Review: Halfway Down the Rabbit-hole

-


The cold weather this last weekend definitely put a freeze on my plans for openair exploring but it did not stop me from going out entirely. I dropped into pretty decent happenings in Prenzlauerberg and Wedding as well.

Last weekend's snow flurries sent the Easter bunny scampering back to his burrow, but the rest of Berlin's party menagerie chose to take refuge in an altogether different sort of underground: a place as full of talking animals and sideshow acts as the flipside of the looking glass.

On Friday, I spotted a lady in a Raggedy-Ann style wig waving midget-sized parasols among the tipsy-turvy masses at a chilly openair in the Wuhleheide side of town. Stumbling hungover to work the next night, I found myself chatting up a charming stilt-walker outside of Dazzle Club before he got sick of me and swept me down the stairs into the vault with his comedy umbrella. The cave-like, subterranean venue was packed with fans of some experimental subpop band that was playing live, barely visible through the fake smoke on the dance floor.

Later on, in another basement club in Brunnen Strasse, I danced to tribal techno with the elephant man and a mime... I know, how predictable can you get?!

Even though the Easter Bunny wasn't around that didn't stop Berlin from taking a shallow dive down the rabbit hole. What about you? Did you spend your weekend hibernating or hyperventilating in the underbelly of the club scene? Leave a comment to tell me about it below...

Below & right: This hut lay at the end of my openair Easter-egg hunt... along with funky techno, friendly people and free beer (not shown)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Preview: It's "Garbicz", Not Garbage!

-
Image
"Magic becomes art when it has nothing to hide." I just found out that I am going to be working at the Garbicz festival this year. This is good news! I've heard a fair few people around town whinging that it's too expensive / fancy / hippy / slow mo [delete as appropriate] but I found it to be a very experiential and grown up Bacchanal. By which I mean, it focusses whatever it's good at into a high intensity beam that illuminates a very personal, but alluring vision of what openair raving could be.  It's at a really lovely location on an ancient Polish river, with azure waters that look like something from Neolithic times... or a backdrop for a Neolithic fashion shoot, if you will. There are some very decked out modern primitives in this wilderness, as my dusty photos from last year suggest.  The place has a brilliant energy that feels right for working magic of whatever kind: dancing, delirious, holistic chaos magick, but without sacri...
Read more

Review: Gegen 8ternity @ KitKat Club

-
Image
Gegen 8ternity flyer. (Artwork copyright: Gegen Berlin) Saturday January 5th,  2:00 a.m. "They have new rooms now, down in the basement," says my wide-eyed friend Rene in a husky voice, before taking me by the hand and leading me down the steps into KitKat's apparently infinite cellar. (My balance is a bit off, it must be whatever I drank earlier). We trace a wavy path through the rambling subterranean hallways, around translucent pennants that hang on alternating sides of the hall, printed with tasteful nudes doing tasteless things, undulating fluidly in the body temperature air.  The hall opens out into a bar, which opens out into a fakeshift hospital ward. We pass doubled-over bodies getting whipped & spanked; protruding buttocks scarred with lashes and splattered with red wax. There are hips rolling on gurneys, glistening bald heads and tossing manes, camp laughter and almost inaudible moans. And then that room opens on to Gegentanz: a wide...
Read more

Review: Brunnen 70 Puts the 'Art' Into 'Party'

-
Image
 Deutsch I love art and I love parties and when you put the two things together, I'm in seventh heaven. Cassiopeia and Tacheles are well known examples of venues which combine clubbing with culture... and climbing too, if that's your cup of tea, but I find them a bit crowded and impersonal. That's why I am always on the lookout for places which attract the masses without feeling mass-produced. Last weekend I finally checked out Brunnen 70 and what I saw there put it at the top of the list. I went there with a friend on a Saturday night.  After passing the chilled security check, we were ushered into a small room, empty except for an old-fashioned settee against the far wall, and two door staff who were propping up a table with a shoe (labeled 'tips') on it. They smiled at us as a second steel door slid closed behind us, sealing the room shut. My friend and I were slightly freaked out. "Wow, okay... this is a small club..." I began to say, befo...
Read more