Overcrowding and the death of dancing

[porno thieving gypsy]

That Exit party sounded a nightmare - Aitch was there and caught someone trying to nick her phone. I just cant be bothered with it anymore but I do feel sorry if overcrowding is becoming standard in clubs these days. Was at Jamm the other night for an old sckool jungle night and one of things I enjoyed so much about it was the freedom to skank out big time without feeling I was invading other peoples space. That was probably due to poorer ticket sales than actual desgin though.

 

[ska invita]

what jungle night was that PTG?

 

[The_Reverend_M]

Think he might be talking about one of these Jungle Splash nights: http://www.residentadvisor.net/event.aspx?327993 - been meaning to go for ages but always clashed with something else!

There's on on this Sat in fact! http://www.facebook.com/events/116266128562329/

 

[The_Reverend_M]

Doing a warehouse party too: http://www.facebook.com/events/183090085175177/

 

[blossie33]

though i am getting old and crotchety

I'm too old and crotchety to go out dancing at all these days but I never liked being in the middle of a crowd, always had to try and find a bit of space, usually at the side of the room somewhere. Friends used to laugh at me cos I used to find my little space and stay there for the night . Fortunately I don't recall ever being anywhere that was totally overcrowded.

 

[SpookyFrank]

I don't see the point of paying over the odds and going to an overcrowded venue to see a particular DJ. No offence to DJ's, but one is much the same as another once you've established that they're playing a genre of music you like.

With that in mind, I'd much rather go to a squat party than a club because they're never so packed, the booze is much cheaper and the punters are usually more concerned with dancing than with groping strangers.

 

[ska invita]

used to find my little space and stay there for the night .

hah thats me too, though sometimes drift closer and closer to the speakers as the night goes on

 

[Supine]

I don't like big crowds (anymore).

A club with 100 people, a competent DJ and a nice clear sound is all that I need. Bollox to mega events with massive line-ups

 

[blossie33]

hah thats me too, though sometimes drift closer and closer to the speakers as the night goes on

Yes I've done that, managed to get to the front at a party near Mansion House, it wasn't a very big room and was pretty packed, I didn't want to loose the place and stuck it out for a good few hours! Luckily I didn't need the loo.

 

[ffsear]

The other night I went to a dream line up DnB night (Exit Records 10th bday) at Fire in Vauxhall and after slugging it out for 2 hours was forced to leave before the night had barely got going because it was overcrowded. No room to dance and near impossible to move around the venue. Its left me very pissed off, especially after an insincere and deflective apology from Exit themselves (D-Bridge in particular). Its left me not wanting to go out again (reading about the night online others feel similarly) and there are two parties on the horizon that I know will draw a capacity crowd and right now I don't want to go to either of them because of it.

Although this was an extreme example of mismanagement and possibly greed, its not totally isolated, and i can think of about 5 cases in the last year where ive been highly uncomfortable in a venue - and im lucky in that im fairly tall - its even worse for shorter women, and many of my female friends are even more reticent about going out these days.

On another forum one of the longest threads of recent years was about the death of dancing. In the past Djs were hard to spot in the club and all the action was on the dancefloor. People would dance with each other, make eye contact and have meaningful dancefloor moments - increasingly rare occurrence IME particularly in large commercial clubs.

There are different reasons for why things have changed, but I think having room to dance is one of them. I wonder if the huge growth in festivals has changed dance music culture. If you think this is normal (never mind fun)...


Then the idea of being pushed up shoulder to shoulder on a dancefloor is nothing unusual.

Even in venues that haven't breached their official capacities the room and potential to dance is often hugely limited. I cant help but feel this is because these places exist solely to take as much money as possible (overpriced drinks are insanely priced and standard now), and the notions of putting on a production for a night, creating an ambience, are a very distant memory.

Any thoughts?

Finally!! I thought i was the only one who took issue with this. The last DnB night i went to was Hospitality at Brixton and I wont be going back. Completely rammed, everyone facing forward and trying to get to the front. Dj up on a stage surrounded by over the top lighting effects. No room to dance at all and half the people there seemed more interested in filming the event on their phones. It had a festival feel to it, not clubbing. Clubbing is supposed to be sexy, this was far from it.!

For this reason I prefer to go to House and Techno nights now, I dont like the music as much but the atmosphere is more in tune with clubbing. It just a shame house is shit!

 

[ffsear]

You can still find clubbing nights for DnB, but you have to avoid the big names like Subfocus, Netsky, Chase and bloody Status!

 

[DJWrongspeed]

Well isn't that what's great about squat parties, for all their faults you get space and can avoid gaseous loony males if you want !

Went to a storming party a couple of weeks ago nr a famous London night club great crowd, loadsa room. For many reasons the licensing issues in this country just don't make for a good night out....legally. Corsica is a great venue but if it's packed you can hardly dance and the security stand on the stage and look menancing.

Edited to add it was dark enough too

 

[Part 2]

Chase and bloody Status!

When I saw Chase n Status and they had a mosh pit I wondered what the fuck was going on. It's perfectly good dance music, some great ecstacy rush moments but I was looked at as if I was mental for dancing while the bros strutted around with their tops off flexing.

 

[geminisnake]

And no, not 'that sort' of blow.

I don't want to feel I have to go about repeatedly threatening 20-year-olds with physical violence when I go out.

I stopped going out for years a long time ago because of sleazy, won't take fuck off for an answer men I had to tell a bouncer to remove one guy before I bottled him. Fortunately I knew the bouncer!
I rarely go out now unless I know who most of the crowd are going to be

Can't handle being a sardine at all since getting cut out of my car 11 yrs ago.

