Modisch
 | |
 The façade of Modisch, with no clear branding, in order to be as inconspicuous as possible. | |
| Location | Union, Marima, Liberta |
|---|---|
| Public transit |
Marble Street Station  |
| Owner | No Admission Collective |
| Type | Nightclub |
| Capacity | 850 |
| Opened | 1998 |
| Website | |
| noadmission.le | |
Modisch (German for "fashionable", German pronunciation: [moːdɪʃ]; English: /moʊ.dɪʃ/), stylized in lowercase as modisch and ideographically represented as “•••”, is a nightclub in Liberta. Opened in 1998, it is located in a former warehouse building. The club is seated in the industrial district Union, chosen for its low property prices, grimy environment, and lack of regulatory zoning laws for entertainment venues. Modisch has since become one of the world's most famous underground clubs. It is especially associated with hardcore techno, gabber, and speedcore.
Admission to the club is limited due to the relatively small capacity of the building, with a strict and secretive door policy. Modisch has operated with a license to serve alcohol since its inception. Rumors of secret dark rooms have frequently circulated, though the club maintains that it offers no such services. In an interview, co-founder Nolan Santorus dismissed the claims, stating "We are not a sex club, we are not Berghain." The longstanding traditions and types of performances in the club have spawned a separate subculture of fashion, slang, and sexuality known in Liberta as modeing. A party drug culture also exists surrounding the club, it was reported by Vice to be a global hotspot for ecstacy and poppers.
The club is usually open from 22.00 on Friday to early Monday morning. Throughout the years the club has hosted numerous acclaimed artists, including Angerfist, Lords of Acid, Moby, Paul Elstak, Party Animals, and The Prodigy. Other artists not directly affiliated with rave music who have performed at Modisch include Bilderbuch, C2C, Deichkind, Double Dee and Steinski, Girl Talk, Lady Gaga, Mr. Oizo, Sleaford Mods, The Hives, Skindred, and Vengaboys. Most artists who have performed at Modisch do so without any major public announcement, in accordance with the secretive identity of the club.
History
Modisch was founded in 1998 and was opened the same year by the collective No Admission. Having visited Berlin and Rotterdam the year prior, the members of the collective sought to bring the rave culture to Liberta. Though nightclubs existed, none were associated with hardcore techno and gabber. Modisch firmly aligned itself with these two musical styles, almost exclusively playing it in the first years of its existence. The search for an appropriate locale landed the collective in the industrial district of Union, Marima. Union lacked any regulatory zoning laws for entertainment venues, allowing the club to operate with fewer permits. The group stated that the rustic and grimy environment, in part due to the lack of any other nearby venues or shops, aligned well with the similar view of hardcore techno and gabber as "grimy" and "aggressive".
The club was founded with and has maintained an inconspicuous identity. The former warehouse is unbranded and appears identical to the surrounding warehouses and buildings. Initially, Modisch was marketed through word-of-mouth only, but garnered a sizable group of regular attendees, most of whom were already fans of hardcore techno, gabber, and speedcore. Knowledge of the club grew more rapidly as it was located far away from the nightlife hotspots in central Liberta, providing the club with a unique identity, which was further ingrained by the restrictive door policy, creating a form of artificial scarcity.
As the exclusivity of the club fostered, it started becoming internationally known, especially in scenes in the Netherlands for its gabber, and in Germany, for its German name. Beginning to attract international artists, it arranged its first major event, Y2Kandid, headlined by Paul Elstak and members of Spiral Tribe, which coincided with the new millennium. Due to the supposed distribution of Ketamine throughout the night it was nicknamed "Y2Ket". Around this time a distinct drug culture connected to the club emerged as well. Though initially dominated by Ketamine, it would come to be earmarked by ecstacy and poppers. After being covered in Vice magazine in 2005, the club became known in the United States as well, helping, in conjunction with other clubs, to foster a later prevailing view of Liberta as one of the "party capitals" of the world.
The guerrilla marketing methods of Modisch would take shape around 2006, when the club started handing out stickers of the three-black-dots logo of the club, subsequently spawning a trend of placing the stickers in other clubs, both in and outside of Liberta. These stickers have since been spotted as far away as Hong Kong, Osaka, and Las Vegas. The design of the three-dots-logo has been praised by designer Maximilian van Der as "an iconic symbol made intriguing by the lack of clear meaning or text."
Through the rise of mobile phones and social media, the club became known outside of the rave and underground culture, entering the mainstream. Around the same time, the early 2010s saw the rise of hardcore internationally, with artists such as Angerfist gaining popularity and later headlining at the club several times. Modisch started to open up its scene to non-hardcore artists as well, though these were and have remained rare events. In order to maintain the secretive identity of the club, most artists have agreed to make few or no announcements of their presence at Modisch. This has, according to some music journalists, fostered a way of attracting attendees, by hoping to be lucky enough to attend when a major artist headlines.
Artists have been drawn to the club due in part to the rumor that its door policy "always" creates a great and energetic crowd. With a comparatively small venue space, the club fosters "a sense of deep intimacy between the artist and crowd", according to an interview with Lady Gaga, who made a surprise performance at the club to promote her 2013 techno-inspired album Artpop. Since 2014, trends of social media users attempting to pass Modisch's restrictive door policy or attempting to decipher it have gone viral, prompting further speculation and popularity of the club.
