{"id":7984,"date":"2022-12-08T21:40:48","date_gmt":"2022-12-08T19:40:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/?p=7984"},"modified":"2023-03-11T10:15:54","modified_gmt":"2023-03-11T08:15:54","slug":"badger-club-kaliningrad-a-bohemian-night-on-the-tiles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/badger-club-kaliningrad-a-bohemian-night-on-the-tiles\/","title":{"rendered":"Badger Club Kaliningrad a Bohemian Night on the Tiles"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

I wasn’t Badgered into going enough!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Published: 8 December 2022 ~ Badger Club Kaliningrad a Bohemian Night on the Tiles<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My wife, Olga, went to a concert recently (see the photos below). I know exactly how my eloquent and highbrow musician friend in the UK will respond when he attempts to equate \u2018concert\u2019 with the images from that evening: \u201cWTF?! Let’s go there!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now I am not the world\u2019s most mainstream guy, but I have to admit when I saw the photos and heard an account of the evening, which did not happen until the following day because my wife rolled back at some ungodly hour in the morning, they made me feel positively ~ as the American author Henry James might say ~ \u2018Ground into the mill of the conventional\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is not clear from the photographs whether the establishment is cavernous, but it certainly looks covenous ~ all that dim lighting, candles, hanging masks, dolls, natural-wood sculptures, enchanting (and possibly enchanted, Gothicised cabinets), and, moreover, wild and whacky costumery! Right up my surrealist street!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The top hat and tailed gentleman, the owner of the club, Aleksandr Smirnov, is obviously a \u2018quick-change\u2019 expert ~ one minute impresario, the next an updated rock-star figure from the minds of the Brothers Grimm. He, I am told, is a chimney sweep, only he isn\u2019t, he is an accomplished and original artist who produces highly detailed bronzed relief plaques (apologies if I am slightly less than accurate, but I am having to base my opinion on mobile phone snaps) and, as you will see from the photographs, is also a bit of a wizard in the costume creation department. That\u2019s him in the photo with his chopper in his hand. I\u2019ve never seen one as big as that before; and me having been active in the antiques and militaria trade! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Choppers aside, this particular evening was dedicated to accomplished musicians and good music: There was a soulful and original indie art-folk band, Sfeno<\/a>, first-rate singer guitarist and a young lady violinist, a virtuoso of her craft, who was on the fiddle a lot that evening. Vodka was not rationed, people got up and jived and my wife, much to her great surprise, if not unalloyed delight, was both chatted up and propositioned, which is always good for the ego (I\u2019ve lost count of the number of times that the same has happened to me (you wish!)). The location, in fact the whole evening, was so spellbinding that it reduced Harry Potter to as much comparative magic as a meeting of the Women\u2019s Institute at the local village-hall on a wet afternoon in the 1930s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

***Indie Art-Folk Band, Sfeno, on YouTube<\/a>***<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Never one to moralise, even when occasion justifies, whilst all this frivolity was going on in Kaliningrad\u2019s answer to Alice\u2019s Wonderland, I was at home with the cat, genning up on K\u00f6nigsberg and the history of East Prussia by reading (both the cat and I) that excellent publication Legends of the Amber Land, <\/em>by Andrey Kropotkin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although I must say, with my wife rolling in at some unseemly hour of the morning ~ we won\u2019t say when! ~  I would have been quite within my conjugal rights had I demanded of her, \u201cAnd what time do you call this then!?\u201d or have cast myself in the role of the heavy-handed Victorian husband, with \u201cWhy, you dirty stop-out.\u201d But I contented myself with the elevating thought that if I have learnt one thing and one thing only in my brief visit to this muddled world, it is reflected in my born-again status as a stay-at-home Captain Sensible. Stout fellow that I assuredly am: resisting the lure of the bright lights nightlife in order to set the perfect example of how people of a certain age are expected to, and should, behave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, by the time my wife had sneaked in from her evening of ‘reasonable refreshments’ ~ making it difficult to imagine that she had been brought up in the social climate of anti-decadent Soviet-Russia!  ~ I had read my book, patted the cat, drunk my cup of cocoa and with teddy tucked snugly under my arm had taken myself to bed: zzzzzzzzz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have you ever had the feeling that you are missing out on something?\ud83e\udd14<\/p>\n\n\n\n

