Get Up, Get Down

Fridays at the Tokyo Lounge

Those of you who are looking for a spot where you can show up in jeans, a ball cap, and your favourite pair of worn Adidas, kick it with a bunch of really friendly, chilled-out locals, and take in some of Van City's sickest DJs need look no further. Get Up, Get Down proves once and for all that hip-hop club nights do not have to be hopelessly corny, fashion-oriented affairs. Instead of rotating jiggy hip-pop tracks and filling the venue with wannabe thugs and aspiring video chicks, Tokyo Lounge's Friday-night fiesta puts the emphasis where it should be: on dope music.

During this visit, the bar was modestly populated with relaxed, underdressed hip-hop heads. The speakers pumped out a satisfying smorgasbord of '80s pop, neo-soul, reggae, and rap joints courtesy of DJ Hedspin as b-boys and -girls busted moves with giddy abandon. Elsewhere in the bar, the mostly male, mixed-age crowd lounged on sofas, chatted, and snapped their necks to the choice cuts. Not exactly a prime place to pick up, but certainly a perfect place to wind down.