Showcase, Paris

The setting is astonishing, along the Seine, housed within the Alexandre III bridge. The space is spectalcular - and can easily compete on the world scene for that. Entrance is discreet, below the bridge; inside it's one long roomroom, full of beautiful looking people split out between three spaces ample spaces : dance on the left, sit at the bar in the center and sip your expensive champagne in the lounge on the right. And a beautiful fancy parisian club is all it would be if it weren't for the couple fussball tables in the back - where extasy stoned ravers play. Well the tables themselves don't make the difference, it's rather the symbol -showing how to mix two trends, two clienteles and two parties. On one hand, the super hype parisians call this place home on Saturdays - it's the typical Baron, Paris Paris or Néo crowd, the guys who eat at Kong and drink at Maison Blanche, those same guys who've never set food east of the Marais. On the other had, the club has good music and attracts the rest of the crowd - well those who can get past the doorman or manage to be on the guestlist,that is the media, artsy, electro crowd, those who'd go to La Fleche d'or the day before and the Rex the next day. And this mix is certainly quite unique. The first crowd usually empties out their wallet in the middle of the night, and slowly, the music shifts from general house to serious minimal. By then, the partiers stay and congregate around the dancefloor - leaving the rest of the club practically empty. The vibe starts to relax, and the people keep it real. By that time, you could be at the Fabric or Ministry of sound accross the channel - apart that even on a busy Saturday night, the select entrance ensures the place isn't too crowded. The showcase is definitely fancy, but it's a hit.
Le Showcase
Under the alexandre III bridget - rive droite // Paris // France
open Friday and Saturday from 10 till morning
www.showcase.fr

Can Paris party?

Every one agrees. Paris is a global city and one of the world’s most dynamic, whether it be for architecture, culture, cinema, theater, fashion and some would say, party. From electro temples to indie-rock bars, from gypsy festivals to impromptu jazz gigs, Paris has it all. You can spend the first part of the evening in Abesses listening to a seventy year old French singer mumbling words of Edith Piaf, then head to a trendy rock concert around the canal st Martin, incidentally find yourself taken to an ultra select club in Western Paris and end up dancing to drum and base in a converted bus station right off the Périphérique. And anyone who has a name, from Seattle’s latest grunge band to Berlin’s minimal rising star, has Paris’ venues on top of his European touring agenda. No question, you can see anything here. But watch and listen is often all you do.

Though London and Berlin’s diversity are slight in comparison to Paris’, the city of lights seems to have lost verve and cool. The next working day often takes over the present fun. Parisians watch but don’t play and count the hours before the alarm clock will ring or the minutes before the famous last metro.Take any Sunday evening. Apart from Ullmann doing his karaorocke show at ultra select club le Baron, where only a lucky few will eventually get in, or the Flèche d’or occasionally hosting Sunday gigs, the city is void of any action. Meanwhile, across the channel, the disco-queer boombox party is rocking Hoxton bar and Berlin’s Moskau café is having that after after party for serious clubbers. Both parties have nothing in common other than decadence and total debauchery. The Boombox, though more often than not associated with lousy music is more fun than any club event you could think of with boys and girls or girls and boys finishing the night half dressed, fully drunk and totally out of their minds. Moskau has a chic edge to it. Take the glamour of a channel fashion show after party without the buzz and the hype surrounding it. What’s missing in Paris nightlife? For the first part, a fashion-party spirit that hasn’t the words vip guestlist spelled to it. And a general willingness to let it loose and have a good time.