 

[ska invita]

Finally!! I thought i was the only one who took issue with this. The last DnB night i went to was Hospitality at Brixton and I wont be going back. Completely rammed, everyone facing forward and trying to get to the front. Dj up on a stage surrounded by over the top lighting effects. No room to dance at all and half the people there seemed more interested in filming the event on their phones. It had a festival feel to it, not clubbing. Clubbing is supposed to be sexy, this was far from it.!

For this reason I prefer to go to House and Techno nights now, I dont like the music as much but the atmosphere is more in tune with clubbing. It just a shame house is shit!

where do you got on a techno tip ffsear? in fact any recommendations would be welcome on this thread

 

[ska invita]

Well isn't that what's great about squat parties, for all their faults you get space and can avoid gaseous loony males if you want !

Went to a storming party a couple of weeks ago nr a famous London night club great crowd, loadsa room. For many reasons the licensing issues in this country just don't make for a good night out....legally. Corsica is a great venue but if it's packed you can hardly dance and the security stand on the stage and look menancing.

Edited to add it was dark enough too

true, but theres other things to avoid at squat parties! im not really in the loop on them tbh and last one i went to i saw two peopled getting kicked in and robbed in the shadows. nice. but yeah, my complaint is above all with commercial venues and promotions really

 

[zenie]

That Halloween about 3 years ago in Bussey building was like that, (and tbf I've been to squat parties similar) you couldn't move from room to room and people started getting crushed.

 

[Blagsta]

Small parties were always the best IMO. A bunch of mates and their mates and mates of mates. 100 - 200 people in a venue like a recording studio or boxing gym or similar. Its been a while though.

 

[ska invita]

i can recommend tuesday nights at Orleans in Finsbury Park for a weekly dub session - usually about 20 people there - havent been in ages becuase of work and distance but have always had a great time - small and intimate.

 

[Blagsta]

Used to go to some great ones in Brighton. Psyclick I think they were called. Went to several in a recording studio off the Lewes Rd and one in a studio in Portslade.

 

[killer b]

i went to a class techno night in a basement in bristol when i was down there the other week, it was wicked - sold out, but not oversold, decks on a table on the dancefloor. everyone going off.

just fuck off the big hype nights and find some decent underground.

 

[ska invita]

i

just fuck off the big hype nights and find some decent underground.

sounds great... i got suckered by the "dream" line up! But its a wind up = Afrika Bambaataa is playing down the road in peckham in June and id love to go, hes one of my favourite djs, but supposedly Bussey Building is getting rammed now and im probably going to give it a miss as a result. which is a shame. Thing is this wouldn't be an issue if people just put a lower cap on attendance...its not that hard to do.

 

[ffsear]

where do you got on a techno tip ffsear? in fact any recommendations would be welcome on this thread

Berlin! Fucking great place for clubbing!

To be honest i've always like Fabric on a Saturday night! Nothing like the rammed sweaty atmosphere you get at the Fabric Live events on a Friday. They do some good nights at Cable as well!. I have started to learn that Saturday's are better for clubbing, having always only ever gone clubbing on Fridays before. Don't ask me why.

 

[ffsear]

This is the sort of thing i was talking about. Bass Culture at Brixton O2 - Check out the hideous scenes at 1.20...

 

[ffsear]

.

 

[killer b]

just looks like a pit to me.

 

[stuff_it]

i went to a class techno night in a basement in bristol when i was down there the other week, it was wicked - sold out, but not oversold, decks on a table on the dancefloor. everyone going off.

just fuck off the big hype nights and find some decent underground.

I've never had that sort of shit at a warehouse rave, probably because the blokes know I actually could lamp them and get away with it scot free.

 

[discokermit]

another issue is brightness/darkness - often respected at roots dances in a one-bulb style! Many clubs are completely overlit and its much harder to lose yourself in the music as a result.

i disagree. i hate clubs that are too dark. i like to see people dance and i like them to see me.

 

[ska invita]

Berlin! Fucking great place for clubbing!

To be honest i've always like Fabric on a Saturday night! Nothing like the rammed sweaty atmosphere you get at the Fabric Live events on a Friday. They do some good nights at Cable as well!. I have started to learn that Saturday's are better for clubbing, having always only ever gone clubbing on Fridays before. Don't ask me why.

i think friday night is for students and other young people! older folk who work through the week can barely stand on firday night and go out on saturday instead! saturdays therefore tend to be house nights whereas fridays tends to be more breakbeat/bass oriented things. thats my theory anyhow.

 

[Fez909]

I stopped going to the Warehouse project because of this. I told my friends that I wouldn't come any more because it wasn't worth it.

I could just about put up with the ridiculous yoots with their sponsored poker visor things on, and their daft baggy vests. I could stomach the £22.50 entrance fee through gritted teeth. The overpriced, shit drinks were a right kick in the teeth, but the line-up was so good I could justify it as a rare treat. But when I went to see Aphex Twin and I literally couldn't get on the dance floor because it was so rammed, and when I did get near it, my hands were pinned to my sides and people were fucking pogoing up and down - that's when I decided I had had enough.

"I'm not coming any more, this is shit"
"You're just getting old"
"Maybe so, but just so you know, this is the last time I'm coming here"

Two hours later, all my friend were in agreement and we've not been back since. I know the WHP is the worst of the worst when it comes to commercial clubbing, but these DJs were Aphex Twin, Jeff Mills, Modeselektor, etc. Big names in a small scene, IMO. Or so I thought. It felt like I was at an Oasis gig or something.