THE SUMMERSEASON opened on 28th of April entry is free, but they want you to bring your own log (of wood – probably for a campfire)

I am sitting on the quay wall, my feet dangle over the water. The little movements of the water surface of the bay reflect the late afternoon sunlight. Behind me there is a sandy beach and old industrial buildings. Run-down. Rusty. Roest. That’s the Dutch word for rust. And it resembles the atmosphere of this place. The melancholic feeling of transitoriness.

If the weather is good and and I need to calm down from a stressful day at work I come here, enjoying the peaceful timelesness of this place. And like me, many other young, creative, hip and alternative people are attracted, probably for the same reason.

But Roest is not only a beach bar, it lends it terrain for all kinds of synergetic activities. So you could bump into the Sunday market, an alternative food and art market or the Unity festival, an afternoon dance festival with ‘open minded information on the use of drugs and alcohol’. The huge industrial hall used to be part of Roest with club nights by ‘De Club’. Unfortunately a concession disagreement stopped the club activities.

A good combination: when the sun slowly fades away and the first cold autmn winds creep under your t-shirt, go and have dinner at Rosa en Rita, which also resides on the terrain…

I was planning to go to Pakhuis Wilhelmina for quite some time… and as soon as I was there for my ‘initiation’ I regretted waiting that long.

Hardrock karaoke is hilariously fun. What is it about? Well, it’s quite simple and both similar to and different from regular karaoke: a live (backing) band plays the songs while visitors sing. Of course the band is limited by the songs they can play, but all famous sing-alongs are present. On one of the walls you can see big posters with about fifty songs, varying from Lenny Kravitz to Mötorhead and Steppenwolf to The White Stripes.

There are a couple of things which make this karaoke a zillion times better than the regular version. First of all, the band and its front-man put on a terrific show. They play pretty good and loud, sing along and joke around with the visiting singers. The lyrics are written on big posters and held up in the air by a member of staff (primitive, but nevertheless part of the show). Furthermore, the public sings, jumps and head-bangs along, giving the brave singers on stage the real ‘live’ experience. And every participant has to finish the song with a final jump (often on the final chords of the band/song) to earn the promised Tequila shot for their bravery.

For both singers and audience this evening is rocking! Go check it out and get on stage, if you dare!

P.S. they sell bottled beer (€ 2.25), always an advantage in my opinion.

Have you ever been to a Berlin living room cafe? Vintage furniture, a bit run-down, Cafe Brecht is all about “Gemütlichkeit” – coziness, the translation is an approach at best. One of the ancestors of your German grandmother could have lived here, nothing would have changed, only time would have eroded the walls since then, and a bar and more lazy chairs would have been added.

Tea is being served in a teapot that looks like being taken right out of your grandmothers cupboard, there is freshly made cake, also a thing that you might be familiar with if you know a typical Berlin living room cafe. A selection of several German beers complete the menu.

It is very relaxed inside, time doesn’t seem to play a role, you can tell by the knitting gear that decorates the tables and invites you to just continue knitting, just like you grandmother would have done. Since its opening three years ago, Brecht became a rather popular spot – the closer the weekend the more crowded the evenings – this is the reason they gave up on the poetry readings and live performances they used to have: lack of space.

Actually what I like most about Brecht is that they sell my favorite brand of German beer – which is the original black forest beer “Tannenzäpfle”, and it’s the only place where you can get it in Amsterdam (correct me if I am wrong).

Just having celebrated their first anniversary, the CC Café is looking back on a year full of live music of all possible styles. We’ve seen singer/song writers, the Amsterdam Songwriters Guild, blues and jazz, latin and world music, and a variety of individual styles on the open mic evenings. The man behind the bar is René, and he does not hesitate to make you feel personally involved with CC café. Chances are that he still remembers your name when drop by next time.

The pup is more stylish than the other venues I have written about. (it’s not a venue, it’s a pub). A bit more designed, dimmed light, a velvet curtain behind the stage and black lights, it’s certainly not a rock’n roll bar. You enter the bar at street level, in the back it splits up into two floors, downstairs you will find a quiet area, the smoker’s lounge. The top floor offers a small stage, fully equipped with a drum kit, PA, microphone, a keyboard etc.

The programming does undergo some changes once in a while, and is not too easy to memorize, but you’ll find all info on the website. 3 Euros contribution required. You pay at the bar, but they give you the chance to leave after your first beer if you don’t like the show.

This place was formerly known as Boom Chicago, named after the American comedy club that is housed here with edgy sketches on actual themes and a lot of funny improvisation.

