Provocateur

Crazy night last night.

I went to Provocateur, the place on 23rd street that I had never heard of before... Thursday.

There was a really weird crowd there. Lots of people with beards (myself included!) but these were bushy, weird, unkempt beards - sort of artisty - and the crowd was otherwise very mixed. In an uncomfortable worlds-colliding sort of way.

The space itself appears divided into several areas - there's a front-space, claustrophobic, fabric-draped with the crystal chandeliers that are de-rigeur these days, with a meagerly-stocked bar to the south end and a piano in the corner, where some freak in a fedora was savagely "crooning" f-bomb laced songs into a microphone and shooting dirty looks at my group in the corner, muttering something about being able to hear his singing over "our f&cking conversation."

I listened to his singing - unintelligible and flat - which is why I deemed it unworthy of further attention, and that's why we were having our "f&cking conversation."

Then mercifully, the "set" stopped, and a back room opened. That space was interesting -- big, glowing island bar in the middle of the room, which was half indoors and half outdoors, which should make it miserable in the summer -- if the place lasts that long.

After doing a lap around the outdoor space, we decided that was enough. The strobe lights were going to give someone an epilleptic fit, and the crowd was such a puzzling mix -- that we went somewhere more familiar and comforting - Mokai. And then Buck 15. Previously having been to the Gansevoort.

And before that Lucky Strike.

And I wonder why I don't feel so good today.

Overall, I'm not sure Provocateur is somewhere I'll be frequenting. But the staff is nice!