Inside Berlin Nightlife: Berghain, Boris & the Ice Palace Takeover

So technically… this episode should have come before LAST WEEK’S episode, but in true Trigger Warning fashion, we got it completely reversed. (Well, “Josh, fix it in post did”)

Did we record things out of order? Yes.
Did we realize it after the fact? Also yes.
Are we pretending it was conceptual? Absolutely.

Consider this the pregame to the chaos you already heard.

Berlin is taking over the Ice Palace — and I have thoughts.

In this episode, Daniel and I dive into Berlin nightlife, Berghain lore, NYC vs. Berlin energy, and why Berlin club culture just hits differently. We’re talking sweaty dance floors, zero‑frills promotion, biking through morning petrichor like a European philosopher, and the full debauchery of the legendary Pferdemarkt party.

I share my Berlin memories, the cultural rituals, and why Berghain’s size and infamous door policy aren’t about exclusivity — they’re about preservation. Daniel breaks down the origin story of Berghain from the Ostgut days, why Boris is playing the Ice Palace tonight, and how his friendship with Boris (and longtime Berghain doorman Misha) ties back to queer nightlife history.

Naturally, we spiral into Berlin biking culture, flâneur energy, AppleCare disasters, renter’s insurance drama (shoutout Lemonade), hallway furniture politics, and the reality of accidental adulting.

If you’ve ever debated Berlin vs. NYC nightlife, wondered what makes Berghain iconic, or just enjoy cultural chaos before a dance floor takeover — this one’s for you.

Berlin. Bikes. Boris.
And apparently… backwards episode sequencing.

@triggerwaringnyc

@redeye_ny

@pridehousemedia

Write to us at: Questions@TriggerWarningPod.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

What happens when you let Enfante Rible, now just terrible, Daniel Nardicho off his leash to say and do whatever he wants?

SPEAKER_03 0:07

The man who is offended everyone is back. Along with my brother from another mother, Adam Klesh, we're back with our latest creation, Trigger Warning, a podcast that is not for the faint of heart. Prepare to be offended, enlightened, and highly entertained. Trigger Warning is not a safe space podcast, but answers the questions no one wants to ask. Serves deep in vodka and a dash of bitter. Each week we'll bring you the highest and lowest in NYC nightlife. So buckle up, you've been warned. Ich heiße Daniel. Aham. Do uh how would you say you're watching? And du Shaust on uh Trigger Warning. You do on Shaust, which is to watch. You're watching Trigger Warning or listening to Trigger Warning. Why are we doing this in German today, Adam Varum?

SPEAKER_01 1:04

Because we're having our Berlin takeover at the Ice Ballet.

SPEAKER_03 1:08

I'm so excited about that.

SPEAKER_01 1:09

So exciting. You spent a lot of time in Berlin, didn't you? We've spoken about this five years. You spent five years too, right? Um no, I spent I spent like five years solid from 15. No, sorry, seven years from 15 to 22. Uh, I did uh 2008 to 10. I mean, since 2008, I've been going back and forth, let's say. Yeah, it's I still have two apartments there that I think, you know, like whatever. Yeah, I don't uh I have Tipsy Bear. Shout out to Tipsy Bear if you're watching. It's a wonderful fucking queer safe space. Um, it's they call it the living room, the gay living room, or it's also known as the um the gay heart of Prenzlauerberg. It's I just I love Berlin. I think it's wonderful.

SPEAKER_03 1:49

I know. I want to go there and spend some time there. Uh I haven't spent in a while. Last time you were there, you spent some time. Oh my god, was that fun? I went with Taylor. What'd you do when you went there? We went to the Fixstutenmacht, which is the horse fair. It's a horse fair, which you know that you get branded, whether you're a mayor or Fiedmacht. You're a uh Federmacht. But I think it's called Fixstutenmacht. Fischstutenmacht, yeah, yeah, yeah. Which is, you know, it's uh it's a the most debaucherous thing I've ever seen in my life. It's like it's it's immoral, it's Roman, it's crazy, it's fun. But it also there was a lot of attendant stress with it because you've got to get in line.

