Britainology 13: The Big Night Out feat. Tom Usher

Also we sesh in America

I grew up in Vegas and have sold drugs lol on the strip you at least double your prices. In the regular city it is normal prices.

Talking about "10£ to get in and then the drinks are free" reminded me of this craze in the mid to late 00s in Germany where people basically waged a war against "flat rate parties" as they called them. Basically the same thing and then underage folks would get wasted beyond belief cause most of the time it was just private parties in someone's home or a rented club. I wasn't really the party going type but I was at some of those parties and everyone was just so young that it mostly stayed very civil cause everyone was just too awkward and shy to do anything outrageous.

£1 double vodbulls at Reading Yates before going to Q-bar and getting kicked out at some point was where it was at

Ketflix and pills is so fuckin grim

In America the "third room" is the car. No question about it.

My main vibe check on a bar is the absence or presence of a TV. If there isn't one, there's a chance to have a good time. Talk/make-out/go-home with someone new. Bullshit with the bar-staff. Have a quiet night _in the pub_ sometimes. If there's a TV you _can_ have a good time. It's just a lot harder, and never worth going into on your own.

No mention of the 2 essentials to the start of a night out; pre drinks and Wetherspoons

It’s different vibes in different parts of the US. I grew up in LA and smoking weed was a rite of passage in high school.

I'm more of a band guy than a club guy, but I can relate. I'd say the best nights out have been when I've either been playing in a band, or watching a band. I studied at a music school in Bristol, so me and music school mates would start the night going to watch a few bands play, sometimes seeing a mate's group. That would be central piece of the night, but then we'd go whatever was the biggest place that wasn't generic AF for a few hours, then maybe somewhere the Love Inn, then another pub just before it closes to quiet down, then have a massive group argument about whether to go to Cosies or a similar place. And if not then we got some chips, and then off home. Best time of my life, if I'm honest, and that's because growing up in a rural area, I didn't have a "third room" to go to. Never invited out anywhere. When I got to move away, I finally managed to make up for it. I kinda miss it, even though I'm pushing 30. Being able to see bands like Mogwai, Young Fathers, Hookworms, METZ, Sunn 0))) (Loudest gig ever!), Sleep, Idles (as a support band), Gaika, as well as all my mates' bands have been the best things that have happened to me. It's my happy place. Talking of shit clubs, I remember a dogshit place in Weston-super-Mare called Vision, where essentially you just went there to start fights, do deals, and listen to the crappiest chart shit out at the time. Still remember being there at 4 in the morning and out of nowhere 4 big security guys just went for some bloke on the dance floor. Can't remember what it was even about, but it being my first time away, I was a little shaken. On a similar night out in Weston (again, sadly) I was in a genuinely wholesome kebab place that's long since gone, but there was giant meathead polo shirt guy, who for literally no fucking reason just started antagonising a black guy half his size, getting all slurry (let's just say, talking about dicks to his face), and then suddenly it kicked off. Probs about 7 lads getting involved. Owner of the place came in swinging, and was it over in about a minute, everyone chucked out and that was it. Again, wasn't used to it, kinda weirded out. It's funny though, because that seems to be a small town thing, because there was never that trouble in somewhere bigger like Bristol, where everyone wants to be your mate. At least in my experience. There's been similar trouble with band venues too, of course. The amount of times property developers have being trying to get The Fleece in Bristol shut down has been ridiculous. A lot other places have faced closure too. I still miss the OG Stag & Hounds because it was one of the few places to go see weird experimental music acts play. Plus really good metal bands too. It was genius because it was on 2 floors, a band on each. After one finished, the next would start, so you could just move upstairs and keep listening, or stay downstairs and chill. I loved it. Then it got taken over, gentrified, and it's a shell of what it was IMO. I don't even know if they have bands play now. And it does mean all those weirdo acts now don't have a place to go of a similar calibre. I think the Louisiana was facing similar threats, and the Thekla was close to going as well because the posh twits in the flats across the river didn't like it. All my fave places just disappearing and it sucks. No idea how it's gonna go down now, and maybe the council will use recent rumblings as an excuse to push out all the good places completely. I'll be heartbroken if Stokes Croft is bulldozed to dust, and replaced with a ball pit bar. Still, I loved this episode and it's given me a lot to think about. Smashed it again. Thanks, gang.

super fun listen. honestly a little strange tho as genuinely cant imagine feeling safe/chill in all manner of nightlife spaces as u guys talk abt feeling. very intriguing if strange how much experiences of the same things can differ.

Remember those all you can drink for a tenna night, it was a Wednesday or Thursday nights in Bristol early 2000’s

Yearning to get off my face in a dark sweaty corner of Fold to fucked up state-of-the-art German techno for 12 hours followed by another 6 at Jaded but at this stage in lockdown I'd settle for doing tequila shots with Jonty at some shithole that plays Blurred Lines.

Please tell Tom Usher that I would love to go out with him. What a nice young man!

The vodka conversation reminded me of the Quad Damage, which was 4 50p vodka shots and a WKD Blue in a pint glass. Tasted exactly as you'd imagine and had exactly the effect you'd imagine. Pretty sure I only had it once and walked into every fruit machine whilst trying to leave the club 30 minutes later

Christ I miss the sesh. Can't drink on streets in Glasgow sadly.

Tooter is a term used in American drug culture, usually refers to a homemade meth pipe

I was thinking about the liquor Tom couldn't remember at the 15 min mark and I'm pretty sure its Mad Dog 20/20

I've not lived in the UK for over 12 years now and this episode was a beautiful line of nostalgia, cheers lads

The whole Britainology project has convinced me that the American Midwest and Britain are long lost brothers and may god help us all if your football hooligans ever meet up with ours (Buckeye Nation)

On the 3rd room discussion, as an American living in both a small college town in Ohio and Houston suburbs, in the suburbs you drive to a friends to watch a game and get hammered but in the small college town you can walk to the main street and bar crawl or walk from campus to a house party, get wasted and walk back to campus. It is hard to have a night out in the suburbs in the US, but small towns and cities you can still make a night of things

Correction, the fight club bar has been closed for a while, pre-covid it closed and there was a southeast asian? restaurant that opened in the space. Unless the restaurant failed and it's back. Durden's continued existence had troubled me as well and I kept tabs on it for a while even after I moved to Brooklyn

You say vodka hangovers are manageable, but I have a very painful memory of 2015 when I was at university, drinking 'cocktails' with my housemate made of Tesco Value Vodka and mixed squash. We drank almost the whole bottle between us and both blacked out. I was throwing up for almost three days afterwards. Still love a drink, but my brain physically won't let me drink vodka anymore.

Really makes you proud to be British

I’ve pretty much had a ridiculously romantic view of UK night life/social existence since I was 18 and I first became obsessed with Skins. This episode certainly didn’t do anything to diminish that view lol

A slight correction to the details about Klute, the club in Durham: It was rated the second-worst club in Europe, but then the worst club in Europe burnt down. So it is worst by default. Also, the Quaddy-Voddy is served with 2 shots in each glass (plus orange juice in one and cranberry in the other), with the expectation that you will add the two together.

The American third room is a car

Tyvm my Britainology tutelage was incomplete! Edit: Still is, those links aren't working for me through patreon for some reason Edit 2: I'm an idiot :D

Tf happened to 11 and 12

I think Prohibition plays some role in American drinking culture being slightly less insane than British. Like we all carry this collective memory that if we take this alcohol thing too far, they can take it away and make getting drunk very inconvenient. And there's nothing Americans hate more than inconvenience.

Never gonna forget going to a Soho strip club for my brother's stag do and cockney strippers going round collecting 50ps in a pint glass