Montreal - taboo is dead - PART 1

[twinkboylover28]

I just returned from Montreal. I know there is another review titled "Montreal September", and I'm wriittng this review WITHOUT reading it first, as to not taint my perspective.

 

TABOO WAS SKETCHY and AWFUL.

 

Twink-lovers no longer need to go to Montreal or Club Taboo. It is dead. I spent 3 nights (Thursday - Sunday) on vacation at the Delta Centre-Ville hotel through Priceline for $120 per night. The hotel sucked, but it had a decent location.

 

To make a long story short, Taboo was absolutely horrible, it SUCKED!!!, it was very disappointing ,and it is a very sketchy ghost of its old self.

 

Coming from a self-identified "twink lover" as myself, I think Taboo has seen its best days SEVERAL years ago. Taboo should have remained closed while it had the chance.

 

I saw a dancer named Skyler that i first saw from 2006, and let's just say the years (and McDonalds) have not been kind to him. He looks horrible, fat, and other dancers at Taboo claimed Skylar now does heroin nightly. It's a shame , since he used to be a "true-twink", and use to resemble "Justin" from Queer as Folk.

 

I have never seen the city looking so filthy and dirty, in what has now been my 7th time visiting Montreal since the beginning of May 2005. Homelessness is out of control. I witnessed a drug addict/homeless lunatic attack a group of 3 innocent people on busy Ste Catherine street at 11pm on Friday night.

 

The people had just left the subway at Beaudry and were heading towards Papineau and were carrying 2 cases of beer.

 

The homeless guy demanded their beer; however they refused. Next thing i know i saw a knife-weilding lunatic (the homeless man) swinging his sharp knife in all directions. It was like watching a slow-motion movie. Then soon after isaw blood was flying everywhere. Luckily the police happened to be RIGHT THERE in their squad car on the street, and we notified them of the situation. The police tackled the knife-wielding nut and put him in jail.

 

I had to go down to the police station, which is like 60 seconds away, and spend an hour of my time writing a statement of what i witnessed along with the other 3 victims, and giving my information, etc.

I'm 38, 6'5 tall, 375 pounds, size 16 shoes, and the police placed me in the back of the police car with another victim to transport us to the police station. There was no room. I had lay down on my back to fit in the back of the police car.

 

 

Then the next day i saw 2 other guys mugging a person, demanding his wallet around 1am sunday morning. What is happening to montreal?

 

There is also a new homeless runaway shelter for "the youth of montreal" right across the Papineau metro and what used to be called club Adonis.

 

The Aspara massage parlor sucked. I was looking for the blond masseur the was recommended on here last year. I had to climnb a HUGE flight of steep steps in an un-air conditioned building. I was sweating like a pig by the time i got to the top. It must have been 100-degress. They had 3 adult men waiting to give massages , but no twinks available .They wanted over $125 per hour with tip.

 

The place that used to be called Adonis was virtually empty every single night. I think it's called Cabaret. I dont know how they can stay in business. Campus was virtually empty every afternoon as well. Only slighly busier after 9pm. Stock was busier after midnight. I only spent less than 5 minutes in Adomis, Campus, and Stock so i really cant represent them as i can Taboo where i spent almost 6 hours each night.

 

Out of all the STRIP clubs, i would say Taboo was the busiest. The caveat is the quality of dancers was absolutley horrible . I swear they must have pulled some of the guys directly off the streets, or from the youth homeless shelter. Actually, they looked much better and well-kept at the youth homeless shelter than at taboo.

 

It's amazing how one experience, one dancer, one boy can either make-or-break your entire vacation, perspective and experience. I must have spent a little over $2000 for my 3 nights and it was totaly NOT worth it. I t was like flushing money down the toilet at a casino.

 

The weather was superb on thursday, sunny and low 60's. Raining on friday and saturday, so i needed an umbrella, but the good news is there was no humidity and it wasnt hot.... except for places that didnt use proper air conditioing like the 747 bus to-and-from the airport, and several establishments in montreal where the people seem oblivious to the heat temperature.

 

i did see a lot of new condos going up, but also a lot of businesses going under (like Quiznos.)

 

Taboo dancer named Xavier looked like he hadnt brushed his teeth in months. His teeth were literaly brown- colored, and smelled rotten breath. He looked like an 18yo midget 'pillsburry doughboy".

 

Another example, I had a customer sitting next to me who happened to live in montreal. He was a cute college student at McGill. He was also in disbelief at the lack of quality of Taboo dancers. He started rating the Taboo dancers right next to me.

 

He thought it was funny to say things like " that dancer is ugly" , "that dancer is way too fat, wAY too old, way too ugly, how can that guy even be a dancer" etc. IT WAS ALL SOOOOOOO...TRUE!!

 

He was spot-on with his analysis.

 

There was an older "stocky-built" dancer who looked like a midget Arnold Swartenegger who could speak no english. He was ugly, fat, and must have been pushing 40yo. He kept putting his hands threw my hair and he would get mad when i had to physically remove his hands off my head!

 

 

Whomever said it's customary to still speak to the dancers in montreal even if you're not attracted to them is dead wrong!! That is a BIG mistake. They will not leave you alone. "Saying "maybe later" or anything else gives them false hope, and they will not get the message to leave you alone. I do not enjoy wasting my time being groped by people i have 100% no interest in. In life, it is best to be honest and blunt and truthdful and be the "bad guy" and tell them bluntly" in no uncertain terms "i am not interested, it will NEVER happen, please go away and leave me alone."

 

i swear to God there was this dancer at Taboo who looked like he was 54. He claimed to make $100,000 a year and to have danced all ovee the world in toronto, montreal, chicago windor, detroit, atlanta ,florida, los angeles, etc etc. This guy was too old, too agressive, too flaming, and just not attractive. A flamer type. he kept saying "Come on, you're gonna miss the boat" every single night i walked into the club. He has no clue, He kept wanting me to buy him drinks,. I'd rather buy my 95-year-old grand mother dtrinks than him.

 

I dont know if he did it on purpose, but I had purchased a $5 glass of coke ($4 + $1 tip) and an $8 glass of liquor for a dancer named JAMES. James was the ONLY dancer i was attracted to my entire visit; however, the blond bartender that marc anthony likes was a sweet gu ywith a pleasant personality, but not exactly a "total twink".

 

Anyways, the super-old and annoying dancer (who would not leave me alone) "accidently" spilled my $8 drink which i purchased for my fave dancer named James. I was so pissed!! Not only would this old dancer not leave me alone, he has now managed to spill my $8 drink.

 

ThANK gOD HE DIDNT GET ANY OVER MY EXPENSIVE SHOES AND CLOTHING.

 

I went to the new owner, a black guy who used to be a waiter for several years, and he could CARE LESS! He said it wasnt his fault, not his problem, and he would do nothing about it. He wouldnt even go talk to the dancer (his employee), and he wouldnt even offer me a good faith gesture of a new free replacement drink, he simply said "the dancers need to drink" and laughed, and said it was MY loss, and the mwalked away and kept doing business like nothing happened...

 

 

Now what would of happened if i would have had 10 lap dances and then simply walked out and said "customers need to have their dances."

 

The thing is, i didnt buy this drink for the old nasty dancer that spilled it. I bought the drink for James.

 

The dancer that spilled my drink couldnt even make it up to me in lap dances because it would have been a punishment for me ( not that he offered). I was surprised how the owner could care less. So i asked the owner for a can of coke as replacement instead of the $8 liquor that his employee spilled. The owner refused.

 

I even asked the Brazilain bartender, he said "tough look, no way, it's not our fault, your loss."

Both the owner and the bartender did a complete 180 on me (as far as their personality). They went from friendly and smiling and accepting my generous tips, to treating me a like a criminal that they were on the verge of kicking me out of the club. And i was not making a scene about it, i was trying to handle it in a civilized polite way.

 

 

And it's not like i havent been tiping these guys very well all night long, each and every night i was there.

I now relaize that no matter how nice they appear (owner + bartender) , when push comes to shove the owner and the bartender are NOT your friends. it's all about business.

 

It's amazing how a spilled $8 drink can ruin the entire vacation experience. They lose more money by not replacing my drink that their stripper "accidently" spilled, as i will never come back again. Thye should have discretely apologized and replaced my drink. That;s how they do it in Detroits gold coast.

 

The worst part is , finally the old dancer agreed to "replace" the drink. So i ordered the drink, and then the old dancer wanted me to PAY FOR not only my new drink, but also buy HIM A DRINK too......after he spilled my drink!! It was surreal.

 

I will never go back to Taboo again.

 

This old dancer teamed up with Nathan, and they claimed to be doing "business" together.

