PsychoCandy is a new clubnight at the Q Club in Cambridge. It was a lot of fun and hugely successful for an opening night. The club was already packed well before 11.

 

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Even more on flickr.

Still more on flickr

It was another fine night at the Q Club providing the best music for the alternative scene in Cambridge on a Friday night.
Still no improvement to the lighting at the club so it's either red or blue or slow flash but I guess I need to live with that.
There was a good turnout for a summer's night and everybody seemed to have a good time.
More info about the club on the Sacrilege website.



As always, more photos on flickr.

Sacrilege last night in Cambridge sadly was not very busy but it was still a good night with excellent music and colourful people.
For some reason, the light was a lot poorer than last time (both weaker and redder) so the flash had to come out a lot.



More on flickr.

The opening night of Sacrilege last night seems to have been a big success. Excellent turnout, lots of people I hadn't seen in years and obviously the reopened Q Club which holds a lot of fond memories for the local alternative crowd. As was to be expected, the music was rather 1999, which was pretty much the intention.
So yeah, finally an alternative night in Cambridge on a Friday!

It was also excellent to finally meet d_floorlandmine (who also took photos) and technotom, yay!

photos have been downloaded and backed up.

Awesome night, fantastic performances. More when I'm awake (sometime in the afternoon)

But I wouldn't be me if I weren't to post a photo preview:

Oh dear, I'm shattered, I'm getting old...

It was a good night out, I had a fantastic time. I'm absolutely happy for dj_slingshot, raggedy_man and the rest of the team that it was such a big success. To get that many (I don't know the exact number but they had broken even by 10:30 which is awesome) people through the door on an opening night, just by advertising is amazing. For those who don't know it, the event was held at the Harris Suite of Cambridge football club, which is not only quite a stretch out from city centre but also completely hidden from the road so will never get random passers-by to come in. Basically, all the guests were people who knew about it or had been dragged along by friends.

There was quite a variety of people, and not just the familiar faces from the Cambridge goth and metal scenes. As varied as the people were the outfits, from 30's mobsters/flappers to modern goths and flamboyant cross-dressers.
The music selection was similarly varied and judging by the number of people on the dancefloor, it all worked.

The two Argentine tango dancers were impressive. Having seen the real thing in Buenos Aires two years ago, I can only approve.

The burlesque performers were good fun, too:
- the first one a very classic one with an Eve theme performed by a very cute redhead with an awesome figure and real curves,
- the second a mix of (strip)tease and walking on glass(!)
- and the third a bubbly blonde doing a fan dance and something a little more rude but funny, too
Sadly, these were my main issue with the night, or rather the venue: Ever since hearing about it I had wondered how they were going to do it (or how I would do it) and I couldn't figure it out. The Harris Suite is a long, narrow room, only about six metres wide, a set of tables/chairs on the walls left and right, the bar is on the right hand side built into the wall and then the dancefloor is at the end. For just a club, this works quite well as the volume of the music is concentrated at the end and it's quiet enough in the seating area that you can have a chat without having to shout. I'd only say that there should be a few more indirect light sources along the walls, or maybe one of those LED rope lights so the front bit isn't completely in the dark.
The "stage" the first two performers used was set along the side of the dancefloor and only about 15 cm high so the performers weren't really visible to anyone further back, especially during the second perfomance as the dancer was mostly sitting down and the really interesting bit of her performance being the floor.
This was even worse for the last act as people had to stand outside the dancefloor as she wasn't using the stage which meant it was basically six people standing abreast on the flat at the same level as the performer. The first two rows sat on the floor or crouched down which worked somewhat but I'm sure there were loads of people who couldn't see anything.

I guess the only way to improve this a bit is to have a better stage that's a lot higher, probably at the end in front of the DJ booth and guests will need to sit down during the performance. This would mean sacrificing more of the dancefloor but it'll probably work better. Another option would be a change of venue with a better setup but I can't think of anywhere that would be appropriate or viable. I didn't really talk to people about it but I think that if people pay to see performances they would want to actually be able to see them, too.

Another good idea was the room in the back with various stalls offering handmade jewellery/accessories, corsetry and a table of manga/graphis by Sweatdrop and pinkapplejam and a space to chill out a bit for those who needed a rest but didn't want to go outside into the cold.