During the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic the club, like all other nightclubs, was closed until May 16th, when the government adopted a "flattening the curve" strategy, resuming more lenient restrictions. In conjunction with the reopening, the club ran a special event called FuckDVirus. The club was restricted to operating between Saturday evening to Sunday morning. This restriction was lifted in 2021, and Modisch subsequently resumed normal operations.
Nightclub
Modisch is located inside a former warehouse, the main space is a large room, roughly 5,000 square meters. Exact measurements differ, but building plans show that the main hall is 100 x 50 meters. The building is rectangular, with the main stage and turntables placed in the far back of the building, opposite the entrance. The entrance itself consists of a corridor leading into the main area, so as to not disturb attendees. Bathrooms are located on either side of the building, with a bar area near the entrance corridor. Unlike most nightclubs, the main space is essentially the entire club. There are no VIP sections or closed-off areas (excluding backstage rooms). The club has stated that this is done in order to "emulate the magic of illegal raves".
Bar
The bar of the club, Blau (German slang for "drunk"), has existed since the opening of the club, and is located in the rear of the club, near the entrance and exit. Due to the loud music, the bar uses a whiteboard where customers can write down their order. Blau only serves its drinks in plastic glasses and cups as to prevent injuries from smashed glass. The bar has no seating area, reportedly in order to encourage attendees away from the bar and onto the dance floor. The bartender area is dimly lit in order to keep it from distracting the performances. Blau offers a limited number of beer brands, with most of the supply being in the form of hard liquor.
Lighting
The lighting system of Modisch is a famously distinct aspect, and part of the public image of the club. Flourescent tubes line the roof, although they are in fact LED tubes due to the inability to rapidly flash gas-discharge lamps. The roughly 6,800 LED tubes are intermittently and rapidly flashed with the tempo of the music, and are not continually lit due to their bright and invasive light. Each LED tube sits parallel to a flourescent blacklight tube, with the blacklight permanently lit to provide dim yet useful lighting. The dark atmosphere of the club provides attendees with some anonymity, and according to the club allows them to act without the judgement of others. German band Scooter made a bespoke song called "Modisch Waltz" for the lighting system in Modisch, it syncs with the lights and flashes them in different complex patterns.
Behind the main stage and turntables there is a large LED video wall, which is used by both the club and by artists to visually enhance their performance. During downtime, when no artist is playing, the wall shows videos of the three-dots-logo in various patterns and textures. The video wall is connected to an additional set of projectors mounted in the ceiling of the building, capable of displaying and creating visual effects onto the crowd. Lasers are located behind the stage and aimed up at the ceiling to prevent any eye damage. Several haze machines are also synced to the lighting system.
Sound system
The sound system of the club consists of two stacks of d&b audiotechnik loudspeakers, which was upgraded by d&b in 2014. QSC speakers are positioned around the main area, rigged from the ceiling, and pointed down, providing attendees with surround sound. Earplugs are provided free of charge to guests as they enter the building, as the loudness of the music may otherwise result in permanent hearing loss. An investigation by N01ZE Magazine found that, of the 40 nightclubs tested, Modisch had the loudest average music volume. This is in part attributed to both the apparent and inherent loudness of hardcore techno music.
Culture
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The club has fostered a distinct subculture in Liberta, known as modeing. The subculture is strongly tied to Modisch in the form of a cult following, but also to other, similar techno nightclubs and rave culture in general. Modeing is often associated with young adults, an alternative lifestyle, underground culture and bohemianism. Followers of the subculture will often dress in expressive and loud outfits. Mainstream media has sometimes also attributed the subculture to juvenile delinquency in the form of recreational drug use, though attendees must be 18 or older to attend Modisch or any other nightclub in Liberta.
Though not expressly tied to any sexual movement, the club is associated with BDSM, bondage, and in particular, fetish fashion. Modisch has often used sexually charged ways to represent the club, often as a form of shock advertising. This includes providing attendees with free glow-in-the-dark condoms, merchandise consisting of a glow-in-the-dark gag ball with the logo of the club, three black dots, printed onto the ball, and 500 eggplants distributed to attendees as they were leaving the club, due to the plant's famous euphemism online.
Languages
Though the language of the club is English, as it is mostly attended by English speakers, German functions as a stylistic marker and is a part of the branding of the club. For example, the toilets are labeled as "männer" and "mädchen" (meaning "men" and "girls"), and staffers shirts are labeled "Besatzung - Crew". Due to a sizable amount of European attendees at the club, several of the staff are proficient in either Dutch, German or French.
Recognition
The club has been cited by several publications as among the best in the world, placing first in DJ Magazine's Top 100 Clubs list in 2013, 2017, and 2019. It won the International Dance Music Awards "Best Global Club" award in 2010 and has subsequently been nominated four times. The club has been featured in Vice magazine, Mixmag, Resident Advisor, Rolling Stone, Faze Magazin, Trax Magazine and Crack.