San Fran Voice

O’Reilly’s is just one of San Francisco’s Irish pubs but it’s the one that really puts its name out there.  On St. Patrick’s Day, the North Beach location puts on a block party that isn’t to be forgotten.  And in May, they celebrate with all day drinking, music and shenanigans at this party on the Fort Mason lawn.

The details:

• The festival starts at noon and goes until 7 pm on May 19, 2007.
• It costs $15 in advance through www.SnagTickets.com or $19 at the gate on the day of.
• There will be food, drinks and raffles galore so plan to have lots of fun.The music:

Four fun bands are being featured on the Oyster and Beer Fest Stage.  There’s Los Angeles fun punk-like band, Flogging Molly along with San Francisco’s own Shantytown, The Hooks and Tea Leaf Green.

This is what weekends were made for!

The two girls in this video don’t do anything particularly out of the ordinary but there’s something in the look in their eyes that makes this clip totally scandalous.  It’s a quick video of a Kelly Clarkson sing-a-long at the SoMA dance club, Arrow.

Venue: GRANT AND GREEN

Address: 1371 Grant Ave. @ Green St.

Neighborhood: North Beach

Types of bands that play here:  Depends on the night; blues / jazz, pop / rock, instrumental, lots of cover bands

How often there’s live music: ~ 4x / week

Points given for:  No cover; casual crowd; good weeknight but great weekend music; great exposure to local bands

Points taken away because: If there’s any sort of crowd, it takes forever to get a drink; small stage can limit the intensity of some bands when playing here

Overall: The Most Kissed Music Journalist thinks making out in the corner of this bar is not a bad idea

Grant and Green is one of the live music venues of San Francisco which I know the best.  It’s in North Beach, the neighborhood that I call home, and so when I feel like going out but don’t want to have to deal with hailing taxis or hopping on cable cars, I traipse my way down the street to this neighborhood bar and see who might be playing.  There’s never a cover to get in the door, so even if it turns out that I don’t like the band, there wasn’t any harm in stopping in.  And, more often than not, I think that the band is worth hearing.Grant and Green is located, as its name would suggest, on the corner of Grant Ave. and Green St.  This puts it in close proximity to the numerous wonderful restaurants in North Beach and near enough to other bars to make jumping from place to place to diversify your night something that can easily be done.  The crowd is generally what I think of as a “North Beach crowd”, although more on the laidback side of the typical North Beach spectrum  – meaning that the average age of patrons is probably about 30 and you’ve got people dancing along with the music but no one going too college-kid-crazy.  Tourists end up here regularly although it’s very much a neighborhood bar.The stage at Grant and Green is small, so large (many member) bands often look like they’re kind of crowded up there.  For that matter, the venue itself is fairly small so it can get crowded, but it’s the kind of crowd that gives each other enough space so that you can always see and hear the band well and can move with the music if you so choose.  And what kind of music would that be?  Well, one day it might be a blues / jazz band and the next it might be an 80’s pop cover band.  In general, the music is hard folk / light rock in intensity but the genres and acts vary greatly, with more happenin’ stuff happening on the weekends.

Venue: HEMLOCK TAVERN

Address: 1131 Polk Street between Sutter and Post

Neighborhood: “Polk Gulch” according to the website, although everyone I know agrees that it’s “that neighborhood between Russian Hill and The Tenderloin”

Types of bands that play here:  Alternative … not in the sense of the music genre “alternative” but in the sense of “hm, familiar to something I know but a bit different”; example: an upcoming show by a faux French band and a weekly “Punk Rock Sideshow”.

How often there’s live music:  Almost every night of the year, baby!

Points given for:  Really interesting mixture of people in the crowd as well as performers invited on stage; music every night means you can just stop in and see who is playing and you can hang in the bar for no cover if you don’t care to see them

Points taken away because: small, narrow venue so it’s hard to see the band unless you’re right up front so get there early

Overall: The Bay Area’s Most Kissed Music Journalist would be happy to take a date to any show here

There are a series of bars along San Francisco’s Polk Street which draw a really diverse crowd of people.  The bars themselves are quite different, from the Asian tranny bars to the college dance spots, but their proximity makes them prone to bar-hopping so you get an interesting mix every time you enter one.  As the night gets later and people end up at the bar at which they feel most comfortable, Hemlock Tavern draws in a crowd composed of two different basic types of people: late-college, early-young-professional types and edgy music lovers.  The crowds are separated between then no-cover bar / pool table area and the low-cover live music section of Hemlock, although they convene periodically in the enclosed smoking room adjacent to the main room of the bar.

