There aren’t many club nights in Edinburgh outside of the old town that serve up carefully selected, banging basslines alongside your vodka and coke.
It often feels like it’s difficult to get away from the same old places if you want new beats. Ironically, the old town tends to be the saving grace for new music, while the new town charges you £20 for a shot of WKD and insists on making you listen to David Guetta songs from 2010.
The team at Nightvision have been shaking up the capital club scene for over a year though, bringing some huge electronic names and huge nights to the city. Fittingly, these are normally based in the old town, which is why we were particularly intrigued to see Annie Mac and her ‘AMP’ circus scheduled to shake the Edinburgh Corn Exchange on November 28.
The Irish electronic music idol always smashes it when she comes to the Scottish capital, spinning fresh beats and irresistible loops in front of sell out crowds – and bringing some cracking new acts to warm up the audience as well.
It often feels like it’s difficult to get away from the same old places if you want new beats. Ironically, the old town tends to be the saving grace for new music, while the new town charges you £20 for a shot of WKD and insists on making you listen to David Guetta songs from 2010.
The team at Nightvision have been shaking up the capital club scene for over a year though, bringing some huge electronic names and huge nights to the city. Fittingly, these are normally based in the old town, which is why we were particularly intrigued to see Annie Mac and her ‘AMP’ circus scheduled to shake the Edinburgh Corn Exchange on November 28.
The Irish electronic music idol always smashes it when she comes to the Scottish capital, spinning fresh beats and irresistible loops in front of sell out crowds – and bringing some cracking new acts to warm up the audience as well.
Annie unleashed an hour and a half of what Edinburgh so often misses when she takes her hand off play
This time though, it was a little different, with her usual jamming ground of the HMV Picture House shut since earlier this year – something the JFC team are still rather bitter about – Annie took to the aforementioned Corn Exchange, which presented a few little problems.
The first little problem is that the place is freakin’ massive. It’s more of a hall than a club venue, though Annie brought a big enough turn out to make this a non-issue.
We met one guy at the bar who had travelled down solo from Aberdeen for AMP. Is that weird? Of course it is. But it also shows the cult status of these nights. Either that or that Annie Mac has a stalker or two based in the north of the country.
If there’s one thing we can guarantee anytime you go to the Corn Exchange though, it’s that if you don’t arrive seven hours early, you will never see the middle or the front of the dance floor. Of course, this is normally because of the whole ‘smash-your-way-to-the-front-and-trample-on-little-people’ vibe so common at gigs in Scotland, but it held true for the length of the night at Mac, giving the night a much more music-centric focus.
The first little problem is that the place is freakin’ massive. It’s more of a hall than a club venue, though Annie brought a big enough turn out to make this a non-issue.
We met one guy at the bar who had travelled down solo from Aberdeen for AMP. Is that weird? Of course it is. But it also shows the cult status of these nights. Either that or that Annie Mac has a stalker or two based in the north of the country.
If there’s one thing we can guarantee anytime you go to the Corn Exchange though, it’s that if you don’t arrive seven hours early, you will never see the middle or the front of the dance floor. Of course, this is normally because of the whole ‘smash-your-way-to-the-front-and-trample-on-little-people’ vibe so common at gigs in Scotland, but it held true for the length of the night at Mac, giving the night a much more music-centric focus.
This, unsurprisingly, was partly down to the fact that the bulk of the audience wanted to stare at Annie Mac as she blasted the chockablock dancefloor with beat after beat, and partly due to the fact that she absolutely killed it.
Coming on around 12.30 after grime-upcomer Stormzy had earned himself a new set of fans, Annie unleashed an hour and a half of what Edinburgh so often misses when she takes her hand off play; big melodies, bigger basslines and a knowledge of the modern music scene so deep that not a single track misses the beat.
The only drawback from her set? Well, that comes in our third and final problem with the Corn Exchange; the license. The venue was only open until 2am, which let’s not lie, is a little bit shit.
It’s already bad enough that the latest club in Edinburgh is only open till 3am, so delivering Annie and then taking her away so early was like being given half a can of Irn Bru for your hangover the next morning - sure, it’s great and you’re going to make the most of it, but it’s not going to last long enough to stop you vomiting in your bathtub in a couple of hours.
Needless to say Annie didn’t put a foot wrong throughout her set, but the night was lessened by that age old problem of a lack of appropriate venues in the capital. Let’s hope that next time, they give her the castle.
Coming on around 12.30 after grime-upcomer Stormzy had earned himself a new set of fans, Annie unleashed an hour and a half of what Edinburgh so often misses when she takes her hand off play; big melodies, bigger basslines and a knowledge of the modern music scene so deep that not a single track misses the beat.
The only drawback from her set? Well, that comes in our third and final problem with the Corn Exchange; the license. The venue was only open until 2am, which let’s not lie, is a little bit shit.
It’s already bad enough that the latest club in Edinburgh is only open till 3am, so delivering Annie and then taking her away so early was like being given half a can of Irn Bru for your hangover the next morning - sure, it’s great and you’re going to make the most of it, but it’s not going to last long enough to stop you vomiting in your bathtub in a couple of hours.
Needless to say Annie didn’t put a foot wrong throughout her set, but the night was lessened by that age old problem of a lack of appropriate venues in the capital. Let’s hope that next time, they give her the castle.
RSS Feed
