Dirty Little Monsters @ Morals Bar, Clive Booth Hall, John Garne Way, Oxford.

This week our intrepid efforts to seek out the best nights in the city have led me back to my beginnings in Oxford.

I arrived as a fresher at Brookes University, and like all other freshers, never really allowed my nightlife to extend outside the boundaries of the campus.

For the first few weeks at least, I reacted in the same way as anyone does when feeling overwhelmed by an entirely new environment – I condensed my world into one with boundaries that I could handle.

My world ended up consisting entirely of the Student Union shop and its meagre range of groceries, the enormous SU itself with its alcohol-fuelled cheesy nights and finally, Morals Bar. Morals Bar was 30 seconds from my room at halls, and subsequently I ended up spending an awful lot of time and a horrendous amount of money there.

It’s the place where I met and bonded with some of the closest friends I’ve ever had and, as such, occupies a special place in my heart.

That was more than five years ago now, and returning to Morals for the first time in years to try out their new indie electro night Dirty Little Monsters was a bizarre experience.

Retreading old footsteps, finding my way back around a place I knew like the back of my hand gave me the eerie impression that I was stalking my own shadow.

A couple of Kronenbourgs (charged a little too highly in a student bar for my liking) later helped me to shake this creepy feeling and settle into a truly fantastic new night.

I’d been looking forward to Dirty Little Monsters (DLMs) for a couple of weeks. As an ardent fan of any indie electro night I’m always up for trying out a new one, and having used DLMs spotify playlist, I knew what I was getting – a night every bit as innovative and fun as I had been hoping for, a brilliantly mixed collection of the most danceable beats mixed with the coolest songs possible.

I always forget just how large Morals is, and while this has clear benefits for any club night in terms of possible attendance, it can be difficult to fill the place.

And on this particular evening, it was a little on the ‘quiet’ side, but the consistently excellent music makes me wonder why, given the absence of Pleasuredome at the SU this year.

For all the regular non students, the only alternative that comes to mind is Narcissists at Baby Love, but it’s a shame that this night is limited to a student bar.

In a venue like the Cellar, a night like this would take over the clubbing scene in an instant.

DLMs might just be one of the best nights in the city, but while it remains at Morals bar it will just have to remain Oxford nightlife’s best-kept secret.