The Moon

Nightclub reviews — By admin on March 29, 2007 12:00 am

The Moon is somewhere between your average Madrid nightclub and an after-party. Though it doesn’t stay open until mid-afternoon, its closing time of 07:30 makes it very much a post-nightclub experience. Turn up before 03:30 and you’ll find it relatively empty.

As you walk up calle Aduana you might notice some atrociously designed day-glo-coloured pieces of cardboard at your feet. Armed with one of these you’ll be allowed in for free before 03:00 or pay a reduced entry price of 8 euros with a drink (full price: 10). Subsequent drinks are 7 euro, which seems fair for a Madrid club. Anyway, if you don’t see any of the abominable flyers on the ground, there’s usually a melancholy soul at the bottom of the street handing them out (in Madrid, these people are amusingly referred to as PR).

At first, you’ll find yourself in a corridor lit by lamps continuously changing colour; there’s a lounge bar here, and beyond is the dance floor. As is true of many Madrid nightclubs, this is where your lungs take a beating. The dance floor is equipped with all the trappings of a techno/dance nightclub: lasers, dry ice, go go dancers (sadly not the kind that take their clothes off) and what must be a football net hanging from the ceiling.

The people to be found here, as in any place open later than usual, are a real mix. The Moon has the reputation of a gay bar, though despite the odd transvestite or man wearing only his underwear, the reality is far more varied (though most of the people seem ridiculously horny. Come armed with a stick). Trying to engage in conversation with the punters is hit-and-miss due to the fact that at this time of the evening people are often on completely different planes of existence. If you don’t feel like dancing, there are always plenty of places to sit and chat.

A great place to go to if you enjoy emerging at closing time, bleary eyed, stumbling into the weak morning light, stinking of cigarette smoke.

The Moon

C/Aduana 21

915 223 561

Metro: Sol or Gran Via

Michael Beeson

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