March 21st, 2011

Squats with live music in Berlin – Lovelite

Next in our series on the erstwhile squat and squat venues of Berlin, Lovelite is more of a dance club than just a live venue, and is more exclusively focused on music than many of the places we’ve so far featured.

Lovelite

A dive bar/ club housed in a former repair garage since 1999, Lovelite has a scuzzy, post-industrial vibe that provides the appropriate atmosphere for its audience and its featured musical styles. Its two rooms are primarily used for DJ sets and parties, but there is a small stage, and live music is also featured regularly.

Style of music

The focus on DJs unsurprisingly means there is a strong vein of electronica, hip-hop, reggae and so forth, but some of the DJs here spin punk and metal too, and the live acts they feature are very diverse. Folk, punk, hardcore, ska, ‘balkan ska’ (which I guess means punky polka), and indie all get a mention in the recently past or upcoming listings. It’s all on the upbeat side: if you play very introspective acoustic music you’re probably not getting a gig here, but if you’re in a party band it could be well worth approaching them.

Atmosphere

Terms like ‘unpretentious’ and ‘caters to a scuzzier breed of partying’ seem to crop up in relation to Lovelite. It’s clearly a place for those who like to party and are not too concerned with the frills and fashion that cloud the issue in more mainstream venues. The club has a long standing community of loyal regulars, but is reportedly welcoming to newcomers, and is frequented by a mixture of subversive counterculture types and students.

How to go about getting a gig:

Email info@lovelite.de to find out how to get a gig here.

Website: http://www.lovelite.de/

Live Unsigned listing:

http://www.liveunsigned.com/venue/442-friedrichshain/68-lovelite?page=&s=lovelite

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March 14th, 2011

Squats with live music in Berlin – Tommy Weissbecker Haus

Continuing with our introduction to Berlin squats or former squats that put on live music…

Named after Baader-Meinhof associate Thomas Weissbecker, who was killed in a shootout with police in 1972, the Tommy Weissbecker Haus has been putting on gigs in the Schicksaal since 1991, although the squat itself dates back to 1973. Schicksaal means fate in German, but as two separate words (schick saal) means ‘chic hall’. It’s not often I’ll be able to explain a German pun to you, so enjoy it while you can!

Tommy Weisbecker Haus

Style of music

Lots of hardcore and punk, with some more metal oriented stuff as well.

Atmosphere

As always, I’d love to hear from you if you’ve been here so I can add more info to this post! (email me at: oli@liveunsigned.com) The Schicksaal is a popular venue with a busy programme, in a very long established site of the Berlin counterculture, so expect a friendly and uncompromisingly authentic night out.

How to go about getting a gig:

There’s a webform here: http://www.schicksaal.org/booking.php Presumably they’ll get you to send a demo or link once the initial contact has been made.

Websites:

http://www.schicksaal.org

http://www.tommyhaus.org

Live Unsigned listing:

http://www.liveunsigned.com/venue/439-kreuzberg/1833-schicksaal-im-tommy-weissbecker-haus?page=&s=tommy%20weissbecker

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February 10th, 2011

Squats with live music in Berlin – Arcanoa

Our ongoing tour of the squat or ex-squat venues of Berlin continues with Arcanoa.

Arcanoa existed as a squat for around ten years, but was shut down in 1998: the current venue was opened up in a bar nearby by refugees from the squat, bringing what equipment they could salvage. Its promotional tagline is ‘the bar with a river in the counter’, and there is indeed a water feature running the length of the bar. The entire place is a labour of love, and is artistically decorated with the DIY aesthetic you might expect in a venue with Arcanoa’s background. The toilets are so beautifully tiled that there’s a picture of them on the front page of their website!

Style of music

Arcanoa puts on shows from a wide variety of artists: punk, rock, folk, blues, ska, reggae, jazz, rock ‘n’ roll and indie are all mentioned in their gig listing for January 2011. On Mondays they have a singer-songwriter session and open stage, which has an ad hoc format, and by all accounts often evolves into a jam session. Arcanoa is also a venue for medieval music, with a minstrel session every Wednesday.

