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.