Essen Steele
Hardcore, Hip Hop, Sprayer
Essen-Steele is the unofficial punk and subculture centre in the city. Only a small number of tourists make the trip to the deep south-east of Essen. Visitors looking for the unusual will find the GREND culture centre here, which hosts a large number of interesting concerts as well as theatre productions. Then there’s the excellent Rockstore record shop. Also the HüWeg youth centre. Andi Weizel, from the successful band Frida Gold, remembers the HüWeg from days gone by: “I come from Essen-Steele. There, we had the HüWeg, one of these old-style youth centres where people from all levels of society came, where there was culture, and everything collided with everything else: hardcore, hip hop, the sprayers. For me, the concerts there and in the GREND nearby, where the underground punk elite passed through, were the reason why I started making music. This coming together of people who are so different and who gave their all one evening after the next, whether they were on stage or in the mosh pit or spraying.” A real insider tip is the Rock'n'Roll Bar Freak Show, which is also directly on the Grendplatz square. If you dare to descend the cellar stairs (which pass through an oversized monster’s mouth), you reach a perfect bar for rock fans. Friendly people, drinks with nasty-sounding names, and loud guitar music are on offer here. Even the toilets are a showpiece in themselves (although only over-18s are advised to use them).
Further information
GREND: Westfalenstraße 311, 45276 Essen
www.grend.de
Rockstore: Grendpl. 7, 45276 Essen
www.rockstore-essen.de
KJZ HüWeg: Hünninghausenweg 84, 45276 Essen
www.jh-essen.de
Freak Show: Grendpl. 2A, 45276 Essen
www.freakshow-bar.de