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stockholm club reviews |
| Most of the reviews here are for techno/house/drum&bass clubs, but that's not a hard rule. I am not a frustrated journalist... the point of this page is to give people searching the web in English an idea about clubs in Stockholm. When I did that in back in 2000, such information was patchy. One day I'll organise things a bit better. |
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Summer 2002 Fokused and Tempo The fokused parties every Wednesday at Stacy were banging thanks to Alison Marks, Parks and Wilson, Steve Gerrard and others. Tempo at Aston, Mariatorget (09-Aug) was pretty cool - two rooms and lots of nice decor (mandarin might have a more detailed review). Hope that can go monthly or whatever. |
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Roskilde 2002 Not as great as last year - perhaps now with competition from Glastonbury again, some of the bands I would have liked to have seen weren't there. John Digweed did something very special for 3 hours (or maybe more) - the longest set of the whole festival and a great idea. Otherwise there were no great musical discoveries, but good fun all the same! |
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Disco #3 X-Press 2: Ashley Beedle, Rocky & Diesel During the week-long Stockholm 750th anniversary party (which had some great outdoor raving which I missed unfortunately - I only made it for the re-orient night which was so-so) I went to Berns to check out X-Press 2. I can only describe it as a non-stop pumping journey through sound - it was really awesome... Maybe not so spontaneous (6 decks, 3 mixers and obviously well prepared), but definitely rocking the place. |
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Pussy - eau de club 3 May 2002 Great music, plain and simple techno (Dimitri, Omid 16B, Coma). Beautiful decoration and a nice chill-out room. The right prerequisites for a perfect night on the dancefloor, but where were the people??? 50 more ravers and it would have been an excellent follow up for the Cream night 3 days earlier! [many thanks to guest reviewer Jochen for this club report.] |
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Cream night at München Bryggeriet 30 April 2002 Another big do at the best venue in town. Less square meterage this time, but no problem really - it probably helped the party vibe. The main room (Futureshock, Paul Kane, Deep Nature) seemed to be rocking all night but the second room (Monday Bar/Bootleg Techno Floor) was more up my street - hard as nails and the vibe was alive. I forgot to check who played when, but they were all great - especially the last geezer. Here are all the names for the record: Mhonolink (Mhonday Music), Hardcell (Skunkworks), Pär Grindvik (illegal sthlm), Johan Bacto (Mankind, Zync), Abi Lönnberg (Riotplan, KGB). Door tax of 250:- though - a bit pricey. Unfortunate clash this night with The Bakery which was pretty banging last time I went. |
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Rekyl drum&bass party 27 April 2002 Great to get back to the harder beats at KTH with DJ Zinc (True Playaz, UK). Also featured mad DJ-battles and a great eclectic selection in the bar. |
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Raw Fusion - Jazzanova (DJ set) 16 March 2002 Excellent tunes and atmosphere. Sound system doesn't hurt any more :-) Would go again, even without a big name DJ! |
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db 23 February 2002 Another great night, Ray Keith in the house. Roadblock... |
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Pure @ Muhren 15 February 2002 Another late starter - took a while to warm up and then it was all over. Great tunes though, and nice decor. I'll check it out again next time. Get there early kids! |
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db 9 February 2002 My second time now at this club, and it really rocks. Great tunes, great mix of people, crisp soundsystem, awesome vibe... Need I say more? I could tell you the lineup: Seba (Secret Operations) Blito & Yallow B2B-session MC Sandor. Ultra-huge name DJ Ray Keith up in two weeks time... |
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Lovely Day 2 February 2002 First time at München Bryggeriet and it's a fantastic place. Lots of rooms and a great balcony, and the fokused people had done a great job with the decorations. I guess it didn't fill up until around 1am but that's normal for Stockholm - in you-know-where we'd be having it large by midnight, and go on til 6 in the morning. Back to the music - it was great, headliner James Holden played a great selection of intelligent and banging house and techno. Too bad the main sound system sucked big-time - particularly the rear speakers. A couple of awesome tunes (including the classic, Rez) sounded really crappy. Still I have to say it was a top night, with a good crowd and a nice vibe. |
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Monday Bar/Doghouse boys/Global Underground 28 January 2002 I was impressed by the big crowd on a Monday night, but wasn't so turned on by Steve Lawler's set. It seemed like one tribal plodder after another. Downstairs was a bit more lively for at least the 20 mins I was there. And then at the end upstairs there was cheese and general strangeness... |
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db Christmas bash 22 December 2001 Small club, big tunes. Nice back-to-back session from the four DJ's. Danced like a lunatic, had great time, went home. What more can I say? Well I'm writing this in 2002 and I can't remember much more... :-) |
| Rekyl - Parallels 24 November 2001 Big event, 3 rooms, lush decor, good music but not great. Not even Andy Morris from (you guessed it...) the UK. What Stockholm really needs is a place where you can go and dance non-stop for 5+ hours to consistently good and hard-as-nails music... Or at least somebody needs to tell me where to go :-) |
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Raw Fusion 5th birthday 25 October 2001 Great place (Mosebacke 'luvvie bar' and Södra Teatern upstairs bar (fantastic view), nice vibe, great music (Snowboy all the way from London town), but the sound system was terrible. How many peoples' ears were damaged that night? I'm not surprised so many Swedes use earplugs. |
| DNA social club - Adam F 24 Aug 2001 Not as enthusiastic about this night, sorry. I guess I'm more into dolphin friendly d&b than the harder stuff that Adam was banging out. |