Though you won’t find Berlin’s panorama bar freaks at the Paris Paris or Maxim’s, all is not quite lost just yet. Look away from the clubs and towards punctual party organizers and word of mouth. The most established are perhaps the “we love” parties, taking place every several months in an unconventional location in or around Paris such as a giant swimming pool, a wedding room in the nearby forest or the futuristic Cité de la sciences at the Vilette park. Massive crowds make the trip to the suburbs for the party and the electro DJ lineup. However, with a twenty euro entry and additional tenner for a beer, the crowd is rather euro-trash prude jeunesse dorée than dancing machine. Picture cute but prude girls quietly waiting by the restrooms with their Dior bags and the guys trying failed pick-up moves with their white shirts and polo outfit. You call that a rave? Another group, Dimuschi, rely exclusively on word of mouth hoping for more spontaneous behavior. The parties take place twice a year in some odd places, be they parking lots, warehouses or the catacombs. Lastly, les ambassadeurs have their yearly frantic party. And with a trash-glamour, decadent chic and incredibly hip atmosphere, this is what resembles most those London or Berlin nights. But it’s once a year only. So for the fun, just get yourself an easyjet ticket to the party scene.

Boombox
www.myspace.com/familylondon

We love art
http:www.weloveart.net

Dimuschi
http://www.dimuschi.com/

Les Ambassadeurs
http://www.lesambassadeurs.org/

Stall 6

Stall 6

There are two free parties on Monday nights in Zurich. One is the underage Cool Mondays at X-tra, off limmatPlatz, the other : Stall 6.
So first odd thing of the night : Zurich west is the alternative, dock style wharehouse neighbourhood. If Zurich were Europe, it’d be the first city to have it in the west, not east. Fast forward to cool Mondays. Well it’s cool to see how young kids can have fun –it is a cool place, but half an hour is way to much. I’m told then to go to Stall 6. It’s in a wharehouse complex right out the main train station (perfect setting, it works for Berlin and London). The harder I it is to find, the better I feel. Far away I see a guy laying on the floor and two Jamaicans trying to help him up. I look up : here I am. Inside reggae and raga, a mix of rastas and pure zurich blood; you’re high from just smelling the interior; it’s hot, it feels tropical, the couches, the fussball, we’re all high all chillin’ around the bamboo bar. No this is not Europe.

Stall 6
Gessnerallee 6 // Zurich

glaz'art -the alternative Paris

Paris may be back ! Out of style for the past ten years, Paris mixes London with Berlin and adds its own personal touch. Young expats are back and now that the eurostar is as established as the subway, parisians discover London and want to bring it back to Paris. Welcome to the glaz'art, a big red rectangle on the outskirts of town. The setting feels just like east Berlin, and nothing around does remind you of Paris. To get in you have to circulate around it - the small entrance is in the back. The best club music in town (from minimal, d&n to reggae) and the best party-goers made up of well travelled twentysomething out of a good time. The tropical bar in the back is a true find and lets you relax in chit chat in a typical parisian style while you gain your energy back. One warning though, bring pills as they're hard to find.

Glaz'Art
7 - 15 Avenue Porte de la Villette
75019 Paris // France
www.glazart.com

glaz'art -the alternative Paris

Paris may be back ! Out of style for the past ten years, Paris mixes London with Berlin and adds its own personal touch. Young expats are back and now that the eurostar is as established as the subway, parisians discover London and want to bring it back to Paris. Welcome to the glaz'art, a big red rectangle on the outskirts of town. The setting feels just like east Berlin, and nothing around does remind you of Paris. To get in you have to circulate around it - the small entrance is in the back. The best club music in town (from minimal, d&n to reggae) and the best party-goers made up of well travelled twentysomething out of a good time. The tropical bar in the back is a true find and lets you relax in chit chat in a typical parisian style while you gain your energy back. One warning though, bring pills as they're hard to find.

Glaz'Art
7 - 15 Avenue Porte de la Villette
75019 Paris // France
www.glazart.com

Mascotte brings out the best of Zurich

You'd think of banking, wealth and perhaps food... but not alternative nightlife. Well that's right, but in all wealthy cities, you have an alternative crowd, loud and boiling, ready to shove it off. Mascotte, housed in one of the cities most beautiful buildings, the Corso, welcomes this urban vibrant youth. Punks, students, hippies, we're all there, enjoying, having a good time, and yes, right accross from the world's most exclusive private banks. Tuesday night is the big night with the hard rock karaoke -which reminds you somehow of Germany-. It reflects Zurich : relaxed, elegant and multicultural.