SPEAKER_01 2:26

I also love that like the list caps out for bottoms. Totally. They're like a little bit bottoms. We have enough bottoms, and then it's just it's insanity. When people go in as tops, like bottoms are. Yeah, you went in as a top sure girl. And then they won't let the tops play with each other.

SPEAKER_02 2:47

No, they like walk around.

SPEAKER_03 2:48

They're so German. They walk around with referee shirts and like nine!

SPEAKER_04 2:51

Nine!

SPEAKER_03 2:52

It was a really wild. It was a very dirty party. I had a great time. Are they hooded? They're hooded, right? Yeah, the bottoms are hooded and the tops are yeah, and they're branded. Yeah, they like brand them, not with like a hot brand, but like you know, like I know you imagine.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

But it's for like because some are fine with bareback and some want condoms. Well, they had a wristband, I think. If you're and it's like no dick denied. Yeah, no, you can't say no. Yeah, yeah, correct. You can't say no.

SPEAKER_03 3:16

It was wild.

SPEAKER_01 3:17

I'm sorry, that's hot.

SPEAKER_03 3:18

Something really sexy about it. Something really sexy. I mean, it's really debaucherous. Like you leave going, I need a silk wood shower, and I need to like go to a nunnery for a while because it's so intense. It's just debaucherous. Yeah, but I did see some of the hottest guys I've ever seen there, and but they were the bottoms, and they get they line up weeks before.

SPEAKER_01 3:37

I mean, yes, I've I've got a I make no secret of it. I've got a thing for like an Eastern European vibe. Like I like the white boys, I like the thick gymnast, I like the square jaw, I like the light skin, the blue eye. Like, it's fine. I fuck around with all flavors of the rainbow, but like what really, you know, gets Nana's horse in the race is that kind of Eastern block vibe. Yeah, totally. But even like Turkish, Spanish, uh English, Scandinavian, North African, South American, the guys in Berlin, they go to the gym, so they're fit. A lot of people are vegetarians, they take care of themselves. I think there's also something that just exudes outwardly, physically, when you're happy, and it's a place where like life is good, you know, and then on top of it, it's it's fashionable. Like, even if you're wearing your pajamas down to the market to grab the newspaper, you're you're in hot pajamas and like totally no like streaky shirt.

SPEAKER_03 4:34

I mean, it isn't at all the Berlin I lived in. No, it's a very different game.

SPEAKER_01 4:37

There wasn't even a gym.

SPEAKER_03 4:38

I think there was one gym and I had to ride my bike a half an hour to get to it, and it was in Schneeberg. But you were there three months after the wall came down. Three months after the wall came down, and it was like the one gym, and it was mainly me and Turkish guys.

SPEAKER_01 4:50

I was there three months, I was there three months after they opened the Europe's largest tech center.

SPEAKER_03 4:54

Yeah, it was just it was a very different Berlin. But I mean it was I had a great time, and I mean it forced me to learn German and I wouldn't change I wouldn't change the thing.

SPEAKER_01 5:02

Yeah, and it has well, I mean, I it's so weird because like I had fallen so deeply in love with somebody and he had decided to move to Berlin and like it wasn't even on my radar, and so I was like going back and forth from New York to Berlin to to make it work. Um, I of course ended up ruining it like I do most things. Um but I fell in love with Berlin and I was like, well, okay, it's a good consolation price.

SPEAKER_03 5:27

I love it. I had a great time when I went last time. Uh I really liked uh Tipsy Bear. I really liked I went out, I had a really good time, but one of the things I don't like about Berlin is so big. It's too spread out for me. And I really love the New York-y kind of contention. One island.

SPEAKER_01 5:42

I love it. You can get anywhere in New York and do anything you want in 20 minutes. 20 minutes. I think it's anywhere that you want to be.

SPEAKER_03 5:49

Anywhere you want to be. I don't necessarily want to be in Inwood. You're not going to a party in. Yeah, no, but you can get to Inwood 25 minutes.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

Yeah, but like you literally, and Taylor's. Yeah, totally.

SPEAKER_03 6:00

You can go to Berl Brooklyn to a party and and it's and then meet your friends in Chelsea on the L train.

