If there’s one thing New Yorkers love more than New York, it’s complaining about it. Those weary of the city’s gentrified sheen often fix their rose-colored glasses on the vibrant ‘80s—artists! music! cheap rent!—while forgetting the decades’s woes. Berlin recaptures the frenetic cultural vitality of 1980s New York better than any other city. Broke artists squat in abandoned buildings. Graffiti proliferates. Music wails. The city’s 24/7 club culture is a democracy uncompromised by bottle service. In Berlin, nightlife is a church. And techno is its choir.

There are signs that things are coming full circle. The following parties, clubs and promoters replicate Berlin’s underground, afterhours club culture in New York, all to a techno beat: More»