Mascotte club
Theaterstrasse 10 // 8001 Zurich // Switzerland
www.mascotte.ch

Dick Turpin's, Bordeaux

It's funny, every time I come to Bordeaux, I somehow tumble upon this bar and spend a great evening, every day of the week. At first, Dick Turpin's looks like all these english pubs in France and other european provincial cities. but the place is cool, authentic, from the walls to the bar. Barstaff are a mix of old and new expats - so is the crowd, a bunch of students, locals and foreigners, a few ex-parisian artist types and the ever existing english and aussies hanging around. The music is as good as it gets with an unparalleled selection of beatles and the beach boys. Dick Turnpin's is the place to go.

72, Rue du Loup (by the Hotel de ville)
Bordeaux, France

Cafe de la Palma, Madrid

Madrid lacks the kind of artsy relaxed bar. but La Palma definitely makes up for it. Set up a few blocks away from the Malasana hip neighbourhood, La Palma has it all in its three rooms. The front room is an artistic cafe with art on the wall, the back a middle eastern style lounge and the third room hosts the week's alternative DJs. The crowd reflects this mix.

La Palma cafe
c/ la palma 62
www.cafelapalma.com

Kafe Antzokia Bilbao

Restaurant by day, wild club at night, set in a former theater. An altnerative club in an alternative city. The hip young crowds come here when the old town bars close down ready to party on a mix of spanish tunes with minimal electro. It's all relaxed, folks coming back from hiking with the huge backpacks, gorgeous models and a few odd expats mingle around. Atzokia may be the best place in Spain.

Kafe Antzokia
San Vicente, 2
Bilbao, Spain
www.kafeantzokia.com

Christiana and Metelovka : fail to impress

Both areas, that naturally compare to each other, fail to impress. Granted I was not in my best shape to judge, so take this as first impression judgements.
Christian. Well perhaps I was expecting too much, with all the buzz going on around there. I felt like I could've been in any squatted part of east Berlin (don't take me wrong, that's very good but then I'd rather be in Berlin). And I was disappointed to find a rather fancy restaurant is one of these buildings - again, quite cool in fact, but far from my expectations. The crowd seemed the ordinary street bar crowd, and the bars, slightly above ordinary bars. Basically, I was expecting somekind of neighbourhood and all I found was a large squat.

Metelovka. There's not much talk about Metelovka (Ljubljana) which is why I was expecting something great, somekind of alternativ nightlife within an alternative city. Well, forget about alternativ city ! Although I may be wrong it doesn't seem much is happening in that town. And Metelovka is just a smaller version of Christiana, with fewer bars.

All in all, these two pseudo neighbourhoods just appear very provincial. And that's what they are.

1001 -hang out day and night

Every one is complaining about brick lane now. "It's not what it used to be", "it's too close to the City and attracts all the bankers", "it's too hip", "it's too expensive" ... And they're right, but a city is all about changes, isn't it. 1001, in the middle of brick lane hasn't changed that much and the reason is that those city folks would never dare come in, let alone pass by it. Those who do believe the only thing to it is that small cafeteria at the entrance that serves decent coffees and pastries. But walk up the stairs and it's a different Universe. DJ every night, more couches than you could dream of and always a couple Jamaicans ready to sort you out. Full of the local artsy crowd, from noon to midnight. On a luck night, the back room is open. More couches, more DJs, another bars and more Jamaicans. And there's ample space to dance to. Space is the keyword here. Imaging a wharehouse in the middle of brick lane, one of the densest roads in London; a place never too full, where you have space to relax, move around and chit chat. A place where you can fall asleep on the sofa. A place that's seen more drugs than Woodstock. A place that's blessed for closing at midnight, otherwise we'd all be out of our minds.

