Upcoming Archives — Page 7 of 40 — San Francisco Bay Guardian Archive 1966

Nice booking

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April 9, 2013

NIGHTLIFE Consider Midland. The well-scrubbed, cutting-edge dub-houser from Leeds, UK, has been kicking around for a few years in the virtual technosphere, releasing a handful of excellent tracks (including 2010 critical hit “Your Words Matter”), aligning himself with well-knowns like Ewan Pearson and Ramadanman, and appearing on perpetual “breaking out” lists — along with dozens of other young bucks with voracious musical tastes and groovy, uncategorizable sounds.

About a month ago, however, Midland suddenly blew up. He was everywhere: his beautifully bonkers February 15 sunrise set at Berlin’s Panorama Bar praised and shared to high heaven; links to his Facebook page, previous releases, and high-profile technophile website interviews pelting my feed with Midland love. An impressive list of European gigs was announced, and Midland was poised to be the next in a series of DJs, producers, and live acts to establish themselves globally as a sharp, and sharply managed, brand. Midland had arrived.

And then: “One of the artists we’re excited about signing is Midland, who’ll be touring the US this summer,” Andrew Kelsey, CEO and main booking agent of Liaison Artists (www.liaisonartists.com), dished to me out of the blue a week later, in the gorgeously Zen-anal Dogpatch office his company shares with OM Records. It was weird! But, in the case of Liaison’s unfailing grip on the techno zeitgeist, completely logical. Anyone who’s anyone, it seems, signs with Liaison. Whatever may lay at the root of Midland’s sudden uptick in exposure, his contract score means we’re about to hear a whole lot more from him, and for good reason.

Along with partner Mariesa Stevens — and scene-player staff members Hamilton Wright, Justin Offerman, Matt Hubert, Mary Croghan, Conor Dirks, and Jon Sax — Kelsey has built Liaison into the most respected techno talent agency in the US, with increasing expansion into the global scene. If you’ve been to a major party at Public Works, Monarch, Mighty, Mezzanine, 103 Harriet, or any of the other clubs hosting the latest explosion of dance music popularity, odds are Liaison booked the talent. A quick rundown of some of the names on its current roster: Andrew Weatherall, Ellen Alien, The Field, Maya Jane Coles, Maceo Plex, Crazy P., Justin Martin, Catz ‘N Dogz, Pillow Talk, Ben Pearce, Koze, Pachanga Boys, Joy Orbison, Miss Kittin, Solomun, Tale of Us …

In an age when the provenance of a DJ gig is starting to gain as much attention as where your organic, free-range, non-GMO heirloom turnips are sourced — and in which the first comment to greet a party announcement is usually “nice booking!” — it’s pretty perfect that the strings of the quality electronic music scene are being pulled in San Francisco. (Hey, we’ve got slow food, slow money, slow church, and slow fashion. We may as well head up slow techno.) As the ever-swelling cloud of international touring DJs and producers threatens to blot out the underground party spirit with brand-name fatigue, Liaison has become a de facto curator, guiding style-conscious connoisseurs and heedless hedonists alike through the fog to the dance floor. Liaison is recognized as the mark of quality.

“I don’t think it will ever be a matter of us overshadowing the artists we work with,” the soft-voiced Kelsey said with a smile at the suggestion. “The music always has to come first. The people on our roster have worked incredibly hard to establish a sound, a fan base, and a reputation for professionalism without sacrificing any of that underground edge that drew our attention in the first place. In other words, the party will be insane — and people will show up on time.” (Budding DJs, please take note.)

Kelsey’s own music bona fides help allay any fears of good music being cynically corporatized. He moved here in 1998 to chase his dreams of working in the vibrant scene, and jumped at the chance to join the OM label, recruiting talent when it dominated dance music in the early ’00s. He soon found his love of more underground sounds leading him to form his own agency, Blue Collar. That became Liaison a couple years ago, a rebranding that took off as the global DJ circuit became more established, and the definition of “underground” expanded to include legal club venues with a tilt toward non-mainstream crowds and sounds. Liaison also makes its name with its own parties as well — saucing up last month’s Winter Music Conference with the star-packed Last Resort party, and planning the wild annual Life and Death label party at the upcoming Detroit Electronic Music festival.

Despite repping so many foreign stars in the US, Liaison is also SF’s gateway to wider recognition for homegrown musical talent. Take its canny handling of our current most popular export, the bass-heavy, often hilarious Dirtybird crew. “Dirtybird is the missing link of the underground music world right now,” Kelsey tells me, pulling back the curtain a bit on this business we call show. “A huge population of young people is growing out of more aggressive sounds like dubstep. Now they’re looking for something that’s more sophisticated and deeper than mainstream EDM, but still a lot of big-room fun. Dirtybird has the perfect gateway sound to make that transition to some of our other big artists. So right now, our job is to make bookings that put Dirtybird in front of that crowd, and help introduce it to real techno and house.”

And that, mis amigas, is the makings of a perfect liaison.

THIS WEEK’S PARTIES:

ANDRÈS

The ambitious Detroit producer’s “New for U” was a breakout hit of 2012, but sweeping, cinematic house is just one of the mind-bending tricks up this Dilla-protege’s sleeve.

Wed/10, $5 before 11pm, $10 after. F8, 1192 Folsom, SF. www.housepitalitysf.com

FGAG

My favorite good ol’ fashioned gay house party, Fag Fridays (18 years young!), is revving up for a full-on revival with this extravaganza at Monarch. (The last one was packed and amazing.) A can’t miss for those who need/want some soul in their hole. With NY legend Tedd Patterson and SF legend David Harness, get it!

Fri/12, 9pm-3am, $15. Monarch, 101 Sixth St., SF. www.monarchsf.com

LAST NITE: 2000S INDIE DANCE PARTY

Oh gawd it’s here: let the retro-00s (retr00s?) commence! Jamie Jams and Emdee, the fiendish minds behind seminal ’90s revival party Debaser, kick it into the Interpol-Shins-Strokes-White Stripes era and take you slightly back to “a time when punks suddenly remembered how to dance” — you could still hear guitars on the radio.

Fri/12, 10pm, $5 before 11pm, $10 after. Elbo Room, 647 Valencia, SF. www.facebook.com/lastnite00s

RARE BITS

Seminal SF scene queen Deena Davenport DJs at this hoot of a monthly gathering, playing rarities and B-sides on the fly, joining resident DJs Chicken, Bobby Please, The Fat Pescetarian for 15-minute tag team sets and nutso visuals, with food by Two Tarts and a Stove.

Fri/12, 6pm-midnite, free. Truck, 1900 Folsom, SF.

NONSEMBLE 6: “PIERROT LUNAIRE”

No dancefloor, but what could be more nightlife than six hot, young instrumentalists in sexy gear from Dark Garden, playing Schoenberg’s dark, Expressionist tale about a clown in love with the moon? Expand your musical mind and hit this one up at new performance venue Salle Pianos.

Fri/12, 7:30pm, $35. Salle Pianos, 1632 Market, SF. www.nonsemble6.com

JAMES BLAKE

Everybody loves a nice, slow wave of James Blake.

Tue/16, 9pm, $28. Mezzanine, 444 Jessie, SF. www.mezzaninesf.com

The hawk and the rat: Hugh Leeman’s artistic ‘social experiments’

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April 3, 2013

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The artist talks about his upcoming exhibit, depictions of the homeless, and art-related capitalism

If you’ve walked through the Tenderloin, along Market Street, or around SoMa, there’s a good chance you’ve seen Hugh Leeman’s art. (He’ll be showing new work Thu/4 at SOMArts Gallery as part of the “Dial Collect” show.) Leeman is best known for his drawings of the distinct and arresting faces of Sixth and Market’s homeless, which he used to wheatpaste onto billboards and buildings. His iconic work has been characterized as “street art,” but Leeman views his homeless art project through a more enterprising lens.

The power latent in billboards and marketing campaigns – both to make a statement and to expose vulnerabilities held by the viewer – inspired Leeman to plaster his friends’ faces around town. (Leeman met most of the homeless men he’s depicted by engaging in street-side conversation, usually with the help of a trusty pack of Camel cigarettes.) He aimed to get as many eyes on his work as possible by giving away free posters of his drawings and by allowing people to download posters off his website for free. He also screen printed his drawings onto t-shirts and gave them away to men and women on the street to sell for a 100% profit.

“All along, my thought was, ‘I’m not making street art – I’m making advertisements,'” Leeman says. “It was a social experiment into whether we could use the idea behind selling a product, but do it for the betterment of society as opposed to just for the betterment of a corporation. The high aspiration was that you could connect disparate demographics this way.”

Leeman will be exhibiting a piece as part of Dial Collect – a group show comprised of large-scale interactive installations – at SOMArts Thursday, April 4 through Friday, April 26. Leeman’s exhibit will explore disparate demographics – a concept he has explored during his wheatpasting past – social vulnerability, paranoia, and relationships. Leeman’s best friend Blue, who plays harmonica on the street for cash and lives in an alley near Sixth and Mission, and Leeman’s father, an attorney, will be participating in the interactive exhibit.

Blue and his wife Sam inspired Leeman’s mural concept, which will function as the backdrop of his piece. “Over the past several years, Blue’s been telling me stories about this hawk who lives in the alley,” Leeman says. “The hawk’s been swooping down and eating rats and pigeons out of the alley, and the way Blue always tells the story is like: ‘You know, man, I was just fixing my gear shift then BOOM – the fucking hawk ate a goddamn rat!’”

Leeman’s mural depicts a stern hawk with outstretched talons reaching out to snatch up an anxiety-ridden rat to prey upon. He used white paint to depict the hawk and the rat and painted them against a black background. The hawk represents formality and our society’s flawed concept of strength, whereas the rat represents those who “just put their sail up and go wherever the wind takes them.” Leeman sees himself as both the hawk and the rat at times and considers his father and Blue – two men with whom he has an extremely special yet complex relationship – to represent aspects of the hawk and the rat respectively.

“My father has a more structured, formal process within his being than I have ever had or been capable of. And I think the opposite of him is someone like Blue, who has always ran with the wind. I find myself somewhere in between,” Leeman says.

Leeman’s reflection on his existence as an artist in a capitalistic economy – something he’s been thinking about a lot recently – also ties in with his exhibit. The hawk in him wants to market himself, maintain a style, and gain notoriety, wealth, and fame through his work. As an artist, developing a style – and exposing it, often relentlessly – can be key to success, and Leeman says he’s felt pressure to conform. But his more rat-like sensibilities tell him to be free-spirited in his process; to make whatever he feels like making whenever he feels like making it, regardless of what other people want or expect.

“It all started to become more sport for me than art,” he explains, with regard to becoming established in his homeless, philanthropic art realm. “And the sport was all speaking in quantifiers: ‘what gallery do you show at? Who do you show with? How often are you showing? How much do your pieces sell for?’ But this has nothing to do with the beauty of taking off your fucking clothes and dancing” – one of Leeman’s many metaphors for art and the creative process.

Recently, Leeman has been creating free-form paintings of sea life and skulls and depictions of angelic women via blowtorch and cement. When asked what he’ll do next and where his art is going, Leeman shrugs. “I’m just going to do whatever I feel. I can’t really say what I’ll do in the future. If there is one certainty, it’s that there is no destination. Life is just a constant transition and journey through the gray.”

“Dial Collect“
Opening reception Thurs/4, 6pm, free
Show runs through April 26
SOMArts
934 Brannan, SF
(415) 863-1414
www.somarts.org

Our Weekly Picks: April 3-9, 2013

Andrew Lam

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April 2, 2013

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WEDNESDAY 3

“Pacific Limn”

A Seoul-based collaboration between visual artist, Young-hae Chang, and American expat poet, Marc Vogue, the duo has been creating Web art since 1999. Though the genre’s title evokes something that mirrors the complexity of the Internet-age, Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries gains much of its power from its odd and affecting simplicity. Using Monaco typeface, flash animation, and text narratives often set against jazz music, the artists create pieces that seem to easily define that undefinable but often-employed thing called postmodernism. At the “Pacific Limn” exhibition, YHCHI presents three works from its residency at Kadist. (Laura Kerry)

Through April 28

5pm, free

Kadist Art Foundation

3295 20th St., SF

(415) 738-8668

www.kadist.org

Shark Week

Not heading to Cancun or Daytona Beach with the throngs of drunken college students for the school break? Why not head down to Aquarium of the Bay, where they are celebrating “Spring Break with our Sharks,” a fete featuring shark talks, feedings, and more. Top it off this evening with a hilarious “bad movie night” screening of Shark Week, an ultra-cheesy horror flick that follows a group of people trying to escape a madman’s island, pushed into navigating through the waterways and encountering a series of deadlier — and more outrageously poorly-rendered — CGI sharks. Ticket price includes a drink, popcorn, and admission to the aquarium. (Sean McCourt)

7:30pm film; 6pm doors for aquarium, $16

Aquarium of the Bay, Bay Theater

Pier 39, SF

(415) 623-5300

www.aquariumofthebay.com

Mac DeMarco

Mac DeMarco has written seven albums and EPs on a guitar that he bought for 30 Canadian dollars. He uses effects pedals that he claims no serious musician would be caught dead with. He’s self released four albums and coined a new genre — “jizz jazz.” Listening to DeMarco’s jangling, blissed-out pop tends to be a pleasant, laid-back experience, more reminiscent of surf pop than jazz. His calming baritone, soft and velvety, sounds like a less depressed Ian Curtis. Compared to his summery sound, DeMarco’s live shows, full of lewd humor, nudity, and scaling stage equipment with wild abandon, provide a sharp contrast. If you are easily shocked or offended, this may not be the show for you. But if you can appreciate a true performer and genuine entertainment, there’s no better place to be on a Wednesday night. (Haley Zaremba)

With Trails and Ways, Cocktails, Calvin Love

8pm, $12

Rickshaw Stop

155 Fell, SF

(415) 861-2011

www.rickshawstop.com

THURSDAY 4

“Assault on Vortex 13” The Vortex Room is back with another series of vintage genre obscurities, this time in a “B” action vein. Things kick off tonight with the 1972 Alistair Maclean-adapted thriller Fear Is the Key and the wildly stunt-driven 1989 Action U.S.A. Don’t miss next week’s pairing of chick/karate/blaxploitation chestnut TNT Jackson (1974) with the prior year’s wondrous The Doll Squad — whose avenging angels include Tura Satana from Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, and whose psychotronic auteur Ted V. Mikels was subsequently convinced he’d been ripped off by Charlie’s Angels. (Dennis Harvey)

Thursdays through April 25; 8pm, $13 donation

Vortex Room

1082 Howard, SF

Facebook.com/groups/VortexRoom

The Coo Coo Birds

In the 1947 cartoon short, The Coo Coo Bird, Woody the Woodpecker’s efforts to go to bed early are thwarted by a series of distractions, including a rhythmic cuckoo clock that causes his body to move against his will. One gets the sense that if Woody just lightened up, he’d get some sleep — and maybe even have some fun in the meantime. The San Francisco band with the same name teaches a similar lesson. Playing distorted psychedelic tunes that don’t take themselves too seriously, Coo Coo Birds create rock that asks its audience to lighten up. So if you find that their show at Slim’s is keeping you awake, it’s best to just let your body move. (Kerry)

With Galaxxy Chamber, David Frieberg

8pm, $12

Slim’s

333 11th St., SF

(415) 255-0333

www.slimspresents.com

FRIDAY 5

“The Flow Show”

In Western dance, props for the most part are frowned upon. Not so in the myriad of culturally specific, often very old dance forms: ribbons in China, hoops among Native Americans, bamboo poles in the Philippines, and swords among belly dancers. There always is an element of daring and bravura involved in the use of instruments, but unlike circus acts, here the necessary skills are grounded in an expressive content. That’s the tradition that “The Flow Show” plugs into. Its 20 performers are offering a synthesis of dance theater, circus skills, and poetry. New this year is the diabolo, a.k.a. “Chinese YoYo”. What you’ll see is decidedly contemporary performance yet with roots that run deeper than just pure fun — though there is plenty of that as well. (Rita Felciano)

Fri/5-Sat/6, 8pm; Sun/7, 7pm, $20

Dance Mission Theater

3316 24th St., SF

brownpapertickets.com/event/32419

Rock/See: A Concert for the Roxie Theater

In the grand tradition of Live Aid, Farm Aid, and Kidney Now! (that last one might have been fictional), musicians in SF are stepping up to help something they care about: the Mission’s beloved Roxie Theater. The event is to support the Roxie’s campaign to renovate and upgrade its smaller theater, the Little Roxie. As the theater explains , “While many nonprofit arts organizations are joining forces with corporate entities…[we’re] partnering with members of San Francisco’s indie music community.” The Rock/See benefit boasts live performances by favored Bay Area lo-fi/garage rockers Thee Oh Sees, Sonny and the Sunsets, Future Twin, and Assateague. Being that this is for a movie hub, local filmmakers and artists are also getting in on the support: the event includes projections by Barry Jenkins, Jim Granato, and more.

(Emily Savage)

8:30pm, $25

Verdi Club

2424 Mariposa, SF

www.roxie.com

SATURDAY 6

Opening for José Ramón Lerma retrospective

José Ramón Lerma’s work contains a personal history. He’s been practicing art for more than 60 years, and in that time, has moved through styles and imagery from a darker abstract expressionistic painting to a more absurd and surrealist genre that includes sculpture and collage. And because the 60 years of his art have occurred in the Bay Area, his oeuvre reveals a history of his setting, too. Lerma began among the Beats and winds down his career in a culture that is, well, different. ArtZone 461 pays much deserved tribute to this Bay Area gem with a month-long retrospective that will put its multiple histories on display. (Kerry)

Through May 5

12-6pm, free

ArtZone 461

461 Valencia, SF

(415) 441-8680

www.artzone461.com

“Roman Polanski Live at the Roxie”

Although certain key details had yet to be finalized at press time, this event is too monumental not to get a plug: Oscar-winning filmmaker (and controversy magnet) Roman Polanski is gonna be appearing at the Roxie! OK, so it’s via Skype from Paris, but he’ll be conversing with Oscar-winning Chinatown (1974) scriptwriter Robert Towne, who will be there in person — and his presence alone should be reason enough to attend, quite frankly. The weekend also features screenings of classic Polanski flicks (including Chinatown, natch). Check the Roxie website for updated times and titles. (Cheryl Eddy)

Through Sun/7 (Skype conversation Sat/6, time TBD), $6.50–$11

Roxie Theater

3117 16th St, SF

www.roxie.com

Polkacide and Fuxedos

Crafting the perfect show lineup isn’t easy, and all too often at least one of the bands feels somewhat shoehorned in. But sometimes, sweet serendipity steps up to create a lineup so stunningly perfect you can’t believe it’s true. That pretty much sums up the upcoming Polkacide and Fuxedos co-headlining gig, with the imitable Borts Minorts along for the ride as opening act. Individually, each band is well-worth the price of admission alone. You’ve got your punk rock polka, your post-punk, big band, nihilistic freakout (plus props) — and your avant-garde alien lifeform wields his dangerous dance moves and a bass made from a ski. And the prospect of watching them collectively take over the stage at Bottom of the Hill like a three-headed Cerberus of gleefully psychotic fun? Priceless. (Nicole Gluckstern)

9:30pm, $12

Bottom of the Hill

1233 17th St, SF

(415) 861-1615

www.bottomofthehill.com

TUESDAY 9

Nick Cave

Where to start with this man? There is practically nothing that Nick Cave hasn’t tried, conquered, or revolutionized. He’s a musician, a screenwriter, an author, an actor, and a performer. He has fronted experimental gothic punk band the Birthday Party, the rockabilly-industrial Grinderman, and the savagely indefinable Bad Seeds. Cave’s haunting, growling baritone voice and slim spectral body, generally clad all in black, add a delicious wild mystery to everything he touches. Bad Seeds albums don’t come out that often, and North American tours are even rarer for the Australian artist. Hyperbole is impossible in this context — the man is a living legend. Don’t miss out on one of the best performances you’ll ever see. (Zaremba)

With Sharon Van Etten

8pm, $59.50

Bill Graham Civic Auditorium

99 Grove, SF

www.apeconcerts.com

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CAREERS AND ED: Bend over, boardroom

Andrew Lam

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April 2, 2013

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caitlin@sfbg.com

CAREERS AND ED All too often in the workplace, women fight to hide their sexuality. In Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In, the controversial feminist-treatise-of-the-moment on combating sexism in the corporate world, Sandberg references a tech worker who goes so far as to remove her earrings before coming to work, so fervently does the employee wish to minimize her gender lest it distract her male cohorts.

