Tab Tries: Sober Motion

A sober night in any club is an ordeal. And you probably think that attempting it in one of the more drug-associated clubs in Bristol will probably be worse, right?

it was more fun than this photo implies

As surreal as a night sober in Motion was, it was genuinely much better than I expected. Maybe it’s just me, but thinking back on the evening, not being mashed on booze or drugs was not necessarily such a bad thing.

Sidenote – the new outdoor setup looks amazing

Some would argue that Motion’s music is infinitely more enjoyable when under the influence. I’m not going to try and argue that that’s not true – for a lot of people it clearly does make it a whole lot better and it’s not my business what you choose to put in your body.

The sobriety had its downsides: I definitely started to notice the more annoying things that generally go overlooked, such as someone spilling a drink on me, and the headliners coming on an hour later than scheduled.

Unidentified drink spilt on expensive jumper was not a highlight

As expected, tiredness was a big problem – having gotten there at midnight, staying later than 3am sober felt impossible.

If the music’s to your taste though, and this was definitely the case for me on Friday at the Groove On launch, it honestly wasn’t a big deal being the only man in the room fit to drive.

Sippin’ on straight-up lemonade

So, the music was still good. As a further plus, I didn’t wake up with an aching jaw and feeling overwhelmingly emotion-less the following morning. And I obviously saved a lot of money too.

Motion’s become a lot more cultured this year

There was, however, one large issue with this. I know a lot of people have great nights with a bit of synthetic help at venues like Motion and I couldn’t help but feel a bit left out.

Having said that, a sober night with some good music might not be the best fun you ever have, but it’s not the hellish experience many people assume it to be.

The quality of the night is on many occasions determined by the quality of the music – I guess that’s essentially what we all go there for. When you’re heading to Motion, unless you’ve been dragged along unwillingly, you already know the music will be good. On this night, the music was good enough for me that I didn’t feel out of place amongst the gurners.

As cliché and uncool as it sounds – I was high on life. If you haven’t done so already, give it a try.