Club Magnet

Before I get caught up posting about Club Magnet, I just want to say I'm really happy with the template I've got on this blog right now. I mean, I may want to change it around some if I get really ambitious and don't want to have a blocker default. But for now, it seems really Berlinesque, according to my 1-week understanding of what is Berlinesque.

Okay, so Club Magnet. Friday night, I did some serious research on live music shows I should go see in Berlin. I recognized "Fuji & mica" from Pitchfork reviews or whatever, so, although I had yet to listen to any of their music, I decided to go check out their live performance at Club Magnet.

The full billing for the night was:
Kissy Sell Out
Fujiya & Miyagi
Pulpa
Team Recorder
DJ's Are Rockstars

Of these, I was able to identify Pulpa and Fujiy & Miyagi. The rest was just a mush of dj-ing, all of which I found very pleasing.

Fujiya & Miyagi
Fujiya & Miyagi sounded fantastic. Really clear sound, with execution that seemed flawless to my quasi-trained ears. Basically, it's a keyboard/DJ/electronica dude, a guitar guy who sings and a bassist. The vocals are very subdued and chant-y/non-melodic, with lots of strong consonants, so the music has a generally ambient feel that works nicely with the strong dance-able beats. More on dance-ability later. It's way more electronica than it is pop, and the songs are structured sort of like techno, but with cycles that don't last quite as long. The songs work really well without relying on stuck-in-your-head hooks, and therefore serve the purpose of providing great music without being distracting or annoying.

Pulpa
Pulpa was interesting, and I would say I liked them pretty well for what they are -- a very young Swedish band. Nobody knows who they are yet, so it's fun to decide whether or not you like them. Basically, I see two main problems with Pulpa. One is that they're a pretty new act, and their execution/production still needs work. Go to http://www.pulpa.se/ and I think you'll see what I mean. The most obvious example of this is that the keyboards sound sort of like the keyboards they let you mess around on at Target. Maybe this is sort of intentional, and it's certainly a part of their charm, but it at least needs to seem more deliberate. The other problem is that they share a certain cheesy A-Ha/Aqua factor that a lot of northern European bands seem unable to shake. For example, one of their songs contains the lyrics "We fall in love, but we can't get up." So, I guess one way to describe them is Post-Urkel. That said, to me there's no denying that the hooks in the songs are catchy. For example, I think I can say with about 80% confidence that most people would be perfectly happy dancing to "Kids With Weapons," even if the song doesn't hold up under musical scrutiny. So, if they can manage to refine their sound and their bs radar without giving up the club-music approach that allows them to be appealing in the first place, I think I could end up liking them pretty well.

My club magnet story is that when I arrived, I didn't know that there are actually two separate areas in the club. So, I just sat there, listening to the house DJ's spinning indie pop hits for like 45 minutes, thinking "Man, these European clubs are really chill," before I finally realized that Pulpa was performing live in another room. At that point, the scene was just people sitting on crappy couches, drinking and smoking all around the room, with two hideous girls dancing by themselves on the kidney bean-shaped dance floor. And I was just sitting on some steps, drinking my Coke Light (through the huge blue straw they provide so that no one will mistake it for a beer). At one point, I was just playing games on my iPod. But the room was so laid back that I doubt anyone really found that to be strange.

Once it got going, the scene totally changed. When Pulpa finished their set, everyone flooded out onto the once-empty dance floor and danced like crazy. On the stage, they had another DJ spin while Fujiya & Miyagi prepped. So some people actually stayed in there, by the stage. Likewise, when Fujiya & Miyagi finished, a DJ immediately started spinning, so at that point, there was a good dance party going on in both rooms. So, it basically morphed seamlessly back and forth from being a concert to being a club scene. I really liked having the option to listen to well-DJ'ed indie pop like Franz Ferdinand and We Are Scientists, etc. or to listen to more abstract techno on in the main stage room.

So far, it seems that the big difference between live Indie-type music in Berlin vs. LA is that the scene is all about dancing here. The concert is sort of just an interlude to the dancing, or in some cases, another thing to dance to. I guess most people sort of know this about Europe, but I still found it sort of surprising. I think probably a lot of the music I see here will be performed in a way that is more "club" than "venue."

All in all, I'd say my night at club magnet was a big success and I was very pleased with myself when I woke up at 12:30pm on Saturday morning. Also, when I was there, I saw that !!!, the Blow and Fujiya & Miyagi are playing a show together at another club. So, I'm definitely going to try to make it to that one. The club-y thing seems right up !!!'s alley, as their show at Coachella was by far the most club-y thing I've ever witnessed in broad daylight.