1001 // 101 Brick Lane // London E1 6SE // UK

Asylum, a different bar

The United States, especially its capital, isn't quite renowned for alternative nightlife nowadays, less so for an eccentric bar. Not too fast. Asylum is set in Adam's Morgan, Washington's hip neighbourhood, lined up with ubiquitus and boring hip hop clubs and pizza parlours. And Asylum is in the middle of that, passed by thousands of times every day without ever being noticed. Good for them. A fetish bar on top, a gothic bar underground - and nothing on the ground floor. Not to worry, no need to be into these electronic impulses they try out on the front of the bar in order to get in. We're respectful of others and can do as they wish. It's an explosian in Washington's conservatism although by speaking with the folks doing their stuff on the small stage at the front of the bar, we learn that Washington is the biggest swinger city in the country. The clientele, fetish and goth...but what do you want, it's a change from those hip hop kids accross the street. An interesting experience guaranteed.

Asylum // 2471 18th Street, NW // Washington, DC // USA

blind eye

"a shady little corner dive in a shady little corner of the world". that's one of those bars you can't really put in a categoy, one very special bar, that perectly fits into the Zizkov setting. The crowd, a mix of american and european expats stuck forever in Prague for no apparent reason, local czechs and a handful of tourists staying at the hostel accross the street. The music is no less ecclectic. Panthera is followed by the beach boys and David Bowie. It won't take long before you'll find someone to speak to, whether around the fussball table, in the chill out room or around the bar. Discuss your travels or philosophise. Say who you are, we're all equal here. On a party night, anything can happen. Now you're warned. Long life to the eye.
Blind eye // Vlkova 26 // Praha 3 - Zizko // Czech Republic
www.blindeye.cz

More to come

Sorry no time right now but you'll see those in the weeks to come :
- Fred's in the Bronx
- Asylum in Washington
- Bling eye in Prague
- 1001 in London

an underworld maze @ the Cross Club

Lost in Prague's Hoeslovice (sub)urban chaos, the cross club is like an oasis in the desert. Uncommon and desperately needed, and unless you know where you're going, you need a miracle to find it. The outdoor beergard and "bus bar" leave way to an underground maze of over 10 rooms, each with a different vibe, size and color. Because that's precisely what the cross is about. The club is entirely made up of vintage chairs and electronic components found throughout the country. Sowing machines above the tables, computer membranes turning around, ventilators going sideways and more lights than you thought existed. Dancing is now on the first floor and as for seating you have many options from DC-3 aircraft, old Cesky Drahi train to traditional US school bus seats. And yes, you do see all of that sober !

Cross Club // Plynarni 23, P7 – Holesovice // Tram / Metro / Bus Nadr. Holesovice
Open 14 - ?? (late) M - F and 16 - ?? (late) S & S.

Raw Tempel

Berlin is contrast a paradox. Europe's progressive locality, emulating with life. Berlin is also Germany's capital, hosting thousands of Germans in the capital for jobs-not life. The latter is best characterised through Simon Dach Strasse in Friederischain, a street lined up with the same cocktail bars you find in every other capital city. Raw Tempel is a couple blocks away but world's away from the Simon Dach Strasse crowd. This old raiway station and mainenance yard is now what is commonly (especially in Berlin) reffered to as a squat bar or a "non profit community organization" to state their words. What it is has no importance. The effect it produced on body and soul as you enter is experienced nowhere else. A screen projecting berlin's most progressive contemporary art, short films or music, couches of all sizes and shapes throughout the old station. Wander through the space and make new acquaintances... all different but with one common point : they've necer been to Simon Dach Strasse. In the wee hours in the morning, a local can show you the last piece of the Berlin wall, a few blocks away. Who you know and who you don't makes no difference. We all live once and appreciate what we have...at least in the raw tempel.
Raw tempel // Revaler Strasse 99 // Berlin

