Paradiso

Paradiso has the kind of history most venues would happily invent. The building opened in 1880 for the Vrije Gemeente, a progressive religious movement that did not even like calling it a church. Above today’s stage, the old inscription Soli Deo Gloria still survives. Then came the squatters, the Provo era and, in 1968, the wonderfully named Cosmic Relaxation Centre Paradiso.

Nearly sixty years later, the Main Hall still has that odd magic of a room that feels both intimate and important. Tall windows, galleries and the former religious architecture give concerts a sense of occasion without turning the place into a museum. Pink Floyd played here in 1968, Nirvana in 1991, Amy Winehouse in 2007, and the list keeps going. Yet Paradiso’s real strength is that it refuses to live off its archive. New artists, club nights, comedy, spoken word and experimental performance still share the calendar.

That is the trick: history hangs in the room, but the room is still busy making more of it.