Well, Big Pink Cake was brilliant. After an exciting journey down in a motor car driven by the lovely Matthew, we spent the afternoon drinking cider in a boat (A BOAT. THAT SELLS CIDER. Do you see?) and eating slightly dodgy curry before arriving at the venue exactly on time, and slightly tipsy.

We were delighted to find we’d been handed the much-vaunted 10pm – 12:30am set, and aided by our Team Come Out 2Nite Bristol division associate Alastair took on our DJing responsibilities with gusto.

And it was strange. To begin with there weren’t very many people there, and central Bristol itself looked like something of a ghost town. Outside the window the only people we saw were stag do-ers and hen night-ers, not really the sort of crowd we were after, and thankfully prevented from entering the venue by the nice doorman.

But then something magic happened: some girls got up and started dancing. And where girls go, boys follow. Suddenly the dance area was pretty packed, with a really interesting cross section of people. There were some sweet emo and punk kids, who knew all the words to Paul Simon’s Graceland and one of whom sported a Roy Orbison t-shirt. There were a lot of people, indeed, who didn’t seem to be the sort to like the kind of music we played, but were prepared to dance anyway – which was awesome. Seeing a full dancefloor for Shrag’s Pregnancy Scene, all giving it their all despite clearly having no idea what they were listening to, was a highlight. Our mixture of indiepop and out-and-out pop classics seemed to go down fairly well, overall. We’re really grateful to Matthew and Heather for letting us play, and for making up for New Years Eve, where we got so drunk we could barely mash the DJ buttons with our badly sozzled fists.

This time, we only managed to turn the CD decks off once. During Kenickie. But that was fine, it just meant everyone got to hear the song twice.

So here are a smattering of psychedelic photos for you all to enjoy. Our next DJ entanglement isn’t until INDIETRACKS, but if anyone wants to book us before then, well. We’d be delighted to assist.

J x

Thanks to all who came along on Saturday night. It wasn’t the busiest of nights – this I blame on the unexpectedly glorious weather, with the side effect* that everyone had been drinking all day and was unconscious by 8pm. But those that came, danced, and for that we thank you.

Our next night at the Betsey Trotwood isn’t going to be until September. But fear not – we’re not going into an against-nature summer hibernation. No,  instead we’ll be popping up at various places over the next couple of months. First up is this Thursday: we’re DJing between and after the bands at How Does It Feel Presents… in Brixton. Please do come along if you can, the line up of bands looks lovely.

Next up is Big Pink Cake in Bristol on June 5th – we’re guest DJing! Bristol is a lovely city – all the men dress like Isambard Kingdom Brunel and all the women dress like Tricky. Come up for the weekend, drink some cider, gawp at the fancy suspension bridge and COME OUT FOR A DANCE. Geoff is.

Finally, we’re DJing at the Indietracks festival in Derbyshire on Friday 23rd July. We’re in the tent, and slightly scarily we’re up against Sheffield indiepop/punk legends Offbeat, who are DJing in the train shed at the same time. However the tent is much nicer for dancing than the enormo-shed – and also we’ll have you killed by ninjas if you don’t come and see us. Consider yourselves warned.

* This being England

Presuming we turn up on time and everything goes according to plan, the evening will go something like this:

8 – 9:30pm: CO2N DJs’ themed sets
9:30 – 10:30: Our super Guest DJ, Lynsey from Half My Heart Beats
10:30 – 1amish: Us lot again playing whatever we like / falling over

We’ve just about decided on our themed sets. Mine is going to be all about ANIMALS. Morgan’s is to be about COCAINE. Sandy’s is either going to be about GOOD SEX, BAD SEX, or NOT GETTING ANY SEX AT ALL, depending on which theme she finds the more danceable songs for.

Therefore the codename for the first Come Out 2Nite of 2010 is COCAINE SEX ANIMALS. Who are also a noisecore band from Sweden.

Please let us know if you have any requests, or song suggestions for our themes. I will not be playing either How Much Is That Doggie In The Window or Hound Dog. Probably.

Finally, we expect it to be quite a busy night, so GET DOWN EARLY!

There’s rather a lot of exciting Come Out 2Nite action in the next thirty days or so.