You can tell the difference between the crowd of people who is just there to enjoy a drink and those who are there for the music.  If nothing else, you can see it in the way that the music fans stop off quickly to get a decently-priced drink at the bar before heading directly to the back where a neon arrow indicates the door to the live music part of the bar.  These folks get their hands stamped for the show and then head through the sound-proofing plastic gates of the doorway to enter a narrow room with a raised stage at one end.  A mirror lining one entire wall of the room helps to make it feel as though the place is bigger than it is and the line of booth seats and small tables which runs along it helps to give the place a cozy feel.  But really, when you enter the music room at Hemlock Tavern, you’re entering a small space which is rapidly going to become crowded with people.  For a concert space, this is good … music is all about experience and being crowded in with other music lovers helps to make that experience feel like a shared one.

The music coming from the stage is coming from a combination of local San Francisco bands and bands visiting the city from national and international locations.  I’ve only seen a few shows at Hemlock so far but what they seem to have in common is that they’re a little bit “different”.  These aren’t the “alternative” or “indie” bands that you would see at a place like The Warfield or Great American Music Hall but instead are the kind of bands who are made up of people who live a really self-directed alternative lifestyle.  The result is a music which tends to be fresh and new although not always perfected.  The shows are low cover ($5 - $10) and there are usually two or three bands playing each night so you get your money’s worth.

The best part about Hemlock is that you can count on it always having something going on.  You can stop in on any night of the week and ask around to find out who is playing and what their music sounds like.  If it sounds good to you, you can pay your cover and head in to the music room.  If not, you can mingle with people throughout the rest of the bar, paying nothing and enjoying that interesting neighborhood diversity that makes up this stretch of Polk Street.

I don’t actually know how it is possible that I managed to get this far along in my profile posts of San Francisco’s neighborhoods without getting around to mentioning The Castro.  It is the first neighborhood in San Francisco where I got out to enjoy the nightlife and it is one of my favorite neighborhoods in the city, for both day and night activity.  Although, now that I think of it, maybe it makes sense that I missed mentioning The Castro.  Although it’s an area I love, it’s not one that I get up to all that often, and so I guess I take it a bit for granted.  I love it, but I kind of assume it will just always be there and I’ll get to it later.

The Castro quite possibly has more information written about it than any of the other neighborhoods in San Francisco.  Essentially the home to the gay rights movement, The Castro is known the world over as the gay neighborhood in the gayest city in the United States.  And yes, there are plenty of gay activities to enjoy in The Castro.  Although, the truth is that there are plenty of gay activities to enjoy all throughout San Francisco if that’s your cup of tea.  The Castro just happens to be the neighborhood that is famous for them.

The nightlife is what really draws people to the Castro.  They go dancing at Badlands, the most stereotypical of gay boy dance clubs (think diluted version of Babylon from when Queer as Folk was on TV).  They head to Latin night (Thursdays) or hip hop night (Sundays) at The Café.  They lean out over the balcony at Metro Bar to get a good view of the rest of the Castro street scene.  They consider a stop at Harvey’s, named after the famous murdered ”Mayor of Castro Street“, or they make it an early night starting at the double-fisting happy hour offered at The Bar.  The list goes on and on.  There is no shortage of places to drink in The Castro and if you know what your scene is, you can find it.  Bonus points for Castro bars in comparison with the rest of the city: the drinks are strong, the boys are beautiful and the music is always fun.

Of course, the nightlife is what happens every single night in The Castro, but it’s the annual events that really bring people to the area.  Starting, of course, with Pride.  The SF Pride Parade isn’t actually a Castro affair but the neighborhood hosts The Pink Party each year where tourists and locals alike can go all out and get their gay on.  For locals, it’s mostly the time of year to kind of roll your eyes and accept that this is when the Castro is going to be filled with those who “don’t normally go to gay bars”.  Another time like this is Halloween.  Halloween in the Castro is huge, but it’s also dangerous.  I was there at the 2006 event and heard the gunshots.  No joke.  And the party raged on, because that’s what we do at insane festivals like this I suppose.  Where the real fun comes to The Castro is when there are neighborhood events which are not huge tourist draws.  One example is the annual Tour de Castro tricycle race.  Good fun for a good cause doesn’t get any better than when it’s done in The Castro.

