Unscene Berlin

This weekend I'll be revisiting Tacheles to perform a raindance for its continued survival. Of course, there were parties like that last weekend too, immediately after the courts handed down their verdict that the art squat's most recent eviction was illegal. But the line up at this Saturday's Industrial Berlin party is right up my dark, dingy, glass-strewn, beer-spattered alley. With Tacheles' latest, illegal closure barely a week old, it seems like a good time to be reliving the acid-industrial parties that helped to put squats like this on the map. On a less-tangibly-political tangent is the Beats against Corruption party at Mein Haus Am See this Wednesday . This 'benefit party' will be in aid of Transparency International . What is Transparency International, you ask? The answer to that question is not as transparent as you might think, ironically enough. After a little bit of digging around online, all I can say for sure about Transparency Intl. ...

Right now Berlin's party-hardy dissidents have their focus trained on the slow and painful, piece by piece dissection of Tacheles. So I guess it's almost understandable that they have forgotten all about other art squats in town that are facing exactly the same fate: Landsberger 54, for instance. This late 19th century Friedrichshain brewery has served as a haven for disaffected, uncommercial but friendly artists since 1990. It was officially closed down a few months ago to make way for yet another apartment complex. The artists evacuated, leaving a stunning array of mural and graffiti art stranded upon the building's inner walls when they did. But the place still has a pulse and it can sometimes be heard when you're passing by it late at night: faint and fast like the heartbeat of a shock victim. Klick club (formerly the Villa) may be dark, derelict and reclusive but that is exactly what makes this haunting venue a perfect recreation of Berlin's squat scen...

My friend Katja and I were some of the first people to arrive at Kater Holzig for the reading of " Berlin, Techno und die Wende ", an 'oral' history book about Berlin's rave scene. Katja was kicking herself when she saw how empty the venue was on our arrival. "I am such an ossi ," she cried. "I was so worried there would be lots and lots of people here and I hate being crowded - but it's dead! I'm so sorry." Her fastidiousness had paid off for us though because, by quarter past nine, people were standing from one end of the room to the other. Meanwhile, we were sittin' pretty in some of the second-best seats in the house: just behind the row of sofas at front that had been reserved for the really honoured guests (I thought of our row as being the L.I.P. - Less Important Person - section). After teaching Katja the time-honoured English tradition of blagging cheap drinks we settled back into our seats with a couple of under-pri...

Is there really a 'war' between the sexes? Depends how you define war. If you define 'war' as an armed conflict between two groups of people who already have lands, rights and freedoms of their own, then there isn't any war between the sexes. In a 'war' both sides usually have access to weapons and defence training of some kind. Both sides are usually fighting to defend resources or rights that they have been granted by laws or traditions that they defined themselves. The struggle for gender equality is not like this at all: it has been led by women whom, until recently, could not even enter the military; who started off with no rights, freedoms, lands, laws or even elected leaders of their own. And how many 'wars' have you heard of where the victors simply want to work WITH their opponents and earn equal pay, or live with them in peace? The 'war' between the sexes is not really a war. If anything, it's a popular revolution; a mode...

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