Since March they changed their name from BC12 to Chicago Social Club. Besides comedy you will find a lot of good house/techno parties on the agenda! I like this place because it is not a massive club, rather intimate with only one dance floor that attracts a cool, mixed crowd of people looking for a good night out.

When you enter the venue you can first have a drink at the large bar, but if you can’t wait to party, walk a little further where the deep house, techno or sometimes hip hop will welcome you. Just check out the agenda on their site to see if there is a party of your taste. On weekdays the bar is open till late, and I can recommend the nice apple martini’s they serve here.

On Friday and Saturday you have to pay for entrance, the rest of the week the bar is free of charge. More in for a night full of American humor?, check their calendar.

If you want to take your girlfriend out in style, a pretty good spot to go would be Bo Cinq: stylish interior, and, if you are a smoker – they have definitely the most beautiful smokers lounge in whole Amsterdam. If you are on a budget, they have a couple of good wines between € 20.00 and € 30.00 per bottle, but if you are in for something special, prices range up to something around € 400.00.

Bo Cinq is a restaurant, a bar and, this is why I pay a visit to it once in while, a beautiful and stylish lounge. Well dressed people, so don’t show up in your leisure suite, you wouldn’t feel comfortable. A good thing to do, especially if you haven’t reserved a table, get a bottle of wine, order some oysters at the bar and look for a good spot on one of the couches in the lounge.

The bar/lounge entrance is not quite prominent, so look for a small sign Bo5, that’s all it says. It’s nice and stylish inside: I only feel sorry for the large tree in the smokers lounge, suffering quite a miserable existence. An interior designers choice for refreshing the air probably – at the expense of his life…

A bit off the center, with a bit of Mediterranean touch, Hesp blinks out with one of the nicest terraces Amsterdam has to offer, right at the river Amstel. Strolling down the Weesperzijde along the water on a hot summer night, and then ending up there for one of the at least 40 brands of beer they have (half of them tapped), great.

The same is true, of course, for the afternoon, and I am especially fond of the live music events on Sunday afternoon (not always – check first, if that’s what you are looking for). It can be a fantastic way to swing out the weekend…

On Friday nights it is less crowded, but still a place to have good time. The bar tenders are doing their best to entertain, and you can tell they love their job.

But Hesp is not only a bar to have a good time on a Friday night, Hesp also accommodates a full restaurant with a variety of international dishes for a reasonable price.

De Nieuwe Anita is actually THE underground place in the west. A bar like a living room in the front area. Vintage, second hand, looks like a squatted place – only the negative attitude is missing. Mostly good music, it’s a good place to hang out, BUT:

The real thing is going on in the back, down under – The Nieuwe Anita is also a venue for alternative music, underground films and dance parties. And again: I usually drop by on the Subbacultcha events because they pretty much rock, and the guys at Subbacultcha know how to get the good bands just right before they become famous.

On Mondays De Nieuwe Anita houses a hand selected film program (entry 3 Euros) far from the mainstream.

Tuesday nights there is live music behind the bar, and that can be quite good, but what can I say – a matter of taste of course, but worth a try-out. On other days De Nieuwe Anita feels like a family hangout.

The pub quiz virus hasn’t passed its cozy living room, and once in a month (first Sunday) the Anita folks gather to guess the answer of impossible to answer questions. That is fun – but you got to know the dutch language to take part. One good alternative spot to visit.

Canvas (which resides at the seventh floor of the former Volkskrant building) is an easy going restaurant, club and cocktail bar with a little alternative attitude. You enter the building through the main hall, pass the guards, then on the left-hand side you’ll find the elevators to the seventh floor.

The interior is a little alternative, self-made, food is being served at foldable beer tables. There is graffiti and secondhand lampshades, and there are chesterfield benches to hang out before or after dinner. Food and service is better than the interior suggests.

DJ´s, singer-songwriters, theme/parties or cocktail nights (5 EUR a cocktail), you can have it all @ canvas. But whatever takes place at Canvas, nothing can beat the view: I think it’s one of the best Amsterdam has to offer. In the summer there are two terraces open, one is part of the restaurant, the other is a surfer style beach bar – they are unfortunately closed now, let’s wait for spring. The cocktail nights are hosted by Marcel Barlag, the cycling DJ. He comes with his bicycle fully equipped with his dj set and his records, playing 70′s sounds.

Next to exhibiting hip photography they also host events like a cloth exchange market: bring the cloths that you’ve had enough of, find someone who likes them, and trade them in for items that you like of his/her collection. Very nice idea!

