Review: WHP - A Halloween Special curated by T.E.E.D

On the coldest night of the year, the first sight we encountered upon rounding the corner towards Victoria Warehouse was a lad kitted out in underpants, trainers and body paint all over his goose-bumped skin. It was nearing the end of October, and he was apparently ready for The Warehouse Project - A Halloween Special - curated by Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs.  

Despite this not being my first trip to the murky WHP netherworld this year, I was still taken aback by the sheer size of it all. Wandering past Room 2 (which is twice the size of most clubs) and into the enormous bar area, drinks were purchased before squeezing between thousands of shoulders and into the main room. The warehouse vibe, which has not been fully apparent since WHP was at Boddington's old brewery back in 2006, is back - and on this occasion filled to the brim with ghosts, witches and ghouls.

The first act we caught was Mosca, playing a surprisingly early set in the second room. Luckily for him, the crowd were up for dancing to his interesting garage-style take on house music despite the early time slot. Haters would no doubt link Mosca to the dubstep crowd, but this is a thousand miles away from that. Proceedings followed a similar vein, till we ended up with the masses in the main room for T.E.E.D.

The first time we saw Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs was a couple of years ago, playing in the back room of a 400 capacity club in Preston. It's amazing what T.E.E.D. has achieved over those couple of years, and watching the live set, you can understand his rapid ascent. Lights, ticker tape and a few thousand of Manchester's finest, singing in all the right parts and banging buoyantly together. The highlight was no doubt the finishing track and crowd-pleaser , 'Household Goods' - which seems to have cemented Orlando Higginbottom as one of dance-music's future legends.

After catching the last bit of The 2 Bears (or one of The 2 Bears) play a decent albeit not particularly inspiring DJ set, I got lost in time via alcohol, the smoking area and conversations from enthusiastic teenagers. Next thing I knew we were watching my own personal highlight for the night, Todd Terje who had our backsides shaking with his unique nu-disco vibe. This was clearly the choice for the older crowd in there (myself included), as was apparent by people's slightly less enthusiastic approach to partying.

I have been to roughly 30 Warehouse Project events over the years and up until Friday had never made it to an after party. This time round the timing was right, and I was personally seduced by the offer of a bus as opposed to the 3 mile walk to the train station. The after event was housed in the uber-cool South Nightclub off Deansgate, and was well-worth the journey. A laid-back House vibe greeted me and everyone else whose stamina had enabled them to carry on. South ended the night perfectly and more importantly, put us within walking distance of the train station on the coldest morning of the year.

Words: Joseph Sheridan-Ruddy

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