My First First Friday

Last night I let some friends convince me to go to Tracks for First Friday (hosted by Babes Around Denver), billed as the largest monthly women’s party in the country.

This is not RI’s dance party. Unless you’re talking about one for men. The lesbians don’t party like this – in Providence or Boston – back home.

To begin with there were like a zillion people there. And by a zillion I mean a few thousand.

The space is huge. Megan and I had been there a few months back when my buddy Kris was in town for the NCLR fundraiser. Little did I know I’d only seen one room in a massive space.

The Mix

I arrived a bit before my friends, and stood in a line for about 5 minutes before forking over my $5 for entrance. The first room is large, has hot girls gyrating on boxes, a decent-sized bar (with pretty fantastic service for such a buzy space), and a dance floor filled with women. And a few men. And some boys and bois. Trans folks. I was impressed with the range. Black, white, Hispanic, Asian… all races. And all ages. Folks ranged from early 20s to what I’m pretty sure was pushing 70.  You don’t tend to find this kind of mix back east, where bars and clubs tend to have more of a specific age/gender/race feel to them.

I made my way up to the bar and was promptly greeted by both the bartender and the woman to my right who extended her hand, looked me in the eye and introduced herself (just one more example of the different kind of friendliness I’ve found here – even getting hit on is nicer.) My new friend insisted on buying my beer, asked how long I’d been in CO, and where I lived. Upon hearing that we live in Littleton, she smiled (again with the good eye contact,) wished me well for the evening, and headed back to her friends.

The Music

The venue is split into 3 rooms. The first room is mostly hip hop and dance (with the aforementioned girls on boxes.) The middle room, which can be heard from the line outside, was mostly country music. To the far right, 80s. These are my people.

Even though there were folks there who are easily 20 years my senior, I felt old in the first room. It’s been years since clubbing was my sport of choice – and then it was in a sea of boys dancing to house and high-intensity dance.

We spent the majority of the time in the 80s room – with my significantly inebriated friends flailing around and singing along.

I stood in what seemed like the longest bar line I’d ever seen, which relatively speaking moved smoothly, along with a friend-of-a-friend and a woman in her 60s. The older woman smiled at me and said, I just love all the women, with the biggest smile. Don’t ever let them tell you you’re too old. You’re never too old.

Nice.

I bought her drink.

I stepped out after about an hour and a half (11:30 is way past my bedtime) and headed home to Megan, who arrived home from work just after I did.

The Rating

• The music: Good. Solid dance music, decent country, and every some of my favorite songs from middle school.
• The service: Some of the fastest, most friendly bar tenders I’ve seen. Impressive to be able to serve that size crowd with speed and accuracy.
• The space: HUGE. And still packed.
• The vibe: Fun, busy, alive.
• The people: A great mix. So nice I think it might be fake. Is the New Englander in me showing?