SPEAKER_01 6:06

That's incredible. But you can't do that in Berlin. No, no, no. In fact, like my last trip there, uh, I went with my breast Centima, our friend Cameron, his sister Micah, like a whole group of us went to uh Karlsdorfsee, um, which is like the new Berlin is known as like the land of a thousand lakes, and uh so the gays always kind of like pick an area. So Karlsdorfsee is where it is now. And we took like a 20-minute train, you do your classic thing, you bring your bike on the let's just talk about that for a minute. Biking everywhere, I am a huge fan of. I love it, and Berlin is all about it. And like everyone's bike conscious. Like, I would love to bike more in New York City, but like the drivers aren't like we don't have a biking culture in Berlin. Like, you can just you could put your AirPods in, you don't have to listen to traffic or anything, and just so I bike a lot in New York.

SPEAKER_03 6:53

You might not know that because you're you're out here. But I've been bike, I've had a great bike, and I never get to use it because I'm always on fire end, but now I'm less and less on Fire Island. Yeah, I've been biking everywhere. I could zip down to the Apple store, and then I run across to the East Village and have lunch with my friends, and then and it just it's makes me really happy. Yeah, riding my bike makes me really happy. You know, and I've started going over to Stella's. I used to go to Stella's and get on the M42 bus, which is still a great bus drop shipper. Now, when I gotta drop off Tabasco because I'm leaving for a couple days, I just bike over and bike back. And the my bike is kooky. You've seen it? Uh blue and like red. That I've moved like six times from my bike. And everyone thinks I don't use it, but I do use it, but you guys don't notice because you're here. Yeah, this is true.

SPEAKER_01 7:33

Well, I just I I I didn't think you used it because it's in the same spot I put it in when you make me. No, no, I put it back. Oh, because that's how I roll.

SPEAKER_03 7:41

No, it's great, and I use my bike in subscribe. Actually, this gives me a lot.

SPEAKER_01 7:43

This is this is really good for my for my boyfriend. He asked me to um use this word on the show. Um, this one's for Alex. When I am on my bike in Berlin, I am a flanur. I love the word flanur. Isn't it great?

SPEAKER_03 7:57

Flanur, I love it.

SPEAKER_01 7:58

To aimlessly wander around an urban set.

SPEAKER_03 8:02

It's very French. It's a French word. But it's also the concept of French.

SPEAKER_01 8:06

It's also what I do when I have a goal and walk, walking, usually walking, but like you can also because there's nothing exciting to do in Paris, right? That isn't like touristy. Like, I don't want to go, I've seen Notre Dame, I've been to the top of the Eiffel Tower. Like, and when I find myself in Paris, whether it's a friend's birthday or I've got a gig or it's a layover, whatever it may be, you know, meeting Nikki Doll, you know, something like that. I love being a flanur. That's a good one. I love like walking out of the hotel at 10 o'clock in the morning and just do do do do. And that's what I do when I leave like Behrkhein. When I leave Berakine at like 9 a.m. and I'm on my bike, I may not be aimlessly wandering on foot, but I just take my bike and like I generally know my way back to my apartment, but I don't have like a route. I'm just like, because you know, you can do, you know, if you're not a complete idiot, you can do, you know, sunrise is in the east, that's in the west, this is north, and like bearkine south of my apartment. So I just and it's great. I put in like Edith Piaff, or I put in like Nina Simone, and I just like bike. And you know, when I'm when you're leaving the club on a Sunday or Monday morning at you know 8 a.m., there's no one. Right. It's like zombie apocalypse, which is my absolute favorite, especially if there's some petrichore. Petrichore? Oh, if there's fresh rain.

SPEAKER_03 9:19

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Which you don't get in Mexico, you get a lot in New York. Get a lot in New York. You get a lot of rain. Yeah, get a lot of rain.

SPEAKER_01 9:25

We've had so much rain, it's been, I kind of love it. I I have to go to the Apple store because my fucking computer, like on the walk from the pines to the grove, got waterlogged. Right as I was about to do the busted show. I opened my computer and I was like, okay, I'm gonna set up the show. I set it up, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, Alex, do you mind leveling the sound? I gotta get out of here. People are driving me crazy. I went to Sandcastle to have a drink. And I come back from Sandcastle. He goes, Yeah, bad news. What happened? Water got into it? Water got in, and the whole screen's just like it's like an old TV.