First up is the Big Pink Cake New Year’s Eve party – it takes place in rather a lovely venue in up-and-coming Kings Cross and has a ridiculously fancy DJing line-up… and us. We’re on last, by which time everyone will be drunk and we can play whatever we like. It’s going to be brilliant. Tickets here, facebook here, flyer below:

Next up is our glorious and heroic return to the Betsey Trotwood, featuring Guest DJ Lynsey from Glasgow’s Half My Heart Beats. Post-zeitgeist social networking site facebook appears to claim that 43 people have already committed to coming along – so get down early! Themes will be announced closer to the night – any suggestions will be voraciously consumed.

Finally, at least two of us are DJing at Geoff’s 30th birthday in Nottingham on the 30th January – an event I have dubbed the G30 summit. Even if you think you don’t know Geoff, you probably do, as the man is an indie dancefloor legend, doing his man-being-electrocuted jerky dance routine to Hefner and Pavement at indie discos around the globe (oh ok, mainly at Offbeat). If you know him, think you know him, or want to know him, send us a mail and I’ll reveal the location.

That’s all for now. Hope everyone has an ace 2010 and see you on a dancefloor soon!

Sandy has made us some ACE new flyers which you’ll shortly see about the town.  It’s so good that I would TOTALLY COME TO THIS if I weren’t one of the DJs.

- Morgan

But if you’re more about looking forward than back, then I’m pleased to announce that our next nite will be on Saturday 23rd January. Come along and dance away those post-Christmas cobwebs!

We have many exciting announcements to come in the forthcoming weeks, including the identity of our next guest DJ and the latest round of themes, which will be matched to the DJs via a thoroughly vigorous and vetted random selection ceremony. If you have any ideas for what themes we should play next time (something other than the years of our birth!), please leave them in the comment box below.

1. No More Heroes – Stranglers
2. Psycho Killer – Talking Heads
3. The Passenger – Iggy Pop
4. Neat Neat Neat – The Damned
5. 12XU – Wire
6. I Am A Cliche – X-Ray Spex
7. Breakdown – Buzzcocks
8. Psycho Mafia – The Fall
9. Denis – Blondie
10. In The City  – The Jam

In the very vaguest of orders…

Once & Never Again – Long Blondes
French Navy – Camera Obscura
Henry Rollins Don’t Dance – Allo Darlin’
Hotel Yorba – White Stripes
Hit – Sugarcubes
Another Sunny Day – Belle & Sebastian
Becoming More Like Alfie – The Divine Comedy
Beginning To See The Light – The Velvet Underground
Joy Division Oven Gloves – Half Man Half Biscuit
Birdhouse In Your Soul – They Might Be Giants
Man On The Moon – REM (two friends attempted to MOSH to this)

Northern Lites – Super Furry Animals
I’m a Cuckoo – The Belle & The Sebastian
Don’t Falter – Mint Royale & Lauren Laverne
Here Comes Your Man – The Pixies
Size Of A Cow – The Wonderstuff
Come Out 2Nite – Kenickie (duh)
Luckiest Guy On The Lower East Side – The Magnetic Fields
Shady Lane – Pavement
Girl From Mars – Ash

A big thank you to everyone who came along and danced last night. Or even if you didn’t dance and just fell asleep in one of the booths, that was good too.

Pics and further setlists will appear on this blog in future hours and days, but for now here’s my set from 1979, the year of two fundamentalist revolutions (Iran & Thatcher). The set seemed to go pretty well, though I had a lot of people coming up asking for songs that weren’t from 1979. Next time we do our themed sets, we will endeavour to remember to have little cards propped up by the DJ booth explaining what we are doing (e.g. PLAYING SONGS GOTHS SECRETLY LIKE).

Final thought: I now regret not playing the full SIX AND A HALF MINUTES of Rock Lobster. I regret that Rock Lobster isn’t, in fact, 13 minutes long. I regret many things.

—–

1979 Setlist

One Way Or Another – Blondie
The Number One Song In Heaven – Sparks
I Heard It Through the Grapevine – The Slits
Video Killed The Radio Star – Buggles
Cool For Cats – Squeeze
Another Girl Another Planet – The Only Ones
ROCK LOBSTER – The B52s (ROCK LOBSTER!)
Oliver’s Army – Elvis Costello
Gangster’s – The Specials