Jenja reopened last weekend to much hurrah from their loyal fan base starting with a secret-ish event on Friday night with local DJ collective, PNNY controlling the decks, and then the big one on Saturday night. They called it Memories and it was definitely full of them for what was apparently the near 1500 people who entered during the two nights. I would swear there were a lot of people I had never seen before making new memories too, but anyway, I don’t think anyone had been in that place as much as me and my cohorts since it opened in 2014, so yes, let’s take a look around.
So, was it the same? Was it the same experience? I would have to say it looked the same, but it was somehow different. Maybe the most notable difference was the drinks. Not that they were in any way jelek before, but I don’t think I have had such strong, tasty drinks in a club ever. That is definitely a Shady manifestation. The Shady Family, who were behind the weekend event, and famed in the Berawa area for their sneaky upstairs bar, and soon-to-come expansion, more or less, all over town, are well known for pouring a good drink. And they didn’t disappoint. The price, though, did reflect this, of course.
The Music? The sound quality was as good as ever. I did hear there was some issue with the existing Function One set up in the lead up, but they obviously got that sorted because the all round sound quality was really quite awesome. I was told later that was thanks to the help of a Grammy award winning music engineer and friend of the Shady Family, who popped in mid-week to tune things up. The music played, while I was there at least, didn’t have much to do with the Jenja sound I recall, but I guess time moves on and so do music styles. A couple of the old DJ luminaries from before were seen about the place, but didn’t get on the decks for a spin. as far as I know. Ok, well, whatever, time and lives move on.
It was pretty well packed from top to bottom with punters all over and you could see they were having a good old Jenja time of it. That’s for sure. Club Jenja was closed in July 2019, but it seems a lot longer ago than that. Probably because of the Covid effect where time has turned into one big blur over the past year and seven months.
The crowd was obviously up for a big night on Saturday and to relive some memories with old party friends. They got plenty of that and I’m happy to say Jenja still remains one of the best underground clubs in town – as was reflected for a number of years at The Beat Awards.
We look forward to seeing more of it soon. Watch this space to see what happens next.