SPEAKER_03 9:55

Yeah, put it in a bag of it.

SPEAKER_01 9:57

I put it in 50 pounds of rice and we'll see what happens.

SPEAKER_03 9:59

Well, you know, do you have Apple Care?

SPEAKER_01 10:01

I do. Because I'm an adult and I have all that shit. Yeah, so I mean, I'm totally. Yeah, exactly. You have the watch is insured, the pods are insured, the phone's insured, apartment insurance. Go get apartment insurance. I use lemonade. If you want to sponsor us, I use lemonade.

SPEAKER_03 10:14

I swear to God, lemonade's lemonade's the best.

SPEAKER_01 10:16

I had a uh I think I paid $200 for the year and I have like a million dollars in coverage. Yeah, totally. My renter can put a hole in the wall, somebody can cut themselves on my bathroom sink. I know whatever, you know.

SPEAKER_03 10:28

Renter's insurance. I tell all my friends all the time, especially like Jeff Easton, a friend of ours, uh uh who's a photographer, and he's got all this equipment in his house. And I said, get renter's insurance, and I know he's not doing it. Yeah, someone's gonna break in eventually, or some the flood the thing's gonna flood, and then he's gonna be out of all that equipment. I have all my art now. I've appraised the not appraised it, but I basically sent them the receipt. That's what I bought it for. It's not like I have that kind of art where I need to praise. But I uh I believe in it because when I lived in Chelsea, the upstairs neighbors uh some that somehow their air conditioning leaked and came in and ruined my curtains. I had these like special curtains made up blinds, and they just sent me a check to cover it without even coming out and looking at it. I literally said $4,000. It paid for the insurance for four years.

SPEAKER_01 11:11

Do you remember when I had that insane X and he came on New Year's Eve? And you were like, Yeah, yeah. It's like, oh, I heard some crashing and banging in your apartment. So he had like pulled over the bar and like punched my TV and whatnot. Well, I had those really nice remember those gold glasses that I bought when we were visiting um uh Nick Markert in Lambertville and that cute little shop, whatever it was. So I had all my gold-dipped martini glasses and like my octagonal rocks glasses and whatnot, and my big ass fucking TV. I literally had the receipts, I sent it to them, I got a fucking check from Lemonade. No questions asked. I sent literally a picture of the busted glasses, a picture of the busted screen. I said, I I had an incident with a uh guest at my apartment.

SPEAKER_03 11:51

That bar that bar is sitting in the hallway, by the way. Just so you know, I think they're getting rid of it. You should talk to them. Oh, interesting. The bar is sitting in the hallway.

SPEAKER_01 11:58

I'm not really concerned as long as he pays his rent.

SPEAKER_03 12:00

I've got to say, we'll just ask him if he's getting rid of it because otherwise I would have. I I'm not gonna take it. I don't need anything like that.

SPEAKER_01 12:05

But I don't really want him making furniture changes in my opinion. Yeah, that's what you might want to ask. It's like a furnished apartment. Thanks for that, no.

SPEAKER_03 12:10

Yeah, sure. I saw it this today for the first time because I know the hall now hallway's now getting fuller and fuller because now there's like a guitar and there. There's a lot of shit in the hallway. Interesting. This is not making for interesting radio. Oh, you guys are. I want to ask, like, what are they talking about? I want to ask you a question. So yeah, uh, you know, Behrkhein is is arguably, not even arguably, is the most famous club in the world, right? Right now, yeah, I would think so. Right now, it's been for a decade, it's been the most famous club. Literally, there's like dance eteria, the mud club, studio 54, palladium, tunnel, yeah, all of those things. But but for the last decade, the most famous club in the world has been Bearkine.

SPEAKER_01 12:46

And I also think I I think that's true that it's the world's most famous club because I think it's known most around the world. I was actually shocked how many people um didn't know what Studio 54 was. Like it's a very American trope, Studio 54. Like if you if you speak to people in like Italy or France that are uh our age, let's say, uh anywhere between like 30 and 60, half may know it. Like, and they're really like clubby people. You know, you and I design and build nightclubs for a living, so of course it's kind of our job to know where we come from.