Atmosphere

Arcanoa’s reputation is as a cozy, intimate and friendly venue, with an appealingly rough-round-the-edges feel to it. One customer review I found reads: ‘one of the most scurrilous places Berlin has to offer, give it a try!’ From watching performance videos recorded here I can tell that bands can find the right kind of audience, whether that’s enthusiastically bouncy for a punk gig, or keenly attentive for an acoustic performance.

Getting a gig there

Email info@arcanoa.de in the first instance. They don’t give any special instructions on their website.

As always, we would love to hear from anyone who has played here, or attended a gig here, please email: oli@liveunsigned.com

Website: http://www.arcanoa.de/

Live Unsigned listing:
http://www.liveunsigned.com/venue/439-kreuzberg/284-arcanoa?page=&s=Arcanoa

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February 8th, 2011

Squats with live music in Berlin – Supamolly

Next up in our series on Squats, we visit Supamolly. Supamolly (or Supamolli) is a major Berlin squat that has been open since the early 90s. As well as providing a home to all kinds of interesting people, it also sports a theatre, a bar, and a venue which hosts a regular comedy night and lots of music on Fridays and Saturdays. By all accounts Supamolly is a warren of alleys and passageways.

Supamolly

Style of music

Extremely varied: ‘from punk to classical, techno to whatever’ (roughly translated) is what it says on the website, and a quick glance at the gigs coming up shows such genres as ska, techno, experimental pop, Hungarian speedfolk, brasscore, Malwonian night-hop, and ‘HippiekrautartnGothicnrollfunk’!

Atmosphere

Finding the music venue can be an adventure in itself, one regular reporting ‘you might feel as if you missed the spot because to get to the concert area you have to go through a small bar at first.’ Once there, the atmosphere is relaxed and welcoming, with a touch of cyberpunk about it: ‘a healthy mix of young and ageing punks, unemployed activists and music-lovers of all types’, and ‘everyone is relaxed and there to have fun.’ Apparently, it’s worth making use of the toilets in the bar, rather than the ones in the venue itself…

How to go about getting a gig

There is a contact webform on the (all Flash) website, and also a selection of email adresses for booking enquiries. A friend’s experience of trying to get a gig there was reportedly quite arduous – as a foreign unknown unsigned band. She and a her bandmates under advice from the doorman went along to the squat committee meeting on Monday night and had to sit through and wait till the end of the meeting then submit a cd for approval to the board to be told that they should chase up in a couple of weeks time. I’d be glad to hear other people’s experiences – if you can help with information please email me: oli@liveunsigned.com.

Website: http://www.supamolly.de

Live Unsigned listing:
http://www.liveunsigned.com/venue/442-friedrichshain/395-supamolly?page=&s=supamolly

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January 31st, 2011

Squats with live music in Berlin – Koepi 137

To begin our series on squat venues in Berlin we’re starting with one of the best known places for underground music, the legendary Koepi 137.

Picture: Koepi Entrance

Koepi 137 is home to over fifty people, and its venue space, Koma F, is a leading punk rock venue. It is housed in an apartment building slightly more than a century old, which was well inside the East zone prior to reunification. It was occupied by squatters in 1990 and has been a mainstay of Berlin’s counterculture ever since. The venue space, Koma F, has been a part of Koepi 137 for roughly the last ten years, and is known for the high standard of the acts that play there.

Style of music

Mainly punk/ hardcore, with some metal, grindcore etc as well. By all accounts there is a very high quality, with a lot of very established bands from outside Germany (UK, Scandinavia, Italy, USA) visiting to gig at Koma F.

