he creative force behind 99 Sudbury is back, with a brand new space for hedonistic excess through all-night partying. Their newest venture, Footwork, is however significantly more polished (and legal), than its booze-can predecessor. At 99 Sudbury you could smoke, drink and practically fornicate without restriction; Footwork is an attempt to enter the above-ground club scene to tap into a whole new crop of customers who want to kick start their drinking and dancing before 2am.

Footwork successfully maintains a good underground vibe: while walking through the back alley of 425 Adelaide (the old club, Crybaby), one gets the feeling that there should be a sliding peep-hole and a password in order to enter. The layout of the club seems unusual but interesting; the washrooms are placed right at the entrance, which adds to the feeling that you’re sneaking in through the back door. It’s also nice that washroom trips can be done on entry and exit.

Entering the main space, the club is laid out as an L, and at the joint of the two areas there are two bars, one on the south corner and a little one on the north corner, in a space that looks like it should be a DJ booth. It’s certainly built high enough; a friend accompanying me could barely see over the top of the bar - I guess it’s assumed they’ll be serving a lot of basketball players. The two bars are a nice touch for a relatively small and intimate space, but they are too close together (only a few metres apart). Nevertheless, the setup opens up the dance floor for more dancers, which is likely the point. The small space is jammed with a sound system made for a space twice its size (it’s the 99 Sudbury sound system), and this makes it kind of loud in the seating area, but then you didn’t come here to sit down, did you?

The place has been gutted and redesigned over the last two months to end up with a sleek, clean looking space that is somehow also reminiscent of a high school dance: the bar-tops are made out of solid metal, while the seating is done with steel-lined, wood boxes topped with what look like gymnasium mats. Almost every square inch of the place is painted. The mural behind the main bar is of a sunset with palm trees; it’s cheesy and a bit out a place, but with the red and orange lights emphasizing the colours, it looks almost real and is very effective at drawing the clientele towards the bar. The final effect of the décor is surprisingly comforting.

Right now Footwork is only open on Friday and Saturdays but in June they will start with a Wednesday night featuring cheap drinks until midnight ($3 for domestic beer and bar rail). With a new space, and an older crowd of 25-35 filling up the place most nights, Footwork may just be the answer for the post-99 Sudbury crowd. Expect to have your house, trance and drum & bass needs filled, but don’t expect to drink past 2am. - T.F.