X-Club: Shanghai's best nightlife spot for bellicose boozers
X-Club, China’s first laser tag theme bar, opened to little fanfare in Shanghai three months ago.
On the Sunday night when I show up with a handful of teenage boys, it stands polished but neglected, all chrome and patent leather under the Gothic bloom of the black lights.
We are the only people there. But then again, it is a school night.
Laser tag was developed in Australia and America during the late 1970s, and became the chief proving grounds for a generation of paramilitary youths who, being brought up on a diet of G.I. Joe cartoons, were faced with a lack of actual wars.
X-Club, an Australian company, represents the bizarre ways of global cultural translation.
While most laser tag clubs are marketed to adolescents, X-Club sees a primarily older crowd -- expats drunk off nostalgia and beer, young local professionals looking to relax.
It is also the first laser tag establishment that I know of which has a bar.
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X-Club’s decor is by and for fanboys. A large statue of a transformer dominates the lobby. A silhouette of a sniper identifies the boys’ bathroom. (Interestingly, the female counterpart is simply a woman sitting spread eagle).
You pay by loading money onto a rubber bracelet that is scanned at the bar and again when you enter the actual arena. This bizarre system is probably in place because the clientele can’t be trusted to spend their allowance wisely.
Players are advised to drink before beginning, so while some elect just to shoot pool, others post up at the bar.
Drinks aren’t allowed into the arena, so it’s a good idea to skip the cocktail and order something that can be downed quickly.
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Before you can go in, you have to be briefed in a war room.
Basics are covered -- how to shoot, how to avoid being shot, different ways to win.
None of this is in English, so I am confused as to what to actually do when the doors open and the gladiators spill forth, which happen while I am still adjusting my vest.
The course itself is 1,200 square meters of ramps and waist-high walls, painted in glow-in-the-dark paint and shrouded in a deep, unquestioning fog. Smelling of sweat and with Ke$ha thumping on the sound system, the arena is remarkable similar to other nightclubs in town.
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