Atmosphere

As one regular put it ‘you have to love Koepi, not only for the great live music they feature, but also the general vibe of the place, krust [by which I guess they mean what we call crusties in English] and voku [‘people’s kitchen’, home cooked food sold in many Berlin squats] and Sternburg [beer] and graffiti and leather jackets easily become synonymous to live music after you’ve checked out even just a couple of gigs there.’

Getting a gig at Koepi

Initial contact is via a webform on the contact page:

http://www.koepi137.net/contact.htm#

All applications must be accompanied either by links to direct downloads, or they will supply a postal address for physical demos on request. They very explicitly state they will not look at MySpace! Unsigned acts would probably be best advised to look out for upcoming shows on the events page:

http://www.koepi137.net/eventskonzerte.php

If you see a night where a band of a simlar style to you is playing, and there is no support band is not listed, why not write and suggest your band for the slot!

Gigs start at 10pm in the week so that shows can finish a bit earlier but Friday and Saturday night shows are known to go long in to the early hours.

Website: http://www.koepi137.net/

Live Unsigned listing:

http://www.liveunsigned.com/venue/438-mitte/157-koepi-137?page=&s=koepi

At Live Unsigned we’re always very interested to hear from anyone who can give further info, regarding live music at Koepi, or indeed any squat that puts on live music shows so that we can compile more useful information for bands who want to play squat venues.

If you can offer any insight on the squat music scene in general, wherever in the world you might live, whether you live in a squat, organise gigs, have gigged in squats, or simply go to gigs as an audience member. Please get in touch by emailing me: oli@liveunsigned.com.

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January 22nd, 2011

14 day festival to support Liebig 14 in Berlin

Founded in 1990, shortly after re-unification, Liebig14 is one of Berlin’s oldest established squats. As a quick glance at the ‘Chronology’ page on their website will show, their history as a home and venue has been one of continuous legal uncertainty and negotiation with various landlords: the current property owner, Suitbert Beulker, has secured an eviction date of February 2, so it’s do or die time for those who would like to keep this important free space alive. There are various ways you can get involved and show your support.

There is a fourteen day festival of concerts and demonstrations in Berlin, currently taking place in a variety of venues and locations, including several other of the city’s leading squats: you can find more details on the Liebig14 blog
( http://liebig14.blogsport.de/2011/01/17/14-days-festival-for-liebig-14/#more-165 ). This began on January 17, and leads up to the scheduled evictions on February 2, which will undoubtedly be greeted with a great deal of resistance from the residents and their supporters.

A demonstration against the evictions was held outside the German embassy in London on January 14: although this has been and gone, it’s worth taking a look at the event page on Facebook ( http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=146145795440357 ) which has some useful background on the ideological context. Liebig14’s philosophy is summarised as follows: ‘Liebig 14 is proud to be a part of a long history of autonomous spaces in Berlin and around the world. In working against capitalism, social hierarchy and discrimination, autonomous spaces take small but concrete steps towards wider political emancipation and self-determined living.’ This is also a good description of the value of squats in general, and the reason that they make good homes for underground and independent music.

So, if you live in or near Berlin and want to show your support here’s what you could do: get in touch with Liebig14, get yourself to as many of these events as possible, and find out from the people at the centre of events how you can best support them. If you’ve harboured a desire to visit Berlin, now’s a good time (and the snow’s clearing up)! If you turn up around the beginning of February and express a desire to help oppose the evictions, you are unlikely to have any trouble finding a place to stay, and you will definitely make some friends. If you are a DIY musician, friends can mean gigs, and access to new networks of like-minded music fans.

Liebig14, and places like it, represent an incredibly valuable cultural resource, and a physical home for the global counterculture which finds it progressively harder to find a place in our over branded, corporate world: you have a chance, right now, to take action in support of this, and make a real difference. Even if the squat is closed down, the more resistance there is, and the more attention drawn to it, the better. All the information you need can be found in the following links:

http://www.wix.com/liebig14/home

http://liebig14.blogsport.de/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Liebig14-bleibt/142412742451310?v=info

http://twitter.com/liebig14

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