- With Nick Curly's meteoric rise to tech-house emperor all but evading Newcastle's collective consciousness, it wasn't much of a surprise that the Shindig promoters would swiftly push him past the main stage and into the second room at this edition of their weekly night. Digital, like many clubs eager to litter their promotion material with fad words, have been pushing the second room as a "terrace bar." A quick glance at a dictionary suggests that a terrace is an open or raised platform, and the room I was in resembled a quite disjointed baroque-inspired lounge. (Although I was impressed by the quite snazzy DJ booth, which looked not too dissimilar to the light-speed warp sequence from Star Wing if you'd maybe had about ten pills prior to turning on the SNES.)
After my bout of gaming nostalgia I had a quite tentative little bob on the deserted dance floor, which swiftly got me back in the mood for music. Some nice slick house, shifting between deep repetitive beats and piano-led Detroit monsters wasn't what I'd expected from resident Neil Bainbridge, but it was a welcome surprise and a great way to attract a few more visitors to the heavily depleted room before Curly worked his magic. Empty as it was, it must have taken the Mannheim maestro aback when faced with only about 40 eyes and ears for his first tune.
With many of Newcastle's nights relying on the solid student population to bolster door numbers, this post-term bash was one of a likely many casualties as the tax-evaders fled the city to return to their mother's teat. But Curly looked unfazed and dropped straight into a classy tech-house number, one of many that got a good long airing before slowly slipping into new territory. It is this hypnotic drawn-out mix style that sets Curly just that bit apart from his peers, and his perfect beat matching coupled with a second-to-none track selection really justifies the heavy hype that's been surrounding him of late.
With the momentum of the room now guaranteed to last the night, I took time to scour a recent Shindig flyer. Vincenzo and Bearweasel had already graced this room, with the human groove-machine I:Cube still to come. Although Shindig do boast some weighty main room acts it's really this tech-house playground where they really shine, booking some of the freshest names around to come and entertain the great(ish) North East. If Newcastle isn't lapping this up now, then they certainly will by the time the city regains capacity come September.