They always put on good parties but for me it was best at the Premises.
Er, let me see.
The Clouds Passing thing is a newish venue, it's got a myspace site I think that should tell you what's on. Actually it doesn't seem to have that much info but you can contact them through it. I think it's a pretty cool place with a nice upstairs room with sofas, I think they show films there on a Sunday
http://www.myspace.com/passingclouds
Ye Olde Axe is a strip club on Hackney Road that doesn't do regular nights but we (and other people before us) hired it. It's got a licence until six and is like some kind of Victorian gin palace inside. I think it's a fantastic venue but the only problem when we used it was that although they were supposed to finish at eleven and let us open at half-past they decided at the last minute to keep the stripping going until after midnight. We had to warn everyone who turned up early that they would get Bon Jovi whilst East Europeans took their clothes off for the first hour or so. No-one didn't come in though....
Bardens Boudoir is under a furniture warehouse on Kingsland Road. It has a website here
http://www.bardensbar.co.uk/events.htm
It has re-opened legally (after being shut down last year) but unfortunately only stays open until about three now.
Octopad. This is a place behind the Stoke Newington train station, a few people live (and record I think) there and put on parties when it suits them. I actually don't know how to find out when they have things here, when I've gone before it was normally just word of mouth. The electro night Scand did a couple of things here.
Hugo's Speaker Palace is on Andre St near Hackney Downs station. There is a mailing list which my girlfriend is on but I'm not sure how you get on it except by going down and signing up to it. Best thing to do is google the name and see if there is anything on at the weekend, then go along and sign up and you will be notified of future events. He used to do something every weekend but the council made a fuss and stopped him so he is a little less regular these days.
Sorry I can't be more help with those things. I hope that these are the sort of things that interest you, I guess they are very different from the place in Berlin but they are worth trying in my opinion. Just don't expect state of the art sound and clean toilets.
Just remembered, another place you might be interested in is the 491 Gallery in Leytonstone. Only been there once but it certainly has potential especially in summer because it's got a big garden.
Last week I went to watch a gig in the cellar of an abandoned pub called the Milton Arms in Bethnal Green. There wasn't much going on at that time but I really want to find out about future events there because it was a nice venue as well.
