- Last month, the London grime party Boxed celebrated its second birthday at Bloc., AKA Autumn Street Studios. This was an upgrade from their last three venues (Birthdays, Rye Wax and Hysteria) in both capacity and quality. The space was grubby and industrial, with the same sort of stark, no-nonsense décor as Dance Tunnel. Throw in friendly staff, a great soundsystem and reasonably priced drinks and you had a venue befitting of a birthday.
The club was brimming with grime luminaries: veterans such as D Double E and the Butterz crew mingled with a who's-who of up-and-comers (Moleskin, Maddish, Dark0 and Dullah Beatz to name but a few). My pre-party favourite for best set was Spooky. A former member of the legendary Slew Dem crew and longtime staple of the scene, Spooky is notorious for his boisterous, gut-punching sets, and his early slot really delivered. But the night found an improbable centre-piece in Finn. Mr Mitch provided a pleasant interlude between the two, trading grime's martial screw-faces for soft heartache, before Finn seized the reins and hurtled into a blistering turn of ferocious, break-neck momentum. And he wasn't the only one. Each act managed to keep up with the high-quality performances of those preceding them, which lent the party an exhilarating edge. It was mostly the newer artists who brought the heat, too, which reflected Boxed's fresh, forward-facing outlook.
While all this was going on, the initially sparse dance floor swelled as more and more energetic clubbers piled in, transforming the room into a sweaty pit. The crowd roared and shook the metal barriers at the front as each new banger dropped. In Bloc., it felt like Boxed had finally found a home. Saying that, after the event I spoke to Slackk, the event's founder and resident. He seemed unsure about consistently filling a venue of such a size and told me that in future they'd retreat back to nomadically touring London's smaller venues. Personally, after such a sensational party, I feel he could afford to be a little more optimistic.