"We arrived at midnight and left at dawn. Joy Division, Bauhaus, The Cure -- all night. We didn't know it was a time that wouldn't come back."
In the 1980s, while London had the Batcave and Berlin had its own dark electronic underground, Tel Aviv built a parallel world. Israeli kids who didn't fit anywhere else found a home on these dance floors -- dancing to imported 12-inch singles, local bands like Minimal Compact, and DJs who treated a set like a manifesto.
Most of these venues are gone. The scene, somehow, is not. Here are the rooms that built it.
Shiroko
Where it all began, in the south of the city. Resident DJ Eitan Tabor and a crowd that belonged nowhere else. Later reborn as Colosseum -- same underground DNA, same restless floor. Read more →
The Penguin
The temple. The beating heart of the alternative scene and, by reputation, the Batcave of Israel -- the room where Tel Aviv found itself. Read more →
Dan Cinema Club
Bauhaus, Siouxsie and Nina Hagen on the turntables and the stage. One third of the holy trinity, alongside The Penguin and Liquid. Read more →
Liquid
Tel Aviv's electronic underground. It changed addresses more than once but never lost its head -- the home of the harder, faster, machine-driven sound. Read more →
Real Time
The room that carried the torch through to the end of the scene's golden age in the city. Read more →
The Cinerama
The domed hall. 3,000 people, international acts from Gloria Gaynor to Boy George. Demolished in 2016 -- alive forever in the memory of the scene. Read more →
Roxanne
Another of the city's legendary alternative rooms. Read more →
Beyond Tel Aviv: The Second City & City Hall
The scene also went north. The Second City was Haifa's mythological 1980s-90s club; City Hall in Hadar carried it on for 15 years, hosting Nick Cave, Rami Fortis and Berry Sakharof. Read more →
Were you there?
Visiting Tel Aviv? Experience this legendary underground sound live. We have run the city's biggest 80s and 90s nights for 15 years -- it is the closest thing to time travel you will find in Israel.