Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Simmons and Shenanigans, 18th October

Goths have a secret. Emos, kinksters and other members of alternative subcultures, too. And I shall tell you what it is. They like cheesy music. But they can't just rock up to Club de Fromage or Guilty Pleasures in the garb they are wont to wear without getting a few weird looks. So they've created their own night where they can listen to all the music they like, wearing what they like, among likeminded people.

And this night is Shenanigans. I thought it sounded good with a list as long as my arm of music they play. The night was divided into different DJs and I assumed each DJ would play their preferred genre of music, and that the order of the DJs would have some bearing on how the night would go - maybe some indie to start easing into more poppy stuff as people got drunk, peaking with some 'EDM' (how I hate that term) or other harder stuff.

But it didn't go this way. We arrived at about 10 and people were already on the dance floor. You could tell the crowd was really up for it and that there were a lot of regulars there who knew each other. They were playing some harder rock stuff I didn't know, but that soon segued into the Kylie/New Order mashup. And then some Erasure. And then Boney M. Luckily this also included some Green Day and Violent Femms but I couldn't get my head round it, couldn't get settled into a groove. The music was all over the place. You can see their full setlists here

It was a loosely Halloween themed night but I got the feeling that most of the people there were just dressed how they would for any regular night of their choosing. There was a bit of a mixup of countercultures and while there was no nudity as far as I remember, there were definitely a few people who fell into the polyamorous category, all getting it on in a corner.

I felt like the night for me never really gelled. I couldn't get with the cheesier music or the way the genres hopped around. Maybe I just should have drunk more. It was certainly a popular night, but not my cup of tea.

Simmons

Speaking of tea cups, if you go to Simmons, that's exactly what you're likely to be drinking out of. They advertise a happy hour Sun-Fri until 9 pm, which has to be the longest happy hour I've come across. And, in addition the Happy Hour advertised, they seem to have it on a Saturday as well! I went to order a cocktail and was told it wasn't on the happy hour list so I should get something else, which I duly did - two Cosmopolitans in tea cups for £10. Not bad at all.

Simmons is quite a cutesy, eclectic place - you wouldn't expect a place that serves its cocktails in china to also have a huge skull disco ball but it does. From the outside it looks like some grubby old second hand furniture store - I didn't realise it was a bar until my friend told me it was. Inside, on a Saturday night it was heaving (which isn't hard - it's pretty small) and plays a pretty crowd-pleasing mix of danceable pop and RnB. Makes a pretty good pre-drinking spot if there are few of you enough to squeeze in.

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