Beatrice Stonebanks takes a different tack. A sales consultant for 25 years now, and a member of the San Francisco BDSM scene for 16, she strode into a partners’ meeting at her job in 2010 and wrote two words on the dry erase board for all to see. They were: corporate dominatrix.

“In BDSM you have to know how to negotiate, otherwise you’re going to get hurt.” Ensconced under the fluorescent lights of my office, Stonebanks is entirely at home among the cubicles and boardrooms in her black skirt and floral blazer. She makes her living applying the take-charge skills she learned playing in dungeons with her husband to office culture.

Did her white board assertion consternate her coworkers? Tear rifts in officeland reality? Stonebanks says, to the contrary, it was a natural connection on her part that has led to increased office performance.

“The more domineering I became, the better the results,” she says, smiling. “If I could produce the numbers, they didn’t care about my tactics.”

One year ago, she began teaching classes on those tactics to the kink community. Stonebanks is the editor of the BDSM education group Society of Janus’ newsletter, a publication playfully dubbed Growing Pains. At home, she is a 24/7 loving dominant to her submissive husband, a role reflected in the take-charge manner in she fields my interview questions and guides our dialogue about her methodology.

There are obvious differences between the two worlds she straddles. For example — and I can testify to this firsthand because she was kind enough to bring both for our in-house Guardian photoshoot — the skirt she wears to teach her “Corporate Dominatrix Training 101: How to Use Sex and Power to Increase Sales” class is several inches shorter than the one she sports to, you know, use sex and power to increase sales.

But the long and short of the matter is that both successful BDSM and boardroom activities hinge on clear assertion of self and healthy communication. Both employ, or should employ, negotiation, safe words, execution, and after-care. “It scales,” Stonebanks affirms.

Stonebanks, does, however, ken to Sandberg’s assertion in Lean In that women are expected to be likable in the workplace. In light of this, Stonebanks cites two different modes of operation: “credible,” a stern, enforcing office demeanor (“listen to me now, no you can’t check your Blackberry, repeat back to me what I just said,” she barks as an example of this) and “approachable,” a stance to be employed in times of negotiation.

But act credibly, and the hope is that people will see your gruff demeanor being to their benefit, if they’re working towards a common goal. “They’ll get that you’re not just a man or a woman,” Stonebanks says. “You’re a piece of the solution.”

In either mode, it’s all about the words we use. “BDSM has a very explicit language,” she says. Like any good teacher, Stonebanks teaches me an acronym to help me remember the principles of corporate domineering, whether it takes place while brandishing a bullwhip or conference calling Miami.

This acronym is S.M.A.R.T. Its meaning: “specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time-specific,” according to Stonebanks. In both the business and sex worlds, your scene will come off — and you’ll get off — much better if you establish certain parameters around the action. Once people know that what you’re proposing is doable, in various dimensions, they’ll be more open to coming to an agreement with you, or just coming.

Stonebanks tells me that though many of her clients are put off when she explicitly introduces S.M.A.R.T. into their office discussion, after time they themselves will point out when meetings veer from the S.M.A.R.T. principles. She’s even heard of the language persisting long after she’s left the room.

Another way to break down defenses, and pave the way to successful communication at work, is to let the person know what you find attractive about them. Stonebanks doesn’t shy from the fact that, at times, this means physical appearance. But when a person isn’t hot to you, that doesn’t mean you can’t get them to know that they’re appreciated. Compliment a recalcitrant coworker’s smarts, or their irreplacability on the project in which you’re working.

“When your sex hormones are activated, your defense mechanisms are not — and that’s what you need for sales,” says Stonebanks.

This last point may give pause to the HR directors among us. But Stonebanks says that she doesn’t interject overt sexuality into her business dealings — like her skirt, she keeps it family-friendly at the office. Her message is essentially the same for both men and women, although it should come as no surprise, given her background, she has a special place in her heart for a woman who can take charge.

“In every instance, when women are leading the company, profits go up,” she says. [Note: so far as I can tell, scientific conclusions on this point are inconclusive.]

If you’re not into the domineering type, she’s not offended. But don’t waste her time.

“I know what works. If you don’t want to hire me, next client.”

For information on upcoming “Corporate Dominatrix” classes, keep your eye on the Society of Janus website, www.soj.org

Heads Up: 7 must-see concerts this week

Tony Robles

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April 2, 2013

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Is everyone else emotionally and physically exhausted from the Easter/Passover-torrential hailing downpour-April Fool’s Day (who can you trust on the Internet?) mess of the last few days? I certainly am, and I only participated in a few of those spiritual debacles.

No mind, I’m ready to strap on my wellies and/or sunglasses and embark on a week of Esben and the Witch, Mac DeMarco, Babysitter, Glam.I.Rock, Portland Cello Project, Future Twin, and Polkacide with Fuxedos.

Here are your must-see Bay Area concerts this week/end:

Mac DeMarco
“Mac DeMarco has written seven albums and EPs on a guitar that he bought for 30 Canadian dollars. He uses effects pedals that he claims no serious musician would be caught dead with. He’s self released four albums and coined a new genre — “jizz jazz.” Listening to DeMarco’s jangling, blissed-out pop tends to be a pleasant, laid-back experience, more reminiscent of surf pop than jazz. His calming baritone, soft and velvety, sounds like a less depressed Ian Curtis. Compared to his summery sound, DeMarco’s live shows, full of lewd humor, nudity, and scaling stage equipment with wild abandon, provide a sharp contrast. If you are easily shocked or offended, this may not be the show for you.” — Haley Zaremba
With Trails and Ways, Cocktails, Calvin Love
Wed/3, 8pm, $12
Rickshaw Stop
155 Fell, SF
(415) 861-2011
www.rickshawstop.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bfTTeZOrs4

Portland Cello Project
The Portland, Oreg.-based indie orchestra, which is seven-deep on the cello, by the way, will play selections from the Beck song reader featuring Laura Gibson, along with some Brubeck and Bach, for good measure.
Wed/3, 8pm, $25
Yoshi’s SF
1330 Fillmore, SF
www.yoshis.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4K8ou0iA_68

Esben and the Witch
With swelling crescendos, emotional lyrics, gothy undertones, and shimmering vocals in tow, UK post-rock trio Esben and the Witch comes across the pond for the first time in two years, on tour with newest record, Wash The Sins Not Only The Face (Matador). Should be a witchy one.
With Heliotropes.
Thu/4, 9pm, $13
Brick and Mortar Music Hall
1710 Mission, SF.
www.brickandmortarmusic.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnfx0cij2rw

Babysitter
Victoria, BC “grunge-and-roll” / “long-hair scuzz rocker” trio Babysitter has made its way through the tapes-splits-and-EPs scene since forming in 2010. Now signed to Montreal tastemaker label, Psychic Handshake Record, the band released its first proper full-length, Eye, in late ’12. This current tour takes the thrashy punks through house shows and taquerias, as it should.
With Easy Living, Hazels Wart
Thu/4, 7pm, $5
Casa Sanchez
2778 24th, SF
Facebook: Babysitter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yqP71Y87_4

Glam.I.Rock
Lyrically gifted young Oakland rapper Glam.I.Rock — the first half an acronym for “Good Lyrics And Music” — will perform a free in-store during Art Murmur this Friday. If you want to be in on an artist at the tipping point, this would be your chance. The MC has that classic ’90s female-empowerment hip-hop vibe but with some different interests (check the “Who is Glam.I.Rock?” video of her tapping out the Rugrats theme), and a more modern style. Though like her predecessors, she still very much reps her home-base, performing “Inspire Oakland” at the city’s Digital’s Inspiration Awards last December. Makes sense, she’s the daughter of Nic Nac — the only female member of the Mobb crew — and and Dangerous Dame, a member of Too $hort’s Dangerous Crew. Glam.I.Rock’s debut EP, The Feel, recently dropped on Savvie1ent/The Olive Street Agency.
Fri/5, 8pm, free.
Oaklandish
1444 Broadway, Oakl.
(510) 251-9500
www.oaklandish.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHVIRAIFBEU

Rock/See: A Concert for the Roxie Theater
In the grand tradition of Live Aid, Farm Aid, and Kidney Now! (that last one might have been fictional), musicians in SF are stepping up to help something they care about: the Mission’s beloved Roxie Theater. The event is to support the Roxie’s campaign to renovate and upgrade its smaller theater, the Little Roxie. As the theater explains , “While many nonprofit arts organizations are joining forces with corporate entities…[we’re] partnering with members of San Francisco’s indie music community.” The Rock/See benefit boasts live performances by favored Bay Area lo-fi/garage rockers Thee Oh Sees, Sonny and the Sunsets, Future Twin, and Assateague. Being that this is for a movie hub, local filmmakers and artists are also getting in on the support: the event includes projections by Barry Jenkins, Jim Granato, and more.
Fri/5, 8:30pm, $25
Verdi Club
2424 Mariposa, SF
www.roxie.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMEGlZCY1o0

Polkacide and Fuxedos
“Sometimes, sweet serendipity steps up to create a lineup so stunningly perfect you can’t believe it’s true. That pretty much sums up the upcoming Polkacide and Fuxedos co-headlining gig, with the imitable Borts Minorts along for the ride as opening act. Individually, each band is well-worth the price of admission alone. You’ve got your punk rock polka, your post-punk, big band, nihilistic freakout (plus props) — and your avant-garde alien lifeform wields his dangerous dance moves and a bass made from a ski.” — Nicole Gluckstern
Sat/6, 9:30pm, $12
Bottom of the Hill
1233 17th St, SF
(415) 861-1615
www.bottomofthehill.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IdrMuOdVPg

FEAST: Carnitas I have loved

Andrew Lam

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March 26, 2013

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culture@sfbg.com

FEAST I was raised on carnitas. When other babies gummed pacifiers, I sucked on pork, and loved it. After my teeth came in, I remember taking the three-hour (round trip) drive from my hometown of Ventura, Calif. to my dad’s gold standard for carnitas: the Burrito Inn in Hawthorne. Those were so good they were worth braving the 405 for.

You can understand then, how the first time I tasted my very own San Francisco gold-standard carnitas is a tale that I’ll oft retell to my future (pork-plumped) children.

It was love at first bite between the carnitas tacos and me at Taqueria San Jose. I love these tacos so much that during the infancy of my soul music-spinning career, my ex-boyfriend dubbed me DJ Carnita due of the alarming frequency with which those carnitas found their way to my mouth. The name stuck, like fried pork to your ribs.

Great carnitas, much like great men, must be soft and juicy on the inside, crunchy and hardened on the outside. If you are ever served carnitas that do not meet these qualifications, you have been duped. Please accept my condolences — but let’s not let it happen again. Here are a few of my favorite places to grab a fistful of shredded pig meat in SF.

CARNITAS ON WHEELS: EL GALLO GIRO TACO TRUCK

The progenitors of our street food scene, Mission District taco trucks are great places to find tasty carnitas, and El Gallo Giro has the best of the best. For $1.50 you score meat so crispy, you may think you got chicharrones by mistake. Tacos come topped with salsa, onions, and cilantro, and garnished with radish and lemon, which qualifies as a side salad as far as my carnivorous mind is concerned. Fair warning, you may get concerned looks from the parents at the playground across the street over the occasional moans and happy expletives that these carnitas induce.

Treat and 23rd St., SF

CARNITAS FROM THE STORE: LA PALMA MEXICATESSEN

Pretty much everything that comes out of this 60 year old 24th Street institution is top-tier, and their carnitas are no exception. They can be bought by the pound for you to take home or packed into a taco or sope. This is also one of the rare instances where I recommend carnitas any way other than their pure (i.e.: taco) form because La Palma’s killer refried beans and house-made tortillas make for one hell of a burrito. Not that you should need anything but my word to convince you of their quality, but these also happen to be the favorite carnitas of nightlife magnate, noted foodie and expert on all things pork, Juanita More.

2884 24th St., SF. (415) 647-1500, www.lapalmasf.com

CARNITAS BOURGEOIS: NOPALITO

I cringe whenever I hear anyone rave about the food at a restaurant that has appropriated what is already cheap, plentiful, and delicious by adding a few adjectives, organic ingredients, and upping the price. For this reason I avoided Nopalito successfully — until I was forced in the door for a friend’s birthday and begrudgingly ordered my favorite dish. I was openly praying to be underwhelmed. I was not. These carnitas are damn good, in fact, and you can order them with a cocktail which sort of seals the deal for a boozebag like me. FYI, everything I just said also applies to Tacolicious.

306 Broderick, SF. (415) 437-0303, www.nopalitosf.com

GO WEST, CARNITA: GORDO TAQUERIA

Contrary to many an impassioned diatribe, the Mission District is not the only place in our city to find some top-notch carnitas. Residents of the Richmond and Sunset enjoy not only relatively ample street parking, but also three Gordo Taqueria locations to call their own. You know a place takes its carnitas seriously when you look behind the sneezeguard and note that the carnitas section is at least three times the size of that of any other type of meat. On my last visit, every person in the restaurant was eating carnitas — even diners who I judged to be lapsed vegetarians by their guilty facial expressions. Fair warning, the standard carnitas tacos comes with beans, which aren’t usually my jam, but that’s how they do things in the Wild West.

Various SF locations. www.gordotaqueria.com

CARNITAS TO NAME YOURSELF AFTER: TAQUERIA SAN JOSE

As previously stated, these were the carnitas that launched an alter ego. If Beyonce had eaten them, Sasha Fierce could well have been Carnita Fierce. San Jose’s carnitas are perfect, always as juicy on the inside as they are crispy on the outside, and served in taco form for a little over $2. Better still, there is never a line — meaning that you will have ordered, eaten, and been halfway through digesting your pork in the time it takes your drunk friends to get to the cash register at Farolito across the street. Also, every Friday the place is full of cute nerds playing Magic: The Gathering. What’s not to love?

2830 Mission, SF. (415) 282-0203

Your author. Photo by Thomas Camilleri

[THE PRINT VERSION OF THIS ARTICLE OMITS THE PHOTO CREDIT FOR THIS PHOTO. THE GUARDIAN REGRETS THE ERROR]

“That sounds delicious”? You can catch DJ Carnita every month at his Hard French and Daytime Realness parties. Check him out on Twitter @djcarnita for this meat man’s upcoming gigs

Alerts

Andrew Lam

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March 26, 2013

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Submit political events to be listed in Alerts at alert@sfbg.com or tweet us @SFBG_alerts.

WEDNESDAY 3

Protest Obama fundraiser outside the Getty mansion 2870 Broadway, SF. tinyurl.com/c2mkope. 5:30pm, free. Environmentalists opposing the Keystone XL oil pipeline will protest in San Francisco’s wealthy Pacific Heights neighborhood, where President Barack Obama will dine with the city’s upper crust for a Democratic Party fundraiser. Credo Action – the advocacy arm of telecom Credo Mobile – is mobilizing the protest in tandem with the Sierra Club, 350.org and Friends of the Earth.

Community meeting to save City College Pitcher Room, City College Southeast Campus, 1800 Oakdale, SF. info@saveccsf.org. 6pm, free. Students and community supporters who are engaged in the ongoing fight to save City College of San Francisco as an affordable and accessible educational resource are planning major actions in coming weeks. Join them for this informational and strategy session to preserve this important institution.

THURSDAY 4

Public forum with David Graeber Namaste Hall, California Institute for Integral Studies, 1453 Mission, SF. 7pm, free. An anthropologist from the University of London, author David Graeber is credited with helping to lay the intellectual framework underlying the Occupy Wall Street movement. His work includes Debt: The First 5000 Years, a tome exploring wealth inequality through the ages. Graeber’s talk will be on “Austerity and its Discontents.”

FRIDAY 5

Panel talk on global affirmative action Room 132, UC Berkeley School of Law, 215 Boalt Hall, Berk. tinyurl.com/ckc6qdu. 4-6pm, free. RSVP. Many fear that an upcoming Supreme Court ruling will spell the end of affirmative action admission programs for public colleges and universities. This panel will discuss global affirmative action law, with presenters from the European Commission, the University of Sydney School of Law, and Berkeley Law.

Forum with Dr. Ignacio Chapela Niebyl Proctor Library, 6501 Telegraph Ave, Oakl. SpeakOut-Now.org. 7pm, $3 donation. Dr. Ignacio Chapela, Associate Professor of Microbial Ecology at UC Berkeley, has been studying the impact of genetically modified plants and the misuse of science and its impact on our planet. Join this Speak Out Now forum to hear Chapela’s vision for how science could be used for more positive ends.

SUNDAY 7

Book talk: Beyond Walls and Cages Modern Times Bookstore Collective, 2919 24^th St, SF. www.occupyu.org. 6pm, free. As part of Modern Times’ ongoing Occupy U workshop series, this book discussion will explore how prisons, criminalization and militarization facilitate wealth and power inequalities. Join editors Jenna M. Loyd, Matt Mitchelson, and Andrew Burridge in discussion of their book, Beyond Walls And Cages: Prisons, Borders, and Global Crisis.

Emotions in motion

Andrew Lam

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March 19, 2013

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arts@sfbg.com

FILM Imagine being trapped, No Exit–style, on a city bus — let’s say Muni’s dreaded “Double Deuce” Fillmore for the sake of creative visualization — in the midst of a dozen or so out-of-control teenagers hell-bent on humiliating and terrorizing their peers and, if you have an obvious human frailty, you as well. Sound like fun? Well, Michel Gondry’s The We and the I puts you there (dramatically speaking, at least) and is often surprisingly just that. To paraphrase Sartre, “Hell is other people … on the bus,” but thankfully we get to take the trip from the safety of cushy theater seats and comfy couches.