Overall, I think it was as good as an opening night could have been or even better so well done and I'm proud to be able to be part of the next one on the 13th of December!

So again, well done to the BnG crew and thank you very much for a great night out.

Just got back from Versus which was really rather good again.
littlelightbulb played a rather bouncy electropoppy set incl. Panzer by Mediengruppe Telekommander and bloke after her played a nicely consistent dance/trance set which actually kept me on the dancefloor.

Good stuff, really busy again but the average age is 15 years younger than me. Scary.

Much dancing at The Calling today.
littlelightbulb and _proserpina_ played a fantastic first set with loads of stuff you usually don't get to hear at the Calling (just a shame my CD didn't work :o() Loki played some reasonable stuff, too, only about half a year too late (Richtfest, This Shit will Fuck you up etc.) :oP
I really need an intensive Tai Chi session tomorrow to sort out my legs again.

Was quite busy, too. I also shot a load of photos which I'll look at tomorrow evening but they won't be available for some time (backlog too big).

Then, a BBC film crew turned up! They shot the dancefloor for a while and wandered around. I don't know when it's being shown but I might even be in it! :o)

We headed out to K17 a bit before 11 (nightlife in Berlin doesn't really start before midnight, anyway). It's not that far from lsur's place (easy walking distance afterwards, even for me) and we got there when it was still quite empty.
It was Night of the Living Dead this time, run by a Hamburg based promoter. Music on three floors: downstairs was trad, 80s, death/goth rock/metal etc., middle floor was the generic EBM/dance floor and upstairs was Stahlklang, with Harsh EBM, Noise and stuff and the main reason I picked this particular weekend.
Stahlklang wasn't quite what I had expected but in a good way. I had expected a playlist like this one but what I got was a lot harsher and more obscure than that. Lots of Structured rather than Power Noise and some ambient stuff to start with. I was in heaven and people like rivetmike, wintrmute and others would have been, too. Proper stomping/invisible ninja killing on the dancefloor, too. ;o)

I went to the middle floor to relax a bit. What was supposed to be the generic EBM floor turned out to play Fixmer/McCarthy, Feindflug, [:sitd:] and Rotersand (EAD).
There, the surprise of the evening happened. I was standing on the side opposite the bar, chatting to lsur when a pretty blonde woman came bouncing up to me, held out her hand and went, "Hi, I'm Stella!"
Confused, (pretty women usually don't introduce themselves to me like that), I went blank "Who? What? Sorry?" - "I'm stellalive!" - "D'oh!"
Small world syndrome again but I still don't know how she recognised me in the dim light. OK, I looked pretty much like in my recent user pics but still. Remarkable. I'm pretty bad when it comes to faces, anyway, especially when I actually have never met (or seen a photo of) the person in question. Very cool!
Danced a bit and then went downstairs which was quite good to sit and chat but the music wasn't really my thing so I went all the way upstairs again. Unfortunately, I was still a bit under the weather from my recent bout of flu so hadn't much energy for dancing but it was fantastic just listening, too.
Off to the middle floor again after an hour or so. There was a nice crowd there by that time and the dancefloor was well filled.
Again, the German goths confused me with their almost uniform dancing style (at least they weren't line dancing like at the Top Act!) in a sort of leaning back goth two-step, no matter what music was played (trad, synthpop or harsh electro). I think I confused quite a few people with my stomping and using my hands/arms a lot. ;o)
The other thing you notice is the more generic style of dress. In the UK, you can tell apart Tradgoths, Deathrockers, Cybers, Rivets and so forth, in Germany, there isn't much of a genre distinction. Even in Berlin, there were no Cybers and only a few with synthdread or plastic hair exensions but nothing as extreme as you see over here. The only exception was one of the barmaids.
We only held out until 3 or so as I was feeling really rather shattered and had big plans for Saturday, anyway. Still, it was fantastic, good value, too (€5 at the door and humane drink prices).

Walked back home (only about 20 mins) and crashed - at least after I managed to disable the clock (one of those with flipping analog display which meant there was quite an audible *clack* every minute).