San Francisco Bay Guardian

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Live Shots: Decentralized Dance Party

01.30.12 - 11:41 am | Ariel Soto-Suver |

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Decentralized Dance Party, 01/27/2012. Photo by Bowerbird Photography

All photos by Bowerbird Photography

When Sam Love and I finally arrived at Union Square on Fri/27 night, we were surprised by the mass of boomboxes perched on peoples' shoulders, like a thousand John Cusacks in Say Anything, heading down Powell Street. Somehow, we found our friends (Ickles and Eckles) when the party descended at the Powell Street BART station. The music blared and tourists careened their heads over the banisters of the station to see what the heck was going on. It was a Decentralized Dance Party (DDP), where strangers get dressed up, gather with their old boomboxes, and wait for the organizers to hijack a radio frequency, where they send out the jams on long antennas, for some major noise and wild Friday night dancing.

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Live Shots: Fitz and the Tantrums

01.27.12 - 1:44 pm | Ryan Prendiville |

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Fitz and the Tantrums at the Regency. Photo by Ryan Prendiville.

A steady backbeat. The swirling organ. Lots of saxophone. Two singers who double as dancers. One skunk striped haircut. Without a doubt, Fitz and the Tantrums have their act together, and worked it Thursday, the first of two nights at the Regency Ballroom. Read more »

“So this will really be a doggie disco.”

01.26.12 - 5:03 pm | Emily Savage |

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Let’s just get this out of the way immediately: there’s going to be a doggie dance this Sunday at the Stud. I could say no more about it and there would still be a segment of people, myself very much included, that would need to go, no questions asked. I mean, it’s a dance for dogs. Read more »

Party Radar: Cheap, GO BANG!, DDP, Mosca, Stacey Pullen, more

01.26.12 - 1:11 pm | Marke B. |

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In this week's Super Ego column I bitched that club cover charges were getting too high -- and pumped some affordable, worthwhile upcoming parties. Here are even more for this weekend, including one called, yes, Cheap. You know it!

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Localized Appreesh: Magic Touch

01.24.12 - 2:19 pm | Emily Savage |

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Localized Appreesh is our weekly thank-you column to the musicians that make the Bay. To be considered, contact emilysavage@sfbg.com.

Magic Touch just sounds naughty, doesn't it? It's actually the danceable solo project of lauded local drummer Damon Palermo, also of Mi Ami and Jonas Reinhardt. As Magic Touch, Palermo further explores his love of beats, using a variety of drums machines and synths – for the full list of these toys, see his answers below. Read more »

Ben Gibbard pops up at Cobb's, plays the theme from "Mannequin"

01.24.12 - 10:58 am | Emily Savage |

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It was well past midnight when a surprise musical guest was announced Saturday night at Cobb's. “Jon,” the host of the Delocated Witness Protection Program Variety Show, which swung through SF Sketchfest last weekend (and airs on Adult Swim as simply Delocated), came back out to the stage after the last of a thrilling round of comedians – Eugene Mirman, David Cross, Paul Rudd. Approaching the modified mic in a ski mask, baby pink 49ers jersey, and gold lamé bootie shorts, “Jon” introduced (and I'm totally paraphrasing here, because I can't recall his exact joke) “Sven Jibberd of Meth Cat for Tootie.” Read more »

Local musicians reinterpret Nick Drake’s "Pink Moon" at the Rickshaw Stop

01.23.12 - 2:40 pm | James H. Miller |

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“Undercover Presents: Nick Drake’s Pink Moon” at the Rickshaw Stop. Photo by Jessica Trimmer.

Had you been skeptical about the “UnderCover Presents: Nick Drake’s Pink Moon” event Sunday night at the Rickshaw Stop you wouldn't have been alone. It had the potential to be disastrous. Coordinating the sound alone must have posed a considerable challenge. How do you get 11 eclectic local bands — 50 performers each with specific sound needs — to play one song from one album without frazzling intervals between each performance and each set up? And then of course there's the album to consider, Nick Drake’s Pink Moon. How can the bands perform the covers without butchering the album? Read more »

Nite Trax: Lady Blacktronika comes for Honey

01.20.12 - 10:41 am | Marke B. |

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Watch your snowballs: the First Lady of Beatdown, Lady Blacktronika, is hopping on her magic sleigh and coming down the mountain for Honey Soundsystem on Sun/22. She'll be giving SF some much-needed transwoman power on the decks, and it will be the tea.

That mountain would be Mt. Shasta, where the prolific, San Jose-born producer and DJ has been headquartered lately, releasing track after track of absorbing, soul-seizing grooves on her Sound Black Recordings label. Her aesthetic takes the expansive and unrushed Detroit beatdown blues-house sound (with which she's had some personal experience) and the mesmerizing moodiness of artists like Theo Parrish and Alton Miller in unexpectedly deep directions -- using her notable experience as a singer and some lovely dubby effects shared with her former production partner Mattski to give the malleable beatdown sound some intriguing new shapes.

In anticipation of her first DJ gig in San Francisco after spinning around the world, I chatted with her over email about her gospel music-loving roots, the challenges of being a transgender woman in the electronic music industry, and some of the women on the scene that she admires.

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Party Radar: Ritual, 222 news, Screature, Icey, Bus Station John turns 21 (30 times), Hard French Winter Ball, more

01.19.12 - 1:39 pm | Marke B. |

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I managed to fit a helluvalotuv parties in this week's Super Ego column -- but since nightlife is proving to be completely recession-proof, of course there are many more I must list here. And they are good ones! Plus some news about old favorites: check out the scoop.

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Nite Trax: Edwardian Baller Justin Katz tells of Gorey origins, steampunk youth, more

01.18.12 - 12:39 pm | Marke B. |

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In this week's Super Ego nightlife column in the paper, I write about this coming weekend's giant Edwardian Ball at the Regency Ballroom, which spans five events and welcomes thousands into its playful goth-steampunk-burlesque embrace. Named for Edward Gorey but encompassing more than a few winks at the Edwardian Era of the last turn of the century, the all-ages ball has come to act as a summit for a certain essential, instantly recognizable San Francisco nightlife subculture.

The ball was launched in 2000 by Justin Katz of "premiere pagan lounge ensemble" Rosin Coven and Mike Gaines of the neo-cirque Vau de Vire Society, and has grown enormously in the 12 years since -- including branching out to Los Angeles. I interviewed the genial Katz over email about the ball's Gorey origins, the challenges of expansion, combatting the dreaded FOMO, and welcoming a new generation of Friends of Ed.

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