Arguably minor Gondry (unlike 2011’s abominable The Green Hornet, whose failure can only be described as major), it’s a nice little palate cleanser in anticipation of his upcoming, much-publicized “return to form,” the Audrey Tautou–starring Mood Indigo, a film that looks to be as visually lush and romantic as The We and the I is stripped down.

Almost all of the film takes place on the aforementioned city bus as it crawls around the mean streets of New York City’s Bronx borough, ostensibly to take home kids (all played by nonprofessional actors, all minorities) after their last day of school. One or two of them do disembark early, but most seem stuck on a fossil-fueled existential journey of the damned. At about the 70-minute mark it’s hard not to wonder if the disgruntled bus driver isn’t just tooling around in circles past the same storefronts à la Joel Barish’s mind trips in Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) — just exactly how big is the Bronx anyway? “Drop out, get your GED, join the army. I don’t give a fuck,” the driver tells a confused girl. It’s clear that the kids suffer from this kind of general adult apathy, but most bear it with a hard-edged bravado that belies their vulnerability.

That particularly applies to the trio of bullies at the back of the bus, who treat both the kids and the adults with equal-opportunity disdain. They smash an arty boy’s acoustic guitar, hurl insults while sneaking smokes, and even shame a middle-aged guy with a cleft palette. But most of their ire is saved for Teresa (Teresa Lynn), a slightly chubby, obviously troubled girl who shows up wearing a laughably bad blonde wig after being MIA from school for weeks. Teresa becomes the emotional heart of the story after it’s revealed her relationships with several kids on the bus are more complicated than initially thought.

Those kids include a drama-queen sexpot with apparent self-harming issues, a refreshingly upfront couple of gay teens, and a gaggle of giggling girls who toss around a water bra like a football. (The girls, tellingly, are just as aggressive as the boys.) Geek and bully alike connect regularly through the preferred teen method of communication: social media, specifically in the form of a YouTube video of a local doofus named Elijah repeatedly falling on his ass. Some joys are universal.

Visually, The We and the I marks a departure for Gondry. While his films always have a low-fi, arts-and-crafts vibe full of DIY quirk, this one generally eschews his love of handmade ephemera. (A major exception is the boom box rejiggered to resemble a tiny bus, which tools around to Young MC’s “Bust A Move” during the opening credits.) There is a touch of fast-motion and papier-mâché goofiness, but mostly the whole thing is done in a straightforward, verité style.

The tone, however, is pure Gondry: dopey-funny and sophisticatedly unsophisticated. You get the sense that, unlike his tony New York–loving counterparts Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach, Gondry is a true populist. The We and the I is certainly nothing if not populist. But it’s also about the individual — specifically who we are inside and outside of an often-grueling social system. Despite some hiccups, like an unnecessarily dark third-act revelation, it’s more or less successful in illuminating the joys, cruelties, and uncertainties of life, which remain viscerally real after the sun sets and we finally get off the bus, vulnerable as ever in our solitude.

THE WE AND THE I opens Fri/22 in Bay Area theaters.

Pizza delivery drones?

Sasha Cuttler And Mary Magee

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March 18, 2013

3

Well, this is intriguing. According to an event announcement for an upcoming talk this Wednesday, there are some bizarre new developments on the “innovation in San Francisco” front. “New plans are being launched to help entrepreneurs launch their dreams,” the San Francisco Technology Democrats informs us, “from mobile apps to making pizza delivery drones available.”

Drones? For pizza delivery? Shouldn’t someone warn the American Civil Liberties Union?

In any case, the talk aims to give curious techies, policy wonks, activists and others an opportunity to pose questions to Board of Supervisors President David Chiu and Chief Innovation Officer Jay Nath concerning San Francisco’s Open Data Portal, proposed revisions to Open Data laws, and similar topics of interest. It will be held Wed/20 from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. at the Marine’s Memorial Club Fireplace Room, 609 Sutter, in San Francisco.

Noise Pop 2013: YACHT, Shock, and Future Twin at Slim’s

Tony Robles

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March 6, 2013

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When I went to see YACHT, a couple years ago during the Treasure Island Music Festival, it was playing outdoors in the afternoon, and it seemed like the wrong time and place. Last year at the Fox, the conceptual electropop band seemed stifled by the combination of the large venue and sparse crowd, and also mired by the same lackluster audio conditions that made headliner Hot Chip sound like it was playing underwater. But Saturday at Slim’s, on my last night of Noise Pop, it seemed just…

Fuck, I’ve wandered into the Goldilocks cliché.

Anyway, YACHT likes to keep it personal. Personable? The duo of Jona Bechtolt and Claire L. Evans (bolstered by other band members on tour) affect a borderline cultish air — utopian ideals were all over its last album Shangri-La and lead track, um, “Utopia” — that plays better when the audience is kept close, in a intimate venue.

“Ahhh, your hair is so long!” a woman in the sold out crowd screamed, when singer Evans first appeared on stage during the sound check, dark roots showing under what was previously close cropped and bleached blonde. It struck me as the kind of thing you say to a close friend you haven’t seen in a while. (“She’s much better looking than the last time I saw her,” someone else near me judged later in the show.)

This friendly rapport makes a lot of sense, given how much effort the group makes towards fostering it. Hopping off stage and tangling the crowd up in a mic cord has basically become a rock party trick at this point (probably because it’s an almost foolproof way to charm the crowd). Evans employed it as a starter, but went on to continually flatter fans and solicit questions, indulging in requests for hugs and spare beers. Throughout this course of events, singer, multi-instrumentalist, and YACHT founder Bechtolt competed for the larger cult of personality with a hopped-up glee.

Somewhat listless at the Fox performance, YACHT was nothing but efficient on Saturday. Maybe it was limited on time to begin with, but the set clicked by, highlighted by high-energy renditions of “I Walked Along” and “Utopia” — better than any I’ve heard.

An obvious encore followed (right after Bechtolt assured someone — probably the guy up front waving a sticker sheet and Sharpie since the sound check —that he’d sign anything five minutes after the show was over) with “Ring the Bell,” a super snappy version of shout-along “Psychic City,” and “Second Summer.” It was all done with an intentionality that could be either super endearing to a fan or off-putting viewed as an outsider, but I’m increasingly finding myself group with the former.

Openers

Shock: “We only have two minutes left and our songs are like seven minutes,” singer and bassist Terri Loewenthal of Shock said, after playing three tracks of slinky synth funk with slow vocals and lots of glissando. Five or so minutes later, the ground finished its set and she added, “So that was the short version.” Which was pretty satisfying.

Future Twin: Future Twin was precociously San Francisco, noting that one song was about trying to find affordable housing and cracking dead on delivery jokes about the nudity ban only applying out on the streets. But with dynamic singer and guitarist Jean Yaste — whose voice recalls equally parts Corin Tucker and Exene Cervenka — and drummer Antonio Roman-Alcala, this band can get away with saying whatever it wants during mic breaks. Its upcoming benefit for the Roxie at the Verdi Club with Thee Oh Sees and Sonny and the Sunsets has it in good company.

Tussle: It’s been three years since I last saw Tussle at Milk Bar, and given the recordings the group released since then I had high expectations to see it much improved. But trouble with setting up a ton of equipment and subsequent delays really hobbled its start, and the group never seemed to quite overcome it. Unintentional tempo shifts seemed common, the double drummers never quite seemed to sync, and the generally structureless songs seemed to only end when every member came to the sudden realization that someone else was cuing them to wrap it up.

Trip history

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks

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March 6, 2013

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SUPER EGO As Maria von Trapp sang at the climax of The Sound of Music, “Whenever the goddess closes a rave cave, somewhere she reopens a gay leather biker bar.”

That sad closure is upon us, as the wonderful 222 Hyde (www.222hyde.com), the city’s thumping bass-ment in the Tenderloin, wings into history. Owner EO emailed me a couple Saturdays ago to tell me he was closing the precious, risk-taking little venue due to pressure from the ABC state liquor board over a license technicality and uncertainty about cooperation from the 222 building’s new owners. In short: sucks.

But EO’s off to pursue his musical destiny — he killed it playing live at Robotspeak at Saturday’s Lower Haight Art Walk — as one half of upcoming analogue electronic duos Moniker (with Kenneth Scott) and Polk and Hyde (with Jonah Sharp). And you can say farewell to the lovely space, rumbly Turbo Sound system, twinkly LED dance floor ceiling, and gorgeous staff this week: a special guest superstar (cough DJ Fark Marina cough) is supposed to drop by Thu/7, the As You Like It crew brings in Dutch techno wiz San Proper on Fri/8 (9pm-2am, $20) and 222 hosts a huge closing blowout on Sat/9 (10pm-late) full of surprise guests, gushing tears, and yummy pizza. The space itself has an amazing history — as the “Three Deuces” from the 1940s-’60s, it played hst to jazz greats and wild gals. Whatever it becomes now, 222 will live 444 ever in our raving hearts.

Throwing open its gay SoMa leather biker bar sash, however, is legendary rock ‘n roll watering hole SF Eagle (www.sf-eagle.com), reopened after a final passing grade on inspections last weekend, just in time for a Sunday beer bust of epic proportions — and 45-minute-wait lines — celebrating the victory of our new Mr. SF Leather, Andy Cross. (The true crown, I heard, went to anyone who made it through the four-hour Mr. SF Leather competition.)

I latched on my Nasty Pig kneepads and checked out the space (and the returned staff!) on Saturday night, and happily found myself there all Sunday as well. New owners Alex and Mike, inheriting the gutted space once slated for a pizza restaurant, have really opened it up by exposing the vaulted ceiling of the interior, pushing the main bar against the wall, and removing the trees from the patio (sad face). Everything is painted semi-gloss black — it looks like a beerhall designed by Anselm Kiefer. Although the mirrored bar is a wee bit ultralounge and there is as of yet no crusty, comfy decor, that good ol’ Eagle spirit is alive and well-drink drunk.

The beer bust was roiling delightfully with grateful scruffs and old school fetishists. Indie kids will rejoice at the return of Thursday Night Live on Thu/7 (8pm, $7, www.tinyurl.com/thursnightlive) with bands Beard Summit, the Galloping Sea, and Reliic, hosted by the Eagle’s ace music programmer Doug Hilsinger. (The space’s new layout is perfect for live music, and more regular parties will pop up soon, I’m sure). The Eagle reopened on the final weekend of fabulously festive Hayes drag dive Marlena’s, set to become another concept bar eesh, and the tail end of Soma’s fetish-friendly Kok Bar, also closing very soon. It’s a bittersweet trade-off for sure. Meet me at the Eagle’s patio trough and we’ll commiserate.

STACEY HOTWAXX HALE

I am freaking the funk out that Detroit’s own Godmother of House is going to vibe up the Housepitality weekly’s dancefloor — along with Chicago legends Gene Hunt and CJ Larsen? Try to pry me away!

Wed/6, 9pm, $5 before 11 p.m., $10 after. F8, 1192 Folsom, SF. www.housepitalitysf.com

DJ PIERRE

Following the Godmother of House comes the Godfather of Acid, one of the ones who started it all, Chicago Afro-Acid pioneer Pierre, whose sets are blissful rollercoasters to another, darker side.

Fri/8, 8pm-3am, $15. 1192 Folsom, SF. djpierre.eventbrite.com

DELHI 2 DUBLIN

Kick off your weeklong St. Patty’s Day binge the bhangra way, as great monthly Non Stop Bhangra brings in this beloved five-piece live band, a true multiculti mashup that meshes the Celtic with the Indian. Somehow, it works splendidly.

Sat/9, 9pm, $15. Public Works, 161 Erie, SF. www.publicsf.com

PARIS IS BURNING

“Shoot and arrow and it goes real high, well good for you.” SF’s Mistress of the Gay Night Peaches Christ and formidable NYC queen Patrice Royale host a screening of the all-the-rage-again 1990 doc and a vogue ball to die for. It’ll be an ex-travaganza.

Sat/9, 8pm, $22. Castro Theatre, 429 Castro, SF. www.peacheschrist.com

Shannon and the Clams awaken ‘Rip Van Winkle’

Tony Robles

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March 5, 2013

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Our beloved kings and queen of trash rock and doo-wop hybrid Shannon and the Clams released “Rip Van Winkle,” the first single off their upcoming Hardly Art release, Dreams in Rat House (coming May 21).

The song, which features back-up by Magic Trick’s Noelle Cahill, is again the perfect blend of garage pop and beachy surf punk a la the Trashwomen, and has that cool hiccuping guitar effect kicking off the hip-shaking, foot-stomping, hand-clappy new track. As expected, chainsaw vocalist-bassist Shannon Shaw’s distinctive pipes stand out above all else. This all just serves to further excite us for the release of Dreams in Rat House.

Check the new song HERE.

Shaw, vocalist-bassist Cody Blanchard (King Lollipop), and drummer Ian Amberson also this week announced a tour with fellow Bay Area favorite, Mikal Cronin, which takes the bands through SXSW and back. Unfortunately that schedule does not yet include a local show upon return, though that can’t be far behind, right? (Alas, Shannon and the Clams plays its SXSW kickoff last night at Elbo Room.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0PBWuqRrpg

While the new album has yet to produce an official video, this seems like a good time revisit the Shannon and the Clams mini movies we’ve loved since the beginning (many directed by Shaw’s brother, Dan), way back when we just knew of Shaw as of Hunx’s Punkettes, and after the devotion solidified with 2010’s glorious Ruin Christmas EP and 2011’s Sleep Talk LP (1-2-3-4 Go!):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5Mk03QVeCg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NrAWAxE5dM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57KUgVsM8rw

Noise Pop 2013: !!!, White Arrows, the Mallard at Great American Music Hall

Tony Robles

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March 1, 2013

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It’s hard to be Nic Offer. Not because he’s a tortured artist struggling with celebrity or some other cliche, but because he busts it on stage in a way that’s difficult to match. A couple songs into !!!/Chk Chk Chk‘s Noise Pop show at the Great American Music Hall last night, the lead singer and number one dancer hustled along the row of tables between the crowd and the stage. “I need my catwalk,” he said, picking up all the glasses, water cups, and beer bottles along the way.

Anyone who has seen a !!! show knows that Offer is hyperkinetic. (He comes prepared to dance, dressed in a t-shirt and short shorts, a combination that reminds me of drummer Pat Mahoney, who would be similarly attired for endurance pushing set with LCD Soundsystem.)

This time around, Offer seemed especially energized, probably because the band was debuting material from the upcoming album Thr!!!er, including “One Girl / One Boy” and “Except Death.” The funky, acid-house infused “Slyd” was supposedly played by the band for the first time in a live setting, and Offer and company seemed pleased to pull off the sample-heavy track.

The singer made a big deal of it, but it was just one of many things he made look relatively easy. Perhaps a little too easy: near the end of !!!’s performance, the hyped up bass player from White Arrows hopped on stage. As the cocktail table toppled, the stage dive became a corgy flop.

Openers:
White Arrows – its pseudo psychedelic pop is getting better all the time, although the band no longer seems to be coordinating thrift store Hawaiian shirts. The drummer has a nice predilection for irregular, semi-tribal beats, and the keyboardist’s falsetto sounded nice harmonizing with the singer’s drawl near the end of the set.

The Mallard – “hell of a screeching, bass-pumping build for an opener” is what I initially wrote down, seconds after the San Francisco band got going. Then it built and built, with lead singer Greer McGettrick seemingly telling a story in a way reminiscent of “The Gift.” The mix was off in a way that lost the narrative, but sonically it was interesting, complete with a kind of drone I’d never heard before via a live horn.

It was also assaultive; next to the speaker it felt like the back of my throat was full of Rice Crispies and Pop Rocks. By the end, stretching across the Mallard’s whole set, I started to pick up more of the lyrics – 911 calls and sirens – as McGettrick started eerily circling the crowd, intoning “There’s been a muhmuhmuhmuhmuh-murdah.” More Noise than Pop, it was the kind of opening that makes you super excited to hear the second song, and desperately hoping it doesn’t sound like the first. Which was probably why the trio camped out next to the stage with their fingers in their ears looked relieved when it turned out to be the band’s only one for the night. [Ed. note: apparently the Mallard was doing an extended cover of Throbbing Gristle last night]

The Yellow Dogs – the band looked like the Iranian Strokes, sounded like a speedier version of the Rapture crossed with a little Mars Volta, and sang wildly like the B-52s. They supposedly drove four days to get to the show, only to break down an hour away. They said it was worth it to perform with their favorite band, and the way the singer moved, I believe it.

Happy Women’s History Month, dammit let’s celebrate

Andrew Lam

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March 1, 2013

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Happy Women’s History Month, dammit let’s celebrate

Officially, the city of San Francisco will celebrate Women’s History Month with a ceremony honoring a female representative from each district on March 19 at the Board of Supervisors’ legislative chambers, followed by a reception at the Public Utilities Building at which the Mayor will proclaim a Woman of the Year. If you can stand the excitement, click here for more info.

Let’s not stop there, shall we?

Obama’s proclamation of this year’s WHM directed people to a carefully curated, perfectly dull website. Are we over Women’s History Month? Does the holiday — officially created in 1987 and proclaimed by the President annually starting in 1994 — amount to mere tokenism, as the Atlantic proclaimed today?

We’re all hanging out waiting for feminism’s fourth wave at this point, and with the Republicans having been roundly shamed in the 2012 national elections, most of the activist ire in this city gravitates towards causes with more traction in 2013. (Though this may be changing. See: local author Rebecca Solnit’s teaser for her upcoming book on the global pandemic of violence against women, which will at the least get the blogosphere roiling.) Call this a positive move towards intersectionality if you will.

But I can’t help but think: they gave us a goddamn month, shouldn’t we use it?

It’d be great if March had as many exciting events as February did for Black History Month, which saw a film festival, library events, four-day food and drink extravaganzas in the Bay Area. Excuses to come together, explicitly, in the name of women are rare — though I don’t even think they have to have a History Month (or International Women’s Day, which is March 8) on them to be amazing.

Check the newspaper on Wednesday for our complete list of recommendations on places to kick for Women’s History Month, and even more XX-chromosoned culture than usually through March. I suggested printing t-shirts for your feminist gang now. For now, here’s a couple cool, not necessarily Women’s History Month-specific ways people are recognizing women’s accomplishments this year:

– Retroactive awesome: last week, the City and the NAACP joined forces to honor 93-year old swing dancer Norma Miller at Saint John Coltrane African Orthodox Church. She’s known as the “Queen of Swing” and now travels the world speaking about her life and jazz culture. She’s danced in everything from the Marx Brothers’ A Day at the Races (1937) to Spike Lee’s Malcolm X (1992), and shows up in the Ken Burn’s jazz documentary.

– Mirus Gallery is in the final days of “The Looking Glass: Refraction Through the Female Gaze”, in which 17 female artists interpret the female form, messing with the art world’s standard depictions of woman as vessel for whatever the hell conceit the painter/illustrator/sculptor is trying to get across. Kimberly Brooks, Rachel Walker, Mercedes Helnwein, Claire Pestaille, and Casey O’Connell all have pieces in the show.

