The Chocolate Club in action.
Whether you’re a teetotaler, on a detox diet, or just still hungover from last weekend, it’s often hard to find some temptation-free nightlife in boozy Amsterdam. Enter the Chocolate Club, the monthly party starting up again this weekend where the drug of choice is…you guessed it: pure, unadulterated cacao.
Introducing The Illustrated Penguin
If a 30s-style ‘freak show’ of tattooed men and barely dressed women putting themselves in harms way by swallowing swords, dancing with fire, swinging weights from facial piercings, etc., intrigues you, then make haste to catch The Squidling Brothers Circus Sideshow. You have three more chances to see them before they leave Amsterdam at the end of this weekend.
Yes, I mean literal swings. Six of them, with nine feet of rope each. Always on the lookout for the next unexpected thing to do, the cool kids from Mediamatic have chosen to ‘reintroduce Amsterdam’s magnificent Van Gendthallen to the public’ (i.e., test out the space as a possible new home) with an installation of the aforementioned six monstrous swings. But, like the Christmas markets, they’ll be gone by Monday [no longer true, see update after the break]. And they’re going out in style.
Happy Camper is an ever evolving, Musical Project and should be considered The Netherlands enthusiastic answer to a young Broken Social Scene. Continue reading
On Saturday, December 17th at 10pm Phat Elephant Records, Amsterdam’s finest Deep House Electronic label, is celebrating the release of Jabari’s new EP, Secret Doors at the eclectic Block 23 in the Koningsplein 
, a perfect setting for smooth and otherworldly beats. Continue reading
London Based Shoegazers
The Trailer Trash Tracys show at Paradiso was a lot like Wednesday nights
weather. Overcast with patches of sun.
Whether you prefer your restaurant cheap and easy or Michelin starred, DiningCity has you covered in January.
However well-intentioned the various dining-out week iterations might be (see the recent Vegetarian and Pure Restaurant Weeks), it is beginning to feel like it’s never NOT restaurant week in Amsterdam. Still, DiningCity deserves a nod for bringing the trend to our canals in the first place..and another for upping (and lowering) the ante now that a flood of competitors have entered the ring.
Building on its semi-annual original Restaurant Week, January brings more discounted dining opportunities by DiningCity on opposite ends of the price spectrum.
The interior of the seventeenth-century Noorderkerk is guaranteed to deliver a festive atmosphere.
Amsterdam’s holiday spirit heats up this Saturday, December 17, with not one but TWO Christmas concerts. Each gives its take on the Christmas story, one through a mix of modern and classic music from around the world, and the other through Bach’s classic choral parody Weihnachtsoratorium.
Although Amsterdam’s streets seem to beat to the rhythms of House and possibly Dub Step, a whole swath of the population gets its rocks off dancing to a more independent beat…
These days, the monthly hipster party Kill All Hipsters (you know how hipsters love irony) at Club 8 fills that need, but until about two years ago the indie music crown belonged to the legendary Club Rascal. And now it’s back. Continue reading
Starting December 9, Christmas comes to the Dam
Slowly but surely, Amsterdam is beginning to embrace good, old-fashioned holiday commercialization one Christmas market at a time. Truly dedicated holiday hobbyists will still head to not-so-distant Germany or Belgium to experience Christmas in its full glory, but there’s already plenty of glühwein to warm up your holiday spirits right here in A’dam… Continue reading
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