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The only white anyone wore after Labor Day at Hawks was their towels.
Roughly 50 people convened in an outdoor courtyard on Friday, Sept. 5, to hear singer Grant Miller serenade them with piano bar songs on one of the LGBTQ+ East Portland bathhouse’s all-genders days. Miller told WW after his concert that September was far too late to make it into a regular series, but that he would like to make the show more of a recurring thing. Clothing was optional—this reporter was the only one in attendance wearing both pants and a shirt at the same time, and stuck out like an undercover cop. Nevertheless, Miller’s Heading Homo Cabaret proved to be a relaxing hour of tickled ivories and funny bones (among other things).
Those who hear “bathhouse” and “singer” together most likely think of Barry Manilow’s early career as Bette Midler’s pianist. But Miller dove into queer history to find that divas like Patti LaBelle also got their starts helping make bathhouses more legitimate businesses than just gay hookup spots. During his hourlong show, Miller not only sang to the crowd but preached to the choir. He dedicated various songs to bathhouse archetypes, whom Miller admitted to being at one time or another in his life.
Those overeager guests a little too randy to hang got Radiohead’s “Creep” dedicated to them, while the jazz standard “Lush Life” went out to those who use (and perhaps abuse) substances in their quest to alleviate a crushing loneliness that many LGBTQ+ people have experienced. Miller talked about the significance of queer people of all identities and orientations being able to be together when their rights were, and still are, under attack. Considering that Hawks is the only one of Portland’s two queer bathhouses that allow people who aren’t cisgender men inside, the gathering felt all the more historically remarkable.
Miller graduated from Vassar College in 2011, and has been active around Portland’s theater scene ever since. If someone closed their eyes during his performance, they might have thought they were at a West Portland garden party, not a Hazelwood grotto where guests occasionally disappeared into dark corners. The setting was perfect for Miller. He said via email that as a person with disabilities, he’s always wanted to perform somewhere that his audience could watch from a hot tub. Closing with Regina Spektor’s “Fidelity” as his encore, Miller’s call for self-love felt more authentically heartfelt than the messages that ramp up and die down with Pride season.