Through Sat/2. Mirus Gallery, 540 Howard, SF. www.mirusgallery.com

– Mother and head of the SF Fire Department Joanne Hayes-White has been named grand marshall of this year’s St. Patrick’s Day parade. Hayes-White made tne news in 2005 when her husband called 911 after she raised lumps on his head with a pint glass, and then again in 2011 when her wages started being garnished for spousal support. Something about supporting her husband and raising her kids just didn’t sit right with her #badass

– Tonight is the First Friday opening of “Titti Trifecta”, an all-female group show at Moco Gallery in Oakland. Expect single mom sculptures, artisanal dildos, and a month-long program of artist talks, feminist film, and DIY sex toy workshops.

Through March 31. Opening reception Fri/1, 7pm, free. Moco Gallery, 371 17th St., Oakl. Facebook: Moco

– International Women’s Day is March 8, but the only women’s demonstration we’ve heard of so far will take place on March 9 at Dolores Park. Women Organized to Resist and Defend (WORD) is organizing this rally and march to bring attention to violence against women. From Ohio to India, this year’s been a doozy, and past anti-violence march turnouts have indicated that people are starting to turn out for their right to be safe. (On a related note, check out this Time photo essay by Sara Naomi Lewcowicz, for which Lewcowicz embedded with a couple who before her lens became the poster children for domestic abuse.)

March 9, noon, free. Dolores Park, 19th St. and Guerrero, SF. www.defendwomensrights.org

Check Wednesday’s newspaper for our full list of woman-y stuff during the month of March — and send any event you’re stoked on to caitlin@sfbg.com

Look who supports same-sex marriage

Zelda Bronstein

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February 28, 2013

46

The latest Field Poll is very good news for supporters of same-sex marriage in California — residents of this state now support gay nuptials by almost 2-1. That’s a dramatic change since 2008, when Prop. 8 passed; in fact, the poll shows the approval margin widening significantly in just the past two years. And we all know that this is a demographic shift (voters under 40 are in favor by 78 percent, and most of the opposition is among the 60-plus crowd) so the numbers are only going in one direction.

But here’s one of the more interesting elements of the poll: In California, 55 percent of Catholics support same-sex marriage.

That’s something the College of Cardinals ought to be (but clearly isn’t) thinking about in the upcoming Papal Enclave. Frankly, very few Catholics in the US or Europe pay much attention to the church’s teachings on sex anymore. And as we all know, once the faithful decide that half of what you’re saying is pretty stupid, they’re going to pay less attention to the rest of it. In other words, the Church is becoming far less relevant in this country, and another conservative white Pope — and that’s who’s likely getting elected — will just continue that trend.

The Performant: An expedition report from the All Worlds Fair

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks

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February 27, 2013

0

A visitor to the inter-dimensional, pan-galactic celebration known as the All Worlds Fair has to be prepared to fulfill the bureaucratic requirements, which are, by Earth standards, unusually rigid. In order to enter this portal into a unique realm which contains all possible and alternate realities under one roof, travelers must fill out both a visa application and an immigration form and additionally agree to adhere to the more-or-less strictly enforced dress code (black-and-white) and no-digital device accord.

Ushered first into a tented holding area of the sort that will seem familiar to seasoned travelers waiting to embark on a voyage across international waters, travelers are urged to fill out an additional form, as a bevy of extraterrestrial functionaries in matching red-and-black dresses and pillbox hats topped with twitching antennae, scuttle to-and-fro, monitoring progress.

Travelers are then funneled through passport control and given that most essential of documents, embossed gold on red, with plenty of pages for exhaustive stamp collectors. Upon entering the portal to the Fair, aka the side entrance of San Francisco’s Old Mint, the route taken and wonders encountered by each explorer will be effectively unique, as a dozen different directions and dimensions become immediately possible in the cramped warren of small brick rooms that make up the first level of the historic “Granite Lady.”

I am whisked down to the far end of the hall by a brusque docent in a bellhop’s uniform who ushers me into a room full of giant plushy mustaches on rockers and urges me to take a ride. Just outside, a more titillating ride awaits—a trip on the “time-folding” massage chairs of Wrinkle Inc. The friendly proprietors offer me a handful of official AWF currency — “genuine” Emperor Norton banknotes — and wish me luck with me “upcoming appendectomy.” Clairvoyance, it seems, is a side effect of time travel, or maybe it’s actually appendicitis that is. A tentacled oracle further predicts my future, the Aixiodimensional Adventure company offers me brochures for the Planet Ckikyuu and Urataint, a destination recommended “only for hardy, experienced dimension-jumpers.”

I’m temporarily kidnapped by mermaids, challenged to a cardboard cutlass duel by a lusty wench, serve on the jury of the All World’s Court, and undergo the necessary formality of the Open Secret Cabaret, where all the esoteric and practical knowledge assembled by permanent Fair inhabitants is presented in lulling sing-song interspersed by manic outbursts of a caged studio musician. I’m told later of wonders such as a penny arcade, an endless tea party, and a Merkin Tile where Norton bucks can be exchanged for goods, but hustled up to the second level too soon, I can only hope to experience these in another point along the time-space continuum.

The Upper Floor contained, among other wonders, the splendid collection of “Wrongitudinal Flora” at the Botanarium, including the delicious-looking fried egg plant and a pair of comfy, deciduous sofas, an interactive “live sculpture garden” and solemn retelling of the horror story (and intergalactic bestseller!) that is the Book of Revelations, and the centerpiece of the event: a dance performance imported all the way from the Andromeda Galaxy, which combined familiar elements of earthly disciplines such as Butoh, polyrhythmic percussion, occasional throat-singing, and acrobatics in a strobe-lit, rooftop spectacle as well as a more intimate portion performed in rooms filled with clouds, enigmatic musicians, and writhing bodies dressed in their traditional garb of white-on-white layers (the Andromedans have no developed sense of color).

This energetic display regrettably marked the end of the All World’s Fair for another eternity (give or take a few millennium), and with hardly a moment to regroup, we were whisked out of the building and deposited back onto Fifth Street, where gravity and the Gregorian calendar conspired to anchor us firmly back to Earth. And thus concludes my expedition report, at least within this dimension.

*End Transmission*

Our 50 favorite San Francisco bars — all on one page!

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February 26, 2013

12

Our 50 favorite San Francisco bars — all on one page!

From splashy dives to upscale classics (and everything in between) — our favorite spots to grab a drink

This week’s cover story in the paper highlights 50 great bars we love (along with 30 honorable mentions and 10 East Bay favorites). That’s a lot of pages on the Internet! here it all is on one handy page — grab a drink and scroll with us to watering hole bliss. (You can also flip through the digital edition of the paper here.)

PS For this list we concentrated specifically on bars (including those at restaurants and hotels), leaving you to judge the cocktails at music venues and dance clubs on their own merits.

PRICE RANGE KEY:

$ (cocktails generally under $10)

$$ (cocktails generally $10-14)

$$$ (cocktails generally $15 and above)

NOTABLE KEY:

Cocktail Destination: Noteworthy cocktails

Spirits Selection: Extensive or well-curated spirits selection

Memorable Atmosphere: Worth drinking here for the atmosphere

Wine Sanctuary: Exceptional wine list

Beer Haven: Exceptional beer list

Gourmet Bites: Notable food

Dive: Classic, standout dive bar

Classic: An SF staple, standard-setter

Mellow: Particularly laid back, good for conversation

Music: Live music destination

15 ROMOLO

North Beach, $–$$

Cocktail Destination, Gourmet Bites, Spirits Selection

Consistently one of SF’s best cocktail bars, 15 Romolo commands an uphill alley in North Beach with some of the most balanced and inventive drinks in town. The laidback, dim space (with fab jukebox), reflects pre-Prohibition spirit but isn’t obnoxiously theme-y. Many of our city’s top bartenders started here, going on to launch other bars. Romolo’s brunch — boozy waffle shots! — and food menu rank among the most satisfying bar food in existence. Hello, peanut butter bacon burgers!

15 Romolo, SF. (415) 398-1359, www.15romolo.com

ALEMBIC

Upper Haight, $–$$

Cocktail Destination, Gourmet Bites, Spirits Selection

As Alembic currently faces significant changes (bar manager Daniel Hyatt’s exit after nearly seven years, expansion into the Red Vic space next door), time will tell if it remains the iconic bar it has been for the past 7 years. Still serving impeccable New Orleans classic cocktails, Hyatt’s unique, forward-thinking cocktails, and underrated, gourmet food, Alembic’s spirits collection, particularly American whiskey, has been one of its key strengths since day one.

1725 Haight, SF. (415) 666-0822, www.alembicbar.com

AQ

SoMa, $$

Cocktail Destination, Gourmet Bites, Spirits Selection, Memorable Atmosphere, Wine Sanctuary

AQ’s lovely brick-walled, high ceiling restaurant evolves its decor with the season, while the bar changes vintage glassware and bar top: burnt copper for fall, marble in winter. Seasonal cocktail classics are infused with subtle twists while original cocktails are incredibly creative, unusual. The wine list is extensive, heavy on the Loire Valley but offering an international range.

1085 Mission, SF. (415) 341-9000, www.aq-sf.com

AUB ZAM ZAM

Upper Haight, $

Classic, Dive

Faded 1930s Arabian Nights theme and legendarily grumpy bartenders have set this boozy cocktail den apart for decades. This piece of cocktail history birthed countless stories of now deceased Bruno, who would kick people out for ordering a vodka martini — or for any reason that suited him. It’s friendlier now, thank goodness. And there’s been no upgrades to decor, the jukebox still belts out Tony Bennett and Tom Waits, drinks remain stiff, and there’s almost always a seat waiting for you. It’s nice knowing just a few places remain averse to change.

1633 Haight, SF. (415) 861-2545

AUNT CHARLIE’S LOUNGE

Tenderloin, $

Classic, Dive, Memorable Atmosphere

Everything you thought about gay bars was wrong — or else exactly right. This wonderfully worn-in, carpeted little cave in the Tenderloin is bursting with character and crazy seasonal decor. Grittily glamorous Hotboxxx Girls drag shows on Friday and Saturday evenings are a must for the too-hip and the just-visiting alike.

133 Turk, SF. (415) 441-2922, www.auntcharlieslounge.com

BAR AGRICOLE

SoMa, $$

Cocktail Destination, Gourmet Bites, Memorable Atmosphere

Good luck getting a bar seat in this ultra-cool, eco-chic bar-restaurant, minimalist yet dramatic under shimmering light installations, serving forward-thinking food. Reserve a table in the front garden, arrive early, or just wait your turn at the bar and you’ll be blessed with impeccable rum and rhum agricole cocktails alongside a range of pristinely-executed classics from Thad Vogler and crew.

355 11th St., SF. (415) 355-9400, www.baragricole.com

BENDER’S

Mission, $

Beer Haven, Dive

A stalwart favorite of fixie riders, rock mavens, and those weary of fighting for space a Zeitgeist — or hey, folks just looking for a good, stiff drink in a mercifully concept-free atmosphere with room to sit down. Bender’s stands out with a tasty beer selection and tater tots and tacos to die for.

806 Van Ness, SF. (415) 824-1800, www.bendersbar.com

BIG

TenderNob, $$$

Cocktail Destination, Memorable Atmosphere

Truly tiny under red velvet-draped ceiling, the ironically named Big fills up quickly, but overcrowding is somehow kept at bay, making it, at times, an intimate spot for a cocktail. Though pricey, the menu-less bar is about seeing what house syrups have been made that day (mirepoix, corn?), what spirit you might be in the mood for, and what two talented bartenders can craft on the spot.

761 Post, SF.

THE BIG 4

Nob Hill, $$$

Classic, Gourmet Bites, Memorable Atmosphere, Mellow, Musical

May rumors of the Huntington Hotel’s new owners doing away with this fantastic, historic bar — the jewel of Nob Hill — be untrue. For decades, the Big 4, named for the Central Pacific Railroad’s “big fiour” tycoons, has been the archetypal old school bar in a restaurant. Its dark wood setting and fireplace evoking an ur-capitalist gentleman’s club and martini lounge set to the nightly, live piano strains of Michael Parsons (Sundays it’s Steve Klawiter).

1075 California, SF. (415) 771-1140, www.big4restaurant.com

BIX

Financial District, $$

Classic, Cocktail Destination, Musical

One of the more dazzling dining rooms in town. You enter thick curtains off a downtown alley into Bix’s dramatic space — like walking into a Thin Man movie. Live jazz and beautiful Negronis confirm you’ve entered another, jazzier era, one Bix has faithfully preserved since 1988. Here’s to many more decades.

56 Gold, SF. (415) 433-6300, www.bixrestaurant.com

BLACKBIRD

Castro, $–$$

Cocktail Destination

The Castro is one of the most social neighborhoods in SF, rife with numerous watering holes and gathering places. But not until Blackbird was there a cocktailian’s haven, serving elegant drinks — with a well-curated wine ist to match — utilizing house made pistachio orgeat, hibiscus-infused brandy, and other handcrafter ingredients.

2124 Market, SF. (415) 503-0630, www.blackbirdbar.com

BOURBON AND BRANCH

Tenderloin, $$

Cocktail Destination, Memorable Atmosphere, Mellow, Spirits Selection,

Love or hate the new speakeasy bars, Bourbon and Branch, now eight years old, was one of the earliest progenitors of the theme outside of NYC. And despite owner Future Bars’ notable other bars (Tradition, Local Edition), B&B remains the best. Rarely is a bar this transporting: ring a doorbell next to an unmarked door and enter the 1920s. This reservations-only hideaway guarantees a seat, a romantic escape for conversation and quality drink. Its bar-within-a-bar, Wilson and Wilson, is likewise one of SF’s best, digging even deeper into housemade ingredients and unusual combinations. Consider it the impressive place to take out-of-towners for a drink.

501 Jones, SF. (415) 346-1735, www.bourbonandbranch.com

BROKEN RECORD

Excelsior, $

Spirits Selection, Dive, Gourmet Bites

This dive in the outer reaches of SF draws whiskey fans from afar. With every chef who sets up shop in Broken Record’s back room, kick-ass bar food (Southern BBQ, elevated burgers) results. From pool table to patio, it’s everything you want in a dive bar and more, including laid back bartenders, a genuine vibe, and more than 250 whiskies at reasonable prices.

1166 Geneva, SF. (415) 963-1713, www.facebook.com/brokenrecordsf

CANTINA

Union Square, $–$$

Cocktail Destination

Pioneering South and Central American cocktails, Cantina has been keeping it real for years with refreshing drinks highlighting tequila, mezcal, cachaca, and pisco (owner Duggan McDonnell is also one of the creators of Campo Encanto Pisco). Cantina’s basement hosts all kinds of events, a community gathering place.

580 Sutter, SF. (415) 398-0193, www.cantinasf.com

CHURCH KEY

North Beach, $–$$

Beer Haven, Mellow

Church Key is a breath of fresh air amid the party bars, classic dives, strip clubs, and cocktail spots of North Beach. With cozy upstairs mezzanine, it’s a beer lovers dream of revolving drafts and bottles in an unpretentious setting where one can actually talk with friends.

1402 Grant, SF. (415) 963-1713

CLUB DELUXE

Upper Haight, $

Music, Gourmet Bites

Blonde wood walls, black and white tile, red booths, dim lighting — an environment virtually unchanged for decades. These are reasons to love Club Deluxe but supreme is multiple nightly sets of some of the best live jazz in SF, from bossa nova to bepop and blues. You don’t come here for the drinks but recent addition of Chef Thomas Martinez offers fantastic food. One can comfortably linger over a shot of whiskey, jazz, and gourmet plates.

1511 Haight, SF. (415) 552-6949, www.sfclubdeluxe.com

COMSTOCK SALOON

North Beach, $–$$

Cocktail Destination, Gourmet Bites, Memorable Atmosphere, Spirits Selection

Showcasing SF’s Barbary Coast era with vintage ceiling fans, Victorian couch sidling up to a pot belly stove, and the original trough (ahem, to piss in back in the day) lining a dramatic wood bar, “Saloon Keepers” Jeff Hollinger and Jonny Raglin honor the history of Comstock’s gorgeous, two-room, 1907 space. It’s a memorable a date night and a casual, neighborhood hangout. Whether cozy in a bar booth or at a table in the wainscoted dining room, food from Chef Carlos Espina is as thoughtful as the classic cocktails.

155 Columbus, SF. (415) 617-0071, www.comstocksaloon.com

DOSA

Mission, Fillmore, $–$$

Cocktail Destination, Gourmet Bites, Memorable Atmosphere

Besides serving some of the best upscale South Indian food anywhere, Dosa’s two locations also craft a unique cocktail menu unlike any, heavy on Indian spices and flavor profiles, including its own house gin produced by local distiller Old World Spirits: cardamom-rich Blade Gin.

Dosa on Fillmore: 1700 Fillmore, SF. (415) 441-3672

Dosa on Valencia: 995 Valencia, SF. (415) 642-3672, www.dosasf.com

EDINBURGH CASTLE

Tenderloin, $

Classic, Dive

This quintessential SF dive bar has been around for years, akin to classic British pubs, occasionally rowdy, generally low key, ever-ready with a pint. In that spirit, its serves fish and chips in newspaper and facilitates offbeat community with readings, ’60s dance club nights, and legendary trivia quizzes.

950 Geary, SF. (415) 885-4074, www.castlenews.com

ELIXIR

Mission, $–$$

Cocktail Destination

When partying or sports-loving crowds descend, the already small bar gets cramped, in a space dating back to 1858. Boasting an impressive whiskey collection, Elixir is run by cocktail pioneer H. Joseph Ehrmann, and talented bar managing duo Shea Shawnson and Nick DesEnfants. The cocktail menu is a mix of 1800s saloon classics, Elixir favorites like H.’s Celery Cup No. 1, and rotating seasonal drinks.

3200 16th St., SF. (415) 552-1633, www.elixirsf.com

FAT ANGEL

Fillmore, $–$$

Beer Haven, Wine Sanctuary, Gourmet Bites

Part romantic European café, part comfortable neighborhood pub, Fat Angel manages to be dream neighborhood beer and wine bar in one. Above average bar bites, friendly staff, and changing draft beers and wines listed on a large chalkboard under dramatic chandelier ensure you’ll want to linger for hours.

1740 O’Farrell, SF. (415) 525-3013 www.fatangelsf.com

GITANE

Financial District, $$

Cocktail Destination, Gourmet Bites, Memorable Atmosphere

Just about the sexiest bar and setting in the city, Gitane has been strong on spirits collection, wine list, and cocktails from day one, with upscale regional Spanish cuisine making it a real date night. 6 Claude Lane, SF. (415) 788-6686, www.gitanerestaurant.com

HEAVEN’S DOG

SoMa, $–$$

Cocktail Destination, Gourmet Bites, Spirits Selection

Undergoing a significant overhaul, Heaven’s Dog showcases the cocktail expertise of one of our great barmen, Erik Adkins. The bar at Asian-influenced Heaven’s Dog restaurant has been tended by some of SF’s top bartenders, most recently supervised by Ethan Terry (of AQ, 15 Romolo, Comstock). One of the best places for classic Charles H. Baker cocktails anywhere, its latest incarnation will focus on original creations alongside Charles Phan’s cuisine (of Slanted Door fame).

