I went to Sands last week....

I went to Sands last week. This was my third time there, but my first time in several years. It was a Tuesday in the early evening (about 9 PM or so), and when I walked in it was pretty quiet. There was one or two other customers, and only about three or four dancers working.

Despite the lack of activity, the atmosphere was relatively elegant (for a strip club) and pretty comfortable. The first time I visited Sands (several years ago), I was a bit put off by the atmosphere. There is a stage, but there aren't always dancers on it. This is definitely a lap-dance kind of club, and the stage is somewhat of an afterthought. I'm used to strip clubs in the southeast where you can sit at a table and watch the dancers on stage while drinking all night long and without being hassled for an entertaining evening. Not so much in Seattle, where the stage shows are secondary and the girls are hustling for lap dances all the time.

This visit was pretty comfortable as I had been here before (although several years earlier) and knew what to expect. I sat down at a table in a room that might have been empty except for one or two other customers (of course, it was relatively early). No one was on stage at first, but the dancers on shift did cycle up to the stage periodically for short two-song sets. While the dancers do strip down (usually just topless but sometimes fully nude), there isn't a lot of energy on stage and they are really killing time until they can work the customers for lap dances. While I was there a couple of customers left and a few more filed in. There was never more than four customers there at one time.