Jamie XX The Floor 10- an honest review of the DJ's club night.

Jamie XX at The Floor 7 (Source: Instagram @jamie__xx)

When I was 17, I went to my first festival- Boardmasters 2021. By a mile, the best act I caught live was Jamie XX, who I managed to persuade my friends to go to instead of headliner Jorja Smith. Having listened to his album "In Colour" before and getting to see it live with his rainbow-heavy lights right at the barrier as an excited adolescent, it was and is still one of my favourite live music moments I have ever experienced. Completely sober, I felt euphoric.

As you can imagine, when I found out about his residency "The Floor" at Venue MOT with unannounced special guests, I pounced at the opportunity to go and did so on his final night on the 25th of May.

The days building up to the night were tense, with big names of some of my favourite artists: Jockstrap, Charli XCX, and Daphni all being announced, I was envious knowing Jamie was unlikely to allow repeats. When the time came for my line-up to be announced, I knew none of the acts' names: George C, Cooly G, and 2Manydjs. Nonetheless, I wasn’t going to ponder on this setback and was soon enthusiastic about discovering new artists to listen to.

Venue MOT was sincerely hellish. Those who survived the whole night there must be from an alternate, electronic music universe. The room was small yet not intimate as the sweaty and sticky atmosphere of the overfilled room that had no heat relief distracted me from the music. The sound was beyond its limit, any of us without ear protection (which was most of us) were screwed as we covered our ears in agony. The lights flashed occasionally and intrusively in my eyes blinding me for split seconds, but that's all that they did. All of this made it difficult to actually unwind and enjoy the music; my approach was faking it till I made it, but alas, I never did.

The music itself was slightly disappointing, granted, I didn't know what to expect from the other artists. Jamie's new single "Baddy On The Floor" got a pep in my step, but his set was rather lacklustre filled with mellow R&B tracks in comparison to the hyperreal and elated music I had experienced previously.

All in all, it was an experience; certainly not the worst club night I've been to by any means and I'm still very excited for the long overdue album. Perhaps the venue wasn't ready for an artist with such a loyal following, but a little more consideration certainly needed to be taken.