1148 Mission, SF. (415) 863-6008, www.heavensdog.com

THE HIDEOUT

Mission, $

Cocktail Destination

Through longtime Mission favorite Dalva is a hidden back room, The Hideout, a getaway for cocktail geeks who disdain pretension. With guest bartending appearances by local and visiting drink masters, bar staff display an adept hand at elegant but never fussy cocktails, shaken or stirred to loud, classic tunes of the ’70s and ’80s.

3121 16th St., SF. (415) 252-7740

HI TOPS

Castro, $–$$

Memorable Atmosphere, Gourmet Bites

It’s a new gay sports bar — a recent shot in Sports Illustrated featuring two men in 49ers jerseys kissing toppled barriers. But why stop there? The vintage ’60s gym decor, eclectic atmosphere, and twists on game night bites have upped the sports bar game. And yes, there’s a cocktail with Muscle Milk as base.

2247 Market, SF. (415) 551-2500, www.hitopssf.com

HOG & ROCKS

Mission, $$

Cocktail Destination, Gourmet Bites

Hog & Rocks has been a popular watering hole for American whiskey and unfussy cocktails lovers, happy over platters of oysters and ham. Once the bar was commandeered by Michael Lazar consulting with Scott Beattie, it became a special place for bracing cask strength Old Fashioneds, or tall rocks refreshers accented by garden fresh and preserved fruits and herbs. Lazar and Beattie (who also put together the drink menu at the new Hi Lo across the street) have made it a casual yet festive cocktail destination.

3431 19th St., SF. (415) 550-8627, www.hogandrocks.com

HOTEL BIRON

Hayes Valley, $–$$

Wine Sanctuary, Mellow

Hotel Biron is an intimate, romantic wine bar drawing people to a nondescript alley near busy Market Street for years, featuring monthly rotating local artists in a candlelit, narrow space. Grab a couch or bistro chair with friends in this late night sanctuary for French and Californian wines.

45 Rose, SF. (415) 703-0403, www.hotelbiron.com

JASPER’S CORNER TAP

Union Square, $–$$

Cocktail Destination, Gourmet Bites

Need a meet-up location with friends or colleagues near Union Square? One open all day, that’ll please the beer geek, the wine lover, the cocktail aficionado? Oh, and that serves reasonably priced, tasty gastropub food? Not too tall an order, since Jasper’s came along. Thanks to bar manager Kevin Diedrich, one of our city’s great bartenders, some of the most thoughtful, fun cocktails in the city are here.

401 Taylor, SF. (415) 775-7979, www.jasperscornertap.com

LITTLE SHAMROCK

Inner Sunset, $

Dive, Pub, Classic, Mellow

Though there’s no shortage of Irish pubs in town, Little Shamrock stands out, going strong since 1894. Just off Golden Gate Park, this is garage sale, eclectic comfort expressed in a hodgepodge of couches, chairs, tables, inviting one to linger over Guinness on tap, board games, backgammon, warm fireplace, and free popcorn.

807 Lincoln Way, SF. (415) 661-0060

MAGNOLIA BREWERY

Upper Haight, $–$$

Beer Haven, Gourmet Bites

Operating as a busy gastropub, Magnolia arguably crafts the best local SF beer (not bottled) since 1997. Beermaster and restaurateur, Dave McLean, who also owns Alembic and an upcoming Dogpatch brewery, is behind the world-class brews. Serving cask-conditioned ales long before it was trendy, experimenting in a range of styles and categories, he makes sure there’s a beer for everyone. McLean is a key figure in furthering SF and California beers from his roles in the SF Brewers Guild and Outside Lands’ Beer Lands.

1398 Haight, SF. (415) 1398 Haight, SF. www.magnoliapub.com

MARTUNI’S

Soma, $$

Classic, Memorable Atmosphere, Music

Who doesn’t love a piano bar? Characters belt out showtunes in the back of this velvet-draped classic, while spiffy bartenders shake or stir some killer martinis upfront. It’s a little bit classy, a little bit seedy, and all San Francisco.

4 Valencia, SF. (415) 241-0205, martunis.ypguides.net

MAVEN

Lower Haight, $–$$

Cocktail Destination, Gourmet Bites

Kate Bolton brought a deft hand with cocktails (formed at fine dinging bars like Michael Mina) when she became bar manager at Maven, Lower Haight’s best new cocktail outpost. Elegant yet unfussy drinks and an equally strong food menu — with helpful, adventurous beer pairings — make it a winning, all-around stop.

598 Haight, SF. (415) 829-7982. www.maven-sf.com

MONK’S KETTLE, ABBOT’S CELLAR

Mission, $–$$

Beer Haven, Gourmet Bites, Memorable Atmosphere

Opened by the same team, these temples to beer feature proper glassware, storing temperatures, and impeccable selections (bottle and draft) of rare beers from around the globe. Both are strong restaurants, whether the always-crowded, gastropub-like Monk’s, which has been one of our city’s best beer bars for years, or the newer, more upscale Abbot’s Cellar.

Monk’s: 3141 16th St., SF. (415) 865-9523, www.monkskettle.com

Abbot’s: 742 Valencia, SF. (415) 626-8700, www.abbotscellar.com

MOSTO

Mission, $–$$

Cocktail Destination, Spirits Selection

An agave spirits collection of more than 300 bottles is reason enough to visit Mosto. A generous list of tequila and mezcal cocktails, neighboring Tacolicious restaurant’s guac and queso and laid back, urban cantina feel confirm it’s a top tequila bar.

741 Valencia, SF. www.mostosf.com

OCCIDENTAL CIGAR BAR

Financial District, $–$$

Classic, Mellow

Since 2001, cozy Occidental is a rare smoking bar and our pick for top cigar bar. Besides a strong spirits list heavy on the whiskies, its historical connection goes back to the 1860s in the space’s former incarnation as the Occidental Hotel, where Professor Jerry Thomas, who helped established bartending as a craft, is purported to have once bartended. Woodcut etchings of his groundbreaking Bon Vivants Companion cocktail book line smoke-tinged walls of the bar where you can bring in your own cigars or choose from the humidor collection.

471 Pine, SF. (415) 834-0485, www.occidentalcigarclub.com

PRESS CLUB

Downtown, $$

Wine Sanctuary, Memorable Atmosphere

Press Club’s subterranean setting right off Market Street downtown is an unusual one. With a vast space in which to find a quiet corner or celebrate with a crowd, consider it the chic lounge of wine bars, serving a changing list of international wines, flights (like “Italy vs. USA”), beers, and bites, featuring monthly vintners and brewers with focused tastings. It’s a central, notable place to meet up with out-of-towners and colleagues.

20 Yerba Buena Lane, SF. (415) 744-5000, www.pressclubsf.com

RANGE

Mission, $–$$

Cocktail Destination, Gourmet Bites

A drink and dining stalwart from the early days when Brooke Arthur ran the small bar, to current manager Jeff Lyon’s touch, which has kept the intimate bar in Range’s restaurant on the drink lover’s map. Spirit-heavy or seasonal drinks (like an Ojo del Tigre with blood orange and tequila) are delicious and impeccably crafted.

842 Valencia, SF. (415) 282-8283

RICH TABLE

Hayes Valley, $$

Cocktail Destination, Gourmet Bites, Memorable Atmosphere

Besides being one of the top new restaurants in the city (and country), Rich Table opened with a short but sharp cocktail list showcasing herbs and spirits. Once Jason “Buffalo” LoGrasso was brought on as bar manager, the cocktail list, including unforgettable dessert cocktails, grew, becoming a special drink outpost… if you can snag a seat at the bar.

199 Gough, SF. (415) 355-9085, www.richtablesf.com

RIO GRANDE

Tenderloin, $–$$

Cocktail Destination, Memorable Atmosphere

From the Bon Vivants, this urban cantina-meets-roadhouse pours cheap, canned beers and skillful cocktails, heavy on tequila and whiskey, under glistening walls and stripper poles. A live music stage and cowhide confirm the roadhouse vibe, while the bar livens up a seedy stretch of Market Street.

1108 Market, SF.

ROYAL CUCKOO

Outer Mission, $–$$

Memorable Atmosphere, Music

Dimly lit, sexy Royal Cuckoo is a hodgepodge of mid-century thrift store lamps, paintings, and furniture accented with shades of red. A strong small batch spirits selection and in-house Hammond organ star in a space reminiscent of great New Orleans bars: no cover for excellent live music (all centered around the Hammond). All for the cost of a stiff drink… and there always seems to be a seat.

3202 Mission, SF. (415) 550-8667, www.royalcuckoo.com

RYE

Tenderloin, $

Cocktail Destination

With smoking “cage” patio out front and center-of-Tenderloin locale, Rye has been churning out quality cocktails — and some of the city’s best bartenders — long before many current upstarts were even in planning stages. Masterminds Jon Gasparini and Greg Lindgren (who also opened 15 Romolo, Rye on the Road, Rosewood) ensure Rye remains an unpretentious neighborhood hangout serving drinkable cocktails, like that ever-popular basil gimlet.

688 Geary, SF. (415) 474-4448, www.ryesf.com

SMUGGLER’S COVE

Hayes Valley, $–$$

Cocktail Destination, Memorable Atmosphere, Spirits Selection

This tri-level tropical escape, from owner Martin Cate, launched many a copycat. Smuggler’s Cove upped the game for Tiki bars, with playful reverence to Tiki history and, yes, kitschy décor. The extensive cocktail menu covers everything from pre-Castro Havana to original Don the Beachcomber creations. We’ve traveled to rum bars in other cities who tell us they were inspired to curate their rum collection based on Smuggler’s incredible, 200+ rums in every style and category.

650 Gough, SF. (415) 869-1900, www.smugglerscovesf.com

SPECS TWELVE ADLER MUSEUM

North Beach, $

Classic, Dive, Mellow

An ode to SF history filled with colorful locals and eye-popping knickknacks, this dive is an institution tucked away off busy Columbus Ave. For decades, Specs encourages conversation and community with cheap drinks and a warm welcome, treating everyone like regulars.

12 Saroyan Pl., SF. (415) 421-4112

TOMMY’S

Outer Richmond, $–$$

Dive, Classic, Spirits Selection

Since 1965, Tommy’s has stocked the most extensive collection of 100% agave tequila outside of Mexico. Julio Bermejo, like his father Tommy and mother Elmy before him, stays true to the familial roots of this old school Mexican restaurant, virtually unchanged since the ’60s. Tommy’s famed classic margarita, dusty, rare bottles of tequila stacked under the bar, Tommy’s Tequila Masters club, a divey-perfect back bar… all explain why Tommy’s is an SF institution. Watch for the release of Julio’s own long-anticipated tequila. There’s only one Tommy’s.

5929 Geary Blvd, SF. (415) 387-4747, www.tommystequila.com

TORONADO

Lower Haight, $

Beer Haven, Classic, Dive, Gourmet Bites

One of SF’s best beer bars since it opened more than 20 years ago, Toronado has stayed true to its dive-y roots. Sometimes-gruff bartenders can be overlooked for an ever-impressive selection of dozens of beers on tap from around the globe. Toronado launched a rarity: a Barleywine Festival, featuring over 50 draft barleywines every February. Paired with Rosamunde’s sausages from next door, the killer duo is an SF institution.

547 Haight, SF. (415) 863-2267, www.toronado.com

TOSCA

North Beach, $

Classic, Memorable Atmosphere

What would North Beach be without Tosca? Surviving Prohibition with its “house cappuccinos” (brandy and hot chocolate), Tosca’s Italian-only jukebox and elegantly faded decor have worn the better part of a century with grace. Saved from tragically closing, it will be given new life at the hands of NY chef April Bloomfield. Here’s praying Tosca’s one-of-a-kind space, sacred celebrity back room, and espresso machine remain as is, though food and new-and-improved cocktail menu are predicted to be part of Bloomfield’s take-over.

242 Columbus, SF. (415) 986-9651, www.toscacafesf.com

TRICK DOG

Mission, $$

Cocktail Destination, Gourmet Bites, Memorable Atmosphere

The new kid on the Mission block feels like it has been around awhile, both from the years anticipating its opening and the crew behind it: SF’s great barmen, The Bon Vivants. Fan through a Pantone color swatch menu of original cocktails, impeccably made, and chow on Chester Watson’s winning food (Peruvian popcorn or Fernet ice cream?) Just get there at early if you want to avoid the crowds.

3010 20th St., SF. (415) 471-2999, www.trickdogbar.com

TWO SISTERS BAR & BOOKS

Hayes Valley, $–$$

Cocktail Destination, Gourmet Bites, Mellow

Like the ultimate European neighborhood bar, two actual sisters modeled this spot after all day café-bars from their European travels. Closet-sized and lined with books, there’s always jazz playing on the stereo and a warm greeting. Affordable, homey food is as lovely as the cocktails featuring local and small batch spirits.

579 Hayes, SF. (415) 863-3655, www.2sistersbarandbooks.com

VESUVIO

North Beach, $

Classic, Dive, Memorable Atmosphere

Beat poet hangout, eclectic mishmash of creaky wood booths, nooks, knick-knacks and colorful personalities, Vesuvio is not so much about the drinks as the character. Just like Tosca and Specs across the street (three completely different vibes), Vesuvio has been around for decades, drawing longtimers and tourists alike. It maintains a bar personality all its own, a historical landmark that remains alive and vibrant today.

255 Columbus, SF. (415) 362-3370 www.vesuvio.com

ZEITGEIST

Mission, $

Beer Haven, Dive

Service can be downright gruff. Lines can snake down the block. Just to enter a biker-friendly dive mobbed with bike messengers, black-clad rockers, and scruffy hipsters? Hell, yes. The punk-spirited biergarten out back is one of SF’s legendary gathering places where locals and visitors alike assemble around communal picnic tables over Bloody Marys, basic burgers, brats, and beers.

199 Valencia, SF. (415) 255-7505, www.zeitgeistsf.com

HONORABLE MENTIONS

83 Proof, SoMa

Bar 888, SoMa

Barrel Room, Union Square

Barrique, Financial District

Beretta, Mission

Casanova, Mission

City Beer Store, SoMa

Connecticut Yankee, Potrero Hill

Green’s Sports Bar, Russian Hill

Harry Denton’s, Union Square

Hidden Vine, Financial District

Horseshoe Tavern, Marina

Iron & Gold, Bernal Heights

La Mar, Embarcadero

La Trappe, North Beach

Li Po, Chinatown

Napper Tandy, Mission

Noc Noc, Lower Haight

Nopa, Western Addition

Pause Wine Bar, Hayes Valley

Pisco Latin Lounge, Mission

Riptide, Outer Sunset

Rock Bar, Outer Mission

Quince, Financial District

Slanted Door, Embarcadero

St. Vincent, Mission

The Page, Lower Haight

Tony Nik’s, North Beach

Upcider, Polk Gulch

Yield Wine Bar, Dogpatch

EAST BAY TOP 10

Forbidden Island

Honor Kitchen & Cocktails

Prizefighter

New Easy

Bar Three Fifty-Five

Heinold’s First & Last Chance Saloon

The Trappist

Beer Revolution

Hotsty Totsy

Flora

The G50: San Francisco’s top bars

-

February 26, 2013

5

virginia@bayguardian.com

Choosing 50 best bars in this city of ours is no easy feat. Historically one of the groundbreaking drinking towns, in the 1800s we nurtured wild Barbary Coast saloons and Professor Jerry Thomas (the first and ultimate bartender to elevate and publicize the craft), and were the first to import and bring pisco to fame. American wine, craft beer (Anchor Steam), and craft spirits first entered public consciousness in our region. Breathtaking views, a legacy of boundary-pushing entrepreneurs, avant-garde cultures, and a pioneering food movement decades old — how could we not be a drinking town? Whether you long to hit the town old school like Nick & Nora, play tunes on the jukebox with rounds of beers, taste the latest in cocktail experimentation, compare wine flights, or linger over conversation with friends… SF has something to suit every mood. Out of hundreds, these 50 have set standards, become beloved favorites, shaped city culture, or just serve a damn good drink.

PS For this list we concentrated specifically on bars (including those at restaurants and hotels), leaving you to judge the cocktails at music venues and dance clubs on their own merits.

>>SEE THIS LIST ON ONE PAGE

PRICE RANGE KEY:

$ (cocktails generally under $10)

$$ (cocktails generally $10-14)

$$$ (cocktails generally $15 and above)

NOTABLE KEY:

Cocktail Destination: Noteworthy cocktails

Spirits Selection: Extensive or well-curated spirits selection

Memorable Atmosphere: Worth drinking here for the atmosphere

Wine Sanctuary: Exceptional wine list

Beer Haven: Exceptional beer list

Gourmet Bites: Notable food

Dive: Classic, standout dive bar

Classic: An SF staple, standard-setter

Mellow: Particularly laid back, good for conversation

Music: Live music destination

15 ROMOLO

North Beach, $–$$

Cocktail Destination, Gourmet Bites, Spirits Selection

Consistently one of SF’s best cocktail bars, 15 Romolo commands an uphill alley in North Beach with some of the most balanced and inventive drinks in town. The laidback, dim space (with fab jukebox), reflects pre-Prohibition spirit but isn’t obnoxiously theme-y. Many of our city’s top bartenders started here, going on to launch other bars. Romolo’s brunch — boozy waffle shots! — and food menu rank among the most satisfying bar food in existence. Hello, peanut butter bacon burgers!

15 Romolo, SF. (415) 398-1359, www.15romolo.com

ALEMBIC

Upper Haight, $–$$

Cocktail Destination, Gourmet Bites, Spirits Selection

As Alembic currently faces significant changes (bar manager Daniel Hyatt’s exit after nearly seven years, expansion into the Red Vic space next door), time will tell if it remains the iconic bar it has been for the past 7 years. Still serving impeccable New Orleans classic cocktails, Hyatt’s unique, forward-thinking cocktails, and underrated, gourmet food, Alembic’s spirits collection, particularly American whiskey, has been one of its key strengths since day one.

1725 Haight, SF. (415) 666-0822, www.alembicbar.com

AQ

SoMa, $$

Cocktail Destination, Gourmet Bites, Spirits Selection, Memorable Atmosphere, Wine Sanctuary

AQ’s lovely brick-walled, high ceiling restaurant evolves its decor with the season, while the bar changes vintage glassware and bar top: burnt copper for fall, marble in winter. Seasonal cocktail classics are infused with subtle twists while original cocktails are incredibly creative, unusual. The wine list is extensive, heavy on the Loire Valley but offering an international range.

1085 Mission, SF. (415) 341-9000, www.aq-sf.com

AUB ZAM ZAM

Upper Haight, $

Classic, Dive

Faded 1930s Arabian Nights theme and legendarily grumpy bartenders have set this boozy cocktail den apart for decades. This piece of cocktail history birthed countless stories of now deceased Bruno, who would kick people out for ordering a vodka martini — or for any reason that suited him. It’s friendlier now, thank goodness. And there’s been no upgrades to decor, the jukebox still belts out Tony Bennett and Tom Waits, drinks remain stiff, and there’s almost always a seat waiting for you. It’s nice knowing just a few places remain averse to change.