A Californian bass guitar player coming to Amsterdam for love and music. He opens this little spot in the Amsterdam area Westerpark: Mark Hodson. He didn’t want to give me his full name in the first place ’cause I have a shady past, you know…’ I will leave this up to himself. Anyway, he looks like rock’n roll and that’s the spirit of the bar – it only needs a couple of more years to look as run-down as you’d expect a rock’n roll bar to look like.

Well, about the Jet Lounge itself: It’s a nice little spot with a good reputation among the singer/song writers in Amsterdam. The open mic sessions on Tuesday are nice, and again: it’s not a neighborhood open mic event, I think the standard of the people you come across at such occasions is high (with variations, of course), and you can enjoy good music in an intimate setting – it’s like they are performing in your living room.

Mark likes cocktails and he enjoys preparing them (he is a bit of a one-man-show). It seems for Mark cocktails are an integral part of rock’n roll live (awarded cocktail bar of the year in 2009 by Time Out magazine Amsterdam).

If you get the chance, check out his own band, called “The Sex Dolls” – once in a while Mark is not behind the bar, and leaves the cocktails for the bass…

De Buurtboerderij – a public farm with a cafe just out of town – is so well hidden it really feels like a personal victory once you’ve found it. In truth, it’s just behind the Westerpark and not that far. It’s a really nice little trip through the fields on foot or by bike.

Trees and typically flat green meadows surround the farm. Their terrace is spread out in front of the building and over several small plots of land. Sitting in the shadow of blossoming trees, sipping on homemade lemonade and looking out over the edges of the city truly feels like being far away from the hustle and bustle of Amsterdam. It’s not worth coming over if you don’t have a couple of hours to spare and wind down.

You can easily muse the day away here – chatting up the chickens, socializing with the sheep, gorging on pancakes and cheese toasties. The do-gooder spirit of the place is obvious – most of the people that work there are volunteers (a great bunch of people), and the food’s really cheap. They run a tiny makeshift ‘give-away shop’ full of old clothing and brick-a-brack that’s yours to take home.

De Buurtboerderij also organizes music events, arts & crafts workshops and yoga for kids, but just watching the sun go down from their back yard is meditation enough for me.

Melkweg (dutch for milky way) – do I need to say anything about it? All the major cities have one, or maybe a few, temples of pop culture, and here in Amsterdam it’s the Paradiso and the Melkweg. Needless to say more, it’s not a secret tip, but still it’s a good place. Concerts of internationally renowned bands, independent or cult cinema, dance parties, festivals, exhibitions, just about anything cool happens in the Melkweg.

I went to the Melkweg when I moved to Amsterdam more than one and a half decades ago, and still the programming is good enough to drag me in once in a while, be it for the stage events, be it for the film selection, exhibition, dance event, you name it.

There is a cafe/restaurant (entry on the backside of the complex, in the Marnixstraat) if you are passing by during the day and only want to sniff some air of pop culture, or check out on the exhibition space (also from that side).

To make it short: the Melkweg is THE cultural center in Amsterdam. But probably you know that already, because you won’t find any tourist guide that doesn’t tell you the same.

Studio/K is the biggest and the most remarkable one of the five projects within the Kriterion family. The cultural centre opened its doors five years ago at Timorplein in the Suriname area. Fifty students work here fifteen hours a week, being responsible for every part of the management themselves, making it more than just a student job. The popularity of the place is unfortunately a bit limited to students and yuppies, but the easy atmosphere, also known at its fellow Kriterion projects ‘Skek and Bioscoop Kriterion, definitely makes up for it.

The activities of Studio/K are threefold: first of all Studio/K is a movie theatre. Besides blockbusters they show art house cinema, Dutch and classic movies. But there are also theatre performances, workshops and meetings. You can also rent the different rooms for private use, group courses or other activities.

Furthermore, Studio/K has a bar-restaurant where they serve breakfast/lunch from 11:00 to 16:00 and dinner from 18:00 to 22:00 (student discount on ‘weekly dishes’ from Monday till Wednesday). Lastly, Studio/K serves as a club, organizing (theme) parties with music varying from jazz to oldschool techno.

Studio/K is a great place to spend your afternoon and/or evening, as it has a lot to offer under one and the same roof. One warning though: once you’re in, be sure to keep track of time and money. For me, both are gone before I realize.

