CELEBRATING its third birthday, Liaison's much-hyped party at The O2's mammoth Matter nightclub delivered everything you would expect from one of London's biggest up-and-coming house music brands.
Everything, that is, except the vital ingredient to a great night out – a crowd of energetic, hedonistic clubbers, ready to dance until their feet bleed.
Torrential rain, a complete closure of the Jubilee line and a smorgasbord of other banging parties to choose from, all conspired to keep revellers away from the Greenwich venue last Saturday.
One advantage, of course, is that my usual pet peeve of queuing and being scrutinised by a power hungry bouncer was mercifully absent.
The disappointing turn-out aside, like the colossal dome it shelters under, Matter's design appears to be the product of a despotic madman, desperate to prove his worth and compensate for his shortcomings with a building of both monumental size and ugliness.
With its thick, grey concrete walls and stainless steel, the interior looked more like a converted Soviet war bunker than a nightclub.
However, its oppressive seriousness combined with a few sleek finishing touches lent it a spacey, futuristic feel.
Spread over two rooms, DJs including Kerri Chandler, Michel Cleis, Martinez and Spencer Parker, provided the best in uplifting house music.
However, the smaller upstairs dance floor shut almost immediately after it had opened due to the severe lack of punters.
As is de rigueur nowadays at bloated club nights like these, scantily-clad gogo dancers dressed as cyborgs took to the stage and danced the robot, before two Amazonian blondes arrived shooting out plumes of dry ice from Terminator-style ray guns.
It was all silly fun which kept you on the dance floor, but while the Djs played an undeniably hot set, the atmosphere remained frustratingly luke warm.
Matter has a reputation for attracting some of the biggest names in house music, but at Liaison's birthday bash, it was the small details which let it down in the end.
For information on the latest parties at Matter, visit matterlondon.com
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