Music entertainment in Europe
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Cross Club
This is an industrial club in every sense of the word: the setting in an industrial zone in Holešovice, the throbbing music (with both DJs and live acts) and the interior, an absolute must-see jumble of gadgets, shafts, cranks and pipes, many of which move and pulsate with light to the music. The programme includes occasional cabaret nights, theatre performances and art happenings. There’s drinking on two levels, plus a few picnic tables outside in case it gets to be too much. It’s easy to find despite the location: after exiting Nádraží Holešovice metro station, walk 100m to the east along Plynární street. You’ve arrived once you see the enormous industrial sculpture out…
reviewed
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Flex
Flex has been attracting a more mainstream crowd than it did in its early days but it still manages to retain a semblance of its former edginess, and the title of best club in town. The sound system is without equal in Vienna (some would say Europe), entry price generally reasonable and dress code unheard of. The monthly DJ line-up features local legends and international names, and live acts are commonplace. ‘Messed Up’ on Monday (the night to catch serious techno) and ‘London Calling’ (alternative and indie) on Wednesday and Friday are among the most popular nights. In summer the picnic tables lining the canal overflow with happy partygoers.
reviewed
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U4
U4 was the birthplace of techno clubbing in Vienna way back, and its longevity is a testament to its ability to roll with the times. A fairly young, studenty crowd are its current regulars, and while the music isn’t as cutting edge as it used to be, it still manages to please the masses.
reviewed
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Leningrad Café
Another hip venue, this café-club down a quiet alley in the San Martino quarter of town pelts out everything from garage, punk and indie rock to rock 'n' roll, swing and soul. DJs spin during the week and Saturday sees cabaret steal the show.
reviewed
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Music Box
Under the brick arches on Rua Nova do Carvalho lies one of Lisbon’s hottest clubs. The pulsating Music Box hosts loud and sweaty club nights with music shifting from electro to rock, plus ear-splitting gigs by up-and-coming bands.
reviewed
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Belém Bar Café
The self-consciously cool BBC attracts fashionistas to its glass-walled lounge bar and terrace with cracking views of Ponte 25 de Abril. DJ Espírito Santo fills the dance floor with hip-hop and R ’n’ B at the weekend.
reviewed
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Art House
Go up the old stair and open the door to the party at standing-room-only Art House, full of dark curves and Vulcan tints in the arches, mottled walls and worn wood floors. Music is funk and Eurohouse, the clientele mid-twenties.
reviewed
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King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut
One of the city’s premier live-music pub venues, the excellent King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut hosts bands every night of the week. Oasis were signed after playing here.
reviewed
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Queen Bar
Popular with travellers and locals alike, this place has a lively dance floor on the 1st floor and a more sedentary bar on the second. The friendly DJ, Emin, encourages musical requests.
reviewed
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Plastic
The sizable dance floor with a seamless mix of house, techno and drum'n'bass keeps Belgrade's clubbers up to all hours. Plastic is very popular; you may have to queue a while.
reviewed
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Bally
This new club playing hip-hop and techno has both its supporters and detractors. With its large central dance floor, it can seem empty unless there’s a weekend crowd.
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Fire Club
This is a big red-brick room with student groups crouched on stools around small tables, bottles of Tuborg in hand. Rock and punk shows are staged in the basement.
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Club A
Run by students, this club is a classic and beloved by all who go there. Indie pop/rock tunes play until very late Friday and Saturday nights.
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Centrum
This club gets a young crowd for dance music, live bands and occasional film screenings.
reviewed
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Orange Bar
A more easy-paced music bar playing rock, indie and Brit-pop just outside the war zone.
reviewed
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Egg
Egg has the most superb layout with three exposed concrete rooms (across three floors), a garden and two gorgeous tropical roof terraces (relieving the edgy, exiled smokers). Some say it would fit perfectly in New York’s meat-packing district thanks to its design, but it’s ours and we’re keeping it because it rocks. Located off York Way, the club hosts ‘omnisexual’ nights, with a mix of electro, minimal and house. At weekends, a free shuttle bus runs here, every 30 minutes between 10pm and 2am, from outside American Carwash on York Way.
