Unscene Berlin

Whoom-whoom. Shlomp. Funch. Ge-Oh-Ah. No, these are not the sounds made by an alien swamp monster... believe it or not, they are the names of Berlin parties that have been listed on Resident Advisor recently. In Berlin, a club blogger's life entails makin a weekly journey through a wilderness of obscure, playful party names that offer little insight into the events they are referring to. Berlin's club promoters seem locked in a constant competition to see who can come up with the silliest and frilliest names.  This may be the  reason why no one party ever seems to keep the same name for very long - it's only a matter of time before a rival party will come along with an even more bizarre moniker and set the weirdness bar just that little bit higher.  First there are the run-on party names: 'Animals In Space From All Over Europe' at Subland.  'Take Off Your Shoes and Burn Down The Vatican' at Privat Club.  'There Is An Infinite Number Of Monkeys O...

I haven't really kept this blog up to date for the past couple of weeks but a lot of other new things have been happening in the city. I started a new job, a few new party venues opened, a few new party nights were launched and a few old faces from Berlin's party scene made fresh starts. Even though I haven't been writing about it, I've been running a mad relay race between work, home and club scene as I tried to take it all in. So here is my chaotic summary of everything that's happened in club land in the past three weeks. Read on and you'll reap the benefits of my experience, without any of the hangovers! I visited Royal Wedding at Brunnen 70 at the end of January and it was fun as always. Even the old folks were joining in, as you can see below... A week later on February 3rd, I dropped in to a Canadian disco at the occasional party venue Laden Kino, newly opened in Friedrichshain. The music there was average house but the decor was baroque, and had been...

For me it's always a great thing when I can write more, so I am pleased to announce that starting in February 2012, I will be writing for a third blog. In addition to my non-profit work for Club Alien and Fleeting Reams , I will also be the main blogger on the Alternative Berlin tours website. The Alternative Berlin tours blog covers the themes of street art, urban exploration, ad-busting, alternative lifestyle, underground culture and radical history. Below are the links to the entries I have written for the site so far. I hope you enjoy reading them! Electric Hotel Lights the Way Forward Advertisers Busted by Berlin's Street Artists Rubble Rebel: The Story of Ben De Biel

Last weekend, I was disappointed to find that a new Revaler Strasse venue, WYSIWYG, had already closed its doors for the night by the time I arrived there. Okay so it was after 7:00 a.m. on Sunday morning when I got there, which might have had something to do with the place being closed. But wasn't the party supposed to go on until midday? I guess nobody really wants to party for 12 hours straight on a freezing cold winter night. Imagine that! This weekend's temperatures will continue to be cold, so no change there, but fortunately the boon of free parties will also continue. On Friday night, some of my fellow Canadians will be spinning with assorted other colonial DJs at Transplant .002 in Friedrichshain. Kudos to their PR guy, whose write-up for the night is chock full of the sort of witty ripostes that most people would pay to keep out of their promotional materials! Here's a sample: "D.J. NEOTERIC: Possibly the worst DJ name since DJ Rap. You had to g...