Budapest in Kuplung

Or is it the other way around ?Kuplung sums up best what Budapest has to offer. Invisible to the unattentive eye, Kuplung opens up a whole parallel world. The street is empty and grey, like most streets in Budapest. Light, colors and the beauty and the beast come out through the little hallway that leads to an outdoor squat-beergarden like an indoor wharehouse-bar that attracts the city's alternative crowd. like the city it asks to be discovered, at the bar, around the fussball table, along the walls filled with evolutive street art and at the bar. It's a cosmopolitan vibe and we're all welcome, students, rastas, foreigners, starving artists, journalists and office workers. And it's these people that make Kuplung so special, a grown up "Kultiplex", hidden right in the greyish centre of Budapest.
Kuplung // Kiraly Utca 46 // Budapest

La fleche d'or, half way between Paris and London

No better place than la Fleche d'or symbolizes change in urban nightlife. In a precedent world, this former train station in the outskirts of Paris was a rough, down-to-earth bar, sponsoring gigs, joints and local far-left come togethers. From one day to the next, the fleche d'or closed, a blow to the local vibe. Two years later, this same former train station re-opens, keeping nothing but the name. If you look scruffy at the door, the doormen tell you 'forget the old fleche d'or, this is something totally different'. And it is ! Not as rough, but with much more class, this is the only venue where you can get daily free pop-rock concerts, many groups coming straight from Shoreditch. And all that above urban railways. You won't find the crowd elsewhere in Paris - most of them regulars since the bar re-opened. It's a new hip Paris hadn't known about; something Kreuzberg, Brick Lane and Friedierischain have known for years, an east-end hip far from the central crowds and western snobiness. The only problem is that it's a first try for Paris and who knows where this will lead. The owner is a bar owner in the Marais and building a hotel accross from the fleche d'or which may become a new Murano or Kube like hotel. And then the venue may become too selective and exorbitantly priced evolving from hip to fashionesta. In the meantime, come along, if you're the right person you'll have the right fun. Just remember, it ain't no dive anymore.
La fleche d'or // Rue de Bagnolet, Paris, 20 // Open daily 20 - 06 (or 04) // Metro Gambetta or Buzenval

Paris - La feline at last

At last a different bar in Paris, where there's not much left apart from the ubiquitous counter cafes, uber-trendy nighstops and conventional bars you find in every other city.La feline sets a different scene. Set in what used to be Paris east headquarters for hash and crak dealers and street hip hop wannabees, La feline says no to drugs (inside at least) but yes to rock'n'roll. We're talking '50s, '60s, '70s records (no CDs) in what could look be a retro american diner. The beach boys could be followed by Pink Floyd and Paul William's rare phantom of the Paradise soundtrack. And if you start talking music with the owner and bartender, you'll spend the night learning about all the underground record shops in Paris. The crowd is cool - a mix of neighbourhood folks -still arguably the coolest in paris, and east-london like trendy kids who know the owner from back when he was bartender in Paris' hip bars. Come alone, you'll have a blast. The rare parisians open enough to speak to a stranger are here (yep -even the pretty girls have that east-london like openness). And if you're hungry in the wee hours, the carribean dive next door will make you great food that they even bring to the bar. It's not dodgy or too trendy but just like it's supposed to be.
La Feline bar // 6 rue Victor Letalle, Metro Ménilmontant // 18-2 daily except Monday
opened since July 2006

What it's about

Granted. I'm not the first one with this idea -and probably not the last. But what the hell, ideas are there to be refined and to evolve; a constant change that leads one idea to the next. There are two things I'm good at : interpreting networks (no worries, there's a blog for that too) and finding a city's alternative spots (bars, restaurants, sights...). So that's what this blog does. In some ways it may appear like another gridskipper-like blog. But you can't blame me for it. I'll post my findings in all cities I go to. Alternative guide book, urban bible or useless blog. Take is as you wish but I will be unapologetic.