Bad Bruises was not what I expected, but in a good way. They had made no mention of a dungeon or a play space and so I assumed there weren’t any. I was right – in a way. There was no dedicated play space or dungeon, instead the entire club was a free-for-all with it being up to you how you best made use of the space for the kind of play that you liked. A friend of mine who is into impact play had brought his tools along but said he didn’t really see a space to use them. I told him that people were just using the podiums etc as things to lean against and making the most of it.
Just like one little area became the 'studio' for an electro-body machine - basically a massive vibrator made out of a sub-woofer controlled by an ipad. What a contraption.
This is the kind of ethos I can get behind as it really gave the place a hedonistic, anything goes kind of vibe (very apt for a night themed Sodom and Gomorrah) but I can see it was a little confusing for those used to defined spaces.
Other aspects of the evening also impressed in terms of the performance which was deliciously macabre and of high quality and quite immersive: happening in and amongst the crowd. I suspect I missed more than what I saw as there were no set times, it was just happening ad hoc in various places. Again, I do like this approach but it does feed my FOMO as I always want to make the most out of a night and see everything.
The biggest flaw of the evening was the approach to music. Genres were varied across the night which was a plus, but unpredictable not only in each room but within each DJ, which was a negative. You’d get into one song only for it to switch genres to something else completely unrelated to your tastes. A highlight was running into a room playing jungle with a kickass MC on the mic, only for the DJ to play something completely undanceable for those I was with. So that was disappointing.
Overall, I felt this was a fresh addition to the kink nights we have and more of the same would be welcome as long as they can overcome their desire to try to cram in every kind of music into everywhere all night. Let people get into their groove!