**Made in Kaliningrad: Exclusive Badger Underpants<\/mark><\/a><\/strong>**<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Badger
Aleksandr Smirnov introduces singer guitarist Andrey Berenev<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Olga
Olga Hart with<\/strong> Aleksandr Smirnov<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Olga
Olga Hart in the Badger club<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Band
Band Sfeno performing<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Andrey
Andrey Berenev<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Olga
Olga Hart surrounded by the esoteric<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Olga
Olga Hart with vintage oil lamp and fantasy fairy tale furniture made by ‘Chimney Sweep’ Aleksandr Smirnov<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Inara
Inara looking horny<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Man
Confronted with a large chopper<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Additional Information<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Badger<\/strong> ( Barsuchek) \u0411\u0430\u0440\u0441\u0443\u0447\u0451\u043a club
Sverdlova, 33, Kaliningrad, Kaliningrad Oblast, 236006
Tel: +7 909 777\u201197-75<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aleksandr Smirnov<\/strong>
By all accounts*, Aleksandr (Chimney Sweep) Smirnov is an artist, costume designer and consummate wizard at conjuring up interior design of a distinctly unusual and exotic nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Able to work with all kinds of material, including wood and metal, much of what you see in the photographs in terms of fixtures and fittings are said to have been made by his hand, the same hand that has orchestrated the natural, historical and decorative elements that set apart the club’s interior from any other you may have encountered. The syncopated fairy tale feel that you get from all of this is no coincidence. A little fairy tells me that he writes fairy tales as well.
*\u0414\u043e\u043c \u0442\u0440\u0443\u0431\u043e\u0447\u0438\u0441\u0442\u0430 \u0438\u043b\u0438 \u0432\u044b\u0445\u043e\u0434\u043d\u044b\u0435 \u0432 \u0441\u043a\u0430\u0437\u043a\u0435 (turbopages.org)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Badger club, Kaliningrad<\/strong>
The Badger club has a dedicated clientele who value not only the d\u00e9cor and entertainment but speak with great warmth and affection about the club\u2019s welcoming ethos and its friendly, inviting atmosphere. Why not go and see for yourself? You may just become a regular in the process?!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Links to bars, restaurants to visit in Kaliningrad<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Upper Pond, Kaliningrad,Garden Caf\u00e9s<\/a> (Soul Garden)
Caf\u00e9 Seagull by the Lake, Kaliningrad<\/a>
London Pub (Pub London), Kaliningrad<\/a>
Bar Drednout [Dreadnought], Kaliningrad<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Copyright \u00a9 2018-2022 Mick Hart. All rights reserved.<\/strong>
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I wasn’t Badgered into going enough! Published: 8 December 2022 ~ Badger Club Kaliningrad a Bohemian Night on the Tiles My wife, Olga, went to a concert recently (see the photos below). I know exactly how my eloquent and highbrow musician friend in the UK will respond when he attempts to equate \u2018concert\u2019 with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8018,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[116,40],"tags":[2047,2044,2046,2045,2043,2048,435,523,55,623],"class_list":["post-7984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kaliningrad-bars-restaurants-cafes","category-visitors-guide-to-kaliningrad","tag-aleksandr-chimney-sweep-kaliningrad","tag-aleksandr-smirnov","tag-aleksandr-smirnow-badger-club-kaliningrad","tag-andrey-berenev-singer-guitarist","tag-badger-club-kaliningrad","tag-badger-club-kaliningrad-live-music","tag-englishman-in-kaliningrad-russia","tag-expatkaliningrad","tag-mick-hart-in-kaliningrad","tag-olga-hart-in-kaliningrad"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/The-impressario-Feature.jpg?fit=675%2C900&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9476,"url":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/kaliningrad-gothic\/","url_meta":{"origin":7984,"position":0},"title":"Kaliningrad Gothic in the Chimney Sweep’s House","author":"Captain Codpiece","date":"1 \u043d\u043e\u044f\u0431\u0440\u044f, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"It's Gothic! But what kind? 1 November 2023 ~ Kaliningrad Gothic in the Chimney Sweep's House There\u2019s no spires, towers or turrets silhouetted against a full-moon sky above an impossibly craggy, precipitous cliff top, no sinister Baron Frankenstein or bat-metamorphosising sharp-toothed count, no film-set outsized lightning rod rising from the\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0412 "DAILY LIFE in KALININGRAD"","block_context":{"text":"DAILY LIFE in KALININGRAD","link":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/category\/daily-life-in-kaliningrad\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Aleksandr Smirnov's Gothic art, Kaliningrad","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/DSCN1377-min.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/DSCN1377-min.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/DSCN1377-min.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/DSCN1377-min.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/DSCN1377-min.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9448,"url":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/true-bar-kaliningrad-the-citys-latest-music-venue\/","url_meta":{"origin":7984,"position":1},"title":"True Bar Kaliningrad the City’s Latest Music Venue","author":"Captain Codpiece","date":"16 \u043e\u043a\u0442\u044f\u0431\u0440\u044f, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"True Bar makes its debut on the Kaliningrad music scene 16 October 2023 ~ True Bar Kaliningrad the City's Latest Music Venue Invited to the opening of a new music venue by singer-songwriter Andrey Berenev, the 14th of October 2023 saw us, my wife and I, rendezvousing with our friend\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0412 "Kaliningrad bars, restaurants, cafes"","block_context":{"text":"Kaliningrad bars, restaurants, cafes","link":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/category\/visitors-guide-to-kaliningrad\/kaliningrad-bars-restaurants-cafes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Mick Hart and Inara Eagle outside True Club, Kaliningrad","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Inara-and-Mick-Hart-outisde-True-Club-Kaliningrad-min.jpg?fit=496%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8553,"url":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/made-in-kaliningrad-exclusive-badger-underpants\/","url_meta":{"origin":7984,"position":2},"title":"Made in Kaliningrad Exclusive Badger Underpants","author":"Captain Codpiece","date":"24 \u0444\u0435\u0432\u0440\u0430\u043b\u044f, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019m badgered if I know! 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