hey francis, all my peeps from ireland arrived, just about. i ran out of juice on my mobile, so could not contact you. friday night i spent in week12end with sasse playing. it was so-so as the place did not get very busy and the music was, well, weak - only a metro area cut stood out for me. very different from my last visit there.
tried to get into panorama bar at about 3.30, but the (very scary looking) bouncers didn't like the cut of our jib. so, back to week12end (didn't think of watergate). saturday was spent in museums (pergamonmuseum my favourite), then a meal in borchardt, possible one of the best i've ever had. then in a cocktail bar called ambulance in north of the city with a cool dreadlocked dj playing chi house, disco, funk, crazy rhythm tracks. we left there at reasonable hour (1.0) to go to berghain. holy moly, what it says on wikipedia doesn't come close. the lighting and sound is brilliant - they must have spent a fortune on the place. the massive strobe lights almost induced an epileptic fit they were so powerful (and disorientating). the shaved-headed muscle marys were a sight to behold - as were the unfeasibly tall women, the valkyries. the music downstairs in the main berghain section was good. a dj wearing a red planet t-shirt (think it was don williams) played some great deep, dubby stuff, plus rng and that great hutton drive track on frantic flowers. upstairs was alright, the live sets of bruno pronsato (boring) and daze maxim (better) were a mixed bag. then a hamburg dj marc schneider took the reins and thats when i firmly encamped in panorama bar. the music was brilliant - this http://www.discogs.com/release/5996 was the highlight for me and summed up the night. had to leave at 8.0 in the morning, but it only seemed like the place was really getting going then. but i had my brain, liver and children to consider. i am actually glad that our licensing laws in ireland are so restrictive, because berlin nightlife is not condusive to good health. i saw a quote about berlin during the weimar republic: "the dance clubs were full and the patrons took as many drugs as they did lovers." glad to see nothing has changed - berlin, your dance partner is death. On 21/11/06, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
My friends and I had a great time there (again!). Kept it quiet(!) by going to Sternradio on Friday as it's local to our hostel and having travelled and just eaten a large meal at the nice Mexican on Rosenthaler Platz I lacked energy and indeed was in bed by 3:30am. Saturday day I took the S Bahn to Potsdam and had a fascinating day checking the palaces etc. Nightime we went to Week12end about midnight, heard Ame (I think it was he judging from what was played), HENRIK SCHWARZ who was once again devastatingly good and Dixon (ditto on the "at least I think it was him"). Heard people slag the place for being snobby and we have had trouble getting in before but once in it seemed to me nice club, good sound, amazing views, top DJs. €8. You wouldn't get that in the UK. Then it was on to our Mecca Berghain for another night of unrelenting hard tech. At some points in the night the music or DJing might not have been 100% my taste but the place just has such a vibe (and system). Managed to keep in the main bit and out of Panorama (as I find it too easy to spend half the night chatting in there!) the whole time (we left about 13:00 Sunday). We then ended up having some rather bizarre adventures before grinding to a halt on Sunday night. At my last count there was another UK posse headed there, one from Eire maybe? (did you get everybody there eventually?), one person from the USA? and of course the residents such as Roman. I totally failed to get in contact with anyone after suffering a PC failure on Thursday before I left and then just going with the flow once there - but I think a fair few were planning on Week12end. Were we all there in separate corners?
-- Aidan O to the D
