It was the eve of Labour’s Day and I was looking forward to the long weekend. I decided to celebrate in blue collar fashion with TAG’s Hari Buruh Beach Party at Barsonic. However, what made TAG so endurably anti-elitist in the past was questioned that night.

TAG has grown into its own scene and on nights like these, the capacity of Barsonic isn’t big enough to sustain that growth. Confusion broke out in all directions as people were looking for their friends and getting pissed over how long they had to wait for drinks. In short, people weren’t having a good time, which is strange because it was the eve of a very long weekend.

When Loft shut down and TAG moved to Barsonic, a lot of people were upset. The new place just didn’t have the same feng sui. But the funny layout is not all to blame for the lack of love.

TAG has now become a college’s kid rite of passage. As Holden Caulfield, the troubled teenage rebel in JD Salinger’s The Catcher In The Rye said: “There isn’t any night club in the world you can sit in for a long time unless you can buy liquor and get drunk.” And so, young folks were all out in full glory that night. Not to be an age-ist, but a young mind plus alcohol does, more often than not, equal stupidity. So it was only natural to see the odd kid or 2 thrown out by bouncers that night.

***NOTE: The next portion of this report was written from a very hazy memory.

Then, it got very, very lonely. I looked around and all my friends and colleagues were not around, though I knew they were somewhere in the vicinity. DJ Bunga started playing electro, and I started drinking.

I chanced upon an empty seat on the sofa near the DJ console. There was a Malay couple on one side and what looked like a very handsome girl on the other. I nestled down between them and started talking to the boyish girl.

“Hey, I think I know you. You’re ______’s friend.”

“Yes, I am”, she said.

“Can I ask you something? Are you a lesbian?”

“Yeah. But I’m bi when I’m drunk,” she replied.

I paused, then said “That’s convenient… for me.”

Suddenly, some ah bengs spilt their drinks on my shoe. I went “WTF?” But they ignored me. And somehow, whilst this was happening, I lost my bi-friendly lesbian friend who was just warming up to me.

So what does this all have to do with elitism? Or being anti-trendy? Well, nothing I guess. But somehow, I just found it stupid. Is it just me or is TAG being taken for granted these days by its patrons? But then again, do people need to feel accepted when they go to the disco?

Play us a song, Mr DJ. And make it a trendy one.

TAG Hari Buruh Beach Party @ Barsonic marked the death of working-class disco on 30 April 2009.