Above: Bob Mould and Richard Morel
A little over five years ago, some business-card-size fliers that had obviously been printed at a Kinko's began appearing in little stacks at Washington, D.C., gay bars. I remember a friend picking one up and telling me we should check out the party: Blowoff. It was at the Velvet Lounge, a dive bar for rock bands. In D.C. five years ago, no one threw a gay party at such a venue.
But that Sunday, we went, and Blowoff turned out to be fabulous. The space was cramped and grimy, enclosed within chipped brick walls; exposed wires and Christmas lights dangled from the ceiling. The crowd was young, sweaty, and groovy, the music downbeat and nasty. The whole enterprise reeked of a dirty sexiness that may have been typical in New York but felt like sweet relief in D.C.
“We got a little bit of a buzz going on” during those first few parties, says Bob Mould, the former Hüsker Dü front man, who started Blowoff with dance music veteran Richard Morel in early 2003. They've continued to throw the monthly party in D.C. ever since (though they’ve now moved into the larger 9:30 Club), and this summer they took it on the road. In the past year they've burned through New York, San Francisco, Chicago, and Minneapolis. (The next party will be at Slim's in San Francisco on September 6)
“The whole thing has gotten bigger and crazier, but the core of it is just like it always was,” says Morel. Musically, it truly has stayed consistent: a blend of mid-tempo house and pop-song remixes, which speaks to the styles of the two men at the helm. Mould is considered a godfather of the ‘80s alt-rock movement, and Morel is well-known for his work remixing for house music duo, Deep Dish.
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