Drum n bass has been really taking off in the South West lately. Legends of the Dark Black, Life, Mutiny, Definition and others are all putting on fairly large events on a regular basis. Smaller promoters like Hard Edge, Deconstructed and Funny Honey are also running regular events all over the region. Plus there's been a few one-off nights like Urban Takeover Tour @ Exmouth Pavillion and Junglism @ the Cavern taking place in the area too. So it was only a matter of time before somebody decided to put on a drum n bass night in Torquay - Enter Somerset-based promoters Lockdown, and their new monthly drum n bass night called '9-Mil'. Having not been to a drum n bass night since July, I decided to check out their opening night. 9-Mil had hired out the Monastery (capacity ~900) for their opening night, and with Legends of the Dark Black in Plymouth and Mutiny in Bristol both holding events on the same night, 9-Mil had their work cut out to try and fill it. I arrived about an hour after it started, and the place looked fairly grim. I'd say there was less than 100 people in there, but as the night went on, the place really started to fill up. By about 2am the club was fairly packed, although not as full as the hard house/trance nights which are usually held at the Monastery. The standard of the DJs all night was good, but I would have liked to see a little more variation in styles. Apart from Nicky Blackmarket, who played almost entirely anthems, everybody whose set I caught (DJ SS, Cause4Concern, Logic and Reptile) played Andy C/Bad Company/Ed Rush style tunes. Kerbcrawler, The Nine, 26-bass and Speedball all got played 2 or 3 times each :/. Its not that I dislike that style at all, because that is mostly what I play myself. But hearing the same style for 6 hours is a bit depressing, especially in a genre which so diverse as drum n bass, and I spoke to several other people who would have also liked to have heard some of the oldskool style DnB that's making a big impact at the moment, or some tunes which use more organic sampled breaks rather than the same mechanical 2-step stuff all night. My only other real complaint is that DJ SS played last set (5-6am), and by this time most people had either gone home, or were (as in my case) too fucked to move - let alone dance. But that aside, it was a good night. The atmosphere was really friendly (I didnt see any trouble all night), the soundsystem was loud and clear, and the Monastery is a wicked venue for a drum n bass event IMO. So I'll definitely be attending their next event on Friday 30th November.
