Visting Germany from the US and wanted to check out their punk bar scene and this did not…read moredisappoint. This bar is cash only, no photos allowed inside especially at the bar, the menu is a large chalkboard hanging above with good prices, and they play punk music all night long. There is a nice outside patio seating, however it does close at 10pm and all patrons must either leave or move inside. There is indoor smoking, pool tables, and no line at the bathrooms. Only downside - with the popularity, it can get cramped. My boyfriend and I went on a weekday, and it was flooded with a mix of Americans and Germans. We stayed about an hour, as we were standing at the bar for the most part, but really enjoyed our time there.

Good local spot from when I was studying abroad there. Cheap beer and fun music, little dive spot…read more Great especially if you like fusbol!

My Moabit favorite - right across the street from ZKU - has exactly what the area was missing and…read morewould make most Neukölln venues jealous. Open thursday, friday and saturday nights, the "Kallasch&" - as its signature neon light reads - is all about quality live music (mostly singer/songwriter stuff with a twist; local artists as well as international ones on the road) but also live jams, open mic nights or a music quiz night. Not a single night where you JUST have to lounge in that cozy vintage atmosphere you'll love while sipping on a cold local brew served by the friendly hosts of this Moabit gem. Great mix of people: neighbors, musicians, friends of friends - beware of having a laidback chat at the bar.

If you happen to be in Moabit then it's the place to hang out with couple of drinks. The Gin Fizz…read moreis highly recommended. However, even for the Berlin standard, I could barely open my eyes after going out of the place - too much smoke in there.

Berlin is known for its cabaret scene…read more Bar Jeder Vernunft is a superb cabaret. * * * How would I know this since I don't speak German? Berlin cabaret is the stuff of witty performers tossing out wry life observations, double entendres, and venomous barbs all the while maintaining a poetic outlook on life. If you don't speak German, you are like a child at the adult table. I had two outs. a) I was at a David Bowie tribute that was half in German and half in English. Okay, 80% in German and 20% in English ... But 1/5 of the time I was in the loop. b) I could watch the audience and see what they were doing. The house was cracking up in laughter over and over and over again. Comedians would say the room was "live". The performance got a wild mad standing ovation at the end. I would say the Berliners thought this was an excellent show. * * * What can I say just from my own direct personal experience? a) Shows will obviously vary in quality from one booking to the next. My night had Sven Ratzke, a well established and highly regarded Dutch/German cabaret specialist. The man can sing and the man can dance. His versions of the Bowie classics were better than the Bowie originals, Because he put a lot more soul and emotion into them. b) The shows are hosted by different people, often as not a sophisticated drag queen. Our hostess that night was a superstar. Imagine an elegant refined willow-thin blonde bombshell. She was nearly seven feet high between her heels and her bouffant. This woman had a commanding stage presence. Imagine a cross between the intensity of a Klaus Kinski and the platinum 1920's polish of a Marlene Dietrich. I could have watched her all night - even without understanding a single word she said. c) The ambience is a world of fantasy. The room is set up as a faux circus tent. You feel like you are at the circus the moment you walk in. d) Bar Jeder Vernunft also runs a dinner theater operation for those who want it, with prepaid food before the show and during the break. Dinner theater food tends to be awful. We skipped the prepaid dinner but did order extensively from the kitchen and bar. What we had was surprisingly decent. No surprise - the beer was good. You can go to a convenience store in Berlin, Buy a bottle of beer and Sit on a folding chair on the sidewalk drinking that beer. The beer will be good. The fact that a cabaret would make a point to stock good beer is what one would expect. The cheese plate was far better than I would have expected. Yes - I have been to upscale French cafes where the cheese board was better. But for an everyday cheese board, there was a generous selection of a wide variety of cheeses, fantastic bread, even better butter, beautifully fresh and flavorful grapes, and a surprise horseradish compote to ambush you at unexpected times. The horseradish compote definitely shook me loose from the hazy fog of my beer. * * * If you don't speak German and missing the jokes is going to bother you, Then Bar Jeder Vernunft for you might be a bridge too far. But if you just love the food and the beer and the spectacle and the music ... This could be a magical night. Magical nights are good things.

What a superb venue...We went to see "Cabaret" there and had a good pre-ordered meal at "Half…read moreTime". We had excellent seats close to the stage. A real Berlin experience ! The show was very professional but was in German of course. However I have seen the film so many times and read Chris Isherwoods book, so I could follow the gist and the music was really good. The taxi driver we ordered from the Hilton didn't know where the venue was so thanks to our Citymap we were able to direct him there !! Not easy to find ! Since returning to the UK we went to see the english version in London.

I have been to many outdoor concert arenas all over the world but none as unique as Waldbuhne. What…read moremakes Waldbuhne stand out is that even though the arena seats 23000+ people all the seats have great sight lines and viewing angles due to the incredible steepness of the stairs and arena. The venue was built in the 1930's and I doubt it would be legal to build today. We were lucky to attend the final show of the Depeche Mode Spirit Tour here on July 25th and it was fabulous. Great sound that is pushed directly at you (angle of the arena) and there was plenty of light shows during the concert. The only drawback to Waldbuhne is the stage is on the smaller side so a performer such as Dave Gahan of DM was a bit more limited in his dance and moves compared to other similar arenas. Food, drinks and toilets are all on the "mid level" of the arena and pretty easy to get to. The crowd was pumped and going crazy the entire concert as DM have a storied history in Berlin (recorded music here) and this was the final concert of a very long tour. Waldbuhne was a great place to see a concert and I would gladly come again in the future.