SPEAKER_03 13:17

Yeah, I think most people know bearkine. Yeah, I I I anyone who knows clubs knows bearkine. If you asked Stella, she wouldn't know bearkheim. Yeah, but I I would say, but most people who are like into clubs, I mean incredible. I loved it, I found it overwhelming. But you know, I just I get overwhelmed. And I think there's also I think there's also on something, and then you're like, this is magical, but then so magical. The problem with for me with Bergheim was, and I truly do agree it's the best club in the world, it's just I I I didn't know where to go, I didn't know what to do, it was just too much. It was like I just feel like I'm missing out if I'm in one part of the place, and then people are like, Did you see this? And then blah, blah, blah. And it's just like it's overwhelming to me. And I'm realizing as I get older that like I like smaller and smaller, like I like tight, like red eye is is is a is a good size, little space, like tight little spaces.

SPEAKER_01 14:07

Well, then you're talking about you know, our our club red eye, and if you include the cockpit, you're looking at like crammed in, like shoulder to shoulder, is 450, 500 people. Yeah. Bear kind at its full opening. If you're including Panorama, Zola, Laboratory, Hala, uh, the garden, and whatnot, she fits like 6,500 people. That's a lot of people. It's a lot of people.

SPEAKER_03 14:30

It's a lot of people. It's not as much as I would think because we got 1,500 people in here uh two weeks ago. It's four and a half times that amount. No, I know, but I when I went, but it was a power plant, so I just think of it as gigantic. You know what I mean? I wasn't. I thought you were gonna say like 20,000.

SPEAKER_01 14:46

I mean, honestly, they it's 6500. It's still big. 6,500 is the listed. It probably gets 10 in there. Because I I know when they do just their normal weekends, it's 3,000. But I and that's just Panama American. Totally.

SPEAKER_03 15:00

But I hate about it is, and I don't mean hate about it, like I I love. You also have to be in the house and techno. No, no, no. It's like what I'm saying is that what I really hate is how hard I have to promote and how little they have to promote. Like their Instagram is still literally just one picture that just says no pictures like allowed or something, then they've never posted anything. And it's that I've always wanted to be that cool that you didn't like the underwear party. I'd like to just be like, I'm you you don't talk about it, you don't know about it, and the underwear party is like thousands of people.

SPEAKER_01 15:28

You don't think you're there?

SPEAKER_03 15:30

I literally think I have to fucking I like flogging a dead horse to get the word out. Yeah, I mean although I gotta be honest, I don't have a social media anymore, and the underwear party is busier than ever. Than it's ever been. Yeah, I would say so. Yeah, yeah. I would too. Yeah, totally. Oh, wait a minute. Speaking of speaking of Stella, here she goes.

SPEAKER_01 15:49

Stella, do you want to be on the air?

SPEAKER_03 15:51

No, she doesn't want to be on the air.

SPEAKER_01 15:53

All right, well then get the hell out of the way.

SPEAKER_03 15:55

Um all right, listen, we're gonna be right back in just a minute. We'll be right back.

SPEAKER_01 15:59

We're gonna talk more about Bearkind. The dogs are on the table, Stella's here, there's bags rattling, Bo's lost his mind. We'll be right back on trigger warning.

SPEAKER_00 16:10

The cavalry has run.

SPEAKER_02 16:40

We are gonna be offering our trigger warning uh listeners and watchers a deal. We have uh we're building the seat just down here. You can own a pizza paradise. You can reach out to me at Daniel at LotasaOasis.com.

SPEAKER_00 16:53

And there's a link to it right here.

SPEAKER_02 16:55

And there's a link to it right here, and we'll give you a little special detail.

SPEAKER_03 17:09

Okay. All right, well, and we're back. So you're back to what okay, I didn't get to the question. Why Boris? Why here, why now?

