RICHARD BELL finds treasure at Pandora’s Box @ Wahoo, Hythe Bridge Street, Oxford.

The last time I was at Jongleurs I saw an exceptionally good comedian who decided what kind of set he would do by judging the crowd in an interesting way.

He told two jokes, one of which was very crude, to which the crowd brayed, while the other was very clever in which he implied that he’d like to assassinate the band Franz Ferdinand, just to see what would happen.

As the only person who laughed I can only assume Oxford is not as well informed on First World War history as it might like to think.

He took the crude path which, while amusing, left me wondering just how good his intellectual set might have been.

Jongleurs is gone now of course, and having stood empty for some time, I’m delighted to see the site has opened up again as Wahoo (where Bar Risa was) and Glee Club (in place of Jongleurs).

I’ve wanted to check out the new digs for a while now and new night Pandora’s Box gave us an excuse to nose around.

Let’s start with the best bits; first off the music is fantastic.

The DJs are clearly extremely talented, masterfully dipping in and out of superb electro beats, while the bar staff are good-looking and friendly, and I got to try a peculiar brew called an Agwa Bomb.

But it’s the prices that are the most surprising thing: student nights offer £2 draught lager and £2.75 spirit and mixer, which I took enormous advantage of until my idiot friend fell down the stairs.

This place does have its problems too, one of which is the toilets. Going through a door marked toilets you suddenly find yourself lost in the back area of the club with three plain white doors to choose from. Guessing at which one you should follow, you eventually find the toilets, but the lack of signs is very disorientating.

The toilets are swathed in blue and green light, which make for an experience like boarding a space station. As my friend Josceline pointed out, girls checking their look may find they resemble a character from Avatar.

The real problem, though, is this night lacks any particular atmosphere and never really feels like it gets going, which is a shame because it has a great deal going for it. With some clever promotion the venue might tempt people from the crude mainstream and down the slightly more intellectual path to find out for themselves just what lies in Pandora’s box.