Prague

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Clubs and gigs

Apart from the almost completely ineffective no-smoking law recently passed, and the usual chorus of grouchy Prague apartment residents threatening to call the police on anyone raising a peep after 10pm, not much has changed of late in Prague clubland. That‘s both good news and not-so-good news.

The veteran clubs of the mid-90s are still around, still evolving nicely and still packing ’em in, and they’re still cheap and safe. But new lights on the horizon have proven elusive, and, frankly, this town deserves – and desperately desires – more diverse and numerous nightlife choices. Though it’s hugely profitable, not everyone is looking for teen pop or strip clubs, however epic both are getting these days.

 

Clubbing
Unless for summer raves or one-off parties in vast old tram factories, no hardcore party maven would place Prague first on their list of unmissable clubbing cities. Either because of the size of Prague – at 1.2 million, it’s on a scale with Munich, Lyon and Stockholm – or, more likely, because it takes more than 17 years to transform former Soviet bloc isolation into a thriving, sophisticated scene, clubbing is still quite hit or miss in the Czech capital.

Young Czechs are so busy managing careers and companies (when they’ve only just learned how to dress for a modern office and conduct a meeting) that most are just too tired to demand brilliant clubbing experiences. Ironically, there’s no real bohemian class as yet with enough disposable income and international tastes to drive a well-developed clubbing scene or a diverse range of venues. Thus, nearly all Prague clubs fall into one of three categories: Brimful of trendy brushed steel and recessed lighting, with a crowd out of a toothpaste commercial (Celnice, p102; Radost FX); smoke-filled, glorified pubs with neo-hippies in dreadlocks; and full-on pop disco infernos (Lucerna Music Bar on Fridays and Saturdays).

 

Of course, nightclubs everywhere tend to be marginal operations, with all but the mega commercial clubs (and Prague certainly has those in the teen-filled Face to Face) subject to fickle fashions, noise regulations and avaricious landlords. All these factors may explain why the city still has, much to the frustration of its growing ranks of club cognoscenti, only a handful of truly respected survivors of any size: the Roxy, Mecca, Radost FX and Akropolis, which is really a series of bars and a live stage.

 

It’s probably also telling that none of these has really changed much in years but that’s also because they’ve all had high standards from the start and have managed to keep up with trends, sound systems, atmosphere and ideas.

 

The only notable trend in the industry, as least as practised in Prague, is a huge influx of American college students who probably don’t help to raise the bar as much as you’d think – it seems they’re happy to dance to anything loud as long as it’s in Prague. But maybe they’re on to something. From very local, very smoky bars where Czech crowds still go mad for ABBA, to absurd levels of hairspray and ostentation, to packed, silly dance caverns, where someone might at any time hop up on the bar and start stripping off, there are still endless cheesy, kitschy only-in-Prague moments.

 

These are what you should seek out and savour and not waste your time looking for Ministry of Sound mix systems or groundbreaking DJs. Then there are the amazing venues – if the tram factory’s busy, you may end up in the National Memorial, a hilltop Soviet-era mausoleum. Now that’s something nobody in London or New York’s going to experience this weekend.

 

And, if you’ve no real desire to go up against improbably tanned and toned young Czechs or their Glastonbury-esque counterparts, consider sticking with an all-night beer crawl, which is probably more in the grand tradition of a Prague night out anyway, slaloming from trad pub to corner bar to an old-fashioned, cut-with-a-knife wine cellar or ∫enk, all the while discussing the state of football today or where the hell in Old Town you’ve ended up.

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