SPEAKER_01 17:17

So, okay, so I I don't know how many people know the history. Uh Boris is playing tonight at the ice police. Let me give a quick let me give a quick random. Um Norbert and Mikhail started a party called Oskut, which means the good east, um, right as like tensions for the wall were coming, and like techno was kind of like techno was the uh the East German expression, like house music was in Detroit and Chicago for like queer people of color and whatnot. Techno was like gay music um i in Berlin and they were the anarchists and whatnot. And their party got so popular that they needed to move it from uh Reiblerstrasse, where it was Suicide Circus, or anybody who's ever been to Chantals, and so they struck a deal with a power company that was closing down a factory that supplied all of the power for Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain. So they took the Berg from Kreuzberg and the Hain from Friedrichshain and called it Berghain, uh, which also means Mount Grove. Right. It's kind of a beautiful name. Um, and it just became popular as hell. And um, so for my first time there, I realized kind of like what was different from everything in the gay culture I had already experienced. And it was like everything in New York and Cleveland and LA and all this stuff was always like binge drinking, cocaine, like just sloppiness, and like people were there to uh almost be therapeutic. Does that make sense? Like it was like dancing with a purpose, yeah, it was holistic. And there was this door policy that I thought was really intimidating, but once you got into it and understood it, it wasn't like you've got to be cool enough to get inside, it's that you've got to be gay enough. Like they were keeping these gigantic German Soviet straight men, like keeping the club safe for like I mean, notoriously they turned away Britney Spears and I think a few other cool people.

SPEAKER_03 19:15

Not cool people, but they not that Britney Spears is cool, but like Elon Musk got turned away. Um yeah, uh who else did they turn away? They I I forget Madonna, yeah, Madonna got turned away. Yeah, yeah, totally.

SPEAKER_01 19:26

And so I why Boris and why Misha is the idea is that they both uh I've become so close to them, and like Boris is the only person that has ever been called a resident of Bearkind. Like they don't have several resident DJs, it's him. Uh Misha's been doing the door. Bearkine is 21 and a half years old, Misha's been doing the door for 16 years, you know. And I've been fortunate enough to become really close with these people and like share really nice moments outside of the club and get their opinion of why they do what they do for the club and why like they're running the door and them being a DJ is actually like a cultural movement and protection, and they were well aware of the Ice Palace and that it's the world's oldest gay discotheque and oldest running discotheque. And like when Boris finished his set here uh I want to say it was two or three years ago, uh, he opened it and finished it with the exact same songs that he opened and finished his uh Bearkhein birthday set with. And I just he let we like locked eyes and he was just like, eh, you know this? Yeah, yeah. And it was just this beautiful tie-in. And I think my friend Misha, who is quite the flanur, um he just has such a wonderful vision of the world as like a a heterosexual man that just has he always says, uh, you'll hear in the interview, he says, like, if it was a choice, I would make it. You know, like he's like, the world's better because of gay. He really understands the science that like gay people are the healers and whatnot. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Totally.

SPEAKER_03 21:06

So I'm excited to hear this. I wasn't there for it, so I get to actually for once hear your interview technique. I know, it's like a it's my Sherry Vine interview. Oh, yeah, there you go. There you go. All right, guys. That was uh that was this week's uh uh uh edition of uh Trigger Warning. My name is Daniel Nardiccio. I'm Adam Clesh. Well, all we'll see y'all soon. Thanks, Patty.

SPEAKER_01 21:31

Trigger Warning, hosted by Dialyn Ardiccio and Adam Meathammer Clesh, is a Pride House media production and produced by Josh Rosensweig. Please note the views reflected in this podcast do not represent the views of Red Eye, the Ice Palace, or any of its subsidiaries. And any reference to scat, shrimping, upperducker, skank, smash trade, rump riding, wolf bagging, Cleveland steamers, jigglypuffing, rusty trombones, cosby sweaters, Mexican pancakes, and Alabama Hot Pockets are the views of Mr. Ardiccio, Mr. Clesh, and his listeners, not the establishment. If you are offended, please seek immediate psychiatric attention.

SPEAKER_03 22:00

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. And while you're there, leave us a rating and review it. It really helps others discover the show. And if you didn't enjoy this episode, don't tell anyone. Stay connected and join the conversation by following us on Trigger Warning Podcast. And you can send us your questions or hate mail to triggered at triggerwarning.com.