1633 Haight, SF. (415) 861-2545

AUNT CHARLIE’S LOUNGE

Tenderloin, $

Classic, Dive, Memorable Atmosphere

Everything you thought about gay bars was wrong — or else exactly right. This wonderfully worn-in, carpeted little cave in the Tenderloin is bursting with character and crazy seasonal decor. Grittily glamorous Hotboxxx Girls drag shows on Friday and Saturday evenings are a must for the too-hip and the just-visiting alike.

133 Turk, SF. (415) 441-2922, www.auntcharlieslounge.com

BAR AGRICOLE

SoMa, $$

Cocktail Destination, Gourmet Bites, Memorable Atmosphere

Good luck getting a bar seat in this ultra-cool, eco-chic bar-restaurant, minimalist yet dramatic under shimmering light installations, serving forward-thinking food. Reserve a table in the front garden, arrive early, or just wait your turn at the bar and you’ll be blessed with impeccable rum and rhum agricole cocktails alongside a range of pristinely-executed classics from Thad Vogler and crew.

355 11th St., SF. (415) 355-9400, www.baragricole.com

BENDER’S

Mission, $

Beer Haven, Dive

A stalwart favorite of fixie riders, rock mavens, and those weary of fighting for space a Zeitgeist — or hey, folks just looking for a good, stiff drink in a mercifully concept-free atmosphere with room to sit down. Bender’s stands out with a tasty beer selection and tater tots and tacos to die for.

806 Van Ness, SF. (415) 824-1800, www.bendersbar.com

BIG

TenderNob, $$$

Cocktail Destination, Memorable Atmosphere

Truly tiny under red velvet-draped ceiling, the ironically named Big fills up quickly, but overcrowding is somehow kept at bay, making it, at times, an intimate spot for a cocktail. Though pricey, the menu-less bar is about seeing what house syrups have been made that day (mirepoix, corn?), what spirit you might be in the mood for, and what two talented bartenders can craft on the spot.

761 Post, SF.

THE BIG 4

Nob Hill, $$$

Classic, Gourmet Bites, Memorable Atmosphere, Mellow, Musical

May rumors of the Huntington Hotel’s new owners doing away with this fantastic, historic bar — the jewel of Nob Hill — be untrue. For decades, the Big 4, named for the Central Pacific Railroad’s “big fiour” tycoons, has been the archetypal old school bar in a restaurant. Its dark wood setting and fireplace evoking an ur-capitalist gentleman’s club and martini lounge set to the nightly, live piano strains of Michael Parsons (Sundays it’s Steve Klawiter).

1075 California, SF. (415) 771-1140, www.big4restaurant.com

BIX

Financial District, $$

Classic, Cocktail Destination, Musical

One of the more dazzling dining rooms in town. You enter thick curtains off a downtown alley into Bix’s dramatic space — like walking into a Thin Man movie. Live jazz and beautiful Negronis confirm you’ve entered another, jazzier era, one Bix has faithfully preserved since 1988. Here’s to many more decades.

56 Gold, SF. (415) 433-6300, www.bixrestaurant.com

BLACKBIRD

Castro, $–$$

Cocktail Destination

The Castro is one of the most social neighborhoods in SF, rife with numerous watering holes and gathering places. But not until Blackbird was there a cocktailian’s haven, serving elegant drinks — with a well-curated wine ist to match — utilizing house made pistachio orgeat, hibiscus-infused brandy, and other handcrafter ingredients.

2124 Market, SF. (415) 503-0630, www.blackbirdbar.com

BOURBON AND BRANCH

Tenderloin, $$

Cocktail Destination, Memorable Atmosphere, Mellow, Spirits Selection,

Love or hate the new speakeasy bars, Bourbon and Branch, now eight years old, was one of the earliest progenitors of the theme outside of NYC. And despite owner Future Bars’ notable other bars (Tradition, Local Edition), B&B remains the best. Rarely is a bar this transporting: ring a doorbell next to an unmarked door and enter the 1920s. This reservations-only hideaway guarantees a seat, a romantic escape for conversation and quality drink. Its bar-within-a-bar, Wilson and Wilson, is likewise one of SF’s best, digging even deeper into housemade ingredients and unusual combinations. Consider it the impressive place to take out-of-towners for a drink.

501 Jones, SF. (415) 346-1735, www.bourbonandbranch.com

BROKEN RECORD

Excelsior, $

Spirits Selection, Dive, Gourmet Bites

This dive in the outer reaches of SF draws whiskey fans from afar. With every chef who sets up shop in Broken Record’s back room, kick-ass bar food (Southern BBQ, elevated burgers) results. From pool table to patio, it’s everything you want in a dive bar and more, including laid back bartenders, a genuine vibe, and more than 250 whiskies at reasonable prices.

1166 Geneva, SF. (415) 963-1713, www.facebook.com/brokenrecordsf

CANTINA

Union Square, $–$$

Cocktail Destination

Pioneering South and Central American cocktails, Cantina has been keeping it real for years with refreshing drinks highlighting tequila, mezcal, cachaca, and pisco (owner Duggan McDonnell is also one of the creators of Campo Encanto Pisco). Cantina’s basement hosts all kinds of events, a community gathering place.

580 Sutter, SF. (415) 398-0193, www.cantinasf.com

CHURCH KEY

North Beach, $–$$

Beer Haven, Mellow

Church Key is a breath of fresh air amid the party bars, classic dives, strip clubs, and cocktail spots of North Beach. With cozy upstairs mezzanine, it’s a beer lovers dream of revolving drafts and bottles in an unpretentious setting where one can actually talk with friends.

1402 Grant, SF. (415) 963-1713

CLUB DELUXE

Upper Haight, $

Music, Gourmet Bites

Blonde wood walls, black and white tile, red booths, dim lighting — an environment virtually unchanged for decades. These are reasons to love Club Deluxe but supreme is multiple nightly sets of some of the best live jazz in SF, from bossa nova to bepop and blues. You don’t come here for the drinks but recent addition of Chef Thomas Martinez offers fantastic food. One can comfortably linger over a shot of whiskey, jazz, and gourmet plates.

1511 Haight, SF. (415) 552-6949, www.sfclubdeluxe.com

COMSTOCK SALOON

North Beach, $–$$

Cocktail Destination, Gourmet Bites, Memorable Atmosphere, Spirits Selection

Showcasing SF’s Barbary Coast era with vintage ceiling fans, Victorian couch sidling up to a pot belly stove, and the original trough (ahem, to piss in back in the day) lining a dramatic wood bar, “Saloon Keepers” Jeff Hollinger and Jonny Raglin honor the history of Comstock’s gorgeous, two-room, 1907 space. It’s a memorable a date night and a casual, neighborhood hangout. Whether cozy in a bar booth or at a table in the wainscoted dining room, food from Chef Carlos Espina is as thoughtful as the classic cocktails.

155 Columbus, SF. (415) 617-0071, www.comstocksaloon.com

DOSA

Mission, Fillmore, $–$$

Cocktail Destination, Gourmet Bites, Memorable Atmosphere

Besides serving some of the best upscale South Indian food anywhere, Dosa’s two locations also craft a unique cocktail menu unlike any, heavy on Indian spices and flavor profiles, including its own house gin produced by local distiller Old World Spirits: cardamom-rich Blade Gin.

Dosa on Fillmore: 1700 Fillmore, SF. (415) 441-3672

Dosa on Valencia: 995 Valencia, SF. (415) 642-3672, www.dosasf.com

EDINBURGH CASTLE

Tenderloin, $

Classic, Dive

This quintessential SF dive bar has been around for years, akin to classic British pubs, occasionally rowdy, generally low key, ever-ready with a pint. In that spirit, its serves fish and chips in newspaper and facilitates offbeat community with readings, ’60s dance club nights, and legendary trivia quizzes.

950 Geary, SF. (415) 885-4074, www.castlenews.com

ELIXIR

Mission, $–$$

Cocktail Destination

When partying or sports-loving crowds descend, the already small bar gets cramped, in a space dating back to 1858. Boasting an impressive whiskey collection, Elixir is run by cocktail pioneer H. Joseph Ehrmann, and talented bar managing duo Shea Shawnson and Nick DesEnfants. The cocktail menu is a mix of 1800s saloon classics, Elixir favorites like H.’s Celery Cup No. 1, and rotating seasonal drinks.

3200 16th St., SF. (415) 552-1633, www.elixirsf.com

FAT ANGEL

Fillmore, $–$$

Beer Haven, Wine Sanctuary, Gourmet Bites

Part romantic European café, part comfortable neighborhood pub, Fat Angel manages to be dream neighborhood beer and wine bar in one. Above average bar bites, friendly staff, and changing draft beers and wines listed on a large chalkboard under dramatic chandelier ensure you’ll want to linger for hours.

1740 O’Farrell, SF. (415) 525-3013 www.fatangelsf.com

GITANE

Financial District, $$

Cocktail Destination, Gourmet Bites, Memorable Atmosphere

Just about the sexiest bar and setting in the city, Gitane has been strong on spirits collection, wine list, and cocktails from day one, with upscale regional Spanish cuisine making it a real date night. 6 Claude Lane, SF. (415) 788-6686, www.gitanerestaurant.com

HEAVEN’S DOG

SoMa, $–$$

Cocktail Destination, Gourmet Bites, Spirits Selection

Undergoing a significant overhaul, Heaven’s Dog showcases the cocktail expertise of one of our great barmen, Erik Adkins. The bar at Asian-influenced Heaven’s Dog restaurant has been tended by some of SF’s top bartenders, most recently supervised by Ethan Terry (of AQ, 15 Romolo, Comstock). One of the best places for classic Charles H. Baker cocktails anywhere, its latest incarnation will focus on original creations alongside Charles Phan’s cuisine (of Slanted Door fame).

1148 Mission, SF. (415) 863-6008, www.heavensdog.com

THE HIDEOUT

Mission, $

Cocktail Destination

Through longtime Mission favorite Dalva is a hidden back room, The Hideout, a getaway for cocktail geeks who disdain pretension. With guest bartending appearances by local and visiting drink masters, bar staff display an adept hand at elegant but never fussy cocktails, shaken or stirred to loud, classic tunes of the ’70s and ’80s.

3121 16th St., SF. (415) 252-7740

HI TOPS

Castro, $–$$

Memorable Atmosphere, Gourmet Bites

It’s a new gay sports bar — a recent shot in Sports Illustrated featuring two men in 49ers jerseys kissing toppled barriers. But why stop there? The vintage ’60s gym decor, eclectic atmosphere, and twists on game night bites have upped the sports bar game. And yes, there’s a cocktail with Muscle Milk as base.

2247 Market, SF. (415) 551-2500, www.hitopssf.com

HOG & ROCKS

Mission, $$

Cocktail Destination, Gourmet Bites

Hog & Rocks has been a popular watering hole for American whiskey and unfussy cocktails lovers, happy over platters of oysters and ham. Once the bar was commandeered by Michael Lazar consulting with Scott Beattie, it became a special place for bracing cask strength Old Fashioneds, or tall rocks refreshers accented by garden fresh and preserved fruits and herbs. Lazar and Beattie (who also put together the drink menu at the new Hi Lo across the street) have made it a casual yet festive cocktail destination.

3431 19th St., SF. (415) 550-8627, www.hogandrocks.com

HOTEL BIRON

Hayes Valley, $–$$

Wine Sanctuary, Mellow

Hotel Biron is an intimate, romantic wine bar drawing people to a nondescript alley near busy Market Street for years, featuring monthly rotating local artists in a candlelit, narrow space. Grab a couch or bistro chair with friends in this late night sanctuary for French and Californian wines.

45 Rose, SF. (415) 703-0403, www.hotelbiron.com

JASPER’S CORNER TAP

Union Square, $–$$

Cocktail Destination, Gourmet Bites

Need a meet-up location with friends or colleagues near Union Square? One open all day, that’ll please the beer geek, the wine lover, the cocktail aficionado? Oh, and that serves reasonably priced, tasty gastropub food? Not too tall an order, since Jasper’s came along. Thanks to bar manager Kevin Diedrich, one of our city’s great bartenders, some of the most thoughtful, fun cocktails in the city are here.

401 Taylor, SF. (415) 775-7979, www.jasperscornertap.com

LITTLE SHAMROCK

Inner Sunset, $

Dive, Pub, Classic, Mellow

Though there’s no shortage of Irish pubs in town, Little Shamrock stands out, going strong since 1894. Just off Golden Gate Park, this is garage sale, eclectic comfort expressed in a hodgepodge of couches, chairs, tables, inviting one to linger over Guinness on tap, board games, backgammon, warm fireplace, and free popcorn.

807 Lincoln Way, SF. (415) 661-0060

MAGNOLIA BREWERY

Upper Haight, $–$$

Beer Haven, Gourmet Bites

Operating as a busy gastropub, Magnolia arguably crafts the best local SF beer (not bottled) since 1997. Beermaster and restaurateur, Dave McLean, who also owns Alembic and an upcoming Dogpatch brewery, is behind the world-class brews. Serving cask-conditioned ales long before it was trendy, experimenting in a range of styles and categories, he makes sure there’s a beer for everyone. McLean is a key figure in furthering SF and California beers from his roles in the SF Brewers Guild and Outside Lands’ Beer Lands.

1398 Haight, SF. (415) 1398 Haight, SF. www.magnoliapub.com

MARTUNI’S

Soma, $$

Classic, Memorable Atmosphere, Music

Who doesn’t love a piano bar? Characters belt out showtunes in the back of this velvet-draped classic, while spiffy bartenders shake or stir some killer martinis upfront. It’s a little bit classy, a little bit seedy, and all San Francisco.

4 Valencia, SF. (415) 241-0205, martunis.ypguides.net

MAVEN

Lower Haight, $–$$

Cocktail Destination, Gourmet Bites

Kate Bolton brought a deft hand with cocktails (formed at fine dinging bars like Michael Mina) when she became bar manager at Maven, Lower Haight’s best new cocktail outpost. Elegant yet unfussy drinks and an equally strong food menu — with helpful, adventurous beer pairings — make it a winning, all-around stop.

598 Haight, SF. (415) 829-7982. www.maven-sf.com

MONK’S KETTLE, ABBOT’S CELLAR

Mission, $–$$

Beer Haven, Gourmet Bites, Memorable Atmosphere

Opened by the same team, these temples to beer feature proper glassware, storing temperatures, and impeccable selections (bottle and draft) of rare beers from around the globe. Both are strong restaurants, whether the always-crowded, gastropub-like Monk’s, which has been one of our city’s best beer bars for years, or the newer, more upscale Abbot’s Cellar.

Monk’s: 3141 16th St., SF. (415) 865-9523, www.monkskettle.com

Abbot’s: 742 Valencia, SF. (415) 626-8700, www.abbotscellar.com

MOSTO

Mission, $–$$

Cocktail Destination, Spirits Selection

An agave spirits collection of more than 300 bottles is reason enough to visit Mosto. A generous list of tequila and mezcal cocktails, neighboring Tacolicious restaurant’s guac and queso and laid back, urban cantina feel confirm it’s a top tequila bar.

741 Valencia, SF. www.mostosf.com

OCCIDENTAL CIGAR BAR

Financial District, $–$$

Classic, Mellow

Since 2001, cozy Occidental is a rare smoking bar and our pick for top cigar bar. Besides a strong spirits list heavy on the whiskies, its historical connection goes back to the 1860s in the space’s former incarnation as the Occidental Hotel, where Professor Jerry Thomas, who helped established bartending as a craft, is purported to have once bartended. Woodcut etchings of his groundbreaking Bon Vivants Companion cocktail book line smoke-tinged walls of the bar where you can bring in your own cigars or choose from the humidor collection.

471 Pine, SF. (415) 834-0485, www.occidentalcigarclub.com

PRESS CLUB

Downtown, $$

Wine Sanctuary, Memorable Atmosphere

Press Club’s subterranean setting right off Market Street downtown is an unusual one. With a vast space in which to find a quiet corner or celebrate with a crowd, consider it the chic lounge of wine bars, serving a changing list of international wines, flights (like “Italy vs. USA”), beers, and bites, featuring monthly vintners and brewers with focused tastings. It’s a central, notable place to meet up with out-of-towners and colleagues.

20 Yerba Buena Lane, SF. (415) 744-5000, www.pressclubsf.com

RANGE

Mission, $–$$

Cocktail Destination, Gourmet Bites

A drink and dining stalwart from the early days when Brooke Arthur ran the small bar, to current manager Jeff Lyon’s touch, which has kept the intimate bar in Range’s restaurant on the drink lover’s map. Spirit-heavy or seasonal drinks (like an Ojo del Tigre with blood orange and tequila) are delicious and impeccably crafted.

842 Valencia, SF. (415) 282-8283

RICH TABLE

Hayes Valley, $$

Cocktail Destination, Gourmet Bites, Memorable Atmosphere

Besides being one of the top new restaurants in the city (and country), Rich Table opened with a short but sharp cocktail list showcasing herbs and spirits. Once Jason “Buffalo” LoGrasso was brought on as bar manager, the cocktail list, including unforgettable dessert cocktails, grew, becoming a special drink outpost… if you can snag a seat at the bar.

199 Gough, SF. (415) 355-9085, www.richtablesf.com

RIO GRANDE

Tenderloin, $–$$

Cocktail Destination, Memorable Atmosphere

From the Bon Vivants, this urban cantina-meets-roadhouse pours cheap, canned beers and skillful cocktails, heavy on tequila and whiskey, under glistening walls and stripper poles. A live music stage and cowhide confirm the roadhouse vibe, while the bar livens up a seedy stretch of Market Street.

1108 Market, SF.

ROYAL CUCKOO

Outer Mission, $–$$

Memorable Atmosphere, Music

Dimly lit, sexy Royal Cuckoo is a hodgepodge of mid-century thrift store lamps, paintings, and furniture accented with shades of red. A strong small batch spirits selection and in-house Hammond organ star in a space reminiscent of great New Orleans bars: no cover for excellent live music (all centered around the Hammond). All for the cost of a stiff drink… and there always seems to be a seat.

3202 Mission, SF. (415) 550-8667, www.royalcuckoo.com

RYE

Tenderloin, $

Cocktail Destination

With smoking “cage” patio out front and center-of-Tenderloin locale, Rye has been churning out quality cocktails — and some of the city’s best bartenders — long before many current upstarts were even in planning stages. Masterminds Jon Gasparini and Greg Lindgren (who also opened 15 Romolo, Rye on the Road, Rosewood) ensure Rye remains an unpretentious neighborhood hangout serving drinkable cocktails, like that ever-popular basil gimlet.

