Monday, 26 March 2012

Preston Club Night Reviews

Warehouse





50 St Johns Place, Preston, Lancashire, PR1 3XX

The smoke screen clears. A lone emo kid (circa 2004) sways, orange vs in hand. Is this what I paid £5 on the door for?
                Well yes, as a former teenage goth girl, this club is like a beautiful time machine. If anyone at school ever called you ugly and you went home and listened to Adam’s Song (a fairly juvenile exploration of suicide) and cried then this is the club for you.
                Okay, I’m being purposely specific for comic effect, but what I’m saying is the ground floor appeals to our generation of formerly side-lined teenage rockers almost masterfully. Firstly, the overall décor isn’t very nice. At all. The clientele are a mix of people who liked pop punk in 2003 and people who, from their fashion choices, appear to think it still is 2003. The drinks are cheapish, £2 for vs or vodka and mixer and you’ll need a few in order to bounce around to the guilty pleasures in store. Pop-punk, emo, hardcore, nu-metal and the like.
But you’ll probably start on the top floor listening to current, mainstream music; fool yourself you’re going to act like a normal person. Sexy dancing to Nicki Minaj. I say that, but it’s probably the floor with the weirdest people. Then make your way down to the Indie floor, full of those hip and trendy kids that like “The Black Keys” and “Mumford and Sons” and wear “chinos”. But you’ll always drift down to the ground floor.
Warehouse: bring your side-fringe.

Lava & Ignite


On the recently pulled Uclan meme page, someone wrote over a picture of the Uruk-Hai:  “Lava Ignite: looks like sluts are back on the menu boys”. Now aside from the offensive notion of women being on a menu (I’m cool… I’m not a feminist… LOVE MEEEeee), I feel like this just isn’t the case. Rather than the girls being particularly slutty, the lads are particularly creepy. Seriously. Gropey McTouchyson all up in this club. Well, to be fair, it’s mostly that massive bottom floor where all standards of decency are smashed. Like the glasses on the dance floor. (This, by the way, is a massive inconvenience to those wearing heels.)
                There are pervs on the Indie floor too, they just don’t seem so active since it’s harder to hide. But say we ignore all this. Every Wednesday is the “Fuzzy Logic” club night; you’ll want to go then since the drinks are cheaper.  The music is suitably current and there are lots of seats for when you’re tired of the glass-ridden terrain. It’s a big, fashionable club, usually £5 on the door, you’re going to go there.
 What? What do you want from me?

Macs


Friargate, Preston , PR1 2EJ
Maccy Mac Macs. Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more soul destroying and sticky. Urgh.
                Seriously though, what is the deal with Macs? The place is bizarre. You pay £3/£4 to get in on the understanding that they will throw you out when they feel like it. You want to finish your drink before you leave? Ha, lowly drunk student. You are not worthy of basic customer service. Sometimes they stay open later than the billed time in order to suddenly switch from LMFAO and Swedish House Mafia to Evanescence and Nickelback resulting in a thoroughly confused clientele.
                And the beach bar. Um…what? The slushes are delicious but how does this fit in with the overall concept of Macs? It even seems to be staffed by a different breed of human to other members. I mean, they’re happy. And kind.
                Then there’s upstairs. Where they play hip hop tracks that no one really knows. And has massive couches in a hidden area that no one sits on through fear of what they are surely glazed with…
                The best thing about Macs is the floor by the stairs. It invariably becomes slippy. People fall. Every single time.
                And yet, I will still go. See you there next Tuesday; I’ll be the one by the stairs laughing.

Roper Hall

Friargate Preston PR1 2EE
I’m impressed. In a distinctly underwhelming, Prestony way.  Roper Hall is a pub with a club situated above it. It’s the only club I’ve visited here that’s made a real effort not to fall into the tacky/sticky route (see: Lava & Ignite, Macs, Squires). It looks vaguely cool and modern  which means it quickly jumped to top of my list as favourite night club in Preston (fanfare sounds). Seriously though, it’s decent and this is all we can ask for. There’s a “Quids Night” in which you can buy delicious Malibu and coke for £1.25, a glorious change to the alcopops I usually end up sipping. My only niggling concern is the music. To quote Morrisey; “hang the DJ, hang the DJ, hang the DJ. Hang the deeeejay, haaaang the DJ” and mad vegetarian ramblings.
                Really, if you’re going to play Hanson (and I strongly advise against this) don’t do it before everyone’s drunk. It’s like the first rule of music school. Probably.

Source and 53 degrees


Brook Street, Preston, PR1 7BQ
Now I hate student unions ever since the whole fees debacle but bless them, they tried. First, let us turn our attention to the CATEGORICALLY IRRESPONSIBLE Thursday “quids night” at Source. £1.25 a pint, £1.50 bombs, £1 for various spirits. You won’t save money; you’ll buy three times the drinks. Then wash them down with several Glitter Bombs like the classy bird that you are.
                Can I actually take a moment to appreciate Glitter Bombs? You’re drinking real gold. True, it has a Cash 4 Gold value of minus 0.0000002 pence; but it’s there. Ultimate luxury.
                Basically, Source is a good place to go before you hit the *ahem* real clubs every Thursday.
                53 degrees, I have to say every time I’ve been… I’ve been… well… it’s just not that good is it really? It’s like going to a lecture on dancing and drinking. They do it by the book. And if I wanted books. I’d hang out in the library all night. With the other losers.
Sorry nerds, venture outside of campus for once in your life.

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