I had been to North before this but never to Bristol, although I'd heard a lot of good things about the rave scene there so I wanted to check it out. This event was held at Lakota which is in Bristol city centre and is about twenty minutes walk from Bristol Templemeads train station. Arriving at the club I found that it wasn't what I was expecting at all, and looked a very underground venue. The security gave me a quick search and were friendly enough then I headed into the club. Right next to the entrance is a bar room with loads of seats and in there was a North merchandise stall with loads of different tape packs and other things. The Technology arena was the main room here and this was located just through the bar on the ground floor. I liked this room and thought it was well laid out, with a stage at the front and a balcony around two sides of it. The sound system and lighting in there was good, and there was a smoke machine which filled the dancefloor when used. The gabba room was upstairs and this was quite a contrast when compared to the main room. This was a dark, small room with a wooden floor and low ceiling, without much decor. It can be best described as dingy, but this suited the gabba really well. Everyone in there was really going for it and the atmosphere there was crazy. The sound system in there was also good and was loud just as gabba should be. As a nice alternative way to chill out there was a small bar room right next to this arena which actually had a pool table in it. The first set I saw was Ribbz in the main arena. He played a good techno set which was quite dark and there was no MC on while he played. The room was still filling up at this point though. After him came Brisk playing under his Stimulant DJs alias. The Stimulant DJs are known as hard house DJs/producers so I was interested to see what Brisk would play here. I didn’t catch all of the set but the majority of what I heard was hard house, although tending towards the harder side of it, and he played the wicked hoover-driven “Tension” by Paul Maddox. Then I went upstairs to the gabba room where Scorpio was playing. He did a hard set although the mixing was slightly ropey in places. The room was busy at this point and there was a really intense atmosphere in there. Everyone was really going for it and it was a great sight to see. After Scorpio came Producer who was better still. He played a really fast old style gabba set with a dark feel all the way through it and some brilliant evil vocal samples. The room was full to bursting now and this was my favourite set in the gabba room on the night. Producer was followed by DJ Randy from Italy, aka Steve Land. He did a good gabba set too, not quite as hard as Producer before him though. He was accompanied on the mike by up and coming Bristol MC Buzz who I was impressed with on the night. He fitted the music really well and I thought he showed real talent. The next set I caught was The Crow direct from Germany in the main arena. He did a wicked acid hard trance set with dirty kickdrums and nasty acid sounds, and went down really well with the crowd. He played the Uberdruck remix of “Hallucination Generation” and the storming “Now or never” by Uberdruck. He ended up playing 15 minutes over to cover for the late running Mark EG and it was my favourite set of the night overall. Mark EG’s was the final set of the night and as he arrived he got a great reception from the crowd along with the usual “Mark EG” chants. He did a good acid trance set which was different from the sets he plays at the happier events. He finished the night off well and maintained a full dancefloor of ravers. I had to leave 15 minutes early to get a train which I wasn’t happy about but it had to be done. As my first Bristol and Lakota event drew to a close I was pleased with what I’d seen there. Lakota is an underground venue with a variety of rooms, from the nice and quite plush main arena to the dark and underground upstairs gabba room. The crowd were great and the event attracted people from quite far away. I saw some people I knew from Sheffield, there were some ravers down from Scotland and Tugie had bought a fair few down with him from Merseyside. These were completely unlike many of the Birkenheaders who attend happy events like Slammin, and were obviously there because they loved the music, not just to cause trouble. North’s biggest strength is the variety and quality of music that gets played there. The reason so many people travelled from long distances to be here was because music gets played at North that you just don’t hear anywhere else. This especially applies to the gabba room because unfortunately there aren’t many places around which play gabba now. The vast majority of tunes I heard were ones that I had never heard before. The only criticism I can make of the night is that the upstairs gabba room got pretty hot when it was full, so some fans or an air conditioning system would be a real advantage in there. The next North event is on Dec 28th when they return back to their former home of The Void in Stoke. I’m definitely going and I’d recommend it to anyone else too because North is a quality event. Shouts to Slammin Sam, Conrad, Strike, SFX, JD, Buzz, Alarm, John, Teknobabe, Tekno raver, Techno raver (the other one), Claire and Barticle.
