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| Underwater |
Date:
Saturday 31st May 2003
Address: The End & AKA, 18 West Central
Street, London WC1A 1JJ
Occurrence: One Off
Hours: 10pm - 7am
Ticket Price: £15
Dress Code: TBC
Genre: House - Tech /
Progressive
Capacity: 900 |
DJ’s:
Darren Emerson, Timo Maas
AKA Bar: Peppermint Jam,
Shakedown |
This was my second outing
to The End; the first was a couple of months ago
to Underwater’s 2nd birthday where Tim Deluxe
and Darren Emerson played brilliantly back2back
for 8 hours.
So I was definitely looking forward to this night
and hopefully was going to have an even better Underwater
experience than the previous visit. Only this time
round it was going to be Darren Emerson and the
German Maestro himself, Mr Timo Maas ripping up
the dance floor.
If you haven’t been to The End yet, do yourself
a favour and get on down there, as it is one of
the best clubs that London has to offer. The club
has two rooms downstairs and the AKA bar upstairs.
The main room boasts the best DJ box that I have
ever seen. The horseshoe shaped funky blue box is
situated in the centre of the room so the crowd
can face the DJ in all directions. This creates
a great atmosphere that the DJ can feed off generated
by the crowd smiling up at him. The sound in this
room is amazing. Apparently the sound system is
one of the best in the world. The clarity and sharpness
of the music is incredible adding to the already
pumping atmosphere. The lighting in this main room
is also something to be proud of. There is fluorescent
purple and blue lighting on the walls, which creates
a very funky atmosphere.
There is a small bar at the back of the room, which
makes it easier to get drinks because the main room
gets very packed.
The main bar is located in the smaller room. There
is a smaller dance floor and comfy lounges to chill
out on. There are toilets between the two rooms,
which is ideal.
There wasn't that many people when we arrived although
the line-up outside was very long.
It started getting full when Darren Emerson started
his set at about 1:30am. After seeing him only once
before I was looking forward to seeing him again.
He played a progressive set of tech house, which
the crowd seemed to enjoy, although I wasn’t
that impressed. I know he is capable of more. His
music for me wasn’t going anywhere and was
a bit boring at times. Maybe he was taking the spotlight
of himself and was handing it on a silver platter
to Timo who was to play after him. Don’t get
me wrong, it was still a good set and the atmosphere
was still building.
Upstairs in the AKA bar the atmosphere was pumping.
Shakedown was playing and the crowd loved every
minute. Some really funky, chunky and sexy tunes
were being played. There is a VIP area above the
AKA bar with a balcony looking over the room. It
really was full to the brim of people all having
a great time. Peppermint Jam took over and carried
on where Shakedown left off. By this time Timo Maas
was about to start and although we were having a
great time up there, we weren’t about to miss
Timo do what he does best.
We managed to get a spot right up by the DJ box,
which was very lucky, because the room was absolutely
full. There was a good crowd all enjoying the music
and cutting shapes in the dance floor. He played
an absolute blinder. It must be quite daunting for
any DJ playing in this main room because he is the
center of attention and is surrounded by the crowd
all the time. Timo played a brilliant set even in
the face of some very happy clubbers jumping up
and down and screaming his name up in front of us.
It was quite amusing; it was as if they were at
a Beatles concert back in the day screaming out
to John.
Some idiot even touched a deck, causing Timo to
stop mid-set bringing everything to a stop. The
look on his face when the entire crowd turned to
him was unforgettable. I’m not too sure if
security took him away, but understandably Timo
was quite angry but handled himself well and applauded
the crowd and we applauded him back. Everyone thoroughly
enjoyed his set of progressive house and I will
definitely watch him again.
All in all, it was an enjoyable night. A wicked
venue, great sound and a good atmosphere, what more
can you ask for? |
Venue: 10
Music: 8
Crowd: 7
Sound System: 10
Total: 35 / 40
Rating: Gold Award |
| Review written by:
Luke Day |
luke@uk-cl.co.uk |
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