Chrome Cologne at Bootshaus Club 2022 | Review
On 30.07.2022 a party called “Chrome Cologne” took place. The event was organized by the same person who is also responsible for the famous party series Unreal. Both are parties featuring a harder style of Techno. But unlike Unreal, Chrome is branded as a sex-positive, kinky party with a strict dress code, dark room, and no-photo policy.
Location:
The party took place at the Bootshaus club which is one of the largest clubs in all of Germany. It is also nominated by DJ Mag as the 5th best club in the world. What to think of such ratings is up to oneself. It just indicates that the setup should be of very high quality. Online it is stated that the club can host around 1800 people at full capacity (3 floors). During Chrome only the main floor was open and the event wasn’t sold out. I estimate that there were around 800 people.
The club is not located directly in the city center but on the right Rheine side. Overall the left side is considered the lively one. Still, the club is easy to reach. One station by train from the central station + 15 min by foot. Alternatively ~20min to some of the central bar areas in cologne (Ringe, Belgisches Viertel) by cab.
The building itself is uneventful and is in an otherwise pretty empty area. More or less across it, the most famous SPA in cologne is located: Claudius Therme. Definitely a nice possible destination after a long night of dancing. But most people prefer to After in the Rheinpark which is also located directly next to the club. It is a great spot in summer to chill, talk and smoke directly next to the water.
If you're more into After-Hour clubs those are located in Belgisches Viertel a bit further away (20 min by taxi ~ 25€).
Overall a solid 8/10.
Sound-system:
This should be the star of the show. The Sound-system built by Föhn was used heavily for marketing and you could feel during the party, that people have been truly excited to hear this monster system.
To be precise the system consisted of 6 Föön F3 Tops and 13 E460HL Subs firing towards the crowd (additionally 2 F3’s as monitors). You can check the website for detailed information on those but each of the Tops alone houses 2*15" Horns and each Bass a 1*18" driver capable of up to 140dB max. This is insane. And someone I talked to at the end of the night summarized it perfectly:
This is not a club system! This is a festival system!
As massive as it seemed, the dancefloor was only ~30m long. The big benefit of long-ranging horn systems wasn’t even required. But it sounded fine with an even distribution of sound, such that I couldn’t notice any dead spots while dancing (with this amount of speakers that would have also been a shame).
But what completely destroyed it for me was the volume at which this thing was driven. I always use ear protection when going out. And since I am lazy and always lose it, I just buy the cheap one that really absorbs the sound: Ohropax Color. Checking their product sheet depending on the frequency they absorb between 30–40 dB. That’s a lot!
Even with protection, especially when In Verruf started, I couldn’t take it and went outside. Multiple people followed holding their ears. It was just too loud! After being outside and taking out my Ohropax I could still slightly feel it ring in my ears. I never had that before. For people who didn’t use any protection this evening definitely resulted in permanent hearing damage. That's just irresponsible!
The last hour of the party I spend outside talking to some people and even being a good 40m away from the main floor with a wall in between, you needed to speak loud.
The intention might have been a good one. But the usual Bootshaus sound system is already top notch and during events like unreal already runs at very high volumes which is enough. This one was an overkill (not in a good way) at the cost of the health of the attendees: 4/10
Lights and atmosphere:
The light was very underwhelming. They mostly worked with LED Bars and Washes. There have been some Moving Heads but I have not noticed them being used a lot.
Overall the main focus was on the Soundsystem and the lights tried to accentuate that. I think that especially compared to events like Unreal Cologne (same club, same organizer) which has an incredible light show, Chrome was underwhelming. There was a no-photo policy so impossible to show some footage here.
The temperature was good, the AC seemed to work well, and since the doors to the outside area are situated near the main floor there is a good influx of fresh air. It helped that the show wasn’t sold out and in my opinion, there has been exactly the right of people in the club resulting in it not being overcrowded.
Overall a 4/10 — below average and especially what would’ve been possible, but not terrible.
Organization:
I experienced the security as friendly. The line at the entrance moved quickly and I didn’t hear bad rumors of people not getting in or being denied (which for Chrome branded as a kinky party with a dress code actually is not a good thing). I once lost my wallet and the security guys helped me as much as they could. Only at the end of the night they get quite persuasive that people leave quickly which comes off as quite harsh. Some clubs are better and easier going on that.
I heard a lot of people complain that there are too few toilets for such a big club. As a guy, it is always a bit easier, but I understand the struggle girls have. This is a general problem in Bootshaus. If a bigger event is happening where all 3 floors are open it is even worse and then even as a guy it gets frustrating.
For the type of event they branded themselves — kinky, fetish, sex-positive — there was definitely missing staff in form of an awareness team. This is non-acceptable and made the whole concept nearly useless. Things only got worse, because one or two days before the event took place the dress code got changed. The event on RA states:
The dresscode for the night is: preferably colorful rave- or tech-wear, fetish, naked, extravagant, kinky, all black — no streetwear.
Which later got added: “PS: all black like cargo, technical wear is accepted.” Basically allowing everything end making it useless. If you’re a fan of a dress code or not… I personally am not but I understand why it is done … changing it drastically only a bit in advance is not a good thing. And you could feel that with the people. More on that later.
Additionally, the Darkroom wasn’t well designed or welcoming (comfortable). This is mostly the opinion of some people I met who criticized it. I myself am not the biggest fan of darkrooms so I won’t comment further on it.
Bootshaus is open till 8 o’clock. For this party, I felt like a good time to end it. Generally, there are events where Bootshaus is packed till the end and they still stop at 8, which I find to be a bummer, especially considering the price. But this time a lot of people have just been sitting around (kind of demotivated) the vibe was down and it was a good time to stop.
