Graham Dunning

This weekend I went clubbing for the first time in a while, and had a great experience at a small DIY space. I thought it worth sharing my thoughts about what made the event a success, from my perspective as a punter.

Venue MOT is an independent venue in an industrial estate in South Bermondsey, south London. It feels fairly remote, a good 20 minutes walk from New Cross Gate overground station, which actually makes it accessible from home as the Windrush line runs overnight on weekends. The space used to be a car mechanics, hence the name, and the non-residential location presumably defends it from noise complaints. Unusually – something I’ve not seen elsewhere anyway – the venue runs a pair of distinct spaces, each hosting their own separate events each night it’s open. Its a clever move, I think, as cuts costs for security staff (there’s one team at the door covering both venues) and increases the liklihood of the space meeting critical mass of attendees to make running smaller events economically viable.

Some of the things, other than the music, that the night a success for me: A small space, perhaps 150-200 capacity, which on the night had about 80 people in. So plenty of space to dance, not being crammed in like sardines. And intimate enough not to get lost in the crowd or spend forever queing for the bar or loos. Reasonably priced bar with decent non-alcoholic beer and friendly staff. Security staff present but not encroaching on the vibe, didn’t feel like we were under surveillance like some spaces do. Decent sound. Fairly dark with minimal disco lights and not too much strobe to feel constantly blinded. Great to see a welfare worker, clearly a raver, meanerding round the dancefloor to check in on folks, occasionally having a dance too. A nicely mixed crowd, nobody being a creep, and, the best part, everyone heads-down and dancing throughout, nobody constantly on their phone filming or taking selfies (or policing others doing so). Its been noted by many before that queer nights just have a better vibe and the attandees have a better attitude to their night out. Certainly seemed the case here: People were there to dance and that’s what they did.

Of course it helps that the music was great. We were there to see Josh Caffe, who I’d enjoyed at a previous I Love Acid event and Laura had seen at Body Movements. His set was excellent, combining 90s house with loads of 909 drums, acid house squelch and plenty of bits with breakbeats, kind of ravey but still with a house feel. The pacing was great with some really deep, psychedelic stretches. Certain tracks had very dense combinations of loops, building textures and busy repetitions – reminded me of a bit more striated version of Astral Social Club, or Hieroglyphic Being with a slightly more organic sound palette. Support sets from Seb Odyssey (mostly deep house, good gradual build to the others’ sets) and THC (broad range of stuff from 90s house to deep techno, with a bit of half-time stuff at one point) were great too.

Once again, as most times I go to events like this, I was reminded how important DIY spaces are, and how wholesome it can feel to go out all night listening to loud, repetitive music in a darkened room.