Local punk/garage/rocker hangout. Good place to see the actual scene. There are always great bands…read moreplaying in this tiny bar. The bar tenders are super friendly. One of my favorites in Berlin for shows.

The Junction Bar on Gneisenaustrasse in Kreuzberg is a little piece of Berlin music history. It's…read moreprovided live music, offering a completely eclectic mix of bands and styles, every night since 1996. Older musicians from the West Berlin scene tell me that for a few years then it was THE place to see and hear bands. It was always packed, everyone who was anyone on the scene was always in and out of the place, and stories abound. In 2007 it's a slightly different story. Don't get me wrong, it's not dead yet, not by any means, but it's no longer in the loop of the cool and the hip. There's still live music every night followed by a DJ. And for them to have stuck to that for over a decade now deserves a lot of credit. The bands are still eclectic, but also pretty hit and miss. Last time I was down there I was perusing the program and I was quite dumbfounded. A couple of the bands really looked like the kind of bands that you wouldn't imagine anyone, ever, anywhere, booking. But then, we were playing there, so I suppose they do have intermittent good taste at least (insert clever comment here). Another bad point is that the sound system isn't really that great, and they have a system with setting up the sound that I really have never encountered anywhere before: as a band, you turn up to do the soundcheck, the sound engineer is there (nice guy, actually) and he sorts out the sound for the band and the mixing desk is somewhere off to the side in a back room(!)....Then he leaves. As in, and doesn't come back. So if it turns out when the room is full (as often happens) (it turning out like that I mean, not necessarily that the room is full) that the sound needs a bit of fine-tuning; or if the sound of the band changes in some way (like swapping between guitars for example), well then you've just got to live with it. Or send someone into the room to twiddle the knobs yourself. Which, obviously, you don't do because things would just go downhill from there...How did I find that out? Guess. So...the Junction Bar: If you want a guarantee of some live music, go there. If you want a guarantee of good live music, people in the place, and a good sound, then do the other thing.

A must-visit bar in Berlin if you're into punk, rock, and places where you can still smoke inside…read more It's the kind of spot where you're not allowed to take photos -- you just come to hang out and have real conversations. It's small but has just enough space to relax with a couple of friends and enjoy the vibe. No one bothers anyone here. You'll find people of all kinds and all ages. The walls are covered with super cool photos and posters, telling the story of everyone who's passed through and the great music that's played. If you're in Berlin, you have to check it out.

I was lucky enough to live around the corner from this bar when I had a short stint in Berlin…read more Amidst the bustle of Oranienstrasse, Franken is a no-frills but surprisingly jumping bar. Filled to the brim with punk rockers of all ages and cheap beer, it's a great place to knock back a few before a gig, a good precursor to an all night clubbing stint, or the kind of place you can chill out in all night. Beers are the usual Berlin fayre - Astra, tons of big bottles of Weiss beer, Edelweiss etc etc. It's unpretentious, comfy, as bedraggled as a stray cat and I loved it. We started to frequent this place since, despite its grimy interior, the bar staff and locals are actually very friendly. Had some great unexpected nights out in here and would definitely return.

I can't speak to the club itself but I can speak to the enormously rude employees…read more 2 friends and I tried to go to Tube Station on a Saturday night around 12:30. We had registered on the guest list and another friend had bought bottle service and invited us. Naturally, we were excited. However, when we got to front of the line (which is split in two for some reason) the younger bouncer told us we "looked too young." Confused, we held out our IDs. We are all of age in Germany. We asked him what the age was for entry. He asked us how old we were. One of us said 20. He paused, and said the age was 21. We weren't poorly dressed, we were registered in advance, and were going to be joining a friend with Table Service. After that, though, I doubt I'll ever want to go to this club. Pretty lame and rude.

Signed up for a Saturday night guest list at this club. My friends and I (4 guys total) got there…read morearound 24:00 dressed appropriately, but the bouncers wouldn't let us in. This can only lead me to think that the club's bouncers are told to discriminate based on gender, if not race/nationality.

I must admit that my memories of Paule's Metal Eck are definitely alcohol impaired and influence,…read morebut are non the less memories of a very enjoyable drinking evening. Having liked rock / hard rock and metal as well as many other styles of music for almost thirty years now I don't feel the need to visit cliché metal bars, but since I still like the music I find it fun when I visit somewhere like this that embraces the music but doesn't feel the need to resort to every metal cliché in the book to feel authentic. In short Paule's is a good bar that just happens to play rock / metal.

Being that Berlin is home of many skidly metal bands and that a good chunk of the male and female…read morepopulation still sport mullets and metal shirts, it seems unfair to make a trip to Berlin and not visit Paule's Metal Eck. We had a fun time... once we stepped outside to the patio. Inside was just a bunch of metalheads drinking beer and watching Metal videos on TV screens. Outside was the rif raf-- several German dudes who were very funny and lots of fun-- but of course Turbos always are. For all their lack of fashion sense, they remain unpretentious and quite frankly I prefer their company to that of hipsters. Maybe that's why my friends dubbed me "Skid Magnet" in high school. Despite what you might think, I don't think this bar even hosts metal bands. It's really just a quiet (really!) pub with long haired headbangers on all the TVs. Beers on tap? Don't remember. Jagermeister? Of course, but not since 2nd year Uni for me.This place is a classic case of the people you're with making your good time what it is. The bar itself isn't really much to write home about, but it is a niche market that might deserve a pop in to see who's there.