A Tale Of Two Free-Flows
Alley Bar’s “The Great Gatsby” party on Thursday was marketed as simulating the experience of a 20s speakeasy, but even before eleven, typical yuppie bar shite was playing instead of Duke Ellington, and the free-flow alcohol that had been promised was so impossible to lay hands on that the Prohibition experience seemed all too realistic. I had been expecting that we might perhaps have to queue or wait quite long to get drinks, but I guess I shouldn’t have assumed any sort of system existed at all – we ended up squeezed next to the bar for two hours with throngs of other people just trying to order, and only a small fraction of us ever got any drinks.
The whole exercise stank of a cynical attempt to harvest email addresses and mobile phone numbers when people signed up for the free flow, and then to drive up the profits of the other bars on Emerald Hill (almost all of which are owned by the same management) when the same people gave up on the free flow and bought drinks at these other bars instead, so as not to render their evening an utter waste of time.
So as much of a marketing/publicity exercise as I assume this was for Alley Bar, it spectacularly backfired on me. Deciding that we didn’t feel like enriching anyone responsible for such a shitty party, Ja and Ravi brought us to Bar Stop on Killiney Road instead, which I rather liked and will use for all my Orchard-area yuppie bar needs in future. Way to go, Alley Bar – your incompetence drove me into the arms of a rival.
In contrast, Home’s housewarming party on Friday was infinitely better managed, with roving beer servers walking around to replenish empty glasses. As a fairly regular patron, I didn’t feel too guilty about drinking deeply, but I hope some of the people who were just there for the free flow liked it enough to go back in future. It’s a good club and I’d like to see new faces at its various nights instead of the same bunch of us time after time.
so when r we throwin down on the dancefloor at HOME again Michelle?
This has got nothing to do with anything, but really, how do you find time to blog so much?!
Benny: My recent blog posts don’t take that long to write, really. The sad thing is that the posts that do take a bit of time and effort to write end up unfinished and unposted. I feel the standard of writing on this blog has gone down somewhat since I started work, even if I do still manage to update it regularly. :(
singaporeslut: I may be going to Poptart this Saturday there, do come if you’re interested. Be warned that I don’t find indie music great to dance to at all though – I really just go for the simple joy of jumping around madly to the songs of my teenage years. It’s like Mambo for indie kids.
not into indie pop at all, but pleeeease let me know when Chris Ho (i know he spins at liquid room, does he play at Home too?) or a similar genre of spins there next.
Agree about Home. It was a very very lovely place to hang out at. The fact that it’s next to the river is awesome too. Liked the crowd there a lot. Very hip, not twat.
feel partly responsible for the Gatsby ordeal cos I circulated the flyer around and ended up not going. Sucks that no one dressed up for it.
“feel partly responsible for the Gatsby ordeal cos I circulated the flyer around and ended up not going. Sucks that no one dressed up for it.”
we hold u completely responsible kellykelly.
Is the Indie gonna be live band?
Someone searched for “michelle syntaxfree picture” and landed on my blog, the air of mystique is working! ;)
ci’en: Yay! But also, creepy!
singaporeslut: No live band, it’ll be DJs.
Poptart was fun. It was nice listening to all the British indie which I’d never heard before (though the style was definitely recognisable). My date had loads of fun jumping around madly as you said above. I hadn’t read your comment about it being like Mambo for indie lovers prior to going, but watching him and his other friends, I couldn’t help but think that they reminded ne very strongly of Mambosexuals, only the indie version.