[EZEtoGRU]

Those attacks by the subway sound pretty ugly. To be honest, the St Catherines area has always had some shady characters on it. I have been panhandled on that street ever since I started going to Montreal which is about 25 years ago. Granted I never saw a knife attack......which is pretty serious stuff. I just had my iPhone stolen out of my hands in broad daylight in Buenos Aires. This shit happens unfortunately.

 

Taboo sounds awful. Not my sort of place anyway due to the Twinks. Even so, your description gives little hope to people that do like twinks. I doubt Taboo will return to its "glory days" unless someone invests some real money there and focuses on getting good talent.

 

Bottom line is that Montreal cannot support 4 male strip clubs. That many clubs spreads the business around too thinly.

[Samai139]

I haven't been to Montreal in two/three years, but I used to go frequently---6-8 times during a year. When I first started those journeys north--maybe 15 years ago--there were four very active strip clubs and they all seemed to do very well. Stock Bar was then in a rather run-down building on St. Andre, up a rickety set of stairs that was treacherous in the winter, but patrons still flocked there. L'Adonis was packed from front to back with patrons and had gorgeous dancers, Campus had a fair share of patrons even early in the afternoon when it opened by late in the early shift the place was very crowded and stayed that way until late in the evening. I rarely made it down to Taboo---twinks just weren't/aren't my thing, but the few times I did venture there with a friend, it was very crowded.

 

The reasons for the decline in patrons and the quality of the dancers has been discussed in other threads and I won't repeat them, but I don't think it's just the number of clubs, because Montreal has supported four clubs in the past, and there was a time when there were five----the fifth, whose name I've forgoten, was on the second floor of a building across from La Strega Restaurant. That strip club closed after only a year or two, but I think it was because of something to do with licensing. Let's hope changes may come in my favourite Canadian city's strip clubs and that I can find my back again, often.

[EZEtoGRU]

The time from before that you describe, was a whole different era IMHO. Dances were $5-10/dance and. Expectations of what might occur during the dance were much different. A good night out at a quality strip club is now an expensive endeavor that not everyone can afford to do as frequently as say 10-15 years ago. For the way dancers bars are today, there just is not enough business to spread around 4 clubs in Montreal.

[LurkerSpeaks]

I will chime in here. I was just in Montreal over labor day weekend, and saw a completely different Montreal from what Mr. "white residue around the sphincter" Twinkboylover saw. Yes, the clubs have changed from when I first starting going to Montreal back in 2004. I think a lot of it has to do with the financial situation that EZE refers to. $20 dances, coupled with the current even exchange rate, inflation on hotels, airfare, meals, etc, makes it a much more costly trip than it was 8-10 years ago. When less money is being spent, there are less boys willing to work for it.. Back in "the day", I remember dancers saying they made hundreds of dollars each night, just dancing in the clubs (not doing any out calls)..Now, I would say that very few boys make multiple hundreds each and every night. Sure, a few popular guys (like Suntory at Stock) still make bank.. but think of the old days with Eddy, Eddy, Eddy....

 

And, also like EZE mentioned, expectations have changed. From a few years ago when curtains first appeared, the boys were hungry to make the money and (from my experiences), pretty much anything could happen in a private dance. Now, it seems to have swung back a little towards the center of the pendulum where the free for all is the exception instead of the norm. So we are paying more and getting less..

 

The economy has caused the downturn in the overall quality of talent..I am not saying that a good time can't be found in the Village. It still can be a fun trip. But it will cost you more than it used to, and it will take a little more time and trial on error to find the right companion for you.. But hey. it still beats sitting in (insert your hometown here) doing nothing but looking at Craigslist or rentboy ads.

[Jake]

It still beats sitting in (insert your hometown here) doing nothing but looking at Craigslist or rentboy ads.

 

AMEN! Well put. Met up with my friend in Montreal this weekend. It wasn't the best visit ever. But I certainly don't regret going.

[Cooper]

TBL, Thanks for sharing your thoughts on your recent trip to Mtl, it has the makings for a mini-series. Lots of drama & humor... Although my visits to Mtl have been much more positive than yours, I'm always interested in reading reports from others. As a good friend told me , Taboo is not what it was 10 years ago but it's far better than it was 2 years ago. Don't let 1 bad experience discourage you from taking any future trips. Stay well. Coop

[Midweststudentnyc]

Was also up in Montreal this weekend, in the rain. Did not see the violence or filth described, although the park at Place Dupuis in front of the Gouvernour Hotel is consistently full of addicts as always. Stock bar was clean, nice, and had good muscle dancers and ever a few muscle twinks. I'll be back