Bass Culture event at Alexandra Palace
Last Friday — 25th November 2011 — I went to the UKF Bass Culture event in North London. The event, hosted in Alexandra Palace, showcased over 30 electronic music acts, specifically dubstep and drum & bass acts. Unlike any other gig I have been to before, this one was an all-nighter, with the last act finishing at around 6.00am on Saturday morning.
Although it didn't start until 9.00pm, four of us headed into London earlier and made a stop in Piccadilly Circus at the Aberdeen Steak House, where I indulged in a lovely 12oz fillet steak. We then headed to the The Moon Under Water, a JD Wetherspoons on Leicester Square, where we met with two others who were coming to gig, and had some pre-gig drinks.
After the fairly long tube journey to Wood Green station, and the walk to the palace, we were greeted with a queue all the way round the building to get into the gig. We ended up getting in at 11.30pm, unfortunately missing Modestep, and the first few minutes of Nero's set. The rest of their live performace in the palace's Great Hall was brilliant, with Alana Watson, now a firm member of group, fronting a number of hits such as Guilt, Promises, Me & You and Innocence. As well as performing the current single Crush On You (which was to become the evening's most played song), the trio also played a couple of my favourites from their self-titled album, Fugue State and Must Be The Feeling.
Once we stocked up at the bar between acts, we retreated from the crowd a bit whilst Zane Lowe took stage. We weren't too fussed on being close during his set, as he was only DJing. He did however play some good tunes. Next came another smashing performance from Chase & Status. This was the sixth time I had seem them perform and they once again showed they are a great crowd pleaser. As well as fan favourites such as Pieces, Eastern Jam, Blind Faith and Time, the duo also played Brixton Briefcase, and although Cee-Lo Green wasn't there in person, his face was shown on the large screen on the stage to sing the chorus. Guests included regulars Mali, Liam Bailey and Deliliah.
With our energy waning, we watched an impressive set from Knife Party, the new side project from Gareth McGrillen and Rob Swire of Pendulum, showcasing a more electro and dubstep sound compared to the drum & bass rockers' usual band. They played their Skrillex collaboration Zoology as well as their remix of Nero's Crush on You.
I was looking forward to seeing Skrillex next, but he was running late, so Gemini came out to fill the gap. I was rather pleased with this, as I had wanted to see him, and he was playing earlier in the evening on another stage and clashed with the acts I was watching. His track, Graduation, is brilliant. Eventually Skrillex did come out and jumped straight into his crazy (but crazy good) track, First of The Year (Equinox). The only other song that I know (or can recall) him playing was Ruffneck (Flex). By this time — around 5.30am — we were completely exhausted, so we made our way out about 15 minutes before the end of Skrillex's set.
After the long journey back, that started out in darkness and ended in daylight, I finally got home at 8.00am. Then slept most of the next day.
The next day, I was saddened to hear that two people had died at the gig after taking a suspected rogue batch of MDMA. I myself was offered it at least 10 times throughout the night.
