QueerBomb Weekend Events
By Kate X Messer, Fri., June 3, 2011
In 2010, QueerBomb launched its counter-Pride movement, manifesting in a zero-budget streetside rally, march, and afterparty. This year, QueerBomb owns Austin's traditional Pride weekend, as Austin Pride has moved festivities to the fall. The two groups have recently come together (see "QueerBomb/Pride Roundtable: Extended Remix"), and peace may be headed to a valley near you. In the meanwhile, this weekend is about reclaiming radical queer identity. A variety of events occur across Friday and Saturday. For more info, see www.queerbomb.org and austinchronicle.com/gay.
FRIDAY, JUNE 3
QUEERBOMB FOR PARTICIPANTS: RALLY, PROCESSION, and Afterparty You are the party! Everyone's a VIP! Kick-off rally at Eastside Drive-In: Gather to hear calls to be fabulous from Out Youth's Gabi Padilla, LGBT Eldercare's Robert Josef Cross, QueerBombers Silky Shoemaker and Paul Soileau, and more. Get ready to make some noise. Bring anything acoustic: maracas, shakers, cymbals, triangles (duh!), cabasas, horns, agogos, castanets, signs, glitter, confetti, your fine ass, your big fat heart, the goddamn Liberty Bell, and, of course, more cowbell! Get pumped up, then (see map!) take to Sixth Street like you own it. Because we do, you beautiful queers and queer-supporters, we do. Afterparty will be announced at the rally! 7pm. Eastside Drive-In, 1001 E. Sixth. Free. info@queerbomb.org, www.queerbomb.org.
QUEERBOMB FOR SPECTATORS Our readers voted it the Best Party of the Year. Last year, 1,500 LGBTQers and rad supporters took to the streets, one block wide and four lanes deep in one of Austin's most frisky displays of gay Pride ever seen. Wanna watch? Any place along the route is fine, fine viewing, but if you really want the sweet spot, set up base camp along the eastern sidewalk of Congress. The procession narrows to two lanes, the bands stop and everybody goes nuts! For a less-populated spot, hit East Seventh, between Congress and Trinity. Then get in formation, join the 'Bomb, and follow us back to the after-rally and afterparties. 8-11pm. Procession marches from the Eastside Drive-In, west down East Sixth, north at Congress, east at East Seventh, and back to the Drive-In. Free. www.queerbomb.org.
CAZWELL'S BACK ... and his front and both sides will appear live and fine and in the flesh all the way from NYC just to throw down at our own Oilcan's – probably cuz he wants his money back after all that Burger King. 10pm. Oilcan Harry's, 211 W. Fourth, 320-8823. $5. www.cazwell.com.
GAYOS IN TEJAS All the way from New Orleans come sissy bounce legends Big Freedia, Katey Red, and DJ Rusty Lazer, who shall be joined by Cult of Youth and Marked Men (part of the Chaos in Tejas chaos) to slap the ass-clap heard round the world. There will be much serious bouncing between post-QueerBomb afterparties. 8pm. Red 7, 611 E. Seventh, 476-8100. $12. www.rustylazer.com, www.bigfreedia.com.
JOHNNY DEE & THE ROCKET 88S High and tight Lone Star show/dance band whose "Don't Mess With Texas" from the 1986 anti-litter PSA campaign of the same name comes to Rusty's-minus-the-Spurs as part of its inaugural month of live music. 9:30pm. Rusty's, 405 E. Seventh, 482-9002. $10. www.johnnydeeandrocket88s.com.
LOVE PARADE The ever-mysterious ATX Hipsters, along with Unite! and Going Up Day, present this party hosted by Jame Perry and glittified by TuezGayz's the Glitoris, among others. 9pm. Elysium, 705 Red River, 478-2979. $3; free, boys in heels and facial-haired girls (real or fake).
R.A.W. FRIDAY: HAIRBOMB! DJ Kelly spins an homage to QueerBomb, Hairbomb!, great classic '70s/'80s hair band metal at Austin's oldest Levi's/leather/dive bar. Fridays, Willow, 480-9017. Free.
TEXAS SWING MUSIC FESTIVAL Project Transition's summer Swing has a twist: live talent! Ruby Lamb of the Jigglewatts, Sage (Sangre del Sol) & Ciara (Spunshine), Rough Riders, Little Mikey & the Soda Jerks, Crooks, Whiskey Shivers, and the Derailers. 7:30pm. Saengerrunde Hall, 1607 San Jacinto, 478-1411. $55 ($45, advance). www.projecttransitions.org.
SATURDAY, JUNE 4
ALIEN SHE Cool off your QueerBomb afterglow, then heat it right back up with some serious disco haus, riot grrrl, witch haus, queercore, y mas. 10pm. Bernadette's, 2039 Airport. Free.
AUSTIN'S MOST WANTED: A QPOC DANCE-OFF Queer people of color and friends braaaaaaaang it for QueerBomb weekend with DJs Ben Aqua, Procbaborgany, and LaSalde. 9pm. Victory Grill, 1104 E. 11th, 291-6211. $5 sliding scale, "drop what ya got." No one turned away. on.fb.me/iEj9P2.
BEARS DAY OUT BREAKFAST You will need to seriously replenish after all that bouncin' and bombin'. Come to this Tex-Mex smorsgasbord meet and greet. 10am. Trudy's North Star, 8820 Burnet Rd., 454-1474. www.heartoftexasbears.org.
CHRISTEENE X MAGIFICO: LIVE + RAW This post-QueerBomb nightmare features Austin's Queen o' Stank, Christeene; DJ JJ Booya; Some Thing From S.F.; and Austin's Queen sing-along-meisters, Magnifico. 10pm. ND at 501 Studios, 501 N. I-35, 485-3001. $8. www.christeene.org.
QUEER UP CHARLIE'S It's LGBTQ "Prideful Weekend," as Cheer Up is dubbing it, and East Sixth's premier queer quarters presents a night of Mouthfeelin' DJs and more. 10pm. Cheer Up Charlie's, 1104 E. Sixth, 431-2133. Free.
See also: Our guide to Pride 2010