688 Geary, SF. (415) 474-4448, www.ryesf.com

SMUGGLER’S COVE

Hayes Valley, $–$$

Cocktail Destination, Memorable Atmosphere, Spirits Selection

This tri-level tropical escape, from owner Martin Cate, launched many a copycat. Smuggler’s Cove upped the game for Tiki bars, with playful reverence to Tiki history and, yes, kitschy décor. The extensive cocktail menu covers everything from pre-Castro Havana to original Don the Beachcomber creations. We’ve traveled to rum bars in other cities who tell us they were inspired to curate their rum collection based on Smuggler’s incredible, 200+ rums in every style and category.

650 Gough, SF. (415) 869-1900, www.smugglerscovesf.com

SPECS TWELVE ADLER MUSEUM

North Beach, $

Classic, Dive, Mellow

An ode to SF history filled with colorful locals and eye-popping knickknacks, this dive is an institution tucked away off busy Columbus Ave. For decades, Specs encourages conversation and community with cheap drinks and a warm welcome, treating everyone like regulars.

12 Saroyan Pl., SF. (415) 421-4112

TOMMY’S

Outer Richmond, $–$$

Dive, Classic, Spirits Selection

Since 1965, Tommy’s has stocked the most extensive collection of 100% agave tequila outside of Mexico. Julio Bermejo, like his father Tommy and mother Elmy before him, stays true to the familial roots of this old school Mexican restaurant, virtually unchanged since the ’60s. Tommy’s famed classic margarita, dusty, rare bottles of tequila stacked under the bar, Tommy’s Tequila Masters club, a divey-perfect back bar… all explain why Tommy’s is an SF institution. Watch for the release of Julio’s own long-anticipated tequila. There’s only one Tommy’s.

5929 Geary Blvd, SF. (415) 387-4747, www.tommystequila.com

TORONADO

Lower Haight, $

Beer Haven, Classic, Dive, Gourmet Bites

One of SF’s best beer bars since it opened more than 20 years ago, Toronado has stayed true to its dive-y roots. Sometimes-gruff bartenders can be overlooked for an ever-impressive selection of dozens of beers on tap from around the globe. Toronado launched a rarity: a Barleywine Festival, featuring over 50 draft barleywines every February. Paired with Rosamunde’s sausages from next door, the killer duo is an SF institution.

547 Haight, SF. (415) 863-2267, www.toronado.com

TOSCA

North Beach, $

Classic, Memorable Atmosphere

What would North Beach be without Tosca? Surviving Prohibition with its “house cappuccinos” (brandy and hot chocolate), Tosca’s Italian-only jukebox and elegantly faded decor have worn the better part of a century with grace. Saved from tragically closing, it will be given new life at the hands of NY chef April Bloomfield. Here’s praying Tosca’s one-of-a-kind space, sacred celebrity back room, and espresso machine remain as is, though food and new-and-improved cocktail menu are predicted to be part of Bloomfield’s take-over.

242 Columbus, SF. (415) 986-9651, www.toscacafesf.com

TRICK DOG

Mission, $$

Cocktail Destination, Gourmet Bites, Memorable Atmosphere

The new kid on the Mission block feels like it has been around awhile, both from the years anticipating its opening and the crew behind it: SF’s great barmen, The Bon Vivants. Fan through a Pantone color swatch menu of original cocktails, impeccably made, and chow on Chester Watson’s winning food (Peruvian popcorn or Fernet ice cream?) Just get there at early if you want to avoid the crowds.

3010 20th St., SF. (415) 471-2999, www.trickdogbar.com

TWO SISTERS BAR & BOOKS

Hayes Valley, $–$$

Cocktail Destination, Gourmet Bites, Mellow

Like the ultimate European neighborhood bar, two actual sisters modeled this spot after all day café-bars from their European travels. Closet-sized and lined with books, there’s always jazz playing on the stereo and a warm greeting. Affordable, homey food is as lovely as the cocktails featuring local and small batch spirits.

579 Hayes, SF. (415) 863-3655, www.2sistersbarandbooks.com

VESUVIO

North Beach, $

Classic, Dive, Memorable Atmosphere

Beat poet hangout, eclectic mishmash of creaky wood booths, nooks, knick-knacks and colorful personalities, Vesuvio is not so much about the drinks as the character. Just like Tosca and Specs across the street (three completely different vibes), Vesuvio has been around for decades, drawing longtimers and tourists alike. It maintains a bar personality all its own, a historical landmark that remains alive and vibrant today.

255 Columbus, SF. (415) 362-3370 www.vesuvio.com

ZEITGEIST

Mission, $

Beer Haven, Dive

Service can be downright gruff. Lines can snake down the block. Just to enter a biker-friendly dive mobbed with bike messengers, black-clad rockers, and scruffy hipsters? Hell, yes. The punk-spirited biergarten out back is one of SF’s legendary gathering places where locals and visitors alike assemble around communal picnic tables over Bloody Marys, basic burgers, brats, and beers.

199 Valencia, SF. (415) 255-7505, www.zeitgeistsf.com

HONORABLE MENTIONS

83 Proof, SoMa

Bar 888, SoMa

Barrel Room, Union Square

Barrique, Financial District

Beretta, Mission

Casanova, Mission

City Beer Store, SoMa

Connecticut Yankee, Potrero Hill

Green’s Sports Bar, Russian Hill

Harry Denton’s, Union Square

Hidden Vine, Financial District

Horseshoe Tavern, Marina

Iron & Gold, Bernal Heights

La Mar, Embarcadero

La Trappe, North Beach

Li Po, Chinatown

Napper Tandy, Mission

Noc Noc, Lower Haight

Nopa, Western Addition

Pause Wine Bar, Hayes Valley

Pisco Latin Lounge, Mission

Riptide, Outer Sunset

Rock Bar, Outer Mission

Quince, Financial District

Slanted Door, Embarcadero

St. Vincent, Mission

The Page, Lower Haight

Tony Nik’s, North Beach

Upcider, Polk Gulch

Yield Wine Bar, Dogpatch

EAST BAY TOP 10

Forbidden Island

Honor Kitchen & Cocktails

Prizefighter

New Easy

Bar Three Fifty-Five

Heinold’s First & Last Chance Saloon

The Trappist

Beer Revolution

Hotsty Totsy

Flora

Nite Trax: 222 Hyde is closing :(

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks

-

February 23, 2013

11

Oh jeez, sad news this morning from EO, owner of great, actually-underground rave cave 222 Hyde. Due to a change in ownership of the nightlub’s building, and some continued trouble with the ABC state liquor and license patrol, 222 will be closing March 9.

There’s gonna be a huge closing party that night of course! (Stay tuned for details.)

This marks the loss of one of the most truly open-eared venues to come along in a while, a space that had room – well, a little room, at least, that basement dancefloor got packed! — for ambitious electronic experiment as well as balls out crowd pleasers, but always on the cutting edge. The staff is pretty great, too — and the space itself is a historic nightlife landmark. I don’t want to make any grand statements about the blandification of SF nightlife, you’ve heard it all before, but 222’s size insured that lesser-known acts, or ones not so familiar in the US, could perform to a vibing dancefloor, rather than risk the cost of larger venues. (And I regret not making it to some of the recent parties like Wednesday’s “What?!” party and the appearance by Skooz. Next time!)

EO will continue on with his ear-grabbing electronic music production — I wish him and his staff well and thank you for the music! Let’s make sure the next few weeks and the closing party are real blowouts. EO’s message to me after the jump:

Hi Marke,

I have some news regarding 222 Hyde.

Sadly, we are closing our doors. Our last event will be March 9, a farewell party with djs and acts who have been staples at 222 over the years. Lineup to follow, but so far Jeno, Atish, Sleazemore, Polk & Hyde (live), and more to come. The final week we are open will be one for the books, starting with the final Tutu Tuesday March 5, As You Like It w/San Proper March 8, and the closing party March 9.

A few things factored into what is leading us to close. Problems with the ABC (Alcoholic Beverage Control) over a technicality concerning a condition on the license being one of them. Also, the building that houses 222 is also changing hands in a couple months, and the new owners would not be sympathetic to the club or it’s operations. We were lucky to have a great landlord for years and his departure signaled the last sign that it was time to move on.

222 will be remembered as a unique and special place in the SF club landscape, and we know it will be missed. It will live on in everyone’s memory, and there is something to be said for ending on a high note.

Personally, I will have even more time to devote to my first passion, that being producing and performing electronic music on my own, as well as with my collaborators Kenneth Scott (Moniker) and Jonah Sharp (Polk & Hyde). There are a string of upcoming releases on deck and I look forward to having more time to focus on music.

We would love to see everyone at any and all of the last events at the club!

eo

Go South

Andrew Lam

-

February 19, 2013

0

cheryl@sfbg.com

FILM San Francisco is a town of many film festivals: SF IndieFest wraps up Thu/21, and the Center for Asian American Media Festival (formerly the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival) kicks off March 14. Lest you suffer fest withdrawal, the gap between is filled nearly end-to-end by Cinequest — San Jose’s 23rd annual salute to cinema that has a Silicon Valley-appropriate focus on technological innovations.

One example of that focus: Sony-sponsored 4K digital screenings of Taxi Driver (1976), Dr. Strangelove (1964), and Lawrence of Arabia (1962). While there’s no replacing the experience of seeing these classics projected on film, these restorations promise to render even Travis Bickle’s grimy apartment in eye-poppingly sharp relief. (“You talkin’ to me, or you checkin’ out my dirty dishes?”)

If the idea of burning highway miles to see movies you’ve already snagged on Blu-ray doesn’t appeal, Cinequest has corralled a genuine Hollywood icon for its Maverick Spirit Award: Harrison Ford. He’ll attend in person to discuss his career and, no doubt, field many a question about his rumored involvement in the upcoming Star Wars sequel-reboot-spinoff-thing — to be directed by J.J. Abrams, a past Maverick recipient himself. Other 2013 Maverick winners include Salman Rushdie, who’ll receive his award after the closing-night screening of Deepa Mehta’s Midnight’s Children, based on Rushdie’s 1981 Booker Prize-winning novel; and Chuck Palahniuk, who’ll be honored after a screening of a short film he scripted, Romance (one theme: Britney Spears), among others.

Cinequest’s largest component is, of course, its actual film programming, with a wide array of shorts, narratives, and docs. The fest kicks off with Sally Potter’s downbeat coming-of-age tale Ginger & Rosa. It’s the 1960s, nuclear war is a real possibility, and nuclear-family war is an absolute certainty, at least in the London house occupied by Ginger (Elle Fanning), her emotionally wounded mother (Mad Men‘s Christina Hendricks), and her narcissistic-intellectual father (Alessandro Nivola). Ginger’s teenage rebellion quickly morphs into angst when her BFF Rosa (Beautiful Creatures‘ Alice Englert) wedges her sexed-up neediness between Ginger’s parents. Hendricks (playing the accordion — just like Joan!) and Annette Bening (as an American activist who encourages Ginger’s political-protest leanings) are strong, but Fanning’s powerhouse performance is the main focus — though even she’s occasionally overshadowed by her artificially scarlet hair.

Horror fans: the number one reason to haul your carcass to Cinequest is Year of the Living Dead, a ghoulishly delightful look back at the making of 1968’s Night of the Living Dead. Rob Kuhns’ doc skews more cultural-legacy than fanboy, deploying a variety of talking heads (critics Mark Harris and Elvis Mitchell, Walking Dead producer Gale Anne Hurd, filmmaker Larry Fessenden) to explain why Night — offering just as much social commentary as any film from the Vietnam and Civil Rights era, except with way more squishy entrails — endures on so many levels. The best part, though, is the extended interview with George A. Romero, grinning and chuckling his way through anecdotes and on-set memories. On directing his amateur actors: “Just do your best zombie, man!”

Also highly enjoyable is Tom Bean and Luke Poling’s Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton as Himself, an affectionate portrait of the longtime Paris Review editor and “professional collector of experiences” who wrote books, articles, and made TV specials about his delight in being “the universal amateur.” His endeavors included playing football with the Detroit Lions, hockey with the Boston Bruins, and the triangle with the New York Philharmonic, among even more unusual pursuits. Some called him a dilettante (to his face while he was alive, and in this doc, too), but most of the friends, colleagues, and family members here recall Plimpton — born to an upper-crust New York family, he was friends with the Kennedys and worshipped Hemingway — as an irrepressible adventurer who more or less tailored a journalism career around his talents and personality.

Less upbeat but just as fascinating is Clayton Brown and Monica Long Ross’ The Believers, which starts in 1989 as University of Utah scientists Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons hold a press conference to announce they’ve discovered cold fusion — a way to make clean, cheap, plentiful power by fusing atoms instead of splitting them. But the initial excitement over their announcement soon gave way to skepticism and widespread dissent; eventually, their careers were in ruins, and by 1996, cold fusion was reduced to being a plot device for Keanu Reeves in Chain Reaction.

With new input from nearly everyone who was involved in the controversy (save the intensely private Pons, who’s seen in archival footage), The Believers captures cold fusion’s slow and spectacular fall from favor, while giving equal screen time to visionaries who believe it may still be possible. More importantly, its broader message explores what happens — or more pointedly, what doesn’t happen — when a radical idea appears, seemingly out of nowhere, to challenge an established way of thinking.

CINEQUEST

Feb. 26-March 10, $5-$50

Various venues, San Jose

www.cinequest.org

All the rage

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks

-

February 19, 2013

22

marke@sfbg.com

AIDS is so hot right now.

Not so much the disease itself — although the rate of HIV infections has been rising again in young gay men, according to a report last year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and African Americans continue to be the hardest hit population in the US. And California, especially the Internet of California, has been gripped by another paroxysm of debate about barebacking porn, one that reached all the way to the ballot box in November with the passage of Measure B in Los Angeles, requiring all porn actors to wear condoms when filming in the city.

However, it’s the vibrant culture that grew up in resistance to the disease in the 1980s and ’90s that’s capturing the attention of a new generation, sparking a revival of interest that goes beyond typical retro-cycle nostalgia. For many young queers and allies frustrated by HIV discrimination, evictions, predatory pharmaceutical companies, sex-work criminalization, and immigration policy failures, it’s a newfound inspiration.

And now ACT UP is back.

Rowdy AIDS resistance, defined by the loud-mouthed, street-closing, bridge-blocking, cathedral-occupying international AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power activist network, has been thrust back in the cultural spotlight after being overshadowed by more recent, conservative fights for marriage equality and military service rights. Initiated by NYC rabblerouser Larry Kramer in 1987, ACT UP defined queer politics for almost a decade and successfully changed the way government policy and the medical industry approached AIDS. (There would be no life-sustaining HIV drug combination therapy without ACT UP’s in-your-face civil disobedience.)

In San Francisco, the homegrown AIDS Action Pledge organization, started in 1985, laid the foundation for nonviolent yet radically confrontational AIDS activism, before partnering with ACT UP/New York and changing its name to ACT UP/San Francisco, helping to create a coast-to-coast juggernaut of information- and strategy-sharing. In its early ’90s heyday, thousands of virile ACT UPpers (and participants in related groups like Queer Nation, Gran Fury, and Boy With Arms Akimbo) from Kansas City to Copenhagen took to the streets, scaled walls, pilloried politicians, got arrested, and yes, got laid, too — it was a heady, cruisey time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwhFS1mUaVY

During the past two years four documentaries about the period have been released to critical acclaim — How to Survive a Plague, nominated for a 2013 Academy Award, which documents the enormous influence ACT UP and its offshoot Treatment Action Group had on the development of life-saving combination drug therapies by major pharmaceutical companies; United in Anger, director Jim Hubbard’s eye-opening ode to the diverse membership, complex infrastructure, and social issue agenda of ACT UP in New York, which draws on the immense ACT UP Oral History Project archives Hubbard started 10 years ago with writer Sarah Schulman; Vito, an HBO documentary about outspoken AIDS activist and Celluloid Closet author Vito Russo; and We Were Here by director David Weissman (currently being Ellis Act evicted from his Castro apartment), which focuses on San Francisco at the very beginning of the epidemic leading up to ACT UP’s founding, and the development here of innovative treatments.

Kramer’s own polemical, overwhelming 1985 play about the dawn of the disease in New York, The Normal Heart, was revived on Broadway in 2011 (it played here at A.C.T. last year), snagged three top Tony Awards, and is being made into a movie with Mark Ruffalo, Alec Baldwin, and possibly Julia Roberts. The artwork of hyperkinetic grafitti artist Keith Haring, who designed some of the most recognizable anti-AIDS iconography before succumbing to the disease in 1990, was everywhere in 2012, from Google Doodles and iPhone cases to collectible sex toys and a retrospective at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Dangly pink triangle earrings and “Silence = Death” t-shirts and buttons, emblems of ACT UP, are popping up on hipsters all over.

And, um, Justin Bieber wore an ACT UP T-shirt to the 2012 CMT Country Music Awards?

FANNING THE FLAMES

Last year, a 28-year-old sex worker and activist named Cyd Nova, along with others who had been involved with the Occupy movement, started contacting ACT UP veterans about the upcoming 25th anniversary of ACT UP that March.

“My friend Kentaro and I had developed a common obsession with ACT UP because we saw it as reflection of what is missing in our community,” he told me. Nova had discovered ACT UP when he was 17, as he made an attempt to “understand who I was in the world I was living in.” When he began researching the ACT UP Oral History Project online and watching New Queer Cinema classics like the 1993 HIV-themed musical Zero Patience he “found it all incredible.”

“The emergence of ACT UP represented to us this time when queers stood together when faced with a genocide of indifference, devoting their lives to fighting for the those of their friends, lovers, family and themselves. This stands in contrast to gay and lesbian culture of the 2000s — the focus on marriage and class climbing. For people of color, sex workers, drug users, and transgender people HIV still exists. I wanted to get involved in some deeper way.”

Kentaro updated ACT UP graphics with a new “Act the Fuck Up” design, and there was enough traction about the anniversary idea among curious young people and elders to plan a “NOT OVER: 25 Years of ACT UP” panel at the Women’s Building in March, followed by a march in April through the Castro and Mission protesting the evictions of people living with HIV/AIDS, condoms being used as evidence to prosecute sex workers, and the Catholic Church’s homophobic and sex-phobic policies.

Both the panel and the march were well-attended, and another panel — this time featuring ACT UP veteran Sarah Schulman reading from The Gentrification of the Mind, her impassioned memoir of how queer rebellion to the AIDS crisis vanished into conservatism and consumerism, — overflowed its Luggage Gallery setting. Several of the attendees decided to start holding regular meetings and full-on reactivate the movement, reviving the name ACT UP/San Francisco.

The new ACT UP/SF joining with OccuPride at the 2012 Pride Parade. Photo by Liz Highleyman

These events were followed by more old school-style ACT UP actions: slogan-bearing banner drops at Pink Saturday in the Castro, guerilla street art bombs, a “Cumdumpsters of the GOP” condom toss at Folsom Street Fair. A nexus of affiliation emerged among fellow radical queer groups like OccuPride, Homonomixxx, and active ACT UP chapters in other cities. In December, a small group managed to enter Bay Area-based pharmaceutical giant Gilead’s headquarters to protest the exorbitant pricing — $28,500 per year — of its new, more convenient HIV drug Stribild. An action is planned for February 25 to deliver letters protesting Stribild’s price to Gilead, and another for ACT UP’s 26th anniversary in March.

