Step Out: Show Off
Various secret London venuesElectro / Indie / Techno / Hip Hop
Sporadically held
Two Show Offs ago, a multitude of party folk were supping cocktails (the drinks on offer that night seemed to largely be modest beers or elaborate Cosmo’s, so what are you gonna do?) and dancing to The Rapture, SMD mash-ups and Soulwax remixes when Madonna’s ‘Get Into The Groove’ arrived and vanished again in what felt like a bpm. It wasn’t ironic, but simply played because the DJ wanted to hear it. So yeah, the Show Off music policy of “anything goes” is one the organisers practice.
“We wanted to put together fresh art and music talent without it being wanky, and have a party that hopefully feels like a house party,” say the organisers of the sporadic events; the art they mention being in form of original light projections and visuals.
As the Show Off brains put it, “Visually, we use real artist talent, not borrowed images like with VJs. You’ll get installations and projected stuff to have a butchers at. Musically, we try and find new bands we’d like others to check out.” And to keep it as interesting as possible for both themselves and for those seeking out the rawest gatherings in London, Show Off occurs when and where the organisers say so. Previous nights have seen the venue announced just 24 hours pre-doors, via their Myspace.
Before last month’s Show Off at the Dalston Arts Club, Passing Clouds, DJs, bands and artists bundled into the penthouse space of Primrose College, Bethnal Green. Access to the venue was achieved solely via an old freight elevator, while upstairs the queue for the gents’ loo (a single cubicle) surpassed the ladies’. With a makeshift bar set up in one corner, and decks flung in another, it was as far away from the comfy surrounds of the new (or even the old) Proud Galleries as possible, which was – and is – the whole point.
You’ve no doubt got a flat…with a sofa. Relax there.
Review written by Stuart Stubbs
Originally appeared in issue 1 of Loud & Quiet magazine