fabric...
the following blog was started on saturday, june 23 @ 6:30am, but i've had so many details to add, that it didn't get finished until now.
Friday, June 22, 2007
nevermind that my flight from budapest to milan was delayed. nevermind that my flight from milan to london was delayed too. nevermind that somewhere in the chaos of the two delays, my baggage didn't make it to london with me. nevermind it all.
nevermind that what i chose to wear on this journey was a pair of shorts and a plain white t-shirt. and nevermind that it was cold and rainy in london. nevermind that tesco metro doesn't sell jeans, and that all the clothing stores are closed by 8pm. nevermind it all.
the reason to nevermind, is one word... fabric.
let's start (unecessarily) at the beginning, to overemphasize the impact of this night in my life. if you don't know what drum and bass (dnb) is, click here. if you do know, or you don't really care, continue. all you need to know about it is that i am a big fan of the music, and it is what i listen to most often when i'm creating.
so i don't know a lot of people who actively listen to dnb. and then i go all the way to dublin and meet this girl named cari, who is a huge fan. she then asks me if i've been to any dnb clubs in london (the birthplace of dnb), and of course, i haven't... and she has one word... fabric.
so i store this info in the back of my head, and i don't think about it for 3 weeks, until yesterday.
i meet up with chris and his work buddies, and have a pint of some lager and some chips (fries) with mayo. keep in mind that everyone has just gotten out of work, so picture me wearing this plain white t-shirt and a pair of cargo shorts, surrounded by dozens of suits and pencil skirts. the phrase 'sore thumb' comes to mind. chris has the night planned out already, a huge club, with multiple rooms and levels, specializing in hardcore electronic beats, specifically one room with hardcore drum and bass... and he has one word... fabric.
the only foreseeable problem is my clothing. a schmuck in shorts. we make our way to canary wharf for the only possible opportunity to buy clothing at 9:00pm. sure enough, all stores are closed, except for tesco metro, apparently the wal-mart of england. much to my dismay, we find out that this tesco is more of a convenience store than a wal-mart, but chris decides anyway, to ask an employee if they carry jeans. the lady was stocking paper towels and tampons and i give chris a nudge so he knows that i don't want to wait for the answer.
with our options depleted, i had no choice but to go with the shorts.
on weekends in london, they close off various tube stops for routine maintenance. it took us like an hour to get to the club. the queue was already wrapped around the building. for fabric and many other clubs in london, you can purchase admission tickets in advance and skip the long lines. we did not do so and had to wait in line for over one hour, moving slowly and people watching. no shorts in sight... at least not on men. it was a nervous and antsy wait. i had this whole concept of what to expect, pounding on my brain.
when we walked in, i knew that this was the place to be.
i could feel the energy in the air. it was as if i was on ecstasy with the rest of the kids... pills as they say in the uk. i would describe it as warehouse like, huge with exposed brick, with stairs and corridors that seem to just keep going.
we started with room one, the main room. picture a space sort of like the metro, with a balcony overlooking a stage, but just about twice as big. chris was buying the first round of drinks and a nice little shot, and we both noticed that there was an extreme amount of scratching over the heavy bass track. my first thought was, 'who does this dj think he is... qbert?' (if you don't know qbert, go here) but we did our shot, a b52 i believe, and made our way to the railing to people watch. on our way there, we stumbled upon the dj lineup for room one, and i didn't even have to look at my watch...
it was the legendary fucking dj qbert!
chris and i stayed on that railing until qbert finished and dj craze came on. the highlight of qbert's set was listening to him scratch over rapper's delight, by making his scratches sound like the vocals. i can't really explain it well, but i found a video of that night on youtube! craze was awesome too, but his scratching skills were not as unique.
we ventured on to room three, a smaller, tighter collection of true fans of breakbeat culture. this room was smaller than the first, but it was multi-tiered, providing a bunch of nooks and crannies for people to hang out and watch. the problem with breakbeat is that i can't dance to it. the randomness leaves me confused and uncomfortable. so we left to explore.
when we found room two, i found my home. room two is the so-called drum and bass room, and here was the pinnacle of the club. imagine 300+ people, facing the dj, bouncing, shaking, and just freaking out to heart-pounding bass! another pleasant surprise... fucking goldie was spinning! unreal!
adjacent to this room was, what can only be described as a "chill out" room. dozens of padded benches lined most of the room, with just enough space for people to walk in between. here, complete strangers became newly found best friends, sharing water, cigarettes, gum, and back massages. and of course, if you needed to buy (or sell) pills, this was the place to be! chris and i were asked multiple times if we wanted any, or had any to sell!
chris and i loved the atmosphere in this room. we spent a lot of time watching these two girls get up from their seats every so often, when a really good track would hit, and dancing like epileptic pixies on crack! very entertaining. at about 5:00am this room closed, and people were still asking us if we had any pills! we wandered around the rest of the club for another 30 minutes or so, trying to figure out what to do. we finally left and were not surprised to see that the sun was already up, not that we could see it through the dense london clouds, but the sky was bright enough that it could've been one o'clock in the afternoon.
one benefit to being up this late is that the tube is back in service. so we jumped on, completely disheveled, and got back to chris' flat about 6:20am. having had one of the best nights during this whole trip, i began to blog the events... but it would turn out that i would not finish the blog until over a week later...