As for non-drinking, less-partying things to do in this neighborhood, shopping tops the list, although it vies for attention with dining.  Both can be found in plenty in The Castro.  Go from store to store for fun trinkets, lots of porn and adult toys, GLBT reading material, furniture, clothing, independent music and DVD options and plenty more.  Continue the good cause with a stop in to Under One Roof where you can get any number of unique gifty items with proceeds going to support HIV/AIDS awareness.  When shopping’s gotten the best of you, satiate your hunger with a stop at any one of The Castro’s restaurants.  Nirvana with its many different kinds of noodles is a good bet if you’ve got some money, but there are places large and small with every kind of food you can imagine.  If you’re not quite ready to leave the neighborhood, The Castro Theatre usually has something playing on its screen that is of interest, and even if it’s not, the organ player at the beginning of each show will absolutely make you glad you stopped in.

Maybe I neglect The Castro in not getting up there as much as I could.  But then again, The Castro is one of those neighborhoods that’s always gonna be there.  Sure, it’s changed over time.  Sure, it’ll keep changing.  But there’s a lot of history there which keeps on making its mark and there’s always going to be plenty to do in the area when you’re there.

Venue: RED DEVIL LOUNGE

Address: 1695 Polk Street at Clay

Neighborhood: Russian Hill, more or less

Types of bands that play here:  looks like a range, including a decent amount of local stuff, some bigger names and non-band events like the burlesque show I saw (see below)

How often there’s live music:  3 – 5 nights per week

Points given for:  super sexy ambience with red and gold interior and that loungey lighting, diversity of bands that play here, intimacy of setting, strength of the drinks

Points taken away because: intimacy is good but small can be bad depending on the band

Overall: a yes, yes, yes from me

Last week, when I was doing my research into what bands were playing in San Francisco during the upcoming few days, I came across information about the Girl-O-Rama Girly Show, a burlesque cabaret performance which was taking place at the Red Devil Lounge.  Deciding that it had been far too long that I had lived in San Francisco and failed to take advantage of the regular opportunity presented here to see modern burlesque in action, I planned a date and headed over to the venue.  I tend to be horribly unobservant and so had never noticed this corner bar before, despite the frequent number of times that I’ve wandered along Polk Street, so this was my first time at Red Devil Lounge.  And I found that I loved it.

Entering the venue, the first thing that I realized was that it’s a really, really intimate place.  I found this interesting, since I’d seen the lineup of shows in the bar’s near future and it includes some of the bigger local names as well as some throwbacks-to-the-past that could easily draw in some decent-sized crowds.  (The March lineup included such performers as Sir Mix-a-Lot and Veruca Salt.)  Looking around a little bit more, I saw that the small space was actually a two-floored venue, with room up top to give those who didn’t want to be crammed down below some additional breathing room.

The bar itself takes up a huge chunk of one wall, offering what I think was a decent-sized selection of draft beer (although I’m not a beer drinker myself so no quoting me on that) and a bartender that night who was quick, friendly, and made my drinks strong enough to enjoy without being strong enough to knock me over in a single shot.  The stage is at the far end of the rectangular space, and despite the fact that we were seated decently far in the back of the crowd, we were up fairly close to the action because of the small size of the venue.  It’s one of those places that has a couple of bad seats, depending on how tall the person in front of you has, but which, for the most part, offers a good view from everywhere.

It’s hard to say what the sound system is normally like at The Red Devil Lounge because the sound differed for the hosted recorded-music show than it would for a live event, but I didn’t have any problems with it.  The Red Devil Lounge is, most certainly, a place I’d return to again to see another show.

Today’s San Francisco YouTube video is for adults only.  It doesn’t show any risque behavior but it does offer a brief glimpse into the world of San Francisco’s Nob Hill Adult Theatre, the gay strip joint that’s open twenty four hours a day right in the heart of San Francisco.

I once explored the situation of city and neighborhood nicknames in San Francisco, discovering that it’s okay by locals to hear you say San Francisco, SF or “The City” but not San Fran or “Frisco”.  I also learned through the ensuing online discussion that SoMA is an okay phrase for the South of Market neighborhood, although there was distinct disagreement as to whether it was more locals or more tourists who called it that.  I never really got any answers, but I’m content to call it SoMA myself – and I’m happy to spend my time there.

