Chicks on Speed

Sonia and I went to this a week last Friday at Club Snafu in Aberdeen and mighty fine it was too. First of all it was such a nice change to find a friendly and relaxed DJ-style club. This was no meat-market/piss-up brigade set-up, but a professional and welcoming music-led venue (the £6.50 advance ticket price might have had a filtering effect too). After running through some torrential rain, indeed only learning exactly where the club was from some fellow shelterers under a shop front, we got there just before 23:00 and of course found the place nigh-empty. However, this did mean we got an interesting little cubby hole next to the small dance floor, and under one of those thick-glass sections of pavement!

The warm-up DJ was pretty good, and played some good mixes of some C-o-S stuff I knew from 99 Cents. Before too long, the club was getting busy and the dance floor well-populated, and then a genuine C-o-S member came out (the blonde one down the front!). This is the best thing about DJ sets; there is no half-hour wait of boredom as the dancing must continue! Anyway, I have no adjectives or even genre-talk to describe her set, but the crowd (and us) were definately digging it. Indeed, a kilted man down the front even took his top off to show his approval. The DJ booth was on the level with the dance floor and gave it all a good vibe. At the back of the booth was a good-sized video-wall, and well-synched video accompanied the set, which featured as you might expect a good range of bizarre stuff including C-o-S and friends playing their instruments whilst naked on a rooftop!

I must confess that Sonia and I acted our age and politely watched from our cubby-hole, and then, with the party in full-swing, left to get some kip. OK, it was 01:30 and we had a half hour walk home alright?? Thus I cannot say whether the other two members each had a go later on as we were slumbering!

This brings me to a related point however, the propensity of ridiculously late-night gigs in Scotland. Me thinks I am just getting old, but the liberal late-licence deal this side of the border that I usually celebrate unfortunately has the knock-on effect of music gigs going on prohibitively late, especially when I have to be in work no later than 08:00. Take Camera Obscura on a Monday night for example. No warm-up had even appeared by 21:00, with the main dudes barely having tuned-up by 23:00. That's ok once in a while and for a band you really care about, but I am constantly passing-over bands I wouldn't mind seeing as the personal investment is too much. Anyways, you tell that to kids these days, and they don't believe you....