reviewed
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Ghetto
Decor-wise, this three-storey club behind the Flower Passage (Çiçek Pasaji) combines Renaissance-style painted high ceilings with modernist touches including a long, back-illuminated bar with bottles that seem to glow in the dark. The musical program is equally interesting, comprising creative foreign or local live acts. In summer, it hosts Peymane @ Ghetto Teras (reached via a back staircase), an open-air restaurant-cum-music lounge that ‘doesn’t close until the sun is up’. Check the website for schedules and cover charges.
reviewed
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Lux
Lisbon’s ice-cool, must-see club, Lux is run by ex-Frágil maestro Marcel Reis and part-owned by John Malkovich. The wacky design features an oversized shoe, mirrored tunnels and violet light. Special but not snooty, Lux hosts big-name DJs like Leonaldo de Almeida and Pinkboy spinning electro and house. Grab a spot on the roof terrace to see the sun rise over the Tejo. Style policing is heartwarmingly lax but get here after 4am on a Friday or Saturday and you might have trouble getting in because of the crowds.
reviewed
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Palác Akropolis
The Akropolis is a Prague institution, a labyrinthine, sticky-floored shrine to alternative music and drama. Its various performance spaces host a smorgasbord of musical and cultural events, from DJs to string quartets to Macedonian Roma bands to local rock gods to visiting talent – Marianne Faithfull, the Flaming Lips and the Strokes have all played here. DJs do their stuff in the Theatre Bar (Divadelní Bar) and Small Hall (Malá Scéna), spinning everything from house to hip-hop, and reggae to breakbeat.
reviewed
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Passage
Passage is the closest thing to a megaclub in Vienna. Its sleek interior, soothing colours and sweaty atmosphere attract the beautiful people of the city, their entourage and plenty of oglers and barflies. The music is loud (noise from the Ringstrasse traffic directly overhead is easily drowned out) and fairly maistream, with R&B, hip-hop and house nights; ‘Disco Fever Tuesday’ draws some of the biggest crowds. Expect lines and black-clad, muscle-bound doormen after 10pm (11pm on Friday and Saturday).
reviewed
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Notting Hill Arts Club
London simply wouldn’t be what it is without places like NHAC. There’s a night for everyone in this small basement club, from knitting societies to country folk, house nights and Eastern European punk. The famous monthly Thursday Yo-Yo night, where singer Lily Allen and producer Mark Ronson met, is one of the best nights for R&B, ‘80s boogies, hip hop, ragga and diverse live sets, while the bimonthly Sunday Radio Gagarin features ‘experiments in Sunday Socialism’.
reviewed
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Bar Tabac
Tiny bar that looks like it was plucked from an obscure village in rural France and plonked in 't Zuid. The odd thing is it has been going for years and is always packed. The décor's no more than a faded Michelin map and two old cigarette vending machines, plus a hotchpotch of old metal tables and chairs. In summer there's a terrace section for relaxing on crusty cinema seats; in winter everyone's jammed inside. 'Drunk Wednesdays' see beers going for around €1 and a DJ spinning tracks.
reviewed
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Sokak Café & Bar
Like its next-door neighbour, Hasanaga Restaurant (a low stone wall separates the two), every square inch of this café's back garden is covered in a delightful canopy of light-strung trees. Literally. But since Sokak is still the new kid on the block, crowds are generally light. (Might have something to do with the music being way too loud.) Otherwise, an acceptable place to kill an evening over cups of çay or, more realistically, glasses of Efes (local beer).
reviewed
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Café Ferber
It’s startling to step straight from Gdańsk’s historic main street into this very modern café-bar, dominated by bright red panels, a suspended ceiling and boxy lighting. The scarlet décor contrasts with its comfy brown armchairs, from which you can sip well-made coffee, international wines, and cocktail creations such as the szary kot (grey cat). On weekends, DJs spin house and chill-out music into the wee small hours.
reviewed
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Restaurant Zellot
This is possibly the most important address in town: it’s a funky and rather eccentric restaurant that does a good steak as well as Austrian staples. On top of that, it has the Glashaus bar and bistro (open 9am to 1am Monday to Saturday), and the Garage, a space for live acts and DJs that is decked out like a garage and whose features become even more intriguing after your second drink. It’s open 9.30pm to 4am Friday and Saturday.
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