A club is a club.  It has a bar and a sound system.  In Berlin, a club is only a club with a bar and an hi-tech hi-fi.  

I was a bit thrown off when Berliners kept referring to a venue’s sound system as one of its first few qualities or shortcomings.  After some time here though, it’s clear that this town takes it tunes and the speakers they come out of seriously.

Berghain is the first sound system that comes to mind.  Maria, Astra and others do too.  After my experience at Icon, though, I know it does not belong on that list.  A mid-volume, bass-light and ear hurting aural experience, it really makes or breaks a club night (that and when the headliner misses his flight, resulting in more posters on the streets than people at the show).  

With such quality available around town, it’s silly not to treat your ears with some superior chest-rattling sound.  Whether it saddens me to join the legion of sound snobs or whether it’s simply an inevitability after seeing the bar raised so high so often, Icon cemented this as something not to be ignored in Technotown.

foto: thx.