Nightclubbing

Back in February, I went to the Amsterdam Beat Club, just round the corner from Panda Mansions. This featured a local band called The Revellions who were endearingly yeow!, but I thought maybe that the event as a whole was a bit tired and unexciting. Or maybe it was me who was tired? What a novel turn up for the books that would be.

The other club event I was at was a B-Music night in Rí Rá, an event that featured people like Andy Votel, Dom Thomas, Chris Geddes, and Mark Winkelmann DJing. The event started in The Globe pub before expanding into the neighbouring nightclub, and if you got down into the pub early enough you got into the club for free. But for one feature, this would have been a distinctly false economy, as The Globe on a Saturday night is like a vision of hell, being noisy, devoid of free seats, unbearably hot, and full of trend people with nice haircuts. The one saving grace was getting to interesting local band Twinkranes play a concert there. This three-piece comprises a Jimmy Saville look-alike on drums and vocals, one of the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers on keyboards, and another guy on guitar. Their music is somewhat experimental, being influenced vaguely by Krautrock and the more musical end of Post-Punk but without the band obviously disappearing up their arses. This is the second time I have seen them, and I recommend them highly. I think they are playing Benicassim or Primaverasound or one of those fellows, so you might get your chance yet.

Another good thing that happened in the Globe was a (brief) conversation with Chris Geddes, meaning I now have talked to an actual member of Belle & Sebastian (having previously danced with Stuart Murdoch and Stevie Jackson, possibly without them noticing). Rock. I carefully avoided coming across like a fan boy or asking if their next album will be a return to form, or indeed mentioning B&S at all.

The various DJs played loads of ker-azzzy psych and suchlike sounds. At one point we heard what might even have been some Khmer Pop, which was very exciting. It was like listening to one CD of music from the land of Pol Pot has been enough to train us in recognising the sound of the Cambodian language.

And so on.