Hip, hip ... hooray!

If you want to know where the cool kids hang out on Saturday night, head to Chalk at The Scala. By kids, I mean the under-25s. And by cool, I mean achingly so. Every one of them is dressed in looks pulled from pages of the NME or nu-rave bible Super Super.

Chalk is a weekly night that relaunched in January at the legendary King's Cross venue, offering a mix of music from electro to hip hop to rock'n' roll, including DJs and live sets.

In two months it has already garnered a reputation for pioneering brilliant new acts, as well as pulling in big names like Hot Chip and the Mystery Jets.

As Chalk is so hotly tipped, I headed down with three friends to find out what goes on. The line-up for the night included NME favourites !Forward, Russia!, People Are Germs, Yr Mum Yr Dad, Kid Harpoon & The Powers That Be and the wonderfully monikered Fisher Price Soundsystem. No I hadn't heard of any of them either - and it's not like I don't get out much - these are breakthrough acts of the kind you'll only find on MySpace.

On first impressions it's like a junior rock'n'roll convention. The boys look generally pale-faced and dispirited and not unlike Klaxons, Pete Doherty or Maccabees en masse: super skinny jeans, mops of curly hair, leather jackets and lashings of attitude.

The girls have attitude too and dress eclectically; leggings, silver shoes, neon accessories, boiler suits, crazy hair, face stickers. Anything goes. They are all swigging bottles of beer.

On seeing the peachy-faced young things I immediately feel over age and underdressed. But thankfully, though a whiff off 30, I still look about 16, so think I can just about get away with it and my friend Tom happens to be wearing a neon smiley face Ksubi T-shirt and fits in a treat.

The club is, as ever, wonderfully dark and dingy and the music is full on. Nu electro rave tune Caroline Is A Victim by up-and-comer Kate Nash screeches through the crowd as we walk in and at 11pm it's already busy with a general feeling of hedonistic Eighties' fun.

Nearby, a man dances earnestly and alone in a red neon-lit side room, wearing bright-red skinny jeans, slim-fit sweatshirt and with a mop of curly hair. This is Ludwig, a self-described "bum" who is skiving off from his own club night at Punk (the old Pop on Soho Street) to have a dance at Scala.

"I love Chalk because the music's great, with lots of new acts, and there's a good mix of people," he says before breaking off to dance alone again.