SUPER EGO Nightlife can be anything, that’s the genius. It can be an early all-ages punk show at legendary co-op 924 Gilman Street (whose recent rent increase has put it in danger of closing — www.924gilman.org). It can be a rousing night of video games, fresh smoothies, and jocular camaraderie at sober safe-space Castro Country Club (also in danger of closing due to real estate shenanigans — www.castrocountryclub.org). It can be a Thursday evening spent with a 40 and some piping Chile Lindo empanadas at 16th Street and Mission, listening to the Corner Poets (www.16thmission.com) rap about contemporary life, sometimes in homemade unicorn costumes.
Heavens, it can be daylife, even. Two of my absolute favorite Sunday afternoon parties: Lindy in the Park near the Music Concourse in Golden Gate Park (www.lindyinthepark.com), where you can take in flying fedoras and gorgeous gams swingin’ to 1940s hits (and jive a little shag yourself) — and, a mere few yards away, the California Outdoor Rollersports Association’s old-school roller disco party (www.cora.org). I go from one to the other with tears.
Of course, it’s street fair season as well, that span of outdoor DJ time from last weekend’s How Weird Street Faire to Oct. 2’s Lovevolution bananas extravaganza (www.sflovevolution.org), when over-enthusiastic hoofing happily leads to asphalt-induced shin splints, and no matter how bonkers the music gets, the golden Bay sunlight blankets the late afternoon with its strange sense of peace. Also there are things on boats, which are beautiful. And can anything beat a single strobe light, in a fog-shrouded forest clearing, at dawn?
But hey, you don’t need an official event to get down. One of the wonders of our entertaining moment is that nightlife style and music have bled so much into real life that all you have to do is walk down the streets to feel like — snap! Snap! — you’ve crossed over into party time. People worked hard for that to happen, so don’t forget to bring your own creativity to the concrete dance floor. It takes a fierce village, star child.
DOOM
Doom, I say! DOOOOOOM. Well, OK, just a little happy doom for your eardrums when amazing local dread bass thunderer Kush Arora joins forces with techno-lightning J. Rogers of Blipswitch and break beat crazies J Kazen and F. Live blasts from new tech act Smash & Grab polish it all off.
Fri/14, 9 p.m.–late, free before 11, $5 after. Project One, 251 Rhode Island, SF. www.p1sf.com
JOEY BELTRAM
Classic and refreshingly hard (but well-modulated) techno from one of the original masters, the guy behind “Energy Flash” and so much more. There should be a big-room boom to this, leavened with some thoughtful Berlintronics. Kyle Geiger and my dream DJ Nikola Baytala open up.
Fri/14, 10 p.m.–4 a.m., $20. 103 Harriet, SF. www.1015.com
STATESIDE DUBSTEP SESSIONS
Gotta give it up for a heavy-heavy dubstep extravaganza that includes so much high-power female talent on the wheels. Vaccine, Ultraviolet, Panda’ia, Roommate, and more shake the basement, while upstairs electro-bangers and bit-glitch rule with Richie Panic, UFO!, and (my new favorite DJ handle) 8-bit-ch. Yes, there will be lasers.
Fri/14, 9 p.m., $12. Six, 66 Sixth St., SF. www.clubsix1.com
FUNCHEAPSF FREE CONCERT
Our dapper amigo — and freeloader extraordinaire — Johnny Funcheap of FuncheapSF is getting hitched. And, as is his way, he’s throwing a party for everyone to celebrate. Live performances by the Bye Bye Blackbirds, Hundred Days, and Music for Animals will indie rock the socks. It’s free before 10 p.m. with Facebook RSVP (more details at www.funcheapsf.com) and just $10 after for a big who’s who.
Sat/15, 9 p.m., free/$10. Café Du Nord, 2170 Market, SF. www.cafedunord.com
XENO AND OAKLANDER
Ghostly apropos — that’s the eerily familiar sound of the Weird Records’ duo who’ve been riding the melodic melancholy and analog ennui of the current synth wave revival. Get there early and sway to the sounds of “master of cloudy cold gloom” Epee Du Bois and our own, perfectly on-point mesmerist the Soft Moon.
Sat/15, 9 p.m., $5. Milk, 1840 Haight, SF. www.milksf.com