So yeah, it was big! Best vibes of any party I've been to in London for a long time that's for sure. Can't say I was that surprised though, as in it pretty much agreed with what I imagined it would be like before hand. Music - Straight deep tech, all night long in the main room, surprisingly sick trap in room 2 lol (Bugatti, Shabba Ranks, all that gassed stuff) But yeah, the main room was very purist which was kind of interesting considering that the trend at the moment is for all-genre events, all-genre DJs. I suppose that's the sign that it's quite a hardcore scene. Because of that I suppose you could say that the music didn't really go anywhere, but obviously there were peaks throughout the night.
Best DJs I saw by far were Lance Morgan and Lee Edwards (missed Mark Radford's set D: ) who smashed it up, lots of shit I didn't know, constant energy, loads of dubplates, sick mixes. Otherwise I was surprised at how much of the music I did know, kind of amazing that you can follow a scene from halfway around the world, and actually be right about what the real anthems are (Tazer got run 3/4 times, mind your step twice, Try me Anyway got run a bunch) but literally all the tunes we hype about here got run. Biggest tune of the night by far was the RS4 Little Man refix, which got wheeled twice lol.
Unsurprisingly, there was stuff I found pretty boring, a bit uninspired, but even the boring stuff wasn't boring in the way deep house is boring (smooth, polite etc), it's just like kind of pedestrian bass music, not enough character.
Soundsystem was only good, Lance Morgan managed to get it to sing in his set (final slot, 5-6) but I was left still wanting to see this music on a top class system.
Vibes/Crowd, actually very nice. Everyone was dancing, singing along to the tunes, I went on my ones and found it easy to chat to people and hang out. I would say about half the crowd was on MDMA, whereas 02:31 it's more like 95%. Some people were obviously having a GREAT TIME/looked super high, but overall I'd say it wasn't a particularly 'druggy' vibe, like drugs are there but it didn't really feel like that's what people had come for. Re: shuffling like EVERYONE was doing it. But that didn't really seem like a big deal. There was a small minority of people properly going ham cutting shapes, clearing a bit of space so they could do their thing, but for everyone else it was just like, dancing to the music innit.
Crowd was maybe 60% black, and I'd say that if the average age at 02:31 is maybe 21, here it felt more like 26 or something. Lots of fit girls properly decked out, others in more practical rave gear. Guys ranged from casual/street to proper sharp, suits and everything, bottle of champaign in one hand lol. Saw some guys wearing stuff which could have honestly been Moshino from the early 00s, proper garage vibez.
It was a sick night! But I have to say, if it's representative of other deep tech raves, then as a whole club/rave experience goes it does not even come close to 02:31. There were some things like me being a bit tired, having used up all my serotonin a few days ago in Brum so my mandy not quite doing the job, soundsystem not being amazing (not bad at all, but not that proper proper deep bass vibes) BUT, even taking that all into account, it did not have the absolutely electric, magic vibez of 02:31. Probably comes down to the fact that at 02:31 EVERYONE is on mdma so you have that proper communal, dancefloor as one thing. Probably also has a lot to do with the fact that Brum people are just more friendly than London people period. But going to House Passion confirmed my view that 02:31 really is something special. It's still all I can do to recommend anyone who likes raving to make their way up there.
Still, as I say, best vibes of a London party I've been to in a couple of years. If I lived in London, I'd be down at these raves every weekend, or at least every weekend I wasn't in Brum