Unscene Berlin

Berlin's leaders want us to believe that the closure of its clubs is an inevitable consequence of economic success. Is it just me, or is there something wrong with this logic? via GIPHY When the specials wrote Ghost Town in 1981, England was in the grips of an unprecedented recession. That economic decline resulted in a situation where, "all the clubs are being closed down" - so run the lyrics of the song.   In Berlin in the present day, clubs are being closed down, too - only now, we are expected to believe that the scene is dying for the opposite reason: the city is a too much of a success . Apparently, the wave of new speculators coming here to invest in our property is just so overwhelming that the city cannot afford to set aside land for the businesses that are already here.  To quote Will Ferrell in Zoolander, "I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!" Since when is being too much of an economic success an excuse for closing down local busine...

Forget summer: in Berlin, the dead winter months of February & March are when the really silly season begins. At this time of year, you can see what a big part of the city's identity clubs are... and how tenuous they are, too, much like that identity (wow, how deep is that?).  When I check out the optimistically long listings on the party sites each winter  weekend, I can't help thinking that some of these places are just throwing out regular events with increasingly stranger names out of sheer bloody determination to exist and legitimize their own ephemeral, moonlit presence on this landscape.  Same goes for some of the pale & gaunt regulars who trek through the snow and the daffodils (thanks again, climate change) to get there.  In the summer, it seems all too legitimate to try and stay in Berlin all year, seeking your fortune and infamy in this city's party scene.  But come the winter, that self-assured sense of permanence goes away... taking...

" Gegen U will turn you inside out only to reveal that your intestines are made of beautiful carnivorous flowers." I ask you, with media packs like these, who needs nightmares to keep them awake at night? Gegen seems to be the David Lynch of the club scene: it scripts both the scenery and the soundtrack that makes our subconscious wanna squelch into the slimelight . To get to their party this Friday, simply follow the chalk sidewalk arrows from S/U Bahnhof Frankfurter Allee and then listen for the sound of boundaries collapsing and intestines... er, blossoming. Unlike the upcoming Souterrain party at Stattbad, most of Berlin's really underground parties don't bother advertising the fact in their name. Check this one out at Scharnweberstr. 38 in Friedrichshain if you love techno and hate to revel without a cause. The Antira benefit features some of those lovely, militant about:blank's DJs too. C.R.A.S.H. is doing techno & dubstep this Saturday...