On Friday 8th December, Northern Irish heavyweight duo Bicep curated a special edition of The Hydra, which would see the pair perform their new boundary-pushing concept; Chroma. Taking place at London’s latest and largest raving destination; Drumsheds, this 15,000 cap behemoth of a venue acted as the industrial canvas for a night of audiovisual sensation.
Venue
Formerly an IKEA warehouse, Drumsheds opened its doors this September and has since been the talk of the town with thousands flocking to the giant rave playground. Spanning a colossal 608,000 sq ft, the new space is Broadwick Live’s most ambitious project yet after Printworks closed its doors earlier this year.
Located a stone’s throw from their former venue by the same name, the new and improved Drumsheds features multiple rooms, all offering their own interesting attributes. X room – the largest of the three, is a never-ending warehouse with a sprawling floor space and raised platforms on either side which feel like a nod to the balconies in Printworks’ Press Halls.
Y room flips the setting on its head, with low-ceilings and moody lighting creating an intimate feel in what is still a huge space. Finally the Z room is currently the smallest in action, but by no means the worst of the three with a more up close and personal feel at 1000 capacity and striking features including the original loading bays and a caged DJ booth.
Staff
Very helpful and present throughout the night, with multiple stewards on route to the venue offering directions both to/from and whilst inside (which is easy to get lost in without), as well as an army of bar staff on hand to keep queues at a minimum.
Heat
We’d heard how cold it can be inside the venue (which makes sense seeing how big it is), but to our pleasant surprise the temperature was comfortable throughout the night, with us wearing just a t shirt and trousers. That being said, it wasn’t the coldest of nights sitting at around 7°C outside so we can see how this could be different – so check the forecast and plan accordingly.
Food & Drink
Once inside the venue you’re funnelled through a ground floor area which contains a large bar to the left. In addition to this is an open plan space which connects to each music room and is filled with countless bars specialising in certain drinks from wine & fizz to beer, water and another generic bar. A selection of independent food stalls were also on site serving Thai, Mexican, American and Korean cuisine.
A nice touch for drink cups is that they come with a lid and straw if requested – saving you spilling it all over the person next to you if knocked in the crowd and also protecting against spiking.
Drink Prices
Beer & Cider : £6-6.50
Spirits : £7.80-8.80 (single) / £12-13 (double)
Water & Softs : £3.5 (free water is also available at the bars and separate water-filling points)
Crowd
A mixture of ages were in attendance, though most were probably in the 25-30 range. Zero trouble or bad actors on the night, creating a safe and positive atmosphere all could enjoy in harmony.
Production
One of the standout parts of the night. Especially so in the X room for Bicep’s Chroma show which brought an absolute frenzy of lasers erratically bursting into the room, an army of strobes and one of the biggest LED screens we’ve ever seen. The Y room featured multiple visual panels, running horizontally along the space, perfectly utilising the low ceilings as well as with some spot and cam lights dotted around.
Z room kept things stripped back, leaning on the industrial character of the space with minimalistic lighting which created an ominous red glow and offered a nice contrast to the other stages.
Sound
Drumsheds soundsystem was supplied by the mighty L-Acoustics; often the audio setup of choice for the biggest venues and festivals around the globe. However, for a venue as big as this is, getting the sound spot on was never going to be easy. That said, we found the X Room to be surprisingly solid, with enough oomph to warrant a bass face even near the back of the crowd. We’d love to see some fine-tuning in the Y room, which lacked that low end warmth.
DJ Sets
Special Request
Setting up shop early in the night for only the second set in the Y room, Paul Woolford aka Special Request took to the decks and treated us with a breaks and garage laced set which carefully built up the energy in the room. Notable tracks included an edit of Inner City’s iconic “Good Life”, the rave-stab induced “Pvssy” by Boys Noize and an outrageous tune below which we’re still trying to ID.
Sherelle
The queen of jungle, footwork and all things supercharged stepped up in the Y room after a techno lover’s treat from Benjamin Damage just before. Wasting no time at all, Sherelle was quickly firing on all cylinders at the blistering pace she’s become widely adored for. Effortlessly dipping in and out of genres like light work and keeping the crowd on their toes. Stand out moments included hearing “Workahol” by Minor Science and a wall-shattering edit of Darude’s “Sandstorm”.
Bicep
Closing out the proceedings in emphatic style were the night’s curators; Bicep and boy did they end it on a high. Having been eager to see what their new Chroma A/V DJ set would consist of, we were curious about the kind of selections they’d opt for. Safe to say we weren’t prepared for what they had in store. It was faster, harder and more experimental than we’d ever seen in a Bicep set before.
Spinning the likes of Overmono’s latest unreleased banger “Hackney Parrot R.I.P”, Pariah’s mind-bending track “Caterpillar” and of course some of their own anthems including “Glue”, the hotly anticipated “Helium” and some new IDs. Phenomenally layered with spellbinding production, the room was in complete awe for the duration of the 90 minute set and was easily one of the best A/V shows we’ve ever seen.
Summary
Drumsheds offers an experience like no other in the UK, at 15,000 capacity it’s the biggest venue of it’s kind in the country and with this comes pros and cons. Personally, we feel the venue has done a good job of installing a sound system which can cater for such a cavernous space, though there is certainly room for improvement in fine-tuning it to get the best output.
Being a special A/V show, the production was out of this world, though we know from previous shows the likes of LED screens and strobes are a permanent fixture at the space. If their sister venue Printworks is anything to go by, the lighting will only get better as time goes on.
With such a vast amount of people in the venue, leaving at the end of the night did take some time, with a bottleneck of ravers at the exit and traffic jams outside the venue. Logistically, this is no easy feat to manage but we’d be keen to see how this could improve as time goes on. Overall though, Drumsheds is certainly an enthralling and unique space to rave, which needs to be on your to-do list.
Words: Ben Lovejoy
Images: Jake Davis (instagram.com/jakephilipdavis)
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