Kurhotel Club Hamburg

Kurhotel Club - Große Freiheit 35, 22727 Hamburg

One of the last locations I visited in Hamburg was the Kurhotel at St. Pauli. According the website the location formerly was the last transvestite whorehouse in Hamburg a couple of years ago before it turned into the party location it is today.
Knowing about the masses of tourists in this particular street I went there around 7AM straight from Klingel 3 which is by the way also a really nice small bar/mini-club around the Kiez.
Going back to the Kurhotel, it is not to easy to find, you have to look out for it specially in earlier hours - otherwise you may not find it and end up in some crappy location like Kiezinternat (They call themselves Techno, I call them crap).
The door was surprisingly very nice, looking at the time and crazy folks they must have seen during the night. Going in, also surprisingly just 5 Euro entrance fee.

Keyfacts:

Music: House / Other
Floors: 2-3
Outdoor Area: Yes
Crowd: 20+
Pricing: Normal
Link: Kurhotel

The feeling you get here is that

Ego Club Hamburg

Ego Club - Talstraße 9, 20359 Hamburg

The first post about a club in Hamburg is coming up, thinking about that it is actually a kinda sad post. The Ego Club is closing and the last 2 parties are already this weekend, so if you can, join for the last time. Officially Magdalena and Solomun want to take a break from being club owners, they stated that it was not a financial decision. Well, if you ask me I'd say it was - since I've seen the club specially on Fridays empty at times, despite having a constant great lineup with top DJ's. There is a lot of rumors also around, for example that Magdalena wants to focus more on her DJ career or that the club just didn't run well enough for Solomun, but who knows.

Going back to the essentials, the Ego is pretty small. It haves a rather small dance floor and bar, upstairs a small chill-out area. Still, I really liked going there due to the fact that they often had the best lineup around, good sound quality and friendly staff.

Keyfacts:

Music: Techno / House / Experimental
Floors: 1-2
Outdoor Area: No
Crowd: 20+
Pricing: normal
Link: Ego

I really like that they do a short pause after the DJ's ended their sets for people to appreciate & clap, this is even in Berlin very rare.

10 Things I Hate About Clubbing

Do you know this?

You arrive at a party around 2-ish and find out that the DJ you actually want to see is playing at 6AM, you arrive at 4-ish and everyone is on a different level than you are and then some stupid photographer is taking very cool pictures of girls with midriff-bearing tops. Not the party you want to be at? Me neither.

Since I'm actually pretty annoyed about a lot of stuff happening, here is my Top 10:

10. No Timetables

I'll be honest on this, I mostly choose the clubs and parties for the music and the DJ's who are playing. So when there is no timetable, which is often the case, the chance is high to arrive at a completely wrong time, specially in Berlin. Fortunately...

Tresor Club Berlin

Tresor Club - Köpenicker Straße 70, 10179 Berlin

One of the oldest Techno clubs in Berlin first opened in March 1991, excepting the small break for the move into a new building, is the Tresor Club. You can read the full history here: Here

I ended up here pretty often with my sister, of course in the cellar - the Tresor, which is to reach after following a long, dark underground corridor. I remember crazy parties down there when the music stopped, the lights went fully off and everything was quite for a couple of seconds.
Nobody moves, nobody panics either.
The long-drinks are pretty cheap and as well very high on alcohol, usually I'm fine with 2-3 for the whole night. Next to that the sound is usually very bass-intense and of great quality. The people, layout and pressure reminds me a lot of the illegal bunker parties happening in my hometown twice a year. (Not sure if they where or still are illegal tho)

Keyfacts:

Music: Techno / House / Experimental Electronic
Floors: 1-3
Outdoor Area: No
Crowd: 18+
Pricing: Pretty Cheap
Link: Tresor

One thing to mention is, of course, since the club is one of the oldest of it's kind

Watergate Club Berlin

Watergate Club - Falckensteinstr. 49, 10997 Berlin

The Watergate is one of the rather untypical clubs in Berlin, furniture that matches each other, a huge light-panel in the upper floor and a terrace on the Spree – some Hamburg girls may find their home here. Following this the overall pricing of drinks do correlate with that, meaning 4€ a beer which is crazy expensive for Berlin for (just) two floors music action. Resulting out of this is that very few Berliners are still going there, Watergate unfortunately attracts mostly tourists - since this is where they end up after Kreuzfriedrichs.
If you want to have at least a bit of Berlin feeling go after 5am, better 6am – Then it can be very enjoyable and unique.

Key facts:

Music: House / Minimal / Deep House
Floors: 2
Outdoor Area: Yes, Terrace
Crowd: 20+
Pricing: High
Link: Watergate

One thing to mention is that they do have a really great

Salon zur wilden Renate Berlin

Salon zur wilden Renate Club - Alt-Stralau 70, 10245 Berlin

The next club I'm going to talk about will be one of the most authentic (at least location-wise) clubs Berlin has. Salon zur wilden Renate, or simply 'Renate' is a place I visited last year a lot - mainly with friends.
The base concept consists of giving you the feeling to attend a house-party rather than a typical club, since the building is a re-designed one family apartment.
As far as I remember they have 4 dance floors plus uncounted chill-rooms where you can, of course, do whatever the fuck you want and get lost. Renate also haves an outside area in the summer and if you are lucky you are in time for the awesome pool parties they organize. Shooting friends with water-pistols can be fun too at 8 in the morning.

Key facts:

Music: Minimal / House
Floors: 1-4+
Outdoor Area: Yes
Crowd: 18+
Pricing: Normal
Link: Renate

Going to the music I'd say it's overall very

Intro & Welcome to my Blogspot

I always found it very annoying to find the right place for the right evening in Berlin, now I'm stuck in Hamburg for at least a while and have the same problem again. Where are the best parties, the best DJ's and - very important - crowd I wanna go to?
Hamburg can be a bitch and I'm still figuring out, meanwhile I'll write about Berlin.

To let you know upfront: I'm not gonna talk about door policy's or how you get into those clubs, if you are dedicated enough you gonna find out by yourself.
I have no idea where this blog leads to or what I'll talk about exactly yet, but hopefully some people enjoy - and find their second home for the night.
Right now I'm still thinking about adding relevant Links, DJ's, Labels and my very crappy memo's I've got from the nights, we will see.

It took me almost 2 years in Berlin to find what I can call my regular club, and this will be about which I'm gonna talk about first - Kosmonaut.

Kosmonaut Club Berlin

Kosmonaut Club - Wiesenweg 1-4, 10365 Berlin

The first time I went there was actually by accident, I was out with some friends who told me I've got to see that one. When I went in, it was already late-morning, the sun was shining and people danced outside at the terrace to rather slowish housy music, somehow this was magical.
Since then I went there almost every weekends while I was in Berlin, and still come back to the WSKTOW, Klangkost or Steyoyoke parties happening regularly.
Next to that, they do have some pretty talented artists on board, for example BÄR Stuff, which can be doing live-paintings next to you or - have some drinks at the bar.
The sound-quality is top notch, thanks to Function One and the light-arrangement is very unique.

Keyfacts:

Music: House / Techno
Floors: 1-4
Outdoor Area: Yes
Crowd: 20+
Pricing: Normal
Link: Wonderland

One thing that I got pretty quickly is