Punchdrunk, LOVE.

This weekend, I spent the evening with Tea Pot, Corque and Avegi at the incredible Punchdrunk theatrical production, The Drowned Man.

The show was one of the most imaginative, interesting and complex performances I have ever seen, so it is going to be difficult to sum up the whole experience in a short blog. What makes the task even harder is that this is the type of experience you don't really want to explain in too much detail, as it will frankly spoil it for anyone who does end up going.

However, I shall try my hardest, especially considering we nearly missed the whole thing (being the moron I am, I instructed everyone to meet at South Bank when the show, despite being advertised as a National Theatre co production, was in fact in Paddington)! 

Punkdrunk have been specialists in critically acclaimed immersive theatre since 2000.This partiuclar performance, The Drowned Man, is set in a very unassuming location right by Paddington station.  There are no signs outside, no bright lights to woo you in, and no overpriced ice cream for you to purchase before the show begins. Instead, there is only a man standing next to an entrance to a huge 4 storey warehouse.

After asking the man if we were in the right place and showing him our tickets, we were asked to wait in the foyer (which was really just a semi permanent structure with a cloakroom) and were instructed to read a small piece of paper which outlined the evening's performance. 

Bearing in mind none of us had any idea what we were getting ourselves in for, when we were then taken into a dark room and told to wear a mask, we started to get a little curious. However, it was only when we were then led into the main "theatre" that we realised the scale of the show we had just paid to go and see. You see, as an immersive theatre experience, instead of building a stage for you to sit around and look at, Punchdrunk had created a 4 storey set for their audience to explore. 

The Drowned Man's audience have never looks happier

In turn, whereas traditionally you would watch actors perform a show in front of you, with The Drowned Man, you saw the actors performing all around you. So, if you wanted to learn more about a particular character's story, instead of waiting for his next scene, you simply followed them around the warehouse and watched what they did and who they interacted with.

The amazing thing for me about this whole concept, is that despite each member of the audience being empowered with the ability to have an experience totally different to the next, and there being very little dialogue in the performance (the story was quite brilliantly explained through expressive dance), you really did still manage to grasp what was going on*. 

However, even with the incredible acting and gripping storyline, for me the standout thing with the whole production was the set itself...quite how Punchdrunk managed to transform an empty storey warehouse into this miniature and mysterious alternative reality was absolutely MIND BLOWING. 

For me the show was nothing short of ingenious, and with tickets at £39.50 each, I'd recommend it to anyone. In fact, if you like anything to do with the arts, then this show is an absolute must see. It's going on until December, so there really is no excuse:

http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/the-drowned-man-a-hollywood-fable?dates=2013-10#tabpos 

1luv,

Finey

x

*Granted there were parts that were lost on me, but it still didn't matter!

(My) Life.Is.Stag.

It's been a while guys- a thousand apologies.

STAG LIFE

However, my extracurricular life has been quite inundated with banter organising since my last post. You see, I have had the privelege of helping to organise not just 1 but 3 stags which all coincided within 6 weeks of each other, the last of which is this upcoming weekend.

Now I'm sure that there are many of you who are thinking:

"But what's the big deal...it's just a stag".

Well I'm sorry, but if that's how you feel...GET OFF MY FUCKING SITE NOW AND NEVER COME BACK.

For you see, in my opinion, and in fact the opinion of my nearest and dearest, a stag party is more than an opportunity to throw a nice send off for the groom to be...it's an experience, a rite of passage that should live in the groom's memory forever.

The blueprint for such an experience is pretty simple. There are 3 ingredients:

Stag prank: rinsed.

1. The pre stag: a general gathering. Get some of the stag's closest friends and family together a month or so after the announced engagement. This will either be held

a) at someone's house- including a meal of sorts, lots of booze, dares for the stag (i.e. my brother had to regurgitate a goldfish), as well as one or two ladies of the night.

b) a night on the town- starting at a strip pub, moving to a nightclub and ending at a strip club. Stag in appropriate fancy dress (obviously).

c) at an airport/train station because you've tricked the stag into thinking you are going away that day...when you aren't

Just a casual black tie stag dinner...whatevs

2. The stag trip: a weekend away. Themed (of course), with personalised fancy dress for all involved, rules for stag members to follow at all times, an 'active' activity (i.e. surfing/paintballing), an extremely unnecessarily over the top meal for dinner (i.e. lamb on a spit of a 3 course catered feast), a surprise for the stag (i.e. make him think you are tying him down for a stripper when you are actually doing this so you can veet the hair off of his entire body), a highly elaborate video drinking game (i.e. usually entailing family members and the wife to be, manipulating questions and highlighting inappropriate behaviour when you were filming them on camera), an official stag song and soundtrack (only really works if you are or a superstar music producer happen to have one as a close friend), copious amounts of drink, a megaphone, an unusual second activity (i.e. body zorbing football/ sumo rugby), and of course, a huge night out on the town.



3. The post stag: a night in. Having taken lots of photos and videos of the weekend, make a 30 minute movie, invite all the stag attendees round and laugh at how stupidly good it was when you forced the stag to do things to his body he just shouldn't ever have to.

As I'm sure you can guess, to execute this let alone execute it well takes a helluva lot of planning, and of course, the great debate will be:

"Is it really worth the effort?"

Well, don't get me wrong there are times when I also ask this question...However, when I look across a room and see 20 grown men in black tie suits, having just finished a three course gala feast, jumping on their chairs and crying with laughter because the stag has just eaten a deep fried pigs eye, my questions is usually answered with an "abso-fucking-lutely".

Was it worth it...Eye think so.

This weekend sees the final chapter in a trilogy of quite legendary weekends away with some truly remarkable human beings.

And so, over the next few weeks I will be posting all the hilarious things we have done that will hopefully give you all some great inspiration for any times this summer when you are bored and fancy doing something a bit different!

It's been a long time coming- but ishouldtrythatout is back, and I have much to tell you all!

1luv,

Finey

x

Boy's got Mad-Jag Skills

We booked our tickets a while ago. Jaguar Skills and friends at Koko, in Mornington Crescent. Having been to the venue a few times before for similar gigs, I was excited. Don't get me wrong, Koko certainly isn't somewhere I would venture to for a normal night out...crowds there often consist of the testosterone induced 'yoots' that I prefer to cross over the road from, rather than share an evening with. However, on the odd occasion Koko manages to get in a decent line up, just like this one, those facts don't seem to matter.

KOKO in action: Quite a sight from the top tier

After all, the venue itself is pretty cool. It used to Camden's local theatre back in 1900, and clearly conscious of keeping most of the original features still in place,  all the designers did when they rebranded the place was basically rip out all the seats, add in a monster sound system, and call it Koko.

So, there we were, the 6 amigos (myself, the ever-present Goateenie, Ma-C, Myzle, Samshine and Goldizzle) on our way to an outrageous evening of fun filled tunes, a sh*t load of booze, and nothing to lose. The fact that we had to queue in a late March blizzard storm didn't seem to bother us, and soon enough we were sharing body heat with the hundreds of other eager beavers packing themselves into the venue. 

Once we were able to feel our limbs again, off we went exploring. The nice thing about Koko is that it's pretty big, so if you don't fancy getting in the hustle and bustle of the dance floor, you can always head somewhere else. So, after checking out the pretty impressive set up on stage (there was a 15 foot robot in one corner that looked like something out of Transformers), we ventured to the top floor to take in the views and ready ourselves for a 3 hour love-fest with the UK's most prestigious turntable ninja.

This was definitely a good move, as the first hour or so of our time there was spent listening to by far the worse MC I have ever heard. He was telling people to 'go f*%k themselves' over the top of some pretty generic drum and bass...Not exactly what I had come to participate in, but hey ho, I'm sure some other members of the crowd were loving it. In fact, there was this one bald and overweight 40 year old guy who certainly was, as he embraced Ma-C for a good 20 seconds at one point.

