Friday night Fantastic (Full Tilt@The Electric Ballroom)

Member Name: TurtleStar

Product:	Full Tilt@The Electric Ballroom
Date:	08/08/03 (197 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Venue, Music, Atmosphere

Disadvantages: Music can be a bit thrashy, Finishes at 3.

The Electric Ballroom is one of the places I'd always meant to go to but it took three years in London before I finally got round to going. And I wish I'd been sooner.

Although this is strictly a review of Full-Tilt, the venue is an inextricable part of the night so a little about that is in order I think...

The Ballroom is a fantastic venue. Size-wise it's almost spot-on. The main dance floor is pretty big by usual club standards and the ceiling is fairly high up. This means that i) you can wave your arms / legs about as much as you want with a minimal chance of hitting someone if you're careful, ii) you can breathe while doing so and iii) you've got a reasonable chance of holding a conversation around the edges. There's a smaller room upstairs but this is still a fair size. The third room (chill-out) I don't think ever actually opens any more. The website claims attendances of about 1000 and this seems about right. It's not overcrowded to the extent that you can't move anywhere and I've never had to queue too long to get in.

There's plenty of bars so you never have to queue long for a drink and a pint is reasonable at £3, although the clubber's Red Bull equivalent and Coke is a hefty £6 or so. Tap water's free. The bar closes at 2, an hour before the club at 3. Worth bearing in mind but how can you dance holding a pint anyway?

On to the music...

The EB website lists Industrial, Goth, Punk and Techno on the ground floor with Metal and Heavy Rock on the second. This is a fair description but other styles are played as well.

Music in fact ranges from pure dance heaven - Euphoric tracks like Delerium - "Silence" and Leftfield - "Open Up" to heavy, dirty thrash metal. I have a very limited knowledge of Industrial, Goth and metal but there are usually a few tunes I recognise and mostly it's good to dance to. I recently took a friend who is n
ot really into the this kind of stuff but he enjoyed it.

The atmosphere I've always found is great and it is one of the main reasons I go. I've not seen any trouble and have not found the staff rude. But perhaps I don't really notice these things. Every one seems fairly happy just to get on and dance / chat / drink.

If you've had enough jumping around then sitting down and people-watching is always an option. There's a great variety of clothes / hair / piercings / other body adornments on offer. But you wouldn't be too out of place in a shirt and jeans.

Summary: