The current economic crisis has spawned a few protest songs and a couple of juicy Newsnights, but so far it seems club land has steered its ship as far from the winds of thriftiness as possible. Until now, that is. Vince Power's new Ladbroke Grove bar Liquid Nation promises live music and drinks on the cheap. Can it pull off cheap and cheerful, or is it just another spit ‘n’ sawdust student doss hole?

The Venue
According to Vince Power he wanted to create a really good bar that was affordable with great live music that also makes people aware of the political and economic situation of the day. A commendable raison d'etre, indeed. Yet it’s uncertain whether people will be turned on by the shabby exterior of Liquid Nation, resplendent in Sixties tower block grey with giant photocopies of Fred Goodwin, Bernie Madoff and friends. Still, the club was never meant for the jet set, so perhaps it's a good thing the drab signage will put off capitalists.

Walk inside and it's different picture, same ethos. Mishmash seating that looks to have come from anywhere between grandma's kitchen and Andy Warhol's Champagne room gives the place a very eighties student lefty feel. It's been designed by a glut of art students, after all. Pink plastic adornments, stylised prints, huge protest murals and old LPs scattered everywhere give the bar the hum of a Sixties secondhand shop. The club's mission statement announces triumphantly that Liquid Nation aims to bring some of the Dalston aesthetic to West London. That's fine, but sometimes the bar looks like every club in Dalston violently threw up on it.

The Atmosphere
Accordingly, the hotchpotch interior makes for a relaxed, if a little try-hard, ambience, and it's not impossible to find a cubby hole to call your own for the night, while the band plays and the beer flows. The lighting is just dim enough to give the illusion of cosiness, yet bright enough to know which drink belongs to you. Bands play throughout the night, some aren’t so good it has to be said but hey, everyone can't be the ‘next big thing’. The mood is certainly jovial with the core clientele being trendy art students and camp fashionistas. Thus, unsurprisingly, it isn't going to kick off at any moment. In fact, the most trouble you'll get all night is if one of the impossibly cool band members trips over his amp cable.

The bar staff are friendly and relaxed, and the door staff are barely needed. All in all, the atmosphere is vibrant yet chilled, refreshing even if the guests have taken their holier-than-thou attitude straight from the bowels of Notting Hill Arts Club. As the night wears on the mood gets merrier as the throngs consume enough cheap lager to bring down an elephant, but nothing untoward is in the offing and a night invariably passes with a little less incident than you'd expect from all the protest paraphernalia on show. The term 'Champagne socialists' comes quickly to mind.

The Drink
Liquid Nation aims to bring cheapness to their patrons by stacking 'em high and selling 'em low, and claims that they pass on discounts by taking their alcohol directly from the boxes in which they were delivered. £2.50 – for everything – isn't bad at all for the area, and the drinks list, which changes according to what the bar can get its hands on, is extensive enough to whet the tastebuds of even the most cautious of drinkers.

A condensed menu goes as follows: three ciders including Scrumpy Jack and Woodpecker; eight beers including Nils Oscar Gold, Tsingtao, Lynx and Asabi; four cheap white, red and rose wines; a dozen or so extremely mainstream cocktails including Sex on the Beach, Cosmopolitan and Margarita, all mixed well enough without any wow factor; and some shooters for that late night push over the edge of inebriation. Pitchers are priced at a handy £8.50, so a night here won't have you running RBS further into the ground.

The Last Word
Liquid Nation (a play on liquidation in case you hadn't noticed already) is a good little club with a vibrant mood, trendy clientele, cheap drinks and decent live music. West London is desperately crying out for a bit of East End cool, and this place does its best to provide it at a recession-busting price. Ostensibly it does all of this very well, if not exactly stealing the light from Dalston's better offerings, and the interior is enough to occupy your attention at least. Once better acts come through the doors and the punters really cram it out, Liquid Nation is sure to be one of London's best gig venues. For now, it's teetering on the precipice. Watch this space.

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