The set was ridonc (can you see the massive robot in the left corner?)

When the Jag-man (yes I just made that up) did eventually come on, this little blip was forgiven, and the atmosphere became pretty epic. Most of our crew stayed near the back of the room, so they had enough space to go crazy, but Ma-C and I (not being guys who shy away from a bit of a good old head bang) ended up throwing ourselves in the middle of a 50 man mosh pit near the front of the stage, taking on the role of conductors for the majority of our time there.



The tunes were absolutely phenomenal...the headline act pulled out all the stops, playing every type of sound you could think of, from Dubstep to Gangster Rap, Hip Hop to Deep House and even a bit of Punk. I even vaguely recollect a System of a Down remix of Tupac's 'California Love'...very special indeed.

As you can tell, we had a rather wonderful night. However, when I woke up the next morning, it felt like I had been involved in a street brawl. I guess i could have been based on the crowd that was there, so glass half full I suppose.

Anywho, if you want to check out what's on at Koko and have yourself a bit of a mess-fest, check out their website on:

http://www.koko.uk.com/

Alternatively, if you want to see when Jaguar Skills is next in town, you can do so on:

http://jaguarskills.com/

1luv,

Finey

x

A dirt(ybird) night out

This weekend, I was very lucky young man. Goateenie and I got on the guest list for Mixmag Live's 'Dirtybird Players' night, at The Village Underground in Shoreditch. The gig was unsurprisingly sold out (apart from a few £35 tickets on the door), so you could probably guess... I was a tad excited.

After all, it was a quite mouth watering prospect to see all of Dirtybird's top talent in the same night (Claude Von Stroke, Justin Martin, Eats Everything, Catz N Dogz, J.Phlip and Kill Frenzy were all on the line-up). 

Moreover, I had only heard good things about the venue, as my brother Corque's artist Ofei performed there a little while ago and they both thought it was a wicked little place.

Slightly different to what it looked like at the gig...but you get the idea!

To give you a bit of background, The Village Underground was constructed in 2007 as an answer to the ever increasing need for affordable, environmentally stable studio space for artists in central London. 

The main centre is a renovated turn-of-the-century warehouse,  and houses everything from concerts and club nights to exhibitions, theatre, live art and other performances. 



Most importantly, the design of the building means the sound system is meant to be...well...epic.

It was reverberating Catz 'n Dogz as we got there

So, making sure we had plenty of time to get our rave on, Goateenie and I arrived at around midnight and could hear Catz n Dogz set as soon as we entered the building. Well, when I say hear, I actually mean feel... the whole place was reverberating with the sound of dirty(bird) bass. 

Entering the building, we noticed how simple yet effective the layout was...you walk into a small cloakroom area, with the main brick layered hall to the left, and a cave like area straight in front where the bar was.

Not wanting to waste any of our time, we let the vibrating floor bounce us all the way to a quite splendid position on the dance floor, where we spent the next 4 or so hours on, going-for lack of a better phrase- FUCKING MENTAL.

Highlights of the night for me were:

1. Listening to Claude Von Stroke's phenomenal remix of Renegade Master

2. Watching Eats Everything act just as excited as everyone in the crowd at how good that remix was.

3. Being told by some guy from somewhere in Eastern Europe that the Dirtybird 'players' make music (and I quote):

                                                    "To fuck me"


We both had to be up at 8.30 for Sunday football, so being the sensible chaps we are, Goateenie and I threw the towels in before the end of Eats Evertying's set. However, we certainly got our share of the nights outrageous tunes...36 hours on and my ears were still ringing from the awesomeness of the bass! 

In fact, the night was so fun that we just booked to go back for Groove Armada on April 20th.

If you fancy coming along or just want to find out what the venue has to offer, check out the following links:

http://villageunderground.co.uk/events

http://mixmaglivegroovearmada.eventbrite.com/

Oh, and if you want to listen to my bro's artists check out their websites below:

http://www.official-o.com/

http://iamromans.com/

1luv,

Finey

xxx

p.s. cheers Corque for sorting the night out