Berlin Nightlife, Bars and Clubs

Below is a list of Berlins best known night clubs across a range of musical genres including techno, house, punk, latin, indie, alternative and pop.

1. Tresor
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On October 29, 2009 Muse played the O2 World Arena in Berlin. From my experience, having seen them play live 5 times, Muse have never played a bad gig, injecting originality and energy into every song at every show I've ever seen them play, with plenty of musical ad-lib and interaction with the crowd. Interraction, not so much in words, but through well-planned but heart-felt solos played to the crowd, not at the crowd, intertwined between their big hits, communicating their message to the crowd through amazing musical ability and brilliant visual effects. Unfortunately I couldn't make it to this gig, but apparently, true to form, the gig went down as a major success, the fans who were there giving it a big thumbs up on the Muse forum.

Matthew Bellamy is a fantastic contemporary rock pianist, an amazing guitarist and on top of that his voice is astonishing. But the rest of the band are far more than back-up, Chris Wolstenholme's bass-lines forming the backbone of many tracks such as Plug in Baby, Muscle Museum, Newborn and Hysteria, and Dominic Howard proving his drumming skills in the amazing Stockholm Syndrome. Muse are a band that, if you enjoy their music, and you've never seen them live, you missing out on a supermassive scale.

That said, if Muse's set off on a metaphoric journey to the Norman village of Camembert in 2006 when they released Black Holes and Revelations; in 2009, upon Releasing the Resistance, the band landed on the moon. Whilst Black Holes and Revelations introduced an element that somewhat stunk of cheese element with the likes of Supermassive Blackhole and Knights Of Cydonia, it retained the serious vibe of Absolution with songs like Map Of The Problematique and Take a Bow where certainly quite Absolution-esque. I feared Muse might go in the direction of Supermassive Blackhole, which I certainly enjoyed, but not nearly as much as I enjoyed Stockholm Syndrome. My fears realised, they have gone full steam ahead on the path towards cheesedom. That's not to say it's not a good album. It's just not in same vein as Absolution or the two preceding albums. In fact compared to Showbiz, it's a whole different animal.

But animals evolve, because if they don't they inevitably die out. That's life. With that in mind, Muse have probably made the right decision by growing, mutating and adapting their developmental direction. These changes in style are probably what have kept Muse so fresh and exciting five studio albums, one b-sides collection on and one EP on. And The Resistance is definitely a grower too, given that after the first listen, even though I was a little disappointed, I couldn't stop thinking about the songs. So I gave it a few more listens and now I see the albums true colours.

In the vein of Supermassive Blackhole, Uprising is an upbeat bouncy pop/rock anthem with elements of Goldfrapp's Strict Machine, Billy Idol's White Wedding, the Doctor Who theme music and well, Muse of course.

OK maybe United States Of Eurasia begins in the vein, perhaps of one of the softer songs from Black Holes and Revelations, like Falling Away With You, but it quickly becomes highly Queen-esque, an influence that is also echoed on the track Resistance. But since when is being Queen-esque a bad thing. Undisclosed Desires encompasses a somewhat Depeche Mode or Deus-like sound, whilst Unnatural Selection is the new Newborn and MK Ultra is Plug In Baby, MKII, at least by nature of their riffs, although, of course there's plenty of extra cheese on top. These are, however, great songs in their own right. The last three songs, Exogenesis: Symphony Part 1, 2 and 3 are just that: classical symphonies with an injection of Matthew Bellamy's melodic voice, which grows to become more dramatic in a sections of Part 2 and 3. For anyone who enjoys a bit of classical music in their collection of rock, this is an entertaining trilogy. I can visualise Part 1 forming the soundtrack to an epic scene of courageous fighting in a medieval wartime adventure film.

Fischerspooner played a stormer to a near capacity crowd at Lido in Kreuzberg. Fischerspooner is an art pop outfit headed by Warren Fischer and Casey Spooner, whose conceptual lyrics and deep, expansive sound fuses art and pop culture through Warren's pulsating, addictive beats, Casey's synthesised rich emotional vocals, and a crew of experimental theatrical performers.

The show, complimented by androgynous male and female dancers, and Casey's wardrobe of flamboyant outfits and illuminated head-gear, left one standing in awe at the innovative on-stage performance. Through extremely energetic dance sequences, where exaggerated facial expressions played as much of a part as enthusiastic synchronised routines, the dancers endeared themselves to an attentive crowd. Especially since they continued unscathed despite an intense and building heat, which at one point caused Spooner to pause and say: "I can't do this, hold on, I gotta take some of these clothes off".

Unlike at some larger, more formal shows, the crowd were not forced to stand a metre and a half from the stage, behind a metal barrier. In this relatively small venue fans can get right up to the stage, providing for a far more intimate experience between the band and the crowd. Although someone did, perhaps accidentally, spill some water on a monitor that the singer and dancers were using to keep their movements in time, thus obscuring their view and forcing them to pause for a moment to wipe the monitor. Still, it only makes the performers seem more human when small things go wrong on stage and they make a joke of the situation, and interact with the audience, as Spooner did on a few occasions. Fischerspooner left the fans still wanting more, even after a multi-song encore.