(Editor’s note: This is Pt. 2 in a two part post on the RSO Club in Berlin. You can jump to Part. 1 here. The club, a repurposed brewery, is one of the largest in Europe, with about 1 million square feet of space, and room for 5,000 ravers.)
As it turns out, RSO is not a place one can walk the entirety of very quickly. It’s an enormous venue, with multiple open air areas (which will have music during day time hours) and a beer garden.
I spend the next 30 minutes surveying the perimeter of the club, ducking in and out of crowds taking a break from the thundering techno inside, wondering how it is possible that I can still be walking and have not seen the same things twice before I arrive again at the garderobe, and realize I have walked in one gigantic circle. I know that there is a second floor with a huge bar, chill out area and additional dance floor, but I can’t find the stairwell to access it.
Finally I do, ascend a couple flights of stairs and arrive at the second dance floor known as Summe. Again, the sound system and lighting are tops, although the crowd is a bit young and touristy.
One of the great ironies of Berlin club culture is the persistent aversion to “posers,” visitors from out of town who aren’t so much into the musical heritage of techno as they are excited to witness what they’ve heard is a freak show of all night hedonism, in opposition to the financial needs of a club to stay afloat and thrive; no matter how hard the door policy of a Berlin club, some amount of tourists will have to be let in, and tonight seems to be a fairly strong amount.
Berghain alternative?
After a while of dancing, I take the same stairwell all the way down and arrive at a small area with seats and benches that is quite dark, with industrial-style architecture that looks a bit like it’s trying to copy Berghain. This area in fact seems set up to be a “dark room”-like space, private and hidden away enough for people to get a little more intimate should they have the opportunity. The space is completely empty however, and looks a bit sad, like somebody’s unrealized vision for Berghain-esque debauched hook-ups.
As I climb back up to the dance floor, a young straight couple passes me hand in hand on the way down; maybe they will use the area for what it was intended?
RSO, whether intentionally or not, has become positioned by many as a possible Berghain alternative, partly because several regular Berghain DJs such as Freddy K and DVS1 have been playing there regularly, giving their fans a chance to experience their music without the super strict, maybe-tonight-maybe-not door policy of the hallowed Church of Techno in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg. There are many reddit subs that discuss whether RSO is really comparable to Berghain or not, with many guests praising the sound system but decrying the crowd as “pushy,” “immature” and “too young.”
Many who are rejected from Berghain will have an easier time getting into RSO, and with its high ceilinged, industrial feel, one could make the argument that it satisfies a similar aesthetic craving. Many believe that comparing the two, as one reddit user writes, is like comparing “apples to oranges” and is a futile practice.
There is truly nowhere else in the world like Berghain, which is of course what makes it Berghain.
I enjoy my time at RSO drifting between dance floors and taking long slow walks around the maze-like club for the next few hours. The crowd is definitely on the young, hetero side, but there are a few older ravers and folks dressed in leather gear.
There is a very strong sense of quality everywhere: crystal clear sound, beautiful lights and sleek bar design. Although the club does seem to be missing something, that unnamable x-factor that can only be achieved with time; RSO is still a newer club and it feels a bit like an energetic work-in-progress that has the potential to go from being a very good club to a legendary space.
Berlin clubs are showcases for electronic music, but the venues themselves are works of art in their own right: living, breathing canvases of beats and bodies that, like a Bechamel sauce, are only fully realized after patient, repetitive stirring.
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Read more about Berlin here in Dispatches’ archives.
