Interzone Review by Left Hip
Interzone
Hosted by Guerrilla Zoo at the Synergy Centre London, UK, Friday 29th March 2008
To host a conceptual night based around the quasi-fictional ‘Interzone’ (an international zone in Tangiers made infamous in beat writer William S. Burroughs’ cult classic ‘Naked Lunch’) is no small task and considering the novel’s inundation of heady unreality and all manner of vice and violence I was, on entering, both sceptical and excited at the possibility of what such a night could have in store. So putting on my best beatnick writer outfit I entered Interzone, leaving my morals at the door.
The space itself, the Synergy Centre, is a large and roomy building maintained by squatters, a group that are largely becoming a neo- or alt-middle class in their own right (for better or worse) in London, and so the stuffiness that could normally interfere with such a night when hosted by a legal venue was well and truly unnoticeable or at least ineffectual anyway.
However despite my first impressions the first room, a space for bands to perform, was somewhat lacking aesthetically with regards to the Burroughs Mythos, the building’s roots as a factory or warehouse showing throughout while a small stage played host to several acts ranging from the enjoyable if slightly inoffensive alt-rock act, KTD to the histrionics suffering Le Cocteau Jaune, a pseudo-electronica group that in my humble opinion should be bottled and preserved to demonstrate all that is bad within the trust fund artiste scene swaggering out of Shoreditch of late. In fact the line up of live acts performing, while giving it their all, tended toward the typical one would find in an arts orientated squat party, while a dark cabaret style environment, perhaps with the odd table here and there (with hookah pipes mandatory), while alienating their normal clientele, would have fitted much more aptly within the conceptual corner that Guerrilla Zoo had painted themselves into.
It wasn’t all disappointment however, in fact far from it as hidden at the back of the main floor one would find the cold steel stairwell leading to the art installation/ market designed to look like a Tangiers market place albeit with a nightmarishly surreal twist. Here you would find yourself suddenly remembering the theme of the evening, with rope play performances in one corner of the room and a hookah pipe tent at the other, though one would assume the drug of choice inside was something a little less harsh then opium.
While pleasing to the eye and definitely a feat of the imagination (the dark Dubstep beats adding toward the sinister environ about you) it was the interaction within the mock up market place that attracted people’s attention. Being accosted by Dr. Benway in one instant and having your future read through tarot cards the next, the whole atmosphere was stimulating, dreamlike and exciting leaving you like a child in the hands on exhibition at a science museum, having free range to touch taste and smell (within reason) all the inglorious delights Interzone has to offer.
A mixed bag then by and large but an epic feat for all involved and one that surely will be talked about for some time to come in the underground scene in London.
Having had my eyes nearly burned out of their sockets in the men’s bathroom via a cleaning method that involved undiluted chlorine (conceptual art piece perhaps?) I decided to make my way northward and home, pondering on the thought that if Burroughs were alive today would he frequent such a place as this?
Probably not, I concluded as smoking was permitted only on one floor, a rule that I doubt the great writer would have appreciated let alone adhered to.
- Michael Byrn
Source - http://lefthip.com/features/2883
Hosted by Guerrilla Zoo at the Synergy Centre London, UK, Friday 29th March 2008
To host a conceptual night based around the quasi-fictional ‘Interzone’ (an international zone in Tangiers made infamous in beat writer William S. Burroughs’ cult classic ‘Naked Lunch’) is no small task and considering the novel’s inundation of heady unreality and all manner of vice and violence I was, on entering, both sceptical and excited at the possibility of what such a night could have in store. So putting on my best beatnick writer outfit I entered Interzone, leaving my morals at the door.
The space itself, the Synergy Centre, is a large and roomy building maintained by squatters, a group that are largely becoming a neo- or alt-middle class in their own right (for better or worse) in London, and so the stuffiness that could normally interfere with such a night when hosted by a legal venue was well and truly unnoticeable or at least ineffectual anyway.
However despite my first impressions the first room, a space for bands to perform, was somewhat lacking aesthetically with regards to the Burroughs Mythos, the building’s roots as a factory or warehouse showing throughout while a small stage played host to several acts ranging from the enjoyable if slightly inoffensive alt-rock act, KTD to the histrionics suffering Le Cocteau Jaune, a pseudo-electronica group that in my humble opinion should be bottled and preserved to demonstrate all that is bad within the trust fund artiste scene swaggering out of Shoreditch of late. In fact the line up of live acts performing, while giving it their all, tended toward the typical one would find in an arts orientated squat party, while a dark cabaret style environment, perhaps with the odd table here and there (with hookah pipes mandatory), while alienating their normal clientele, would have fitted much more aptly within the conceptual corner that Guerrilla Zoo had painted themselves into.
It wasn’t all disappointment however, in fact far from it as hidden at the back of the main floor one would find the cold steel stairwell leading to the art installation/ market designed to look like a Tangiers market place albeit with a nightmarishly surreal twist. Here you would find yourself suddenly remembering the theme of the evening, with rope play performances in one corner of the room and a hookah pipe tent at the other, though one would assume the drug of choice inside was something a little less harsh then opium.
While pleasing to the eye and definitely a feat of the imagination (the dark Dubstep beats adding toward the sinister environ about you) it was the interaction within the mock up market place that attracted people’s attention. Being accosted by Dr. Benway in one instant and having your future read through tarot cards the next, the whole atmosphere was stimulating, dreamlike and exciting leaving you like a child in the hands on exhibition at a science museum, having free range to touch taste and smell (within reason) all the inglorious delights Interzone has to offer.
A mixed bag then by and large but an epic feat for all involved and one that surely will be talked about for some time to come in the underground scene in London.
Having had my eyes nearly burned out of their sockets in the men’s bathroom via a cleaning method that involved undiluted chlorine (conceptual art piece perhaps?) I decided to make my way northward and home, pondering on the thought that if Burroughs were alive today would he frequent such a place as this?
Probably not, I concluded as smoking was permitted only on one floor, a rule that I doubt the great writer would have appreciated let alone adhered to.
- Michael Byrn
Source - http://lefthip.com/features/2883
