The owners of Machine and Ramrod - who didn’t want to comment for this story - own a business, not a home, and nightlife places aren’t a cash cow. “Because they weren't going to put any more money into it because they knew it was closing but they weren't letting other people know.”īut capitalism is capitalism. “Why is the floor falling apart and moldy? Why is the bathroom overflowing all the time?” she says she asked before quarantine. Miranda Wrights, who worked on and off at Machine for 18 years, noted that the staff felt things were off for a while, which seemed to stem from a lack of interest from the top. The community knew the building’s days were numbered since late 2018 when word broke that British developer Scape secured the site for their first private dorm in Boston.
(Courtesy Helix Pinecomb Photos)Īsk around about Machine and Ramrod and you’ll hear people mentioning “home” a lot, which is maybe why its ending feels so raw for so many. We're gonna miss that.” Miranda Wrights (left) and Severity Stone at Machine. We made you feel much better about yourself so you could lift yourself up out of whatever you were going through and then move on. “Oh, it was like a homecoming,” he says of walking through the doors.
This is a home space for me where I'm able to express really political and important topics and everybody is receptive,’” she says.įrom 2006 until the very end, you could catch Donald Smith slinging drinks, always happy to chat anyone up. “That was my moment of like, ‘wow, I fit in here. Drag artist Neon Calypso, who you can catch on the Quibi docuseries “ Nightgowns,” won the Next Drag All-Star competition there in 2016. “The theme was raw meat and I had everyone throwing ham at me and like spitting up milk in pig costumes,” she says.
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Like the beautifully bonkers and often political All-Star Mondays and the satirical shows staged by Ryan Landry’s vaudeville-inspired theater troupe the Gold Dust Orphans.īefore you could catch her in 2019 as part of season three of the reality TV show “The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula,” one of Violencia Exclamation Point’s more memorable moments came when she started hosting All-Star Mondays’ late drag show. The drag and theatrical shows there were queer - as in LGBTQ-friendly and queer as in, well, weird. The spot hosted Dyke Nights and at least one gay wedding reception. The gay scene in Boston is still dominated by white guys, but at least for many, Machine was a hub for a more diverse crowd.
Downstairs, drag queens twirled on stage in front of crowds that swayed under the disco lights. It was a sex-positive spot in a (still) puritanical city, with loud music and stiff drinks. Both spots had that kind of slightly dingy, lived-in feel of a well-loved gay hangout, the cigarette smell that seemed to hang in the air long after Boston banned smoking indoors, the dim corners here and there for making out. Ramrod, the leather and Levis gay bar, moved into the first floor in 1981 with Machine carving out a separate gay nightclub downstairs in 1998.
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But until just before quarantine - when Machine Nightclub and bar Ramrod officially closed - past the front door and the blacked-out windows at 1254 Boylston St., inside was magic. Right now, the bars and storefronts that fill this building are empty as they await the wrecking ball that will usher in a future luxury apartment building. The site of so much gay history in Boston is pretty boring from the outside, just a squat gray building that stretches a whole block on Boylston near Fenway Park. (Courtesy Kristen Porter/Hurley Event Photography) This article is more than 1 year old.