Laurent Garnier / Waterford / 2005

Thanks to all who wished me well on my return to clubland, and to Andy
and Duggo who were speculating on my well-being post-Garnier.

And to answer the question about how long does it take to recover from a
Big Night Out - well, this Tuesday, that was Friday, and I'm still not
/totally/ right. Still - top night out.

The venue was a new club in Waterford - TEN. Nice enough - only one
room, but split onto four levels, including a very nice big podium-ish
level (fits about 20) where all the loolah nutters went. Me and my two
hombres spent most of the evening hanging off (or near) the railings of
this in a don't-get-out-very-often-having-it-VERY-fucking-large-thank-you-very-much stylee.

dj box mounted high (about 20 feet up) overlooking the main dancefloor
where all those who were so persuaded could look up and worship Monsieur G.

Any Oirish folks on here thinking of going should be persuaded to stay
off the beer in there and take alternative measures and locate them
somewhere on your person from which they may be easily retrieved, as
there are FOUR cubicles in the entire place. In a club for 1200. Daft.
Madness, in fact. It must have cost millions to refit, and then they
give you nowhere to, er, disrobe the essentials. Tsk, tsk.

The soundsystem seemed pretty good, but with Garnier making the
uncharacteristic mistake of playing WAY TOO FUCKING LOUD there was some
distortion, so the jury's out on that one. I'll have to go again soon
just to check. Or at least that's what I'll be telling my other half.
"Jeff Mills on Paddy's night maybe. He's very good you know." Perhaps
marc and para fancy flying over for that one? ;)

Garnier played a blinder, certainly for the first two and arf hours at
least, covering all the bases, with a bit of house, lots of techno, some
jazzy nu-dance stuff that surely
has-a-genre-but-fucked-if-I-know-what-it-is-I-was-way-too-twisted at
that point (largely drunk as it happens, went out /way/ too early, but
there ya go). It got very surreal at about 2am when he dropped "moon
boots" and some other dreamy 1950s musical type number which
unbelievably worked perfectly in amongst the balls-out techno that he
was then setting up. Last hour (or so I'm told) consisted of techno,
techno and a bit of techno thrown in for good measure.

Marks out of ten all round? 8.

A decent return for me though. Now, where's that babysitter's number again...