I think the issue of real nightclubs and real drinking etc is real enough for us not to have to focus on metaphorical versions.

I feel a stream of consciousness coming on.

Sheesha bars - some are more hygeinic than others but probably if you've been drinking you don't mind. Not sure what happened to my sheesha, but I used to love it. Then again I used to love clubbing as well. Just having a dance, with mates or hopefully a nice girl. I never had the cojones to take things much further. Time was, since you could smoke in clubs, a lot of people, like myself, would light up a surreptitious reefer (it wasn't always smelly skunk then but even if it was) and enjoy chilling with some loud music and the freedom to go for a wonder and a boogie, and nobody minded, in fact the people on e loved everyone. You can still do that in some countries. Despite having mentioned drugs what I'm getting at is that it was a nicer crowd before bars started turning the music up to club volumes and smoking indoors was banned, then there were no cool bars to sit in and chat and the clubs filled up with drinkers (of course not for the first time in history) who are far scarier on a dancefloor than the friendly or excited folk on uppers. It would be nice if sober Muslims did enjoy a dance with their mates because clubs could use some civilising. Muslims in clubs would be like women at football matches. And dancing is easy good exercise and a huge boost to serotonin (happiness hormones). Anyway sheesha bars and some cafes do to some extent fill the void left when cosy or funky bars started raising the volume.

All of which having been said the club scene is huge and there are niches for everyone - after all, they are places for an evening's socialising, and dance music can't monopolise that. You get posh clubs in the style of the old gentleman's clubs, especially in London, and rock bars, and small live music venues, and the poetry nights I like to go to, as well as all the house, d&b, roots and r&b etc., and gay clubs, which usually play some variety of dance music.

Not to mention all the seedy clubs. And burlesque, which I haven't bothered with but has become a mainstream piece of mildly risque theatre and so shouldn't really be collapsed with all the lap-dancing etc. I nearly went to a lap-dancing club a couple of months back - was heading back to my friend's place in Salford when some Irish lads started cajoling us to hang with them, and I must say that couldn't be further from my style but I fancied it for the sake of experience. Years ago when I would saunter from one club to another with privileges I did pop into Stringfellows but since I didn't stay or take a table or anything I didn't really get the stripper experience. Oh, there was a cool girl on this college course I did a few years ago (we were quite close but I thought best not ask her out because I didn't join the course to flirt with younger students) but she took a job at a strip club - which didn't phase her, and honestly she was this sweet angel, I felt a bit like driving her home to her parents in Anglesey, getting her away from that scene, but against general norms (from what I gather) that is very prudish and patriarchal of me.

Oh, I have seen strippers on two other occasions, one a birthday party in Brum and the other a stag do in Amsterdam. The drug-addled fugly old dear who showed up to a flat in Birmingham accompanied by her pensioner husband was not being respected and I was embarassed more about that than the fact that her body was all old and withered and I'm proud I ecouraged them to leave, although I think they were inconsolable by then. That was sad. The woman in an Amsterdam club was just whatever. She did her bit, embarassed my old friend by involving him a little - and he's a prude like me with a similar religious background, neither of us was responsible for the setup - and that was it. The other guys seemed to enjoy it. That was an awesome weekend, I spent most of it lost and vaguely trying to find my mates, if my mates happened to be visiting the same coffee shops and headshops I kept segueing into. If I ever have a stag do I am going to wrap myself in cotton wool and agree to nothing I didn't plan myself. 

So to try and make this relevant I will just say that clubs of many types have provided me with much amusement and some life experiences, although I wouldn't say any particular club culture is in itself worth embracing unless, like the poetry nights, it happens to fit your general interests. But poetry nights and to a lesser extent comedy shows aren't really clubbing.

