I've no idea wat clubbins like now. I did walk into a little bar a few years ago that was exactly same vibe as the random basements I'd find myself in in the 90s. So I hope it's still alive and well
I only stopped Djing around 5 years ago so I never really left clubbing, just saw it from another angle. I've been to a few in the past few years as a punter, places that are meant to be quite chilled in their atmosphere and ambience, not a place lager louts go.
All just seemed superficial, very few people were dancing like they were feeling the music, almost everyone looked like they didn't know how to let themselves go, too worried about what others would think or something. Tapping away on phones everywhere etc. No sweaty people, no bottles of water, no dodgy looking geezer wandering around. All very civilised but very unrelaxed.
My mate and I were talking about it after we left and we came to a conclusion maybe we'd have been the exact same if camera phones had existed then. Would we have been so uninhibited knowing you could end up on Facebook/YouTube etc within an hour? I don't envy the younger gen, they're being watched 24/7.
And I'm bound to say this, cos it is the law that when you're old and past your prime you say this - but dance music now sucks arse. I grew up through acid house, rave, drum and bass, US funky house, Italian piano, speed garage, hard house, UK garage then I got out the club scene as a consumer round about when trance and superclubs and their mix CDs really took a hold. Even then it felt like the scene was dying.
So many different styles in the space of a decade or so. Since then there's been very few periods of one style being the dominant force or kickstarting a movement - stuff like donk and bounce (pretty much the same) and the revival of jungle thanks to Rudimental seemed to stir up some interest for a while I guess but never really took over.