April 28th, 2006. Just when I was beginning to think Bishkek was devoid of any worthwhile culture, like a good rock venue, I discovered Promzona. Tonight Tuya and I joined a few of her colleagues from the UN and made the drive out to the old industrial zone, or promzona, east of the city center. Somewhere amidst the skeletal remains and rubble of abandoned Soviet-era factories and blackened, lifeless smokestacks lies a gleaming new conference center and underground rock club called, "Promzona." Stepping across the into the club you immediately forget you're in post-Soviet Central Asia. The staff walks around in shiny new construction uniforms covered with yellow reflective patches while sporting red hardhats, also with reflective tape. All around amidst the euro neo-industrial brushed metal decor sit flat-screen plasma panels showing concert footage of Linkin Park. A smoke machine envelopes the noise-makers on stage, further mystified by a modern concert lighting rig. Grinding death metal chords induce the writhing mass of mostly young ethnic russians in front of the stage to flail and mosh into one another. Where the hell am I? Berlin? London? New York City? And the music? Spot-on renditions of the German industrial metal heros, Rammstein, all the way down to the hair-cuts, the make-up, the uniforms, the sprockets-esque mechanical antics of the musicians, even pre-recorded crowd noise from a prior Rammstein concert. Soon enough I found myself on the edge of the mosh pit bopping my head furiously and realizing that culture, at least absurdist industrial euro-thrash rock, was alive and well in this bizarre eurasian backwater. "Du hasst! Du hasst mich! Du hast mich gefragt!!!"
More Promzona pics here
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