SF Weekly

Silent Frisco
Ocean Beach
Sunday, June 2, 2013

I knelt down, untied my Chuck Taylor's, and let my bare feet touch the sand. It was a Sunday afternoon in the Richmond, and we were on a small stretch of Ocean Beach where Balboa meets the water. It was warm, with the Outer Richmond's natural grey punctured by an unusual (though still modest) amount of sunlight. As I was fiddling with my shoes, a half-naked man in a Lucha Libre mask ran past me, followed by two girls in bikinis covered in cupping marks. A pregnant woman with a hula hoop trailed not far behind. My headphones, rented from a booth set up on the street, began to pump out a remixed trap version of The Lumineers' "Ho Hey." This was the latest edition of Silent Frisco, a roving event that throws wireless headphone-fueled daytime raves for the Burning Man crowd.

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Bag Raiders plays Mezzanine on Saturday.

It's almost June and the prospect of another promising Summer in the city is floating in the air. Astute nightlife observers know that these approaching months are usually some of the best the Bay has to offer, with plenty of fun to compensate for San Francisco's notorious lack of hot weather. That's not really an issue this weekend though, as the forecast calls for an unusually warm climate. To help you get in the mood, we've got a little spotlight on one of the city's best outdoor day parties as well as a full dose of the requisite evening options. Read on -- your weekend awaits.

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SF Weekly

Stompy and Sunset present Kyle Hall and DJ Deep
Sunday, May 26 2013
Cafe Cocomo

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as a I felt a hand slide down my back. It was a short brunette in a carnival mask. "Do you have... strong eyes?" she asked with an Eastern European accent. Startled, I gave her a confused look -- then saw how dilated her eyes were. "I said, do you have strong eyes? I need you to look for... my friend, she's blonde... and wearing a mask... please." Not wanting to be a buzzkill, I made a small attempt at the impossible task of scanning the 1000+ person crowd dancing below. It was a futile gesture. This being Carnival, half the audience was in some kind of costume. I turned to offer a response, but before I could, some guy in a T-shirt and fedora tapped me on the shoulder and began shouting, "Hey, are you make her?" Closing in, he made a fist while looking very unfriendly. I searched for some way to convey the degree to which I was not interested in "making" this guy's girlfriend. I tried to look to the brunette for some help, but she'd slipped behind a wall of people to poach some guy's bottle service.

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Dirtybird plays at Mezzanine on Friday.

There's a certain euphoria that comes with Thursday morning. It's all about anticipation: with the bulk of the week lalready handled, the mind begins to wander towards the leisure potential of Friday and Saturday. Trust us when we say, we know that feeling. So to assist you in your workday daydreaming, we assembled this handy list of parties (with, wouldn't you know it, a Thursday night event). So, read on -- your weekend awaits.

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Prosumer at Public Works on Friday.

Prosumer, Murat Tepeli, Vereker, Huerco S.
Public Works
Friday April 27, 2013

Imagine a feeling of gut-wrenching existential dread -- the negative sensation that only arises when things are about to go incredibly wrong. If you can picture that then you're fairly close to experiencing the emotions I felt when local producer Vereker took a turn behind the decks at Public Works' OddJob Loft on Friday. While many artists in dance music work to provoke positive feelings, his set traveled through the dark side, helping make this one of the more thought-provoking nights at Public Works in recent memory.

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SF Weekly

Debaser presents Last Nite
Elbo Room
Friday, April 12, 2013

Growing up in the veritable golden age of cultural nostalgia that was the '00s, it never really occured to me that my own decade might eventually be revisited. Even now, it's surprising that anyone would care to go back and try to relive much of those days. If you'll recall, it was a pretty dark time under George H.W. Bush's presidency. The bleakness of the American situation created a kind of nihilism that seemed to seep into the club culture and music. In San Francisco, this found its expression via the emerging scenester clubs that first began popping up in weird places like the basement at LiPo Lounge and the loft at Edinburgh Castle, then later at bigger parties like Frisco Disco, Club i-D, and Popscene.

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SF Weekly

Lights Down Low presents Tensnake // Play presents François K.
Saturday, April 6, 2013
Monarch // The End Up

"It'll never get passed." My friend strained over the music, referring to State Sen. Mark Leno's bill to extend drinking hours until 4 a.m. at select clubs in California. "I'll tell you how it's going to go down. Some lady from Mothers Against Drunk Driving is going to go to the hearing or whatever and spill her guts out about her dead son, just like last time." I pushed around the straw in my glass of whiskey and soda and realized he might have a point, even though the argument that later hours equals more deaths on the road never seemed sensible to me. (By the way, you can sign a petition about this here). My friend split into the crowd to try his luck with a pretty girl covered in tattoos dancing in place to some remix of Sweet D's "Thank Ya."

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SF Weekly

Second City Sessions with Colette & DJ Heather
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Mighty

My vision became a blur of Nike and Adidas, with legs and arms shooting out to occasionally grab onto the rhythm. I was standing at the far corner of Mighty's dancefloor, on the periphery of a house dancer's circle that was twice its usual size. Those with a bit of bravado, not to mention experience, would occasionally lift off from the edge and glide with precision toward the center to execute impossibly coordinated maneuvers. In many ways it was business as usual at the Potrero Hill nightclub, except it wasn't, as last Saturday marked the introduction of its brand new Avalon by EAW Club.Two soundsystem, an occasion christened by Chicago house DJ pair Colette and Heather.

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SF Weekly

Spilt Milk presents Matrixxman
Saturday, March 23, 2013
Milk Bar

Head to the Haight and walk down towards Stanyan. There, sandwiched between a Whole Foods and one of the city's diciest McDonalds, is Upper Haight's one and only real nightclub. Which is weird, if you think about it. After all, this is the neighborhood that once housed the I-Beam, one of the city's most storied old-school discotheques. Milk Bar may not be as regal, but it gets the job done. Always a standby for the USF and SF State student populations that live in the general vicinity, in the past couple years Milk been commandeered by an enterprising group of promoters who throw a party called Spilt Milk. They cater to an emerging crosssection of young and fashionable techno, bass, and house enthusiasts with an out-of-the-way venue that offers a novel contrast to the more frequently utilized spaces in the SoMa and the Mission. This Saturday saw the turn of local producer Matrixxman behind the decks.

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SF Weekly

Dax presents Seth Troxler
Public Works
March 18, 2013

The burden of hype seems like a really awful thing to have to deal with. While on the surface it seems like it could be a good thing, the kind of expectations it brings can be very difficult to live up to. Seth Troxler is an artist currently floating in the throes of this kind of heavy hype. Recently awarded the No. 1 position on Resident Advisor's Top 100 DJs of 2012 List, he commands a loyal following that spreads from the local scene here in San Francisco to as far as Ibiza in Spain. Like many people with a lot of hype behind him, he can be kind of polarizing as well. I was thinking about this as I exchanged words with a friend while hailing a cab in the Lower Haight. On telling him my night's plans, he looked at me disgustedly and said, "Yeah? Really? You like that kind of stuff?" To be fair, I'm not the biggest fan, but I've always figured there must be something that makes Troxler such a popular figure.

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