So there's clubs and clubs and clubs and clubs, they aren't all the same, and in fact if your nasheeds have a beat you might just as well consider the sheesha place a sheesha nightclub or Muslim nightclub. I'm really tired so I hope my posts this morning and this one are readable and give some insight, as well as gushing forth at random. Anyway I've enjoyed the trip down memory lane even if some of you question the wisdom of this post, and it is filling my mind with other half forgotten adventures. Perhaps I'll expand or incorporate these recollections into a small book. Can't say anything to Ed's other questions, those are for the Muslim sheesha peeps.

Titanium wrote:

Why would you compare it to a club (for example) As far as I am aware people enjoy company of their friends while enjoying sheesha and not grinding against random arses or sucking a randomer's face...

That is why a lot of people socialise but if grinding a stranger's arse was my initial approach I could expect a slap at the least from all but a few women. Crowds are crowds and dickheads are dickheads but generally that kind of dancing is when you know and like the person you are with. At least, I have not found that to characterise clubbing!

Quote:

As regrads to nightclubs. You need to see a REAL nightclub, bar, pub and club (different genres) before you can compare a sheesha bar to one of them.

Not all nightclubs are raves, and if sheesha bars are among the tamer nightclubs that wouldn't make them not nightclubs. For me, when I really want to, the euphoria of dancing with friends in the right environment and with the right music (and I'm lucky to have broad tastes) is too good a thing to overlook on account of other clubs being brash and full of louts. I wouldn't be willing to pay to get into the types of nightclub you mean.

I've been to a few sheesha bars on a handful of occasions but its not really my thing. Its usually when certain work mates wanted to go and ive been kind enough to oblige. It doesnt do anything for me tbh. I personally find sheesha boring. Im much more into eatting out at restaurants, ice-cream places etc. Im a foodie.

As for nightclubs, well ive never really liked them either. Working with the police we visited a few and lets just say they reeked of alcohol. A few drunks on the dance floor embarrasing themselves. Cant say id hang around such a place out of choice.

Id much rather be out and about doing something e.g. playing tennis, 5-aside football, Hiking (something ive recently gotten into), cliff diving, go-karting, theme parks, dirt biking etc. That to me is fun... not sitting in a room puffing a fruity sheesha (yawn).

I won't keep posting in this thread (obviously if you speak to me I reply) - the idea wasn't promotion of nightclubs, just to throw in my 2c - but I daresay the nightclubs police tend to visit aren't the ones I would suggest.

As somone who has never been to any clubs, I enjoyed readin your insight Joey

TPOS wrote:

As somone who has never been to any clubs, I enjoyed readin your insight Joey

i have to agree to that. im surprised as well, pleasantly so, that someone would actually (not dare) bother to post a post like that on a site like revvy.

though, from all ive read im glad im not into that kinda stuff.

"how do i hang out with my friends,

let me count the ways..."

kidding, im still too young to have done much hanging out and that.

This guys scary about shisha 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qgNnbCiKEY

This guys scary about shisha 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qgNnbCiKEY

He is just shouting. with music in the background.

I am sure people that probably follow him would not consider music allowed.

Even better, the speec itself quotes "the devil's music".

a 16 year old girl suddenly turns into an "evil woman".

While the end message is correct that we can die at any time, all the intro all the way to there is useless, worthless IMO.

I havent been to a sheesha place, so I don't know, but his description of them seems to be something other than what I imagines. His anecdotes however are just that - anecdotes. Even if real, they do not necessarily represent the norm.

Titanium wrote:

 

Plus I have this thing that most - all strict practicing Muslims always think the worst of any place that looks anything like a fun place. I wonder what he would say about Disneyland or normal Bistro on Edinburgh's royal mile or a beach or Blackpool...

im sure strict practising muslims have fun. in their own way. their def of "fun" is diff to the west's im guessing.

I would rather spend the money on dessert or something, than spending money on somethng that has no nutritional value.

I personally think sheesha is a waste of money, and majority of the Ulema would say its haram, never mind what the internet scholars of today say. Many Sheesha bars also play music, which is also deemed forbidden.

Theres plenty of other ways to chill and have fun, but it seems that the only way muslims know how to have it is in the path of Haraam.