Hardcore Will Never Die: Scooter Just Played Sisyphos' Techno Hall

The legendary German electronic supergroup surprised crowds at the Berlin underground institution on Monday morning.

Imagine the scene: It’s Monday morning, and you’ve been dancing to hard, banging techno for at least the past seven hours on the Hammerhalle floor at Sisyphos, one of Berlin’s most popular clubs next to Berghain. Now imagine that those banging techno beats are suddenly replaced by face-melting trance stabs and a weird bleached-blonde German guy screaming, “How much is the fish?”

As much as this might sound like a drug-induced fantasy, it actually happened on Monday when Scooter made a surprise appearance at Sisyphos’ cavernous Hammerhalle techno floor. The German electronic group achieved superstar status in the ’90s and early ’00s with its poppy take on hardcore, trance and techno via hits like “Move Your Ass!”,”How Much Is The Fish?” and “Hyper Hyper”. The set, which blazed along at an extreme tempo, seems to be yet another sign that harder and faster styles than techno may be coming back into vogue.

Electronic Beats has done a lot with Scooter and its frontman H.P. Baxxter over the years. A former editor wrote a book about the group called Scooter: Always Hardcore. H.P. Baxxter was also featured on the cover of our magazine when we were still in print, and he’s been featured in a variety of conversations (this one with Modeselektor is a favorite). He has also weighed in on his personal style icon in the form of an article about The KLF.

For a taste of what the night must have been like, watch some clips from Sisyphos below. Update: The videos have since been removed from instagram. Scroll on to watch Scooter perform live on EB.tv.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BvGL6Ms5FA

Read more: Still hungry for more hyper? Here’s our review of a Scooter show in 2013