Every last Wednesday of the month: Jazz in /K

Once a month: /K + peren (club night with special theme)

OT301 is generally an alternative cultural center: up-to-date underground music, alternative, experimental, on the edge. An independent movie and theater venue, and any kinds of activities: courses from self-defense to salsa, but all with the understated punk attitude. OT301 also houses Subbacultcha-events (check out: www.subbacultcha.nl)

You get the idea: experimental, hip, alternative, that’s what this place is about. No wonder that OT 301 is run by an artist initiative (EHBK), working closely together with Steim, the internationally recognized center of development in the electronic performing arts. You may call it avantgarde but the focus of OT301 is to provide an alternative to the mainstream commercial culture, be it in being experimental, be it in being politically radical.

A fun thing to try out: take part in Tuesday’s ping-pong bar. In the bar and the concert hall 4 ping-pong tables wait for potential competitors. They play a fun system on the table in the bar room: as many as possible walk around the table, hit the ball when it’s their turn, and when they loose the ball they have to leave the table until only two competitors are left.  Try it, it’s fun, and it’s free….

Pompstation is a new New York industrial style place in town. They have great food and wines. On Fridays and Saturdays they have after dinner dance, with live performances by young and rising jazzy performers and bands. I had an excellent food and wine experience on a casual Tuesday evening.

I chose the salad of green asparagus, confit of tomatoes and smoked sliced eggplant with a great vinaigrette. My main course was an ‘aged’ ribeye from the Creekstone Prime Black Angus USA Corn Fed. Very tasty and tender, this can become their bestseller.

The wine list has a wide range of beautiful offerings, from easy and nice prices up to the the famous and starred, and from France to the New World. There’s something to choose for everybody.

The interior is industrial, with the use of pure and original materials, in a word; impressive. The service is very nice, helpful and professional but still has to get used to their own restaurant setting, it has only to be fine-tuned!

The only thing is the location, which is a bit out of centre, but with tram 14 (stop at ‘Borneostraat 1 – terras’) you will overcome that problem. I say have fun and enjoy!

De OCCII (pronounce “okki”) is one of the locations in Amsterdam that you should definitely know about when you are interested in alternative music. Fringe, emerging, experimental, off the mainstream, that’s the programming of the OCCII. The other day we had the honour of having Ted Miltons “Blurt” paying a visit to the OCCII (photo – Ted Milton is the guy with the sax) – a great performance of a great band. Ted Milton with his strong stage presence, his own weird charisma. Idiosyncratic as a person as well as musician. I wouldn’t know who to compare him with to give you an idea. I think he pretty much represents what the OCCII stands for musicwise. Idiosyncratic gems in music.

Well, everything about Amsterdam is small, and a venue with about 200-250 m2 is considered a large space, even if it is not, if you are accustomed to spaces in other cities. If you think of a larger garage you come pretty close in what the OCCII originally was: It used to be one of the first (horse-) tram sheds in Amsterdam. It got squatted in 1984, and operates now as a volunteer-run, independent concert/event hall.

The programming ranges from indie/ free jazz/ hardcore/ electronic to dance parties of all kinds of style. It is not an expensive place, € 7.00 entry for an evening full of live music is reasonable, and you might bump into a surprisingly high quality performance.

Sound Garden: punk rock, alternative. table football, pinball, a pool table. Sound Garden. It’s like it’s been here forever, I don’t remember Amsterdam without it. I especially love the two pretty well done wall paintings of Henry Rollins, right when you enter, and the other one of Iggy Pop around the corner above the lounge corner. Well, lounge corner? It’s pretty shabby, those sofa’s have seen decades of spilled beer and cigarettes burning holes in them. But that’s rock’n roll, isn’t it?

I like to go to Sound Garden whenever I feel like some action, and that would mean in my case playing a round of table football, I always find someone to play with. I don’t play like a beginner, but you are likely to meet real pro’s, with their own strict rules, and who wins stays in the game. So that can mean a pretty short stay, depending on who you bump into. But anyway, it’s for the fun, and the challenge.

On Thursday night there is live music: singer/song writers, rock’n roll, experimental, but preferably not too noisy (due to the neighbors). Also a good pair: first warm up at the Sound Garden, then (on Thursdays) head a 3 hundreds meters further to the trance night at the Korsakoff (check the Korsakoff article) for some dancing.

After yesterday’s beautiful spring day the terrace is open now (probably depending on the weather conditions) – and this terrace is a real nice place to hang out on sunny afternoon…

Their website is down – please check the Facebook page instead.

The Korsakoff is an alternative low-profile club with good DJ’s in different genres and styles. Now they emphasize more on electro/dance than they did before, alternative is now Saturday and Sunday only. There is a dance floor on street level and a bar on the second floor with a balcony above the dance floor to watch the crowd dancing, moshing, head-banging, whatever suits the sound of the evening. No dress code though, only at the special dress-up event nights.