The SoMA neighborhood is the section of the city which is (of course) south of Market Street, lying west of The Embarcadero and east of The Mission.  It extends down to one of its most famous attractions, the AT&T Ballpark, where The Giants do their thing during baseball season and other events take place throughout the year.  It includes several other famous attractions, including SFMoMA and the Yerba Buena Gardens area, the Metreon, and some of the more well-known clubs in the city.

But the SoMA is a mixed bag.  It’s not just the nickname that locals can’t agree on; it’s the whole concept of the SoMA which poses a conundrum for people living here.  Of my social group, I’m the only one who consistently loves the SoMA.  Some say that it’s okay to head there for certain venues but generally a place to avoid.  Others say that the process of change the area is going through is nothing short of gentrification and they say this with an eye towards the negative end of the social impact of the change.  But as for me, day or night, I can find something to do South of Market.

One of the more unusual hidden gems in this neighborhood is the San Francisco Flower Mart.  Nothing much to look at from the outside, this neighborhood collection of warehouse storefronts is home to whole sale flower vendors who retail their natural plants all throughout the rest of the city.  You can pick up seeds to plant or bouquets to gift people with or simply stop in to smell the fresh life perking up this hidden SoMA corner.  You can wander from here to explore the small shops, local restaurants and other unique spots in the area.

Of course, I’m not naïve and I’m the first to admit that there are some sketchy parts of the SoMA so it’s not a bad idea to keep an eye out around you for uneasy activity, with 6^th Street being the street I personally would say to avoid.  However, even at night, there’s plenty of safe fun to be had in the SoMA.  Nightlife places to check out vary greatly and include your basic dance clubs (DNA Lounge), your more underground clubs (Arrow), neighborhood bars (The Chieftain), risqué venues (Bondage-a-Go-Go nights at Glas Kat) and high class transgender entertainment (Asia SF).  If you’re awake all night on San Francisco weekends, you can dance without being told to leave from Friday through Sunday at End Up.

Next San Francisco Neighborhood Pick Will Be The Financial District.

We hesitated at the door of the North Beach sandwich shop, not because we were unsure if it was the right venue (the throbbing music welcoming us in confirmed that for us), but because we weren’t sure how to make our way through the crowded door.  Giordano Bros. is a hole-in-the-wall spot on the west side of Columbus Street, a place I’ve passed hundreds of times without ever noticing it, and the entrance was partially blocked by one of the members of Resin, the seven-piece trip-hop funk band that was already rocking out upon our arrival.

We immediately realized that the atmosphere was casual and that there was no faux pas in simply pressing our way through the doors.  The impressive beats began to wind their way into my step before we’d even reached the back of the restaurant where we ordered our drinks.  Seating ourselves at the bar of small tables which ran along the wall, we could see that the crowd was already immersed in the music despite the fact that the band was just getting started.

As I listened to more of the sound, I saw that this was really no surprise.  Resin was able to pull off the professional sound of appearing as though they were in a much larger venue while taking advantage of the opportunity to enjoy the intimacy of the small locale.  The result was that the crowd was able to feel almost as if they were participating in a larger musical experience, rather than merely watching a show, while simultaneously noting the impressive nature of the skilled musicians.

So what kind of music were we listening to at this unlikely venue?  An eclectic mix of sounds, actually, incorporating a multi-instrumental approach to shared sonorousness.  Instruments included the standard drums, guitars and bass along with a bongo-style beat, the strength of a sax, the blare of a trumpet, the hum of a harmonica and multiple shakers and sound makers which served to create a truly textured sound.  Weaving in vocals which held the hint of poetry slam style, Resin completed their overall sound with succinct lyrical timing.  Each musician, clearly skilled in his own right, came forward and retreated within the music at the perfect moment to make music which was larger than the sum of its individual parts.

The Giordano Bros. crowd clearly appreciated the show.  There was not a stray conversation in the place as everyone danced or laughed or nodded heads in tune with the beat.  Strangers wandered in off of the street to move along with the music for a few moments before heading back into the North Beach night.  Friends of the band mingled in the spaces between songs, sharing the kind of camaraderie which makes music its own cultural experience.  And amidst the sandwiches and sports bar atmosphere, the band created an atmosphere which was part professional performance and part playing for fun.

This is why I love North Beach!