The Unkindness of Ravens in Berlin: Postcard # 2

We're tumbling through the streets to hit the infamous SO36 - a venue which hosts flamboyant gay nights and punk/electroclash concerts.

At this point our blood has churned to booze after we hit a couple of birthday bashes prior to this much anticipated event known as 'Ich Bin Ein Berliner'. Having arrived, we manage to get the tail end of Blitzkids, an electro pop act, consisting of front woman, Nomi, who's dressed in what appears to be a red cyborg ex-communist suit with two dancers either side of her, looking like robots on metallic puppet strings.

Blitzkids sound like a more underground version of Lady Gaga and after they vanish behind a wall of exploding smoke, we're confronted with the second act of the night: Nad Mika. As part of her introduction we're watching her latest single 'To the Max', a fast cut music video, contorted with random images and the odd shot of two gimps trying out an S&M act. Nad Mika is a one woman show, dressed in some kind of Robocop space invader suit.

Some beers and ten zillion cigarettes later, we're watching Selfish Cunt, an East London band who've been on the block for a near decade. At first I'm sucked into their bluesy punk sound, Martin Tomlinson's provocative pelvic thrusts and his ability to scream like a squeezed cat on speed - it rings true to the punk-esque theme, and for a moment I'm truly inspired. It's real and it's dirty.

After some time though, the prancing around, humping the mic stand and pushing the head of punks at the front of the stage into Martin's lycra crotch, becomes repetitive and I'm left wondering where the hell the songs are...? Because throwing in a few screams, and a couple of 'naughty' lines that seem more jammed than planned, ain't much of a song if ya ask me. At some point even bits of the crowed crumble away and a good forty five minutes later, with the last "song" still ringing in the air, the band hits the back stage, a meek encore is requested, but for Selfish Cunt, it obviously ain't worth it.

Next up we get to a little brothel somewhere in the depths of Neukolln, where every full moon they give their whores a break for some live music and electro tension.

'Judy's Kino Bar' is tucked away in a residential area next to a wasted looking graveyard. It's so small and so packed, in fact, that we physically can't make it to the live room. We end up hanging out at the bar, catching up with some musicians we met the other night, sweating off our make-up and leather jackets.

It is how you expect any brothel to be really - hot, sticky, a few posters of half naked girls from the '80s lazily hung on the walls, washed out red velvet curtains drenched in stale cigarette smoke, the greasy bar tender lighting your smokes and feeding you booze...

After giving the place a good two hours, we head back to our neck of the woods, checking out the joints on Oranienstrasse... In desperate need of a beer and a piss, we hit a bar with pink shag carpets all over the walls... we don't stay there long...