The Dark side of Lisa Lashes, Air, Birmingham

25.03.2006

After a rather painless journey from the ole smoke to Brum land - only asking for directions once!!! I was thrilled to find I could pull straight into the clubs car park (only £3). I had left loads of time to get to Air; as I haven’t been to Birmingham since New Year and that was a nice easy NEC visit. This time I was travelling into the heart of the city and I had expected to struggle with the traffic - as this was not the case, I was in the club for a record early time, especially by my standards - 11pm. This was early for Air as well! The short queue outside and the lack of people in the club gave it away; It did give me a chance to take everything in though and I was instantly impressed with the size and how presentable the club was. Despite the dark paint job, the club oozes class and quality. The bar next to the entrance looks so chic and trendy that myself and some new comers to the club thought it was a reception area, atypical of a very expensive hotel reception at that. So don’t make the same mistake I did and ask if they take coats at this bar, the coat room is actually in the main room downstairs!  Er - make that a water then mate, cheers.

I wandered around the three levels of the club checking out every little nook and cranny before it got too busy and found two out of the three rooms with ease, the third remained elusive for the moment. In my defence there wasn’t any signs on the doors (incidentally they are practically black, like everything else in Air!) and they also look like fire doors, this coupled with the sound in the main arena being so punchy and loud - there was No Way I was going to hear the tunes going on behind them. If you haven’t been to Air, when you go in just push every door open that you can find and you will eventually enter this room. Its easily the most attractive room Air has to offer, It has the only seats in the whole club if I remember correctly or actual sofa’s anyway. I say seating area, as have you ever noticed what some people are actually sitting on?!! The worst looking floors or dancing podiums that have had millions of dirty feet stomping around on them (and yes, I have done this!!!). It is amazing what we will call a seat sometimes, when we are out on an evening eh?!  Back to the third room - The bar, the sofa’s, the décor even the clothes people were wearing were all a bit trendier than downstairs. This was totally suited to the slower, sexier driving funky house tunes that were spilling out from the decks. If you want to pull the best looking bird at Air or the trendiest guy for that matter, this is the room for you! I could see lots of sexy provocative dancing going on and inviting looks from the girls as they strutted their stuff - Quality!!!

I decided to leave the girls and boys to flirt with each other and made my way back towards the two ‘big’ rooms. As I was on the same level of room 2, I decided to peak my head around again and take a few pics. The room was playing tougher tech house which was enjoyable - it had picked up the pace a bit since I walked in and this seemed to please most. Although the music is less intense than the main room and there is a little more light, it is not massively different, its still dark with practically every wall painted black! I was happily snapping and chatting away, when I noticed a couple of clubbers checking their watches and heading out the doors. I quickly assumed that as it was now just after midnight, Lisa of the Lashes might be making an appearance. Back to the main arena then, only stopping briefly on the stairs to take a pic of the spinning God’s kitchen symbol, which in contrast to the rest of the club, is completely made of white material. It spins rather majestically high up above everyone - Nice! The main room had now filled up a bit more, but still wasn’t creating a great atmosphere; this is a big super club in clubland and needs a big crowd to really get it off the ground. This is exacerbated by the dark, black walls and lack of lighting in the main arena as you really cannot see people and thus a packed environment is a must to feel like the club is anywhere near full. Unfortunately this time the club never really got too full and as this club has a superstar dj playing practically every weekend, its simply not going to be amazing Every time you go. Eddie Halliwell was due to play the following week for example and as Lisa had picked a weekend before payday Lisa’s Dark side was going to suffer accordingly.

Ultimately this didn’t really detract from the night too much as you became accustomed to the smaller numbers and everyone kinda crowded together under the dj booth giving the effect of a fuller club. The people who had made the effort to see Lisa’s dark side were all very cool and friendly though and whether I was sitting upstairs or on the dance floor, people were asking me if I was having a good night or what I was doing taking pictures of random clubbers and so on. Well done - Brummies! If the truth is known I am originally from the west midlands and as I live and work in London now, I am always impressed with how approachable and ‘nice’ the people are there. A good club night is all about the music, the dj’s and the club but its also got to be about the people; making some new acquaintances or friends is a big part of a successful night for me and its great when there is a lot of interaction going on. I should imagine this is a familiar display in Air, im sure its infamous status is largely dependant on the quality of its punters as well as the super star dj’s. Talking of which Lisa was having a good old bash at her dark side which started off more dark tech trance and she was slowly building it up and up and up and up and UP! Until she was banging it out Lisa Lashes style, im not sure what everyone else thought but, if she was going to be playing a 4 - hour set I was hoping she was going to vary it up a bit! I thought it worked really well too. It was great fun watching and hearing the music build, waiting for the next mix and hear how much harder or faster the next track was going to be!!! One of the best track’s I have EVER heard was played this night! It wasn’t quite her toughest hard house selection as Lisa was still building up to this, she was almost their - it was slightly more bouncy but boy was it a cracker!!! By the time her 4 hour stint was over Lisa had returned to her home ground of hard house and made her crescendo finale - finally I could visit the bathroom and go to the reception desk and order a another drink. ;)

All in all, it was an OK night; it wasn’t quite what I had expected. Me and my friends thought it needed more people and more of an atmosphere, im sure Air would agree. Without the proper crowd to make it a really good experience and after all the hype and promotion ultimately I feel it failed to deliver. The brilliant green laser half way through Lisa’s set did almost tip the scales on this decision so watch out for that – it really lights up the crowd and has some amazing shapes/effects to boot! In closing all I would say is, choose your weekend carefully!!! With a superstar dj playing most weekends, the locals are probably all clubbed out half way through any given month and will save themselves for the massive weekends. In this case check out who is also playing before and after the date you want to visit or take a whole group of mates and guarantee yourself a great night out with top quality sound and talent!

Till next time my friends.

You can see photos from the night in the UKCD Photo Gallery.

Review by paullifefit