Clubs / Reviews
Review: Wall of Bass, The Underground – ‘An energetic and forward-thinking scene’
There’s just something about an underground venue. Bristol’s had a few over the years, some long departed, some still going strong (Cosies, one of the most well-loved, turned 40 this year!)
We’ve had rabbit warrens and railway tunnels, cramped caves and police cells but one thing we’ve not had until recently is a really whopping subterranean venue.
The Underground has certainly fulfilled that brief. It’s a space that most Bristolians had no idea existed but now this loading bay beneath The Galleries regularly hosts up to 2600 clubbers, making it perhaps the biggest underground venue in the country.
is needed now More than ever
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As a couple making steady progress through our fifth decade we might not hit the key demographic that The Underground has been attracting to its recent run of events but, when we found ourselves kid-free on a recent pre-Halloween Friday night, we jumped at the chance to check out Wall of Bass in this below-ground behemoth, drawn by such names as Fracture, Breaka, Dwarde and Cheetah.
Jostling through a crowd of zombies, nuns and Luigis on our way in, we can see why Underground director and Al Fresco Disco founder Tom Hodgson saw its potential and fought so hard for permission to use it as a venue.
It’s a space that was frankly crying out for an underground rave. Stark, unpolished and cavernous, it brings back happy memories of free parties in abandoned warehouses.
The Underground draws in crowds of nearly 3,000 ravers ready to party under The Galleries shopping centre – photo: Ash Piper
It has to be said that on first arrival the sound from the quadraphonic link up between Electrikal, Sinai, Raze and Scotland Yard systems is sounding pretty distorted to this quadragenarian ear.
The size of the space and its concrete floors, walls and ceilings must make it a tough place to get sounding right and they’ve not got their 100k link up quite right, having focused, it seems, on prioritising volume over clarity.
Not wanting to be the old guy whingeing about it being too loud we stroll over to the Dubtendo stage which is sounding a lot crisper, banging out the bassline and breaks when we arrive.
The several Luigi’s in the crowd (who now make a bit more sense) get a shout out for being on trend and it’s an exuberant atmosphere which is only heightened as the music policy moves towards Dubtendo’s signature sound of dubstep and garage bangers infused with 8-bit silliness.
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I’m not planning on missing Fracture b2b Breaka back at the main stage and the soundboys seem to have significantly sorted things out by the time we return – a good thing as it’s a set that doesn’t disappoint, effortlessly straddling breaks, bass, techno, footwork and jungle.
4am Kru, on their album tour, come on at 2am with a sound straight out of a mid ‘90s early jungle night but with an energy akin to a punk gig of a couple of decades earlier (one assumes – even I’m not old enough to remember those).
It’s clearly the act that most have come to see as the dancefloor is busier than ever. Even the Luigis have left Dubtendoland. Live jungle acts have notoriously failed to deliver what a DJ with a bag of vinyl and some 1210s have been able to since the dawn of the genre but it’s hard not to get drawn into the energy of this hyperactive production duo as they bash pads and conduct the crowd who acquiesce by happily singing along to synth stabs, gun fingers aloft.
Next up it’s Pete Cannon and L Major who play a pummeling set that treads the line between hardcore and dnb expertly before Bristol boys Cheetah and Janaway put a smile on our faces with a jungle tearout to finish off the night.
Dubtendo, who got a huge crowd going at the Boxing Gym in July, were a hit as always – photo: Dubtendo
It’s strange to be in a venue like this in Bristol, hearing music that has at least one foot firmly planted in the underground sounds I was going out to when I first started raving. There’s jungle and hardcore, techno and footwork, and it is the creative adaptation and interweaving of these genres that makes it such an energetic and forward thinking scene still today.
But some of it really does sound much as it did 25 years ago and more. Looking as far back from the era that inspired much of this music would have taken us back to the late ‘60s. This is heritage music and as we hear the last strains of these familiar sounds emanating from The Underground it’s clear that it, and the soundsystem culture behind it, still makes up some of the fundamental foundations of this city – foundations that are still drawing people in decades after they were originally laid down.
Main image: Ash Piper
Read next:
- Over 1/3 off B10 party tickets: Perk of the day, October 31
- Cosies to celebrate 40th anniversary with week of special events
- Over 1/3 off B10 party tickets: Perk of the day, October 31
- B10 presents: Sam Binga – ‘It’s gotta move me rhythmically’
- B10 presents: Booty Bass – ‘Vibes, big energy and genuine love!’
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