Tropical Animals
From the outside, the club scene in Florence can appear a stagnant mess of bad R&B and pop nights designed solely to yank in American students with cut price drinks and terrible, terrible music. Few exceptions exist . One exception however, is the wonderfully raucous Tropical Animals. It has found its home in a few different venues since its inception in 2011, but most recently resides in Club 21, that, while pretty terrible for the rest of the week – becomes a vibrant, drink and drug-fuelled fusion of underground electronica and layers upon layers of alternative and avant-garde fashion, every Thursday night.
I once spent an evening in Yab, the self professed “Glamour Club” and noticed mostly how incredibly unglamorous the place is, but also how dire. The DJs played 30-second snippet remixes of every song ever recorded. It was horrendous. I lost hope for Florence that night. A while later however, after a few cocktails in the excellent Mayday Bar, I stumbled across the queue to Tropical Animals – which looked promising. No students vomiting over each others heels is always nice. We went inside.
The interior of the club looks for all intent like a warehouse-conversion, only it was never a warehouse. In Florence, when one opens a club, the first thing they do is find crystals and lots and lots of paint – sometimes some velour. Then they don’t stop decorating until it’s far too late. Here however, they’ve kept it nice and plain. Dark walls, a large central dance floor and plenty of snooks to disappear to once your feet get tired, or you need to hide in the shadows for a minute or two. The music is a good mix of underground and avant-garde electronica, bits of minimal, and house from an impressive collection of resident DJs and occasional guests.
Expect lots of make-up, lots of fashion (good and bad but always better than Yab), lots of smoke (yes, the cigarette kind) and good minimal beats.
Take a peak at the website here for more info.
Tropical Animals at Cub 21, Via dei Cimatori, 50122, Firenze, Italy.
