I went to The Raz sober and it actually wasn’t as bad as you’d expect

The Raz, legendary in Liverpool and the best way to start the week. I did the unthinkable and went to The famous Raz, stone-cold sober. Not a drop of alcohol passed my lips all evening.

Why you may ask? Who knows. Maybe curiosity, a longing for the truth, for an experience I could share, or maybe I'm just plain mad.

On the fateful Monday night I headed to pre-drinks, with my can of coke, unsure of what was in store for me. As I sat in a circle of my drunken friends playing 'Ring-of-Fire', I began to wonder what might happen. Would 'the Blue Angel' be any different with sober eyes? Would I finally uncover it's true colours? Would I actually find out why everyone calls it 'the Raz', when it has nothing to do with the actual club's name? All I could do was wait and see.

Starting out with the strong stuff

Upon entering the building, I was first struck by how strange the lighting is. Seriously, it's weird and pretty hard to explain. It's not dark exactly, but you still can't see very well. It has a lot of shadowy places that are juxtaposed by strange, glowing lights of various colours. Everything seemed to glow green and purple. It's pretty disorientating if you're not drunk.

The first task was ordering from the bar. After asking for "just a coke, please" the staff seemed pretty perplexed. They doubled checked that that was what I actually meant, confirming that I did not, in fact, want any alcohol, and then they had to double-check the price of the soft drinks. I guess people don't order them very often. Turns out a pint of "coke" (it wasn't officially coca-cola) costs the same as a "Raz bomb", a sober night isn't even cheaper!

One thing I definitely noticed – the staff were really pleasant, even the bouncers. Whether they were nice to me because I was sober or it became more apparent because I was sober will remain a mystery, but maybe we take staff for advantage when we're drunk.

I did kind of fancy a 'fat frog' tbh

After obtaining my drink, it was time for the main event – venturing down into the basement. Who knew what wonders awaited me down there?

The weird glow continued and everything appeared to be tinged green, maybe to match the drinks? It was also extremely hot and throughout the night the room slowly turned into a sauna of sweat. Drunk people around me continued to dance, oblivious to the mist of sweat hovering in the air.

There seems to be a tendency in the Raz for some of the various groups of friends to merge with other groups, forming one super-group of dancing drunk people which became apparent very quickly. The first, albeit small, group of people we stumbled upon then attached themselves to us for the rest of the night. It's always nice to meet new people, but when sober the popular Raz hat becomes far more obviously tragic. Everybody makes mistakes though, right?

Why the orange one though??

First impressions of the basement were not so bad. It wasn't too crowded yet, and my shoes hadn't been ruined by the floor, so all was good.

The playlist was somewhat interesting. It felt like someone had taken a load of NOW CDs from various points in time and just put them all on shuffle. Including the second disks that no-one really ever listens to. Saying that, it was fun to dance to, drunk or sober, so I have to give them some credit. Maybe the Raz isn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be.

Sober, I did notice how disgusting the toilets are. Nightclubs tend to conform to this, but none of them had locks on the doors which was both strange and annoying.

Overall, I must say that my sober night at The Raz wasn't all that bad. I had worse expectations, but I did notice things I wish I hadn't and would probably be oblivious to if drunk. Dancing the night away with £1 coke in hand and saving money was a wholesome experience and still plenty of fun. The Raz is a strange, wonderfully unique place.