Thursday night is trance night, and it’s always crowded. Downstairs in the hall the dancing crowd, partly painted with fluorescent body paint – like an old school Goa party, remember the 90ies? Upstairs is a bar, the chill zone, for the occasion decorated tropical style, also here lots of fluorescent paint, you can even have a massage.

Because the Korsakoff is open late, even on weekdays, it’s perfect if you are in the mood for dancing after having spent the evening in another bar like the Sound Garden (check the article) for example which is just a few minutes walking distance. But prepared to find the place empty if you are too early, mostly the crowd comes in only after closing time of the surrounding bars. During the week there is no entrance fee, in the weekends it’s 5 Euro. Even the drinks are reasonably priced.

Details about this spot (Show on map)
Korsakoff | Bars, Music | Weekend entry € 5
Lijnbaansgracht 161 | Center
Tue – Thu 23:00 – 03:00 Fri – Sat 22:30 – 04:00

The cave. I haven’t been here for at least a year. Heavy metal is a bit out of style, isn’t it? In fact, nothing has changed since I was here last time. The same dark dungeon. The same dressed-in-black people, leather jackets, sunglasses at night…

I guess, when you are familiar with heavy metal it must feel like you’ve already been here, those places have pretty much the same feeling all over the world. Also the band sounds like I’ve heard them before. Was it Motörhead? Was it ZZ Top? This time they came from Finland and called themselves Los Bastardos Finlandeses.

Do I sound negative?  Oh, not at all. After seeing some great 80′s revival with punk/wave bands in Meneer Malasch (check out the article) the day before, maybe we’ll have a revival of heavy metal, too? ‘Hop on the Harley’, and be ‘Saved by Rock’n Roll’! The great thing about such clubs is that it’s pretty much a clique thing, everybody seems to know each other, and it’s easy to get along with the people.

So surprisingly I enjoyed the concert, and even though it wasn’t very crowded, people seemed to have quite some fun with the Bastardos, who, in turn, didn’t seem to take themselves as seriously as their clothing style suggested.

In Amsterdam it is not common to go to a hotel bar to enjoy a drink or to meet people, but The College Hotel is one of the few places where you can do exactly that. Every last Sunday of the month you can listen to some afternoon jazz in this stylish boutique hotel, situated close to the museum district. It is housed in an old 19th century school building with matching high ceilings, which gives it a mysterious touch.

The name of the venue refers to the fact that all of its staff members are students of local hospitality schools. They can be a bit inexperienced, but their motivation makes up for it!

The lounge bar has a fireplace and multiple cozy spots with discrete lighting. This creates a warm and intimate ambiance to spend a Sunday afternoon with your friends or lover.

When my friends and I where here on Sundays, we enjoyed the live jazz music from around five ’till seven. The hotel attracts a diverse crowd, that consists of twenty somethings as well as more mature visitors, and is a nice mixture of tourists and locals.

Overall, I find this hotel bar the perfect place for a nice glass of wine or one of the delicious cocktails they serve. If you would also like to go for a small bite or dine a la carte, the College Hotel has a restaurant where they serve dishes of Dutch origin with an international touch. For special events check out their agenda.  

Meneer Malasch is a gallery/is a cultural center/is a party/music location? It’s all true, but it’s hard to put your finger on what’s their priority to become known for. I think they are still finding themselves. On the ground floor you will find art works most of the time, sometimes design objects.

So, why time travelling? I am just returning from a concert in the basement of Meneer Malasch, organized by upcoming music platform Indie Indie, and I had to find out that the 80s are really very much alive in today’s youth culture. Independent punk rock/ dark wave – for me it’s a dog biting it’s tail, a circle closing. The first concerts I attended in larger concert halls were Killing Joke, New Model Army, later Sonic Youth – 25 years ago – and now I find myself in a small basement with not yet famous bands playing a similar kind of music on eye level. Great.

But we are dealing with event culture here. This event was organized by Indie Indie, there might be other events here – Subbacultcha have been organizing parties here in the past, and the art exposed here suits the contemporary young culture – maybe not quite Stedelijk Museum, but, yeah, youth culture. okay, when we are already name-dropping: underground writer Sara Marcus will be attending the ‘reading riot’ event at Meneer Malasch next week. Well, enough said: keep an eye on their website.

And special thanks to Bauke for providing the image.

Details about this spot (Show on map)
Meneer Malasch | Art & culture, Music | Free
Postjesweg 2 | West
Wed – Sat 10:00 – 18:00 (concerts & events check the website)

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