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 

Ping pongs

Clearly, all it takes is an original theme and a lot of alcohol to make something the 'in thing' nowadays. Take Ping Bar for example. It took a small and dim lit Earls Court shop, added some table tennis tables and alcohol, and created one of London's most popular weekend spots.

After all, you'd think people fighting to get into the place at 8.30pm on a Saturday night would be because Harry Styles was playing beer pong inside. However, even if 1D's heart-throb was indeed having "a game of Beirut" in the bar, the only thing fellow Pinger's would be going crazy over, is the thought that they'd be the next in line to take aim and throw a table tennis ball into some cups of beer on the other side of the room.

Like I said... simple idea+ booze = shit hot venue.

So, with that in mind, when we ventured down last Saturday night for Lady Singdog and G-Chainz's joint Birthday celebrations, I was excited to see what all the hype was about. 

That's right...chocolate mutha f*ckin pizzas

We arrived pretty promptly (8.30pm) and it was already heaving inside. We walked past people biting into their freshly cooked chocolate pizzas, head nodded through a crowd of party goers who were dancing to old school tunes, before finally reaching the bar to purchase some tasty but slightly overpriced drinks (it cost me c£10 for a double and a mixer)...I was already getting excited about writing my blog about the place.

Probably taken on a Monday afternoon at Ping Bar...when it's closed.

Nonetheless, this joyous feeling was short lived. Turned out the ping pong tables were so busy that even though we were a group of 30 people, arrived on time and had an area especially reserved for us, our first game started at 11pm...Pretty cheeky considering that was kind of the reason why our hosts wanted to have their bash there in the first place.

Despite quite literally being stopped from getting into the swing of things, we still managed to fill those 2 and half hours with copious amounts of boozing, and therefore all had a ruddy good time. Put it this way, we were so drunk by 11pm that even being barged out the way by an adrenaline/steroid pumped bouncer (because he wanted to chuck out the "riff raff" drunks in the corner) was perfectly acceptable...  

Of course, that was until we realised this particular ruffian was actually the Birthday Boy, G-Chainz. Turned out he got so excited that we were finally able to play beer pong, he threw some beer over himself like the true G he is. Even Lady Singdog's attempt to defuse the situation, by giving the SS officer-turned-bouncer her puppy eyes were in vain. To be fair though, the c*nt had a point: throwing beer over yourself and a ping pong table is a serious no-no in a late night FREAKIN beer pong bar...

So, what are my final thoughts on Ping Bar I hear you ask?

Well, I had a hilarious night out with my mates but the ping ponged. However, that was more than made up by the amusing fact that the bouncers all had the same surname...shame I was too drunk to remember what that was, but I think it began with a D and ended with an ickhead.

Bounce- ah, that's better.

Having said all that, I think Ping is more a case of poor execution as opposed to a bad concept... I hear from friends that Bounce is much better: Taller ceilings; more space and equally decent music. Rumour has it you manage to get a game of table tennis in as well...

If you would rather make up your own mind about Ping, here's the website:

http://www.weloveping.com/#home


1luv,

Finey

x

p.s. Happy Birthday Lady Singdog and G-Chainz

Finey in Wonderland

We heard about it through the grapevine...apparently there was a non profit fancy dress party under London Bridge called Wonderland, whereby all money raised would contribute towards rebuilding Gambian schools for underprivileged kids...

So basically, for next to nothing (tickets were £8 each) not only was I going to an Alice in Wonderland themed party, but

1. I was allowed to look like a tit in fancy dress
2. I was ordered to do so in the name of charity

Nice.

I went with a few mates, and we all decided it would be fitting to glitter our entire faces and where farm animal noses (a duck, chicken, rabbit and pig to me more specific) so that we could fit in... 

The party was being held in a huge orange bricked building you would never know existed because it was underneath some train tracks, 200 yard down the road from Cable Nightclub. 

As we entered, it felt like we had fallen down the rabbit hole (apologies)...Brushing past human sized panda's and fairies we walked down a green lit corridor before entering the first room (the smaller of the two)...

It was some kind of fantastical hippy influenced tent...we had to crouch down and avoid the hanging dolls, tie died sheets, and army camoflage covering to reach the bar, had a couple shots and then enclosed ourselves in some kind of spider mesh whilst Reeps One (UK Beatboxing Champion) proceeded to 'spit' some beats on top of some crazy Hip Hop mixes.

Reeps One at work

Festivally jolly, we then walked into the main dance room, where there were two things that struck me...the first was a lady who had covered herself in fairy lights and was doing the robot dance on a pedastool on her own...the other, which was by far the showcase piece of the event, was the DJ booth, which as you can see from the picture below, was FUCKING MENTAL.

The DJ Booth=Immense

Another couple drinks later and we were on the dance floor raving to all sorts of hilarious dubstep remixes of classic pop songs like Britney Spears 'Crazy' and the Nolans 'In the Mood for Dancing'.

After speaking to some people there, this Wonderland gig wasn't even one of their better ones...which speaks volumes as we still had an outrageous night.

If you like the sound of it, check out their website on:

http://www.wonderlandfestival.co.uk/index.php?page=home 


1luv,

finey

x