I have been here twice, in 2016 and 2012; 2016 was a lovely full house, quiet evening; 2012 was a…read moremajor storm with thin crowds, irritable neighbors, despite the great music. Easy to get to on the S-Bahn, right next to the Olympic stadium. The Berlin Philharmonic does a concert there at the end of the year, which was the event I attended. The audiences are mature, quiet, and orderly, much quieter outside than any concert I have been to in the US. I wish I could go every year! Long lines for food but great pretzels, beer, and snacks.

From the owner: ART Stalker ... verbindet lockere Bar-Atmosphäre mit…read moreinternationaler Kunst. Bühne für junge und etablierte Liveauftritte. Art Stalker in der Kaiser-Friedrich-Str. 67 ist die neue Event-Bar in Berlin-Charlottenburg. Pep up the West! Die Bar hat täglich für Sie ab 18 Uhr geöffnet.

This is one of the best jazz clubs I have been to…read more Never mind me reviewing the drink options. They sell bottled beers out of a fridge. No one gets them for you. You pay on the honor system. They have empty glasses. You can pour yourself a glass of water. You are really here for the music straight up. * * * Jazzkeller 69 is an free-jazz and bop club founded by Assi Glode and Willi Kellers. Assi Glode is a long standing Berlin jazz entrepreneur who regardless of his day job spends much of his time organizing jazz concerts. Willi Kellers is an Elvin Jones quality drummer with his own takes. The Jazzkeller is NOT a place you can just go any night that you feel like hearing Jazz. They are closed most nights and open only when they have something really special worth hearing. One semi regular event they call "Freebop - No Standards". The name is a slight misnomer. There will be no jazz standards played to be sure, but most of the music is Coltrane era experimental and not bop per se. There is also very little post experimental. You go to Donau 115 for that. Freebop -No Standards is an open call for any jazz musician in Berlin to just show up and get a chance to play. The music is forking amazing. The night we were there, at least 30 musicians must have shown up. My wife and I were one of the few people in the room who were not Berlin jazz musicians or close friends of a Berlin jazz musician. Assi Glode divides people arbitrarily up into groups of four and people get one chance to play. A very small number of distinguished eminence-grises will get two chances to play. Most of the jazz artists are between 55 and 85. A few younger artists show up. The youngest ones are probably students of the older figures. Out of the thirty musicians we heard on Freebop No Standards night, at least twelve did legendary sets. We were completely rapt. No one who played was bad. This is NOT true of Berlin jazz as a whole. We have heard some wretched material in competing establishments. (Not however at Donau 115). * * * Berlin is an incredible town for both jazz and classical. Classical ticket prices will bankrupt you. You get what you pay for - music to remember for a lifetime. But you have to be as rich as Count Esterhazy to hear classical every night in Berlin. In contrast, the jazz musicians play - literally for a song. I have no idea how they survive with the negligible amount of money they are earning But they are playing music worthy of the great jazz gods. Get yourself to Jazzkeller 69 or Donau 115. These places are cash only. (Americans: This means Euros). If you truly love music, put some extra Euros in the hat.

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.

From the owner: 1993 eröffnet, ist die Junction Bar mittlerweile ist sie zu einer festen Größe in der Berliner…read moreMusikszene geworden. Künstler verschiedenster Musikrichtungen treten dort auf, von Jazz über Swing bis hin zu Rock, Pop aber auch Chansons kann man dort so ziemlich alles hören, was Musik zu bieten hat. Ein gemütlicher Live-Musik Club im Keller, vergleichbar etwa mit den Underground-Bars in Paris oder News York. Nach dem Live-Musik Programm kommen die Tanzwütigen auf ihre Kosten, wenn DJs bis zum frühen Morgen gute Laune verbreiten. Gut gemixte Cocktails sowie erschwingliche Getränkepreise zwingen gerade zum Verweilen, bis daß die Sonne über der Gneisenaustraße wieder aufgeht.

We went without much planning, but it was one of the best decisions ever…read more The music was great. I'm not a jazz expert, but I could tell that the band was very genuine and versatile. Tonight, it was also great to have an American band perform, so that we could understand what they were singing! Absolutely great acoustic as well. Service was very good. Everyone was kind, and I couldn't have asked for more. Ambience was the perfect balance of cozy and exclusive with fun and dynamic. Given the proximity between the audience and the stage, everything felt very intimate too. Highly recommend it if you're looking for a great jazz experience at a reasonable price!

Perfect atmosphere; steaming hot, loud and loving! Absolutely recommend!…read moreWe had standing places because the seating is limited, but Hamilton de Holanda was performing, so maybe it was better that way..

Low profile venue with an awesome staff and nice wines. The…read moremusicians were really good: it was a Monday so it's likely that the place was emptier than usual. We ordered a few ham and cheese sandwiches and the whole night was very pleasant.

If you want to enjoy some good jazz while sipping your wine (or beer, of course), go for it! Those…read moredimmed lights and candles add just the right touch to the atmosphere. I suggest to go a bit earlier to have a proper sit. It's always very full on weekends. Unfortunately, it's pretty loud. Small philosophical remark: Sometimes it feels that Berlin public is so spoiled by rich cultural offer of a capital city that they actually don't really cherish the act itself but just 'let it happen' on the background of their conversation. Cheers!

The best location to enjoy a drink and authentic Jazz…read more Located few steps away from the Zoo train station, and the drinks and foods are fairly priced.

The Quasimodo Berlin was the home of american soldiers in…read morethe 50' and then the jazz was the d.j, now the club is more open for jazz, soul, funk and blues, the atmosphere is as an international club like the blue note. I recommend you to check the fresh guide for jazz in berlin is www.jazzyberlin.de for the jazzy side of this city.