Fur & Gold Celebrates Three Years This Week
Fur & Gold, one of Boston’s hottest alternative gay dance nights, is celebrating its third year anniversary.
DJ Brent Covington, DJ Taffy (Bruce Derfler) and host Sean Johnson invite LGBT club goers to their three-year anniversary party at the Alley Bar on Friday, Mar. 8. It’s an event not to be missed as the Phoenix recently nominated F&G for Best Gay Night.
"It feels great to be nominated because it’s our crowd who nominates us, and the night is for them! It feels like a big ’thank you,’" Covington told EDGE.
"Well we’ve been nominated before, and it’s great to be honored," Johnson said. "It would be amazing to be recognized by the public as a party that has put in so much effort over the past three years, but crossing our fingers is the only thing I can do right now!"
Three years ago, Johnson started F&G and according to the event’s website, he "felt that the nightlife in Boston had very few options for those in the alternative queer music and art scenes. Both scenes thrived on a diversity of music and artistic culture, but venues to share these interests were scarce. Wanting to bring this into reality, he approached The Alley Bar in hopes to make a night of it." Over the past three years, F&G’s popularity grew and DJ Taffy and Covington joined the team to make F&G one of Bean Town’s most vibrant and exciting monthly gay dance nights.
"When Sean started F&G in 2010, there were maybe two gay indie nights a month," Covington said. "Now there are several each weekend! And each night is unique and has its own crowd and style of music. There are also fewer gay bars, but more gay dance nights. I think some people are still afraid to go try a new night, but it’s a great way to hear different / new music and meet new people. Personally, I love checking out all the other nights that have sprung up; there’s a lot of variety."
DJ Taffy agreed. "The proliferation of different musically themed monthly gay parties," he said. "Of course we weren’t the first, but happily there are now numerous events that cater to fans of different music genres. This allows for a more interactive experience, as your fellow patrons all have the common bond of enjoying the same type of music."
Johnson says F&G had humble beginnings - starting with a single DJ and little promotion. But that soon changed when F&G gained support from record labels, which allowed the event’s masterminds to give out and promote the music they were passionate about. Johnson added that F&G’s strong web presence in Boston also helped propel the event to what it is today.
Covington said F&G was "simply a dance night with Sean handling the visuals."
"Then we started doing monthly music promotions and CD giveaways for indie bands or bands that our crowd is into," he went on to say. "And we launched our website and started profiling musicians and artists and publishing exclusive interviews with them. We also have our event photos and monthly DJ set lists on the website. So, now F&G is more than just a dance night."
Johnson said that getting label support from artists is something "we always dream about being part of our night. Talking to artists I would have thought would never speak to me, reaching out and saying they want to be part of our night. I think it was amazing to have Katya appear at our pride party last year, meeting people from London who knew about the party, our huge internet presence, and having a very successful party in P-Town."
Though F&G offers more than the typical dance night, its unique music is one of the event’s drawing cards and what the night is centered around. Covington said he and DJ Taffy aim to play music that you can’t hear at any other dance night in Boston.
"DJ Taffy and I are both really into indie pop and electronic but also new wave, 90’s house, etc," he told EDGE. "So we are always keeping up with the newest indie music but also digging deep to play music we’ve been collecting for years. I love playing a song people know from their past and loved but had forgotten about."
"From the first Fur & Gold, we’ve brought you ’Indie Rock/Pop/Dance, Post-Punk, ’80s, Britpop, Underground, New Wave, Electro, & Euro Hits,’" DJ Taffy added. "That’s pretty all-encompassing, and we’ve tried to keep it so, mixing tunes very new to retro."
On Friday, the DJs will continue to pump out fabulous jams in celebration of F&G’s third anniversary bash and Johnson says it feels amazing to be going three years strong.
"Over the past three years we have seen other similar nights come and go, and knowing that after this length of time we have such a strong fan base and support from our community to keep us going," he said.
Johnson and DJ Taffy also said that there will be some surprises planned for the night, including special giveaways.
As for the future of F&G, the men have high hopes and Johnson says he would love to see live performances and guest appearances become part of the event’s repertoire.
"We’re going to keep dreaming up surprises, and I always love to see new faces at our events," Covington said. "The longer we go on, the more people will come check us out."
Check out Fur & Gold’s website and Facebook page below. You can vote for Fur & Gold for Phoenix’s Best Gay Night HERE.
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