XOYO
Helena Hauff, Umwelt and Morah
2 DECEMBER 2017
32-37 Cowper St, EC2A 4AP
£13.50 + £1.70 booking fee
A stones throw from Old Street Station, XOYO is the famous East London nightclub which I had heard lots about, mostly bad...
Arriving at 11:30pm, the queue went quickly (5 mins) and after a pretty rigorous search of every compartment in my purse, we were let straight through. The queue for the cloakroom (£2 an item) wasn't as easy, and stayed like that pretty much all the way through the night, so if you can avoid bringing excess garms, do. Drinks prices were pretty standard for London clubs, £4.50 for a lager and £5 for a single shot and mixer.
The venue itself is spread over two floors, the upper floor usually is a cosy seated area, but had been taken out so it was just a stage with a dance floor and a bar. Downstairs was a much larger basement area with another stage and bar off to the right hand side, tucked nicely out of the way. There were loo's on both floors and neither one had a queue any time I went (hurrah)! There were some pretty intense laser lights downstairs, similar to those in Brixton club, Phonox. I wasn't totally convinced about these at the start, but they grew on me and were actually pretty mesmerising by the end of the night.
Techno was the order of the night music-wise, and much like the lights this grew on me as the night went on. When we first entered, the basement was playing sounds I can only describe as something you would hear in hell. A space-invaders, intense and dark mix of heavy noise which was in no way fun or inspiring. Whilst the basement of doom was darkly hypnotising the masses, upstairs opted for some more up-tempo, even disco-like techno: much more up my street.
A pet hate of venues like this is their smoking areas and XOYO's was equally unimpressive: a railed off section of the street outside the front of venue. Apparently you're often told to be quiet, make room for others, not allowed to sit down and sent inside if you're not smoking. Whilst the space was literally a sectioned off bit of pavement, I didn't have one bouncer come and tell me to either shut up, stand up or go inside apart from at 3:30 when they were closing the area off. No trouble at all and actually a lot better space than many other clubs of similar size (The Nest, Phonox, Drink Shop Do).
Helena Hauff, headlining the night, came on around 2am and played a 2 hour set until the nights close. I had listened to some of her original tracks beforehand and hadn't thought much of it to be honest, all 5 songs listed on Spotify had the same-y 2 step beat all the way through and it was actually pretty hard to differentiate between them. Despite this, the mixes and music Helena played on this night was fantastic, not dismal or dark but electrifying and bright.
Overall, after some pretty bad press, XOYO was an enjoyable and spacious venue with decent prices and great transport links (it's round the corner from Old Street station). Try and go to an event which probably won't sell out and both inside and outside will be comfortable, enjoyable spaces to have a good night.
OVERALL RATING: ****
http://xoyo.co.uk
