Hamish Wyatt/Shanghai Daily news

Regular readers of After Dark may be picking up on a trend in this section. For the past week we have been reviewing some reasonable happy hours around town. From the all day drinking possibilities at the Tsing Tao Beer Pub for a slim 28 yuan (US$3.46) to the more up scale martinis that punters are free to down for two hours at the JW Marriot for 100 yuan.
After dark has now moved from the dubious heights of happy hours to down and out freebies and Studio 78 on Tongren Road seems a very solid place to start. Every Wednesday from eight till nine Studio 78 holds their ‘blokes night.’ This entails free drinks for anyone who...well, just turns up.
Although billed as free drinks for men only the bar staff seem more than willing to make good on the offer for women as well.
However, Studio 78 has a lot more to offer than free drinks, especially for those people who don’t mind a touch of retro charm. Mind you, it’s not really a touch so much as an open palmed smack on the head. Studio 78 is unfailingly devoted to its seventies theme, and not in a “Club Med theme night” sense either, this bar actually does it well.
An elevator up to the club is complete with paisley patterned walls, a flashing disco floor and a thousand mirror ball, (which a good source told me is the fifth ball due to frequent theft by people taking the happy hour a little too  seriously...he had the fourth one.)
Once emerging from the elevator, be prepared for total submersion into the seventies. Think bean-bags, lava lamps, shag carpet and oldschool funk.
But Studio 78 hasn’t sacrificed comfort and style to satisfy its theme. Amazingly, the bar remains tasteful. While I am quite willing to admit that leopard skin print isn’t the new black, I can’t stress enough that for its historically accurate lack of taste, Studio 78 remains a sharp place to drink that doesn’t bombard you with its thematic concerns.
Additionally, the crowd is not one you would expect at a free drinks event, i.e. messy teenagers and gin blossomed men. The patrons are well dressed and, bar the example of an unnamed and over excited journalist, quite well behaved.
Patrons are also not only treated to free drinks, but there are also a couple of dancers there to entertain. The two dancers come decked out in seventies gear with some afros that, while not entirely convincing, do the job just the same. The couple, titled “The Afrodisiacs” treat the entire place as a stage and their funk dancing remains spontaneous enough to be  entertaining and not too intrusive when you’re trying to get all your free drinks in.