Whiskey Kittens Rock & Roll NYE Party - Kaff Bar

New Year’s Eve can be a bit of a non-event. Expectations run high and subsequently the night itself can be a letdown. My NYE experiences sit in two camps: either a relatively low key night in, or a completely over the top night out that you spend the first week of the new year recovering from. This year I was hoping to strike a comfortable balance between those two possibilities.

As it’s my first New Year's Eve since moving to Brixton, staying in was never really an option. Unsurprisingly I was spoiled for choice, with many of my favourite local haunts promising a great night out – The Duke of Edinburgh putting on a Masquerade Ball, The Windmill offering a night of live music as usual, and the Prince Albert having their (in)famous Offline Club. However, it was Kaff Bar – another favourite of mine, and venue for recent Brixton Blog's Meet Brixtons – that got my vote. They were offering a Rock ‘n’ Roll Party courtesy of Whiskey Kittens.

Whiskey Kittens seemed like the obvious choice. The name evokes thoughts of a debauched night of rock n roll, ie. my idea of a good time. And of course whiskey has long been my spirit of choice. My taste for the drink developed from humble beginnings in my teenage years, when I would drinking Tesco’s own-brand scotch (a stag on the bottle designating its authenticity) in an attempt to stay warm (yes, that's a euphemism for getting drunk) whilst queuing for a gig somewhere like the Astoria. Happily I am now a more sophisticated connoisseur of this most delectable of spirits, but we all have to start somewhere.

I’d heard of Whiskey Kittens before and had been intrigued, so NYE seemed like the perfect time to check them out. Tickets can often be pricey on NYE, but the £15 entry ticket included a cocktail, glass of bubbly at midnight and ‘access’ to a buffet - which seemed more than reasonable to me.

After some drinks and takeaway from Bickles at my gaff, we headed to Kaff. Having spent the previous night at Face Down at The Scala (London’s biggest rock club, apparently) I was interested to see how different these two rock nights would be. At Face Down we saw Knotslip (a Slipknot coverband, obvs) whilst surrounded by a crowd comprised of two types of people: a) teenagers b) people who wished they were still teenagers. This was not a classy affair, and a lot of the audience were the kind that give the metal/alt subculture a bad name. Someone in the queue threw up before even going in. Apparently someone left in an ambulance. Before being admitted to the venue my chewing gum was confiscated by a security guard, who also looked with great suspicion at my keyring (a plastic edamame bean pod) as if it might be a container for pills. I was then given a once over with a metal detector. What a welcome! Later, as the band wrapped up their set, some girls, completely uninvited, decided to gyrate obscenely on stage, for some unknown reason seeking to degrade themselves. After this on the whole rather unpleasant experience (apart from the band who were top notch) I was looking forward to a much classier rock evening with Whiskey Kittens…and I wasn’t disappointed.

As we finally set foot in Kaff at around 11.45pm, the David Bowie tribute act, Cats from Japan, were already in full swing, playing all the hits like ‘Rebel Rebel ‘and ‘Starman’. We grabbed our free cocktails from the barmen (all extremely glamed up, back-combed hair and all, looking like they were in a Cinderella or Poison cover band). Kaff always has quite quirky cocktails – last time I had a 10p Mix which was a candy-sweet cocktail decorated with retro sweets such as Flying Saucers. This time I had what I think was a passionfruit flavoured cocktail with those silver balls (you know, the ones you can use to briefly make it look like you have tongue piercing) floating on top.

Cats in Japan singing us into 2013

After a brief intermission to count down to midnight (no Europe’s The Final Countdown here) the band proceeded to finish their set, then join the rest of us to dance the night away. Three burlesque acts (Luna de Lovely, Ava Iscariot and Spank Grrrl) treated us to their titiliating routines whilst we sipped our glasses of bubbly. Although I'm sure some people will disagree, I believe burlesque to be something that empowers and liberates women, and so these girls provided a stark and most welcome contrast to what I had witnessed the previous night. 

When the burlesque acts were finished, the Whiskey Kittens DJs started spinning their records and the audience invaded the stage, turning it into a dancefloor. The vibe of the night was rock’n’roll but the music was much more diverse than that – although we had some rock classics like Van Halen’s Jump, there were also plenty of great pop tunes from the likes of Lady Gaga and Girls Aloud. There was a great, friendly atmosphere – very relaxed with much bonhomie. Even the bouncers were super nice.

In the early hours of the morning, I walked home on a wave of positivity (laced with some booze). What a fantastic night it had been. Bring on 2013.