Especially the change in dress code and the badly embraced concept of a kinky rave leads me to a final rating of 3/10
Music:
Since only one floor was open the line-up isn’t very long. We have a newcomer Jiji who opened the club and 3 famous headliners. At least it seems that way. Lorenzo Raganzini is currently extremely respected as the founder of HEX Techno, a movement originally from Barcelona but now hosting events all over Europe. It was very noticeable, that Lorenzo drew most people and everyone was excited to see him and his mix of Rock and Techno. In Verruf was highly anticipated as well due to being part of the R Label, one of the first ones that made Hardtechno big in Germany, and some very trending tracks he produced.
But what about Lee Ann Roberts? Looking at her Instagram she has over 215k followers. Surprisingly no one I talked to really knew or has heard of her, including myself. Very weird considering usually DJs with such a following are a household name. Just for comparison. Dixon has approximately the same amount of followers. When I looked at her Resident Advisor Followers I laughed:
After doing some research on other famous DJs most of them have around 5% of their Instagram following on Resident advisor, the more famous the higher the percentage (Dixon ~34k).
Looking at her booking history till lately there is nothing that is really notable and she just recently started to perform on (surprisingly) big and famous events (e.g. Synoid and DGTL). This person is definitely an Insider and pushed to become famous. Her Instagram following is either bought or unrelated to her music. Just that you are aware — not everything is like it seems, and a high entrance fee isn’t always justified by a big Social Media following!
Back from this small digression and looking onto the event. We arrived a bit late so I can’t comment on Jiji. When stepping on the dancefloor Lee Ann Roberts was playing. I wasn’t bad perse, but for me, it was like brutally trying to create energy via BPM. At around ~2:30 she was playing insanely fast Techno. In my opinion, energy shouldn’t be only created via BPM and even slow tracks can create an insane vibe. A lot was very monotonic and (for me) just didn’t hit the spot.
I was very sorry for Lorenzo when he came on because his style is a good 20 BPM slower. So after talking to some people, they had the impression that he was too slow, but that wasn’t the case. He just had no way to become quicker except for going away from his style into Hard Techno even Trance music, just because Lee Ann set the tempo so high, to begin with.
In Verruf was good overall. He had a good tempo and was playing a lot of energizing classic, well-known tracks. I just had issues with his approach to volume which I described in the Soundsystem section.
It was a good booking and people seemed generally excited about it. Especially about Lorenzo. A few even painted their face in his typical way which was cool to see. It was very much what is currently trending and fair with the entrance fee. The time slots have not been assigned in an optimal manner so 7/10 even though this is very subjective.
Pricing:
The early bird pre-sale was 15€. In my opinion a good price and the reason why I even went to the event, as I managed to secure one of those affordable tickets. The second release on the other hand (and also the price at the door) was 25€ which is already a steep step up.
But checking other parties in cologne e.g. at Artheater (a well-known club) the prices are similar, especially for bigger artists.
I didn’t drink much during that night and I totally forgot to snap a picture of the menu and the drink prices. But if I recall correctly water was 3€, soft drinks 4€ and Red-Bull 5€ with Longdrinks ~10€. By all means not cheap but unfortunately not completely out of the ordinary anymore.
What in my opinion is much more annoying is, that beer and soft drinks are not served in bottles. You get plastic cups (minus points for sustainability) that get filled from big 1-liter bottles. Those hold 0,4 liters but usually, a lot of ice gets added. Beer is served straight from the tap. Basically, you are more or less forced to drink quickly, as you can't really dance with cups. Additionally, due to recent developments, I need to mention that it is probably much easier to spike a drink in such a cup (big opening) compared to a (resealable) bottle.
Bootshaus already has an amazing sound system. As stated above in my opinion the Föön was totally overkill and unnecessary. It also probably wasn’t cheap. Transportation and setup costs alone are probably already very significant. I would have much more preferred the entrance to be 5€ cheaper and the usual very good Bootshaus Soundsystem.
I need to be fair. After Covid, the prices for clubbing exploded everywhere and Chrome was only a bit above average: 6\10
Conclusion:
If you would add up all the scores mentioned above the rating would be different but for me, the party was a 5/10. I asked around 10 people during and after the party and most of them agreed and gave a score in a similar range. Overall it was not a bad party but not one I would recommend. Specifically, due to some reasons, I will list in the next paragraph. But those are subjective and when giving my score I try to be as objective as possible. The venue, the DJs … There is much more potential (which can be seen during other parties at Bootshaus). But the concept of the party was selected in the wrong way, executed poorly, and the Soundsystem being on the verge of dangerous just topped it off.
My state of mind:
I was very clear-minded during the event and only had a few drinks beforehand. Unfortunately, I am still limited by a student budget so I didn't really continue drinking alcohol during the event. I even recorded a short podcast with a friend during the party on the topic of cash-hungry organizers and the “Techno Dresscode”. A new article on that topic including the podcast will soon be published so subscribe to stay tuned!
The crowd was really diverse, but not necessarily in a good way. There has been a clear difference between open-minded, LGBTQ+, kink/fetish people, and bro-type bystanders, voyeurs (also girls) who have a completely different mindset. There have been a few people who had a negative experience of being overly sexualized or feeling uncomfortable. A girl I talked to told me a story of 2 guys talking she overheard who said (translated): “My goal today is only to fuck a techno hoe in the darkroom”.
It felt like some had this kind of free-use attitude which is really terrible. I also noticed at some point, that the male-female quote was really bad. I am not sure if a lot of girls left because they didn’t feel comfortable or it wasn’t good, to begin with. But especially people from the fetish community told me that they are very disappointed with how some things got handled (also the darkroom set-up).
You can brand it all you want and everyone can throw on a harness to become “kinky”, but if the mindset is wrong this won’t help.