One of the less-emphasized aspects of ACT UP was its reverence for procedure and attention to order, its organization into multiple affinity groups and action committees: a trick learned from classical anarchism and the Civil Rights Movement. The young ACT UP/SF members I’ve met — there are about 25-30 core members — seem to have absorbed these techniques: they speak calmly and deliberately but candidly, seeking out consensus but unafraid to disagree. Their actions, too, seem deliberately organized and calmly executed.

The delicately butch-featured Nova joined me at Church Street Cafe, along with fellow ACT UP/San Francisco revivalists Mayra Lopez, 24, a poised yet vivacious nonprofit worker with striking red lips, and Alan Guttirez, 23, the kind of soft-voiced, sharply intelligent sex worker who somehow survives Dennis Cooper novels.

“I was 18 and taking a summer sociology class at SF State with this flaming faggot professor,” Guttirez told me. “Usually queer teachers like to talk about themselves a lot, and at some point he mentioned ACT UP. No one knew what he was talking about, that there was this whole radical movement here that had been almost completely buried. I was immediately curious about the possibilities.”

Lopez told me, “I grew up in Sonoma — for half my life, HIV wasn’t even on my radar. You never talked about sex in the Latino community I’m from, nevermind queer issues or HIV. Then, in high school, I watched a documentary about HIV and wanted to do a history of the disease for a project. I picked up a book of posters, included ones from ACT UP, that’s how I found out about it. From there I went to work for a nonprofit — but nonprofits have a problem with being able to address issues about migrant workers and HIV, which is my focus. They have to be so P.C. I feel like ACT UP is a tool to address those issues openly.”

A 2012 ACT UP/SF die-in outside Mission Dolores Basilica, protesting the Catholic Church’s homophobic and sexphobic policies. Photo by Liz Highleyman

Is any of the motivation for the ACT UP renewal a matter of trendy nostalgia? “We’re too busy for nostalgia,” Guttirez says. “We wish the people wearing ACT UP things or looking back at the ’90s would dig deeper into the meanings to know what those things stood for, that we’re still fighting against the same shit. Categorizing people on hookup sites as ‘clean’ or ‘dirty’ according to their HIV status or making fun of poor people is just perpetuating behaviors that were once used against us, and killed us.”

A BROADER AGENDA

One of the original ACT UP’s main goals was access to life-sustaining drugs. What’s the agenda of a new ACT UP? Besides addressing the prohibitively high costs of AIDS meds — something most HIV-positive people with insurance may take for granted, a lack of awareness that drug companies can take advantage of by price gouging or delaying more cost-effective treatments, and leaving uninsured people scrambling and dangerously stressed as public programs are increasingly cut — and the lack of an HIV safety net for many immigrants, the new ACT UP/SF also gives priority to sex worker and housing issues.

ACT UP/SF joined a coalition of local organizations, including Nova’s employer St. James Infirmary, to successfully demand that the San Francisco Police Department ban the use of condoms found on someone suspected of prostitution from being used evidence against them. (On January 14, however, Police Chief Greg Suhr announced that the ban would remain “temporary” for 90 days.)

And ACT UP/SF is also agitating around a provision in the $15 billion, George W. Bush-initiated PEPFAR international AIDS relief program, which forces organizations to pledge to oppose prostitution in order to receive funds. The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case against the provision this year.

A more local, immediate concern, however, one that ACT UP/SF places at the top of its list, is the skyrocketing cost of rent in San Francisco and the increasing numbers of evictions and stressful threat of evictions that many people living with HIV/AIDS face today.

“Evictions are killing us, they’re murder,” Lopez said, as Guttirez and Nova voiced their agreement. “People think medication is the number one priority for people with HIV — but it’s not, it’s housing. SROs are being pushed out, affordable housing stock is shrinking, people are being forced to leave. Without stability, it’s very hard to comply with your drug regimen, which is already complicated enough.

“I hear people all the time say, well if you can’t afford it here, then just move. They don’t understand that San Francisco is still one of the few places where queer people feel safe, that there’s a network of services here with proven results that you can’t find anywhere else, especially places many people living with HIV can afford to live. And there are support networks here, too, that aren’t available anywhere else.”

In fact, one of the most valuable things ACT UP/SF may be doing right now is offering a community for people, especially young people, with HIV to connect beyond the isolation of computer screens, to share information, enter into a positive dialogue, and receive support in a sympathetic environment geared toward changing the status quo.

Guttirez sums it up: “We’re for people who realize an angry Facebook post isn’t enough.”

BACK IN THE DAY

Have any old-guard feathers been ruffled by the ACT UP revival?

“The only real resistance we’ve had is to the name ACT UP/San Francisco — our intention is to reclaim the name from the mess that happened in the past,” Cyd told me. He’s referring to perhaps the most acrimonious legacy of local queer history. In 1990, after a phenomenally successful year of protest and media attention, several people left ACT UP/San Francisco to form ACT UP Golden Gate, intending to focus specifically on advocating for drug development and treatment, rather than address broader social issues like economic justice and gay equality.

The split was amenable at first, until things got really weird. Two men, David Pasquarelli and Michael Bellefountaine, moved here from Florida in 1993 and took over Act Up San Francisco. They quickly went from questioning the wisdom of poisoning one’s body with chemicals from the medical industry to flat out denying that HIV was the cause of AIDS, telling HIV-positive followers to forego medications altogether, saying that’s what was really killing them. Many panicked young people were swept into the new ACT UP/SF’s cultlike atmosphere, and to their doom.

“They were whackadoos!” old school ACT UP member Waiyde Palmer exclaimed when I brought up Pasquarelli and Bellefountiane. “They killed hundreds of people — and now they’re dead. Of AIDS. But the bitterness still lingers.”

I met the svelte and sassy Palmer, contributing editor of the Castro Biscuit news website and longtime survivor of AIDS, at Church Street Cafe, along with other ACT UP veterans Dean Ouellette, bushy-bearded gardener and musician, and respected journalist and activist Liz Highleyman. The three formed an uncanny, silver-haired mirror image of their younger counterparts I’d met with earlier.

A lively conversation careened among several milestones of queer radical AIDS activist history. The major early, roof-climbing takeover of pharmaceutical giant Burroughs Wellcome’s Burlingame office in 1987. The packed week of successful demonstrations around the sixth International AIDS Conference in 1990. Protesting a 1989 episode of NBC program “Midnight Caller,” which featured a murderous bisexual HIV-positive character. The 1989 day that Stop AIDS Now or Else blockaded the Golden Gate Bridge, two weeks after members of ACT UP/SF chained themselves to the Pacific Stock Exchange.

Juicy tidbits dropped: owner Marty Blecman of Megatone Records, Sylvester’s label, bankrolled ACT UP until he died in 1991; a fresh-faced Rachel Maddow, member of the AIDS Legal Referral Panel in 1994, stole some other cute dyke’s look. We tried to pin down a timeline of everything, but memories were fuzzy, exact dates had faded.

“I’m pleased to be a part of what’s happening, and I’m glad that it’s so intergenerational,” said Palmer (all three are active in the new ACT UP/SF) “but we need to maintain a momentum, and the motivation is different than when people were dying around you every day. Back then, the movement had members from every walk of life — yuppies, deadheads, people I never would have dreamed of associating with as a punk — united by this life-threatening illness.”

Highleyman agreed. “HIV has been taken over by the medical industry, we’re narcotized. A lot of ACT UP was based on exchanging information on these bewildering scientific things. Now people just ask their doctor what medicine to take. But who’s monitoring the doctors or watching the drug companies?”

“And the economics of the city have changed so much,” she continued. “I wonder if there are the resources anymore to support a protest movement. It’s just so expensive to live here, who has time to organize and follow through? The fact that these kids are taking it on is incredible and rare.”

“Back then we all worked three jobs, too” Palmer said. “But our rent was only $300 dollars — and if you had to leave one job to go to a protest, something else would pop up. I’m not sure if that can happen now.”

TIME PASSAGES

What happened to ACT UP? Leafing through the mesmerizing ACT UP Golden Gate files in the GLBT Historical Society archives in SoMa (especially those of its young star activist, Edward Zold, who succumbed to AIDS in 2009 at 38), a blizzard of drug names zips past: liposomal, foscarnet, fluconzole, sp-pg, TNP470, D4t, clarithromycin, AZT, Deovythymidine, xylocaine.

Every week it seemed, a new hope rose with a new drug name, only to be quashed when that drug failed. As several of the recent AIDS movies posit, the overwhelming amount of death just became too much, people couldn’t handle it anymore. Activists began turning on each other, the movement faded, and activist queer culture sank into despair. Until 1997, that is, when everyone began to realize the new anti-retroviral drug therapies would actually work. They were going to live, and then it was the best Folsom Street Fair ever.

Maybe more importantly, whatever happened to radical queer activism in general? I met with writer K.M. Soehnlein, who’s working on a novel based on his experiences of the ACT UP period — he was there from the very beginning in New York. He’s featured in United in Anger, and Queer Nation, an ACT UP offshoot formed to combat gay-bashing and promote queer visibility through renegade tactics, began in his living room in 1990.

“Occupy was a blip on the everyday gay person’s radar screen — and the police response to it was enormously more brutal and scary than when we protested in the ’90s and police usually worked with us,” he said. “But honestly, most gay people now are happy to see their president onscreen saying the word ‘gay’ before the word ‘marriage’ and that’s good enough for them.”

Soehnlein also has thoughts about why ACT UP may be resonating again. “There’s been talk about AIDS PTSD, and it really was a war. ACT UP felt like the only thing you could do to stay sane. Many people had to shut themselves off from that time in order to move on, and activism may be included in that.

“But 20, 25 years is a long time. It could just be a matter of waking people back up.”

ACT UP/SF meets at 7pm every first, third, and fifth Thursday — including Thu/21 at Alley Cat Books, 3036 24th St., SF. www.facebook.com/ACTUPSF

Girl Scouts versus Scott Weiner versus Naked Sword: Here’s your week in sexy events

Andrew Lam

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February 19, 2013

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Girl Scouts versus Scott Weiner versus Naked Sword: Here’s your week in sexy events

There are few things that San Franciscans love more than Thin Mints, and local Girl Scouts found out what those were on Sunday when a troop conviniently posted up in front of the deceased Diesel store at Castro and Market. The whippersnappers paid witness not only to another nude-y demonstration against the city’s new ban on public nudity, but also to said demonstration’s infiltration by dapper members (ahem) of local porn outfit Naked Sword [as Castro Biscuit reported.] They’re making a send-up of the nudity ban starring an ambitious politician, surname: Cox. Wink.

The flick will star Guardian cover boy Leo Forte, Dale Cooper as Cox, Christian Wilde as Officer Dick — who, we will note, was the only “cop” making arrests at the porn shoot-protest. Though there were six members of SFPD there by Castro Biscuit’s count and many exposed sets of genitalia, not a single arrest was made. If you’re going to have a nudity ban, might as well be a selectively-enforced one — all the better for climate-of-fear creating, amiright?

Adult Entertainment Virtual Convention

Perhaps you were unable to attend the AVN porn awards in Vegas this year, or last weekend’s transgender version, the Tranny Awards in Los Angeles. How will you supplant the opportunities you forewent to rub elbows with your favorite adult stars in a vast, drafty hotel conference room? Might we recommend this peculiar, multi-day event hosted by porn critics Xbiz and sex-only Second Life-esque world Red Light Social Center. Now in its second year, you can prowl the halls of the convention avatar-like, taking in a Q&A with James Deen (Sat/23, 10am), daily industry networking hours, and expert panels on social media and branding for adult brands (Wed/27, 2pm) and online possibilities for sex work (Fri/22, 2pm).

Wed/20-Sat/23, free with online registration. www.adultvirtualconvention.com

Bawdy Storytelling: “One Night Stand” slam

It’s another edition of this XXX storytelling series’ amateur hour — not in a bad way! We’re just trying to say the field is open to all comers. Come at 7:30pm to sign up for a five-minute slot, all for you to lay bare your tale of one-off sexual shenanigans. The winner gets to compete in an upcoming championship round of some sort. Good luck, truth teller.

Thu/21, 8pm, $10. Cafe Royale, 800 Post, SF. www.bawdystorytelling.com

Antique vibrator talk with Rachel Maines

Rachel Maines was actually researching a different kind of poke entirely when she came across the world of vibrator history — the scholar, who is currently a visiting scientist at Cornell University’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, first saw mention of old school vibes in antique needlepoint magazines. Her interest piqued, Maines embarked on a study of the vibrator’s origins in private homes and as a tool used by doctors to treat “hysteria” among the female population. Today, she gives a talk surrounded by Good Vibrations founder Jodi Blanks’ formidable collection of vibrators throughout history — and of course, alongside some modern-day versions you can buy for your newly-educated self.

Fri/22, 6:30pm, free. Good Vibrations, 1620 Polk, SF. www.goodvibes.com

Sex Worker Outreach Project meeting

Current and former sex workers are invited over to talk justice at SWOP’s regular meeting of the minds. The national organization fights for social justice for sex workers, working particularly on anti-violence issues. SWOP was behind a failed bid to decriminalize prostitution in 2004, and every year leads the way with the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers — check it out.

Feb. 28, 6pm, free. Harm Reduction Coalition, 1440 Broadway, Suite 510, Oakl. www.swopbay.org

“Hard Day at the Office: Sex Workers on the Job”

… Speaking of SWOP, if you didn’t make it to that meeting — or aren’t a current or former sex worker, but still want to support the group’s work — or just like lit, get over to this evening of spoken word performances about the world’s oldest profession. Contributing to the program: Apaulo Hart, Carol Queen, Chad Litz, Cho Whoreingsly Prancypants, Daphne Gottlieb, Jacques LeFemme, Janetta Johnson, Miss Lola Sunshine, and Shelley “Muffie” Mays.

Sat/23, 8pm, $10-20 sliding scale. Center for Sex and Culture, 1349 Mission, SF. www.sexandculture.org

On the Rise: The Seshen

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks

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February 12, 2013

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If Erykah Badu, Little Dragon, and Beach House, met-cute and made jazzy, passionate pop music together, the resulting mix might sound something like a song by the Seshen (as those are its main influences). The seven-piece Oakland band is known for its blend of sounds and regions, with robust musicianship by bassist Aki Ehara, drummer Chris Thalmann, percussionist Mirza Kopelman, Kumar Butler on samples, and Mahesh Rao on keys, filled out by fierce vocalists Lalin St. Juste and Akasha Orr. Though mostly, at this point, it’s known for a little track called “Oblivion.”

The electronic pop song, off the band’s self-titled 2012 debut LP, employs the consistent Seshen method, a live rock band set-up with deeply soulful singing, cosmic hip-hop beats, and densely layered effects and samples.

Most recently, the Seshen remixed fellow On the Risers Trails and Ways’ “Border Crosser.” Next up, the band will drop “Turn,” the first single off its upcoming EP, due later this year.

Description of sound: Our sound utilizes electronic textures and layers that seek to blur the distinction between the abstract and the familiar while incorporating influences from a variety of genres.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOkubxzD4gY

What piece of music means a lot to you: There’s seven of us so there are many pieces of music that have moved us, some of which include: Mama’s Gun (Erykah Badu), Voodoo (D’Angelo), Pink Moon (Nick Drake) and the works of Radiohead, Stevie Wonder, James Blake, Bob Marley, and Broadcast, to name a few.

Favorite local eatery and dish: Too hard to narrow it down to one!! We love Souley Vegan in Oakland, Pancho Villa in the Mission, and Zachary’s Pizza (spinach and mushroom deep dish pizza).

Who would you most like to tour with: Little Dragon or Animal Collective would be amazing but more immediately it’d be fun to tour with some of the other Bay Area bands we love like Bells Atlas or DRMS.

The Seshen with Guy Fox, Ash Reiter. Feb. 22, 9pm, $10. Rickshaw Stop, 155 Fell, SF. www.rickshawstop.com, www.theseshen.com

On the Rise: Wax Idols

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks

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February 12, 2013

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If anything threatened to overshadow the attention around Wax Idols’ epic new album and front person Hether Fortune’s stage presence, it might have been Fortune’s social media-documented quickie Reno wedding to rocker Tim Gick of TV Ghost earlier this month. But from another angle, it just adds to her appeal. The dominatrix/singer seems full of passion, lust, and complicated relationships, and they bleed out of her any way she lets them, be it through her robust Twitter flow, her personal relations, or her beautiful, darkly maturing music.

Sample tweet: “I want all of the people that I love & admire to take charge of their inner worlds & wreak glorious havoc on the world we share.” Sample lyric: “Let’s turn down the static world/listen to the sound of a void.”

The latter is from “Sound of a Void” off Wax Idols’ upcoming second full-length Discipline & Desire, out March 26 on Slumberland Records, a surprising departure from 2011’s equally enticing, yet far punkier, No Future (Hozac). This new darkwave record sees Fortune — along with Jennifer Mundy, Amy Rosenoff, and Rachel Travers — exploring the dungeons of orgasm addict sexuality and violence with wry lyrics, bolder Siouxsie Sioux vocals, and Joy Division and Love and Rockets-honoring riffs.

If you’re concerned Fortune will no longer be as tough as a wifey (you sexist jerk, you), consider this: following her Nevada wedding, she played the Uptown the very next night, had a blast, and smashed a glass.

Description of sound: Morbid classics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiRE_7JpRdM

What you like most about the Bay Area music scene: HETHER: I like the diversity and the constant evolution I’ve seen in my five years here thus far. I’ve met some truly legendary artists and characters.

JEN: I like the diversity of bands and the feeling of camaraderie in the local music community. It’s a really exciting time for music in the Bay Area and I’ve seen some excellent bands. And it’s great that you can catch a show just about any night of the week.

AMY: Recently, there have been a lot of new, dark bands that don’t have the typical “rock” sound. I don’t think the dark music scene here has had this much going on for quite a while. It’s really nice to have a good group of local musicians whose music and style I can find inspiring and relate to.

RACHEL: That it has actually progressed into something viable!

What piece of music means a lot to you: HETHER: “The Mercy Seat” by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Never has a song filled me with such an immense feeling of anxiety, tension and fear and then released those feelings in such a cathartic, overwhelming and beautiful way…That and “Heroes” by David Bowie/Brian Eno (greatest song of all time — don’t argue with me).

JEN: “Sunday Morning” by the Velvet Underground, and pretty much the entire VU and Nico album.

AMY: The album Pornography by The Cure.

RACHEL: The Cure’s Head on the Door.

Who would you most like to tour with: HETHER: Nick Cave

JEN: Savages from London.

AMY: I would love to tour with the Raveonettes.

RACHEL: If I had a time machine, Mozart — because who wouldn’t want to tromp around European high society? But really, Chelsea Wolfe.

Wax Idols at Noise Pop with DIIV, Sisu, Lenz. March 2, 8pm, $15 (sold out). Brick and Mortar Music Hall, 1710 Mission, SF. www.brickandmortarmusichall.com. facebook.com/waxidols.