Big City Dreams, Small Town Scene: Clubs / Parties Round-Up
Written by Luke Troynar
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When you arrive in Berlin as a foreigner, you are greeted with all the sparkling wonders of big city living, which extend generously into the music / party scene. Funnily enough, when you delve wholeheartedly into the Berlin party scene, you enter a bizarre and intriguing social network that functions not dissimilarly to that of a small country town. Everyone seems to know everyone else, until eventually you give up on trying to introduce friends to other friends; oddly familiar party faces populate the shadowy backdrop of the club as if they were part of the furniture, or pop up randomly during the week on the street or in some café at inappropriate times; gossip travels in exaggerated bursts at the speed of light, so that you stumble across details of your weekend from a stranger on Facebook before you’ve mentioned anything to your closest friends. It’s a little bit peculiar, a big bit fun and a hell of a lot like high school (Hedonistic College?). No point in resisting it, just embrace it; straight down the grapevine and into a good time.
November / December is a busy time for celebrations of party births in Berlin, and in terms of Birthday bashes they don’t come much bigger than the Berghain birthday bash. This Saturday / Sunday Klubnacht pays respect to six momentous years of growing dominance, with a massive line-up that would make any bh / pbar fiend salivate. Chris Liebing, Ben Klock, Efdemin, Cosmin TRG, Rødhåd, Guy Gerber and more will insure a squishy-squashy Sunday of sweaty-wet troops seeing the notorious techno haven into its seventh year of debauchery.
Since taking over the space of My Name Is Barberella on the corner of Skalitzer and Manteuffel Str. earlier this year with a slick new interior, SK Robinson has gone from strength to strength - hosting a variety of events and pulling in some big names. One of those regular events is tonight’s Twist It, run by Belgian born Berlin DJ resident Yannick Robyns, and tonight featuring Belgians‘s Ultrasone, Get Physical’s Javier Logares and DJ Rainer.
Earlier on in the evening at the same address, Musance offers a clubby alternative to the classical theatre, with a combination of contemporary dance and electronic music. Elsa Loy - a Berlin based choreographer and dancer - gives your kooky Art teacher a reason to embrace doof doof, leading the event which is part of Slim Week.
Berlin based Italian duo, Tale of Us, have been telling the tale of an act making their worldwide mark in 2011, getting their remix hands filthy with lots of big, dark bass and infiltrating charts and playlists of smaller and bigger names alike. On Saturday night they pop up by the Spree at Watergate with M.A.N.D.Y and Clockwork as part of the M.A.N.D.Y & Friends / Life & Death Showcase, and the following day they join Samee Dee for a very special Holy Sunday at Club der Visionaere.
Sleep is Commercial is an ever evolving commercially-allergic concept “fueled by a fluid cast of creative minds; deejays, musicians, writers, artists, music producers, fashion designers, photographers and promoters.” Part music enterprise, part fashion label, part party organisation – tomorrow night it focuses on the latter function, joining forces with Berlin underground house and techno label, Klasse Recordings, at Arena to bring you the Sleep Is Commercial meets Klasse Recordings party.
Also on Saturday night at Horst, melodic tech-minimal duo Kollektiv Turmstraße and heavy tech-house duo Format B join Uffe and more as part of Clique It! Or one may elevate themself (literally) to the dizzying heights of glossy Weekend club and gaze at the view of the city while dancing to the commercially viable sounds of Booka Shade. Now if we follow the logical line of hipster thinking outlined above, by process of pragmatism the main aim at this event would be to fall asleep. Go figure.