In the city of brotherly love, it’s not all too often that the LGBT community is offered a new weekend hang out, but Friday night premiered the Grand Opening of Club Devotion (formally Shampoo) for its monthly LGBT night.

From what I’ve been told from my elders (my friends will kill me for saying that) Shampoo was the hot spot to go and mingle before the age of cell phones arrived and texting became the preferred method of speech. So whatever caused the decline in attendance, Bruce Yelk and his team aimed at reviving the once hot hot-spot.

With singer Neon Hitch in attendance, general admission was 40 dollars for those that were not on a list. For meeting Neon, you could receive the “VIP” treatment if you were willing to pay the 60 dollar price tag that accompanied it. But for most of us that were able to find our way onto one of the multitude of promoter lists’, we were able to get into the gigantic venue for 20 bucks. Still a little pricy for my taste when most area LGBT bars have no (or low) covers. But for bringing in a performer like Neon, maybe the higher cover was required.

Like I mentioned above, the venue was huge — two floors, multiple DJs and even more bartenders. I will say, for a venue that large, I feel like it will be next to impossible to fill up. This can be a good and bad thing: good because you’ll never get so cramped that you can’t walk comfortably like some other bars in the city occasionally get, BUT it will always look emptier than what the venue really is. This was the scenario on Friday. There was a decent crowd and plenty of people, but it didn’t look too crowded. With all the hot bar staff, there was never an issue with waiting for service either (which was GREAT).

Overall it was a good time. My friends and I enjoyed the new atmosphere and open space socialize in. Would I go again? Possibly. I will honestly have to wait and see. I don’t think the cost that it took to get into the club (getting on a list, paying for a cab, paying a steep cover for Philly standards even AFTER getting on a list, then cab home later) might not be worth it. Unfortunately when people are asked about experiences, covers are always remembered, so hopefully that image of high prices and covers does not deter people next month. Also, going to Devotion because of its location will also be a commitment, you can’t just bar hop if the night does not take off like intended or walk over to Voyeur for afterhours drinking.

In conclusion, if I had to rate the experience overall, I would give it 3 gay flags out of 5. We will see what is in store for next month’s party before committing to return.

SuperStar @ Devotion