Review: Bangers & Mash

Fibbers crashed to life last night with the return of Bangers and Mash, one of the first student-led club nights of the summer term. The promoters advertise themselves as playing a ‘selection of House, Garage, Electro, Techno and everything in between’, with hype on Facebook attempting to draw in the crowds.For many students, this was the first chance of the term to get their dancing shoes on; either as an eagerly anticipated reprieve from the clubbing drought of the Easter holidays or a final blow out before exam hermitage hits.

Bangers and Mash’s quirky tagline ‘We’re providing the Bangers, you’re getting your Mash on’ proved pleasingly true despite an average turn-out at the start of the night. The grungy pit of Fibbers dance floor steadily filled throughout the evening, but unlike the chaotic crowds of Kuda or Salvation there was actually room to groove, although whether you find this refreshing or awkward probably depends on your dance moves.

The night overall was similar to the meal bangers and mash: it took a few hours of preparation before the full potential of the evening was served up. While the first couple of hours of the night were enjoyable, a late surge of clubbers around 1am gave the dance floor the animation it needed for the night to really get cracking. One particularly enthusiastic student acquired an interesting dancing prop in the form of an umbrella, and spent the evening shielding the crowd from imaginary rain, a thoughtful sentiment that went down well with everyone present (including, surprisingly, the bouncers). The general vibe was very good natured, with everyone clearly there to have a good time – an especially pleasant feature of smaller, independent club nights such as Bangers and Mash.  The last half hour of York University students Timor Oren and Jack Brackley’s set was thoroughly enjoyable, even pricking the interest of the gaggle of people at the bar who promptly moved to the dance floor in response to the infectious beats of Somateria by Polkadot. In particular, The Mechanism by Disclosure and Friend Within and Poise by Terrence Perce were well timed and well-judged tunes, bringing their set to a smashing end.

The transition to the last DJ of the night, Joel Brocklehurst, injected a final burst of energy onto the dance floor with a few more unusual tunes thrown out. Particular highlights were Beautiful Black Women by Zed Bias, Bambounou by Highgyptian  and 1nce Again (Bit Funk Remix) by A Tribe Called Quest. The crowd was swept into a happy, deep house haze, with some pretty funky shapes being pulled by the more ardent house music fans.

The main disappointment of the evening was the uncalled for premature ending at 2.30am, which came as a surprise to everyone present. As the lights came up everyone was jarred back into the reality of a rainy Wednesday night. A happy legacy was left in the form of a green inflatable dinghy which found its way into the middle of the dance floor, but otherwise the end of the night seemed a little flat and sudden. Despite this, the night was something of a gem and should be appreciated by more people. With any luck the next Bangers and Mash will be received by a fuller dance floor as the house scene continues to expand in York – they really do deserve it.

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