Und was noch?

Lest you think that all I *ever* do is go to clubs, here are some pics from other things I've done recently. Such as: the Amy Winehouse show on October 15 (she didn't vomit or even fall down!)


















Here she is singing "You Know I'm No Good":



On a quite unrelated note, I went for a walk in the Grünewald, a very large forest in the general area of Wannsee, on Sunday the 14th. This picture I found rather interesting and alarming:






















It says "Dogs must be on a leash!" The dog in question is being catapulted into the air by a wild boar--yes, a wild boar. These creatures roam Berlin wooded areas quite freely. A week or so I actually heard some after coming back from a club. Creeepy! Perhaps the non-vegetarians will appreciate the fact that they frequently serve them for dinner at the American Academy.

Jeff Mills

On October 7 I attended a 3-hour DJ set by Jeff Mills at the new Tresor club. I saw the whole thing except for the last 5 minutes or so. Because of knowing nice people from the label, I got to view much of the performance from on stage. (I also got to see the unopened parts of the club, which are these weird empty former factory parts. The building is unbelievably huge...)


















He played with 3 turntables, 2 CDJs, and a 909. In general he would use these in chunks, rather than mixing them all up--i.e., maybe 10 minutes w/ the tables, then 10 with the CDJs, and so on.






















When he played the 909 he was really “playing” it. It was quite incredible. One could see him turning the knobs and hear the sound being very immediately affected.

Quite a few of the top Tresor producers from Berlin were there. I was impressed to see that these serious DJs had all come out to hear him—it speaks to his reputation/respect.

I tried to pay attention to his record digging behavior. As always it was extremely fast. In general, he seemed to be very much in the zone. He smiled several times, as if he were happy to be playing for a home crowd. The crowd was 2/3 male (big surprise there). Lots of shirts showing techno allegiances: Underground Resistance, "Berlin-Detroit: A Techno Alliance." The place was packed the whole time.

At 5 I went to Berghain, where I achieved a new personal best by staying until 8.15 a.m. :)

PopKomm

I have been berating myself on a daily basis for getting behind on my blogging again ... Oy. Last week I was sick, although that only covers one week. Oh well ... here is a start at catching up, at least.

From September 19-23 was PopKomm, a conference/tradeshow kind of thing for various kinds of rock, pop, and dance music. Lots of shows were happening all over town.


















In the interest of comparative musicology, I attended two different shows by Henrik Schwarz, a musician whom I have interviewed in the past.


















The first was on Thursday the 20th, at Club 103 in Kreuzberg. It's more or less next door to Watergate. Here is the flyer:






















The second was, I had been told, at Panoramabar on Sunday night. I was really wondering what sort of freaks would be left around there at 8 p.m. on a Sunday! Keep in mind, of course, that
8 p.m. Sunday counts as really late Saturday night here...

As it turns out, the 2nd gig wasn't really in Panoramabar, but next door. Berghain has a "Kantine" next door called Rudersdorf. It is rather pleasant: there is an outdoor area with tables, a restaurant, a fountain (!), and swings. Inside is a decent-size club space.

The audience, as it turns out, looked like they had slept and bathed at some point, so the vibe was actually more Sunday-night-ish. It was quite mellow and pleasant. They were quite into the music, and Henrik played very well.

I had been curious to see how similar or different the two performances would be musically. They turned out to be very different: I recognized only 5-6 tracks shared among them, and they occurred in different places, for the most part.

All of the pics are from the 103 club. I didn't take pictures at Rudow/Panoramabar/whatever. Although they didn't take my camera, considering the ban on pictures at Berghain, I decided it would be like the curse of the Pharaoh or something to take pictures there...

Peaches in the house!!

Last night I went to the Tape Club, a place I had not previously attended, to hear a DJ set by Peaches. Yes, that Peaches!!! I was very happy to learn that she lives in Berlin. No wonder I love this city!

As Ms. Peaches was hanging out with the audience throughout the evening, I can describe her outfit, which featured one of those odd 80s shirts with gold chains printed on it, quite precisely. But here are pics anyway.























Her set was quite eclectic. She played her new remix of Ton Loc's "Wild Thing":



She also played 2 bhangra numbers (which were synced to video mixes also) and assorted electro tracks as expected. She played her hit "Two Guys for Every Girl" and rapped nasty lyrics above it. Here, have a listen! (Sorry, you are going to have to turn either your computer or your head sideways.)



In this part she does some math pertaining to the lyrics:



It should be noted that she did not "DJ" that much in a technical sense. She played CDs, and for the most part did not beat-match. The whole thing was carried with the force of her personality.

The club itself was interesting: one entered through an upstairs loungey area, down steps to the dance floor, which had large industrial lights above it.


















There was a tiny 2nd dancefloor, about the size of a New York bedroom, off to the side, where they were playing 80s music such as "It Takes Two." (The German DJ mixed in the "whoo!" "yeah!" parts on beats 1 and 3 of the previous track. Not so funky fresh.)

I liked the crowd in this place: they were rather hip, with some nods to classic club-kid looks, such as boys wearing giant sequined scarves, or tiny hats on the side of their heads, and women wearing vintage formal dresses with sneakers.

Schönes Wetter

The weather has been very nice for most of this week (a lot of sunshine and highs around 70), as if to make up for the cold rainy cloudiness that greeted me upon arrival (and no doubt awaits in perpetuum). Thus I have posted some more pictures of the Wannsee and the swanky houses surrounding it.

I also learned this week that the weather, auf Deutsch, can be "schön," but one does not say "Das Wetter ist nett." People can be "nett," or art, but not the weather.

Also I had two hour-long conversations in German this weekend!

Ein "Event," das ich gesehen habe

Yes, "Event" is now a German word. Also "Performance" and "Club" (pronounced like "kloob").

Last Saturday I attended an Event/Performance by Robert Henke and a visual artist named Christopher Bauder. Robert Henke is a musician I've interviewed; he performs under the name Monolake and developed an important software program called Ableton Live.

The Performance consisted of about an hour of electronic music improvised in real time on a laptop. The music was coordinated with 64 balloons, which were lit individually with LEDs. They were raised and lowered individually in various patterns that coordinated with the music. (Anyone familiar with techno will realize that 64 is a perfect number, because the music is most often structured in exponents of 4.) The audience members were seated on the floor of the gallery, in the dark, looking up at all this.

It was very cool! Here's a link to the gallery homepage and to the Monolake homepage, which has some really cool pics.

Maria am Ostbahnhof

My apologies for getting behind in the blogging. Fill in the blanks as you wish :-) but I had a nasty cold last week, which didn't help. In this post I will write about my outing last weekend on September 7.

I went to Maria am Ostbahnhof, a place I've been to many times, for their 9th anniversary party. Barbara Preisinger, from Scape Records, kindly put me on the guest list. She DJed in the "Josef" room, while Phon.o & Chris DeLuca (formerly of Funkstörung) did a live set in the Maria room.

I am embarrassed to admit that I only recently realized that "Funkstörung" means "radio interference" in German, rather than "Destruction of funk" as I had previously assumed. Perhaps I could be forgiven since the word for destruction is Zerstörung. I am not sure if German has a word for funk, let alone its destruction.

Anyway, Phon.o & Chris played an excellent set. It was, in fact, quite funky, in a sort of electro style with lots of hip-hop samples. Afterward, Thomas Fehlmann played, an artier, somewhat mellower set.

One of the other Fellows accompanied me to the club. This was very pleasant. It turns out she is from Birmingham also. More notably, this is the first time I have ever gone to a club with someone who has won the Pulitzer Prize!

Here are some more pics and a little video: