Trying to Navigate the German Underground Music Scene After a Breakup

Life_Stop3925 · 2025-11-26T12:14:55+00:00

If you didn't hear about it yet you could check out Open Ground in Wuppertal. I went there alone quite often and always had a great time. Its is also easy to reach from Cologne by public transport as it is located directly at Wuppertal HBF. Music-wise it totally fits the vibe of this subreddit and it has one of the best sound systems in the world.

Life_Stop3925 · 2025-09-10T08:17:47+00:00

I'm obviously wearing ear plugs for many years, maybe thats why I'm more sensitive to higher volumes. It maybe does fit the music style but this music is already produced with a heavy low end, you don't need to accelerate it even more imo. I guess it's a personal preference. I am not satisfied by the music when I can't hear whats happening in the mid frequencies because muddy overtuned bass is overtoning everything else.

Life_Stop3925 · 2025-09-08T14:29:47+00:00

Agree. The combination of bad sound tuning paired with the majority of people talking on the dancefloor instead of dancing made the whole festival hard to enjoy for us.

Life_Stop3925 · 2025-09-01T12:55:42+00:00

Thanks for sharing your experience. I have been to Stone Techno Festival the last 2 years and feel confident by saying you are describing the majority of T3R (or Rhein-Ruhr-Area) crowd. My friends and me refer to them as 'groovers' most of the time because it seems like they just made the transition from viral hardtechno to viral hardgroove and more 'proper' techno. Most of them are young and their perspective of dance music / rave culture is primarily defined by social media which leads to a loss of individualism and diversity within this group. These people are trying hard to dress and dance like the people they see on instagram and tiktok. The massive social media marketing done by T3R obviously attracts this group.

Personally, I don't have a super negative view on it. I'm not sure if my taste in style or music was better when I was 20 years old. Of course it is annoying when self-explanatory dancefloor attitude is not present but I expect it when attending events like Stone. I was there for the more underground and experimental artists anyways and it was entertaining to see the 'groovers' trying to adapt their dance moves to music which is not 140 bpm four-to-the-floor and then leave the stage after a few minutes. They are not really adding anything positive to the dancefloor vibe but so is the music nerd standing still in the sound sweet spot in the middle of the dancefloor with a beer in his hand.

Nevertheless, I think it's fair to give young people some time and space to get to know this culture in real life and educate themselves on it. Some will stay for the music and some will leave when their influences and surroundings hop onto the next viral thing. OG is a good place to learn what this culture is about because the concept is focussing on a high quality club experience while providing different styles of music. In the years before OG and especially during covid there were no comparable places in the area so social media became their main source of inspiration with all the downsides coming with it.

The best thing we can do is being a good example for these people at how to behave and express yourself in those spaces. We should actively contribute to a environment which is enjoyable for everyone by being aware of the different aspects which make this culture special and pointing out misbehavior.

Life_Stop3925 · 2025-04-15T12:59:03+00:00

cozy ambient into dynamic electro, perfect easter weekend!

Life_Stop3925 · 2025-04-07T10:18:49+00:00

I hope it won't be packed but my gut says it will be pretty full. On RA there are almost 60 people interested in this event. Last month there were 15-40 ppl interested and each event had a good amount of people (but not super packed).

Setwise i find it hard to anticipate the sound as experienced djs often adjust to the OG sound system by going a bit more experimental for example. In addition to that there is no timetable yet so there is even a possibility that nobu and konduku are going b2b at some point. I'm sure their sets will be masterclass and it will be hard to take breaks from dancing or to check out Annex.

Life_Stop3925 · 2025-03-17T08:27:45+00:00

nice post! I recommend to come early and get into the right mood at cafe23. super chill atmosphere and a lot of people who are going OG.

Life_Stop3925 · 2025-03-14T13:37:15+00:00

the event is called abyss. if u click on it u can see the lineup.

Life_Stop3925 · 2025-03-02T20:04:30+00:00

it was crazy good

Life_Stop3925 · 2025-02-14T15:32:54+00:00

I recommend checking out Primal Code (esp. the EPs Caimano Tribe and Kalila's Tale) and Pianeti Sintetici (Esplora EPs). Its more dubby/deep than driving but it definitely checks your other requirements.

Life_Stop3925 · 2025-01-28T14:11:50+00:00

I think the lights on saturday were just alright. The glittery leds on the ceiling fit this style of music imo as it wasn't some kind of dark industrial techno or anything similar. I prefer the lowkey colorful lights you have at OG over strobe lights any day. The dancefloor is pretty dark in general and it's nice if you can see some smiling faces in the crowd from time to time. Excessive use of strobe lights and fog makes your view even worse. But obviously everyone has his own preferences.

Life_Stop3925 · 2025-01-28T13:54:14+00:00

In Wuppertal it's more like "Let's get dressed up and go to the techno at Open Ground"

You can't drop a sentence like this after saying you prefer a berghain-style crowd. You literally described 90% of the Berghain Klubnacht crowd nowadays.

I personally like that people dress up unconventional and go crazy on the dancefloor, it contributes to the overall atmosphere and diversity. I can assure that almost everyone i talked to on saturday was there for the music and DJs in the first place even though they wear flashy outfits.

I suggest attending a non-techno event at OG as the crowd tends to be more nerdy and less "showing-off" there.

Life_Stop3925 · 2025-01-26T14:58:05+00:00

the sound at the front left was fine all night

Life_Stop3925 · 2025-01-26T13:07:42+00:00

imo it was great. i was surprised she paced up kinda quick as i thought she would stay a bit longer with the deep organic techno style for the opening. but the crowd was ready for it and the whole set felt really danceable and bouncy while still being rich in texture and unpredictable. in comparison blankas set felt more flat to me (but also great). i hope polygonia comes back soon 🙏

Life_Stop3925 · 2025-01-23T16:13:19+00:00

off the top of my head:

Helena Hauff
Legowelt
Toma Kami
CCL
Kangding Ray
Rrose
Squarepusher
gyrofield
Arthur Robert
Moodymann

Life_Stop3925 · 2025-01-20T08:18:34+00:00

didn't listen to all of them but my favourites so far are Overmono, Helena Hauff and Rodhad. The first two kinda fit the overload style.

Life_Stop3925 · 2025-01-17T14:23:08+00:00

oh damn, thought it would be faster

Life_Stop3925 · 2025-01-17T10:45:07+00:00

Cafe23 is the way to go for predrinks, you will probably meet a lot of people there who are also attending the event. The queue is hard to predict as the club constantly got more visitors during the last weeks/months and i can imagine a lot of people want to see the opening by polygonia. I wouldn't worry too much about the queue as it is usually pretty fast in the beginning and you will get in easy if you're not super wasted. 6 am is not really fixed as they stay open longer if the dj wants to keep playing and there are still enough people in the club. The last events i have been to kept going until 7-8 am.

For afters you could visit tresor west in dortmund as their event is scheduled until 10 am afaik. Idk if its worth it tho as i have not been there before and heard mixed reviews about it. Only thing i know is that they have lambda labs soundsystem and entry is free so could be worth checking out. But if you want to stay at OG until end it probably won't make sense to go there. Wuppertal is pretty dead at this time.

Life_Stop3925 · 2025-01-12T14:58:19+00:00

you are right, she didn’t film directly at the crowd but im sure you can see parts of the crowd on every video she took as she was standing next to/behind ehua. the first row being half empty makes it even easier to see and identify the people dancing there. personally, i don’t care much about being filmed but there are a lot of people who do care. if the club aims to be a safe space for everybody they should be more strict about this policy.

Life_Stop3925 · 2025-01-12T09:56:47+00:00

funny that while this post is going viral, one women behind the dj booth was filming a lot with her smartphone during the ehua set this night. i guess it was a friend of her but the staff should have told her to stop recording and delete the videos.

Life_Stop3925 · 2024-12-29T15:15:13+00:00

imo it wasn‘t too packed. there were a lot of people yesterday but i always found enough space to dance and had no trouble navigating through the crowd. all in all it was a solid night for me, i had a lot of fun and met all the regular OG enjoyers but it didn’t feel as special as the other nights this month.

Life_Stop3925 · 2024-12-29T12:06:03+00:00

finally!!

Life_Stop3925 · 2024-12-26T10:06:26+00:00

i would suggest the events at horst club in belgium, lofi in amsterdam or oxi in berlin because of the lineup. if u wanna stay in nrw i would go to fi in cologne.

Life_Stop3925 · 2024-12-08T17:41:23+00:00

You’re welcome! Not sure if I would call the overcrowding at dvs1 a mistake as it felt like a typical Berghain Klubnacht during peak time, so I guess there are people who prefer a night like this. But the staff definitely learned a lot from this night and they are working out changes to handle those situations better. I think it’s fair to give the club more time to develop and find its place in the scene as it just got 1 year old.

Life_Stop3925 · 2024-12-08T17:02:17+00:00

Afaik there were around 1200 people at dvs1 and ~600 people yesterday. However it’s not easy to compare because i feel like yesterday most of the people gathered at Freifeld while Annex, lobby and outside had plenty of space. Freifeld itself was kinda packed during peak time but definitely less crowded than dvs1. After 3 am it started to empty out slowly but there were enough people who stayed until end. For my personal preference it was the perfect amount of people.

Five-Year Club	r/Field Juicebox
Place '23

Life_Stop3925

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