Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Club News: The End of Pink, Bar on Castro = Bar on Church

According to the SFWeekly All Shook Down blog, Pink closed its doors this past Saturday, putting an end to the last club dedicated to House music in the city. That's kind of a sad thing; House was once the dominant form of dance music in this city, and there have been times when I, even as a dedicated techno and trance guy, have missed its presence. House is great when you want some easy-going 'choons to get you through the night, or through you hangover, and it's great music for socializing on the dancefloor. But Pink, as a club, is not something I'll really miss. It had a weird layout that made it uncomfortable when it got crowded, and, as numerous Yelp reviews attest, it had a pretty high douchebag factor, and was always trying to be more upscale than seemed warrented. I remember when that space was Liquid, and it hosted awesome nights full of people who wanted to go out and party and dance; when it turned into Pink, it seemed to be more about handbags and bottle service, and now that times are tight, I guess people are looking for a different kind of club experience, one that's less pretentious and more focused on the basics of music and fun.

Walking past The Bar on Castro this morning I noticed a sign for the inaugeral launch of The Bar on Church on January 20th. I believe this was formerly known as The Transfer. Having looked into that space recently, it's undergoing some tremendous renovation, but it remains to be seen whether it will be able to attract the same crowd as is former location. I suspect, though, that Bronstein's real efforts will be focused on Jet, with the BOC serving more as a secondary player in his club lineup. There's an article about it over at gay.com, with information about the (yawn) weekly line-up. Nothing to get excited about here, folks.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, according to Juanita's latest email, Booty Call will *not* be making the transfer (as it were) to the new Bar location:

"The BAR has recently been sold to new owners and all of the weekly parties will be moving to a new venue, EXCEPT for Booty Call Wednesdays. We are staying at the same location under its new ownership. In the upcoming weeks there will be changes to the BAR, but we don't want you to worry - we will be back!"

Interesting indeed.

The Jaded Gay DJ said...

Well that is interesting - given that Booty Call is probably the strongest night at the BOC (will we now start having to write BOT too?), I guess the new owners don't want to mess with a good thing. I'm curious whether there will be any changes beyond ownership, since the BOC pretty much has it nailed down for that location (I would like to see more use made of that back room, though).