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DNA social club 10 Aug 2001 Arrived late at the venue (basement of the Aston Hotel, Mariatorget) which was smaller than I expected but that's fine with me. Was soon treated to an awesome mix by DJ Seba - a perfect combination of the roughest rolling beats, melodic lines and excellent mixing. Even the (first) MC was spot on during this final set - I liked his style (respecting the music). Seba really sparked a great atmosphere - and the kids were loving it. It does make me wonder where all the grown-up music lovers are - or am I missing out on some really kicking wine bar/restaurant culture? Adam F is making an appearance next fortnight - I won't miss that - check out the web site. |
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illegal Stockholm & The Dead Guys presents DMX Krew and others
4 August 2001 Not my idea of a banging Saturday night I'm afraid. A selection of retro and/or electro 'live' acts and DJs, including some strange people in pink t-shirts with gameboys. DMX Krew was worth staying for however - I was even dancing a couple of times - a lot of energy in his music and his unmistakable lo-fi vocals reminded us we weren't just listening to a machine. Only two complaints: a ridiculously high door tax and no second room to escape from the 80's and get back to the 00's. On the same night there was a big do at Berns, with Kenny Dope Gonzalez and a lot more. |
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Arvika festival July 2001 Just a quick mention for this one - about 4 hours drive from Stockholm. We arrived on Friday (so didn't see the Sisters of Mercy), as usual it's almost impossible to find a space to camp. Swedish laws governing drinking are 100% effective here - need I say more... Musical highlights: Robert Leiner DJing in the dance 'tent'(actually a building) on Saturday afternoon - spot on. The Orb's live set on Friday night was pretty good and the Young Gods on Saturday night - awesome - but I was a bit drunk. For some reason the sound system in the dance arena was always way too loud late at night with the crusty techno DJs. Is that because all Swedes wear earplugs? There was also some kind of street opera going on around a VW minibus which looked great, but I couldn't stay long. In summary: you're better off in Denmark (read on...). |
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Roskilde festival June/July 2001 Ok, so this isn't in Sweden, nowhere near Stockholm, but it's highly, highly recommended to all those seeking respite from oppressive Swedish anti-party laws. First off, it's easy to get there, especially if you can fill a car or minibus - 9 hours from Stockholm when the roads are clear. But it's easy by train too, and a bit quicker. Secondly there's masses of dance music. Here are some of the good bits: Lucien Foort, Anthony Pappa, Danny Howells, Bo V, Christian Bloch. 'Brommage Dub' gave possibly the best DJ set. They have real names too, it says in the programme - bit of a marketing ploy at work here me thinks - I just hope I can track them down in Stockers. I also caught the last 20 minutes of Tiesto and he seemed to have the place rocking - and what a monster final tune... At one point I was playing frisbee with a bunch of people and listening to top tunes from the white tent - hello to you lot. On the live front: Faithless sounded good through the rain. Apocalyptica were new to me, and awesome. Plaid seemed to be trying just a bit too hard with 15 against 7 rhythms and so on... especially considering it was well past my bedtime, it was a bit too much for me. Talvin Singh and his mates played a superb set. Beck and Robbie Williams were both plonkers in my opinion. Two more small negative things: those stupid square white 'tents' take up space where real tents should be - you know who you are, and there could be more independent sound systems. I nearly forgot to put in a good word for the chill out tent - great stuff. Obviously I missed tons of other good stuff too, but that's the sign of a top festival... it's already in my diary for next year. |
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Klubb Rekyl 19 May 2001 Now this was an awesome night. It was the inspiration to start writing these reviews. Held in the student union at KTH, it had a nice old school atmosphere, friendly people everywhere. The main room was rocking soon after we got there, pumping funky techno which only went off the boil for around 30 minutes during the penultimate DJ. Sound system and lighting were perfect, the crowd were loving it. We could have danced til dawn (actually it was dawn at 3am but we'll ignore that). 10 out of 10. More of this please. Check the web site. |
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Life Stockholm 5 May 2001 A night of dub and techno in the theater bar at Kulturhuset, with live sets from Tikiman and Joel Mull. For me, the event only kicked off for about 30 minutes. It was late starting and the main room was downtempo up to the start of Tikiman. The second room was closed off for some of the night too. Hmmm. Anyway, Adam Beyer finally rocked the place but the sound system was really harsh and it was not such a pleasant experience. Better than watching telly though. Check the web site. |
| Two nights in 2000 Just a quick mention for a night at Bar Grodan, Sveavägen. Upstairs deep house and comfy chairs, downstairs in the shopping mall, bright lights and a few hundred people going mental to the hardest drum and bass I've heard since one night in Rotterdam. Top atmosphere despite the lack of it... And there was also the Disco Stockholm Stockholm Music Week party at Sturecompagniet. This was very funny, lots of media darlings, but the room upstairs on the right was rocking - mostly drum and bass and some electro if i remember correctly. Top geezer at around 1am. Never had time to check out Gilles Peterson... |
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Tranan downstairs in the bar Great tunes nearly all of the time (after about 2200). |
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Kvarnen Just discovered this recently - seems to have a new basement bar with DJs most nights. Nice place. |
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Links to a good night out svaj cafe tunes, drinks and food, and some party tips too (in Swedish) allt om stockholm going out guide I DN på stan going out guide II aftonbladet going out guide III club rekyl KTH stylee bomben db best vibe in town fokused big one-offs mandarin tech+trance |
| See you at the next one... cheers bob |
| and now, if you like, check out compare-stuff |