music

When I first read the news that London's Medicine Bar was about to undergo an expensive refit to emerge as new rebranded London nightspot East Village, I was dubious to say the least.

As the name might suggest, the inspiration for London's newest venue is New York's East Village area, which as a concept for a London-based nightspot seems bizarre - and ever so slightly theme pub-esque. Surely you are never going to create the stuff of new London musical legend by alluding to another city's nightlife, particularly when that city is famous for its lack of places to go dancing!

And with elder statesman of house Stuart Patterson at the helm, I could only envisage line-ups of a slightly too old school and dad-friendly nature. "The vibe will be quality house music all the way," the club's promotional materials ominously proclaim.

And lo and behold, we do indeed find names like Rocky, Clive Henry and Gilles Peterson peppered throughout the club's recently unveiled listings. Although I suppose the old-timers do need somewhere to go now that Turnmills and the Kings Cross complex of clubs have vanished from the clubbing map...

But in all fairness, I did find the odd morsel amongst the listings which might tempt me through the door: Andrew Weatherall may not exactly be the cutting edge of new music, but he will be unleashing his superior taste on East Village on Friday 14th March. Meanwhile, the Warm agency's bi-monthly residency looks very promising indeed, hosting Chateau Flight's first UK live show and Swiss techno maniac Deetron on March 22nd, whilst the DFA-centric line-up of Tim Goldsworthy and Tim Sweeney on May 24th certainly reads like something of a coup for the new venue.

East Village claims to be plugging a much-needed gap in the East London clubbing market for small venues with great soundsystems, a point which I have yet to be convinced on. But if you want to put that theory to the test yourself, a rather unfriendly sounding door picker does promise to keep out the suit-wearing city-boy locals, just in case you simply can't bear to drink in the same place as anyone less cool than yourself...

East Village website

gemma sheppard, 11th Mar 2008 20:16:20
 

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