Friday, June 22, 2007
nevermind that my flight from budapest to milan was delayed. nevermind that my flight from milan to london was delayed too. nevermind that somewhere in the chaos of the two delays, my baggage didn't make it to london with me. nevermind it all.
nevermind that what i chose to wear on this journey was a pair of shorts and a plain white t-shirt. and nevermind that it was cold and rainy in london. nevermind that tesco metro doesn't sell jeans, and that all the clothing stores are closed by 8pm. nevermind it all.
the reason to nevermind, is one word... fabric.
let's start (unecessarily) at the beginning, to overemphasize the impact of this night in my life. if you don't know what drum and bass (dnb) is, click here. if you do know, or you don't really care, continue. all you need to know about it is that i am a big fan of the music, and it is what i listen to most often when i'm creating.
so i don't know a lot of people who actively listen to dnb. and then i go all the way to dublin and meet this girl named cari, who is a huge fan. she then asks me if i've been to any dnb clubs in london (the birthplace of dnb), and of course, i haven't... and she has one word... fabric.
so i store this info in the back of my head, and i don't think about it for 3 weeks, until yesterday.
i meet up with chris and his work buddies, and have a pint of some lager and some chips (fries) with mayo. keep in mind that everyone has just gotten out of work, so picture me wearing this plain white t-shirt and a pair of cargo shorts, surrounded by dozens of suits and pencil skirts. the phrase 'sore thumb' comes to mind. chris has the night planned out already, a huge club, with multiple rooms and levels, specializing in hardcore electronic beats, specifically one room with hardcore drum and bass... and he has one word... fabric.
the only foreseeable problem is my clothing. a schmuck in shorts. we make our way to canary wharf for the only possible opportunity to buy clothing at 9:00pm. sure enough, all stores are closed, except for tesco metro, apparently the wal-mart of england. much to my dismay, we find out that this tesco is more of a convenience store than a wal-mart, but chris decides anyway, to ask an employee if they carry jeans. the lady was stocking paper towels and tampons and i give chris a nudge so he knows that i don't want to wait for the answer.
with our options depleted, i had no choice but to go with the shorts.
on weekends in london, they close off various tube stops for routine maintenance. it took us like an hour to get to the club. the queue was already wrapped around the building. for fabric and many other clubs in london, you can purchase admission tickets in advance and skip the long lines. we did not do so and had to wait in line for over one hour, moving slowly and people watching. no shorts in sight... at least not on men. it was a nervous and antsy wait. i had this whole concept of what to expect, pounding on my brain.
when we walked in, i knew that this was the place to be.
i could feel the energy in the air. it was as if i was on ecstasy with the rest of the kids... pills as they say in the uk. i would describe it as warehouse like, huge with exposed brick, with stairs and corridors that seem to just keep going.
we started with room one, the main room. picture a space sort of like the metro, with a balcony overlooking a stage, but just about twice as big. chris was buying the first round of drinks and a nice little shot, and we both noticed that there was an extreme amount of scratching over the heavy bass track. my first thought was, 'who does this dj think he is... qbert?' (if you don't know qbert, go here) but we did our shot, a b52 i believe, and made our way to the railing to people watch. on our way there, we stumbled upon the dj lineup for room one, and i didn't even have to look at my watch...
it was the legendary fucking dj qbert!
chris and i stayed on that railing until qbert finished and dj craze came on. the highlight of qbert's set was listening to him scratch over rapper's delight, by making his scratches sound like the vocals. i can't really explain it well, but i found a video of that night on youtube! craze was awesome too, but his scratching skills were not as unique.
we ventured on to room three, a smaller, tighter collection of true fans of breakbeat culture. this room was smaller than the first, but it was multi-tiered, providing a bunch of nooks and crannies for people to hang out and watch. the problem with breakbeat is that i can't dance to it. the randomness leaves me confused and uncomfortable. so we left to explore.
when we found room two, i found my home. room two is the so-called drum and bass room, and here was the pinnacle of the club. imagine 300+ people, facing the dj, bouncing, shaking, and just freaking out to heart-pounding bass! another pleasant surprise... fucking goldie was spinning! unreal!
adjacent to this room was, what can only be described as a "chill out" room. dozens of padded benches lined most of the room, with just enough space for people to walk in between. here, complete strangers became newly found best friends, sharing water, cigarettes, gum, and back massages. and of course, if you needed to buy (or sell) pills, this was the place to be! chris and i were asked multiple times if we wanted any, or had any to sell!
chris and i loved the atmosphere in this room. we spent a lot of time watching these two girls get up from their seats every so often, when a really good track would hit, and dancing like epileptic pixies on crack! very entertaining. at about 5:00am this room closed, and people were still asking us if we had any pills! we wandered around the rest of the club for another 30 minutes or so, trying to figure out what to do. we finally left and were not surprised to see that the sun was already up, not that we could see it through the dense london clouds, but the sky was bright enough that it could've been one o'clock in the afternoon.
one benefit to being up this late is that the tube is back in service. so we jumped on, completely disheveled, and got back to chris' flat about 6:20am. having had one of the best nights during this whole trip, i began to blog the events... but it would turn out that i would not finish the blog until over a week later...
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