Früli a deux

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There was a point at the end of this summer when I realised how very special my last night in Prague was - retiring from the unbearably hot and noisy hostel dormitory to surrender sleep for a second night in a row and dance, for 3 straight hours at that nightclub to my preferred strand of tech house getting the high-energy reception it deserves. This rather inspired me to try and see Silicone Soul live as soon as I can, since I'd been listening to their mixtapes since about last November and hence came my love of tech house. Their gigs calendar offered two choices of where to go - Antwerp or Glasgow, and after realising the former was a free entry club and that I could still get cheapo Eurostar tickets for £24.50 each way, I booked it at about 3am on the spur of the moment.

So naturally being a bit of a train enthusiast the first excitement of the trip for me was that last time I'd taken the Eurostar, it left from Waterloo. The new high-speed link was truly amazing, we left St. Pancras and 11 ear-popping minutes later we were zooming past the Dartford crossing. Those of you who've bothered to read that excuse for a bio I wrote on here will know that one reason I love travelling is "Sitting on trains and staring out of windows (for some reason I find this really inspires creativity)". Therefore on this jaw-droppingly quick journey (which, if it weren't for the delays caused by the channel tunnel fire would have taken less time than London to York), I kept myself busy making stupid bass noises on Logic for 2 hours and came off in Brussels with a half-finished track built from nothing.

Another hour-long train journey onwards I was stepping out into Antwerp, slightly excited since it really was a mystery, I was in a city I knew nothing about, and I couldn't even decide what language to speak (Dutch is the official in this part of Belgium, but I can only speak the other regions' languages, French and German). Eventually I spoke to a few people (in English) and worked out where I needed to go, where the venue was, and learned that it didn't open til 11, so I basically had 4 hours to crawl there. In doing so I passed what I guess are the main pleasing sights to the "rough guides" target audience (people who like staring at buildings for ages) - one mahoosive gothic cathedral with quite a spectacular clock, a large palace with about 50 flags on the side, and a lovely fountain in the middle of the square between them.

After getting something to eat I did a minor pub crawl taking in all the bars between the city centre and the venue (which was about half a mile north). On the way I picked up some dutch words and phrases, the most important of which was "Kriek", a type of beer made with cherries which was so sweet I could probably just drink it as if it were ribena. The last place I stopped in was really friendly, got chatting with one woman about the "who invented rave music first, the UK or Belgium?" debate amongst other things, however I hadn't realised this place was a gay bar, and by 11pm it was filling up with its clientelle and I felt I should get my heterosexual ass out of there and listen to some house music (inb4 irony).

There was just one final cultural sightseeing imposed on me before beginning operation dance for 7 hours, the venue was slap bang in the middle of the red light district, and take note we're in a country where prostitution is legal! I have to say this was the most surreal sight I've seen in a long time, hulking groups of pimps ogling women standing in windows, but feeling completely safe on the scene due to a deservedly strong police presence. Despite its surroundings though, there was nothing "red light district" about this venue at all, it was just a normal club.

And a pretty bloody good one. Not much to say about the club night tbh, other than that it was fabulous, there was this hench fan which was pointing right at the dance floor, and dancing next to a hench fan will keep you going for hours and hours, as it really, really did. There was really nice atmosphere, met quite a few people during Silicone Soul's set, which lasted for no shorter than 4 hours and contained a lot of tracks covered by my geeky knowledge of the music, each of which surprised me in some way! I also had a chat with one of Silicone Soul for a while towards the end, which was cool, then by 6am the venue was pretty much empty and I needed to head back to Brussels. After an on-and-off sleep journey back, it was a slightly more complete being that walked home through Perivale at the other side.

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Photos

Mission statement
It's that simple.

Welcome to Belgium
the capital nation of europe

Kriek
This particular brand's name is latin for "sudden death".

Graeme from Silicone Soul and I
Staring into myspace?

Comments

[Anne-Marie]

I like frueli a deux :)