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.

Event Review: The Last Fag Friday

My main review for the end of Fag Fridays is up over on Beatportal, so you should check it out there. But, the one thing I couldn't mention in that article is that David and Jose of Fag Fridays are starting a record label, Thread Recordings, and their first single, "The Rhythm," by David Harness, will soon be available on Traxsource.com (I couldn't mention this because Traxsource is a competitor to Beatport).

It was a very fun event, to sum up, though the crowd was definitely more mixed than straight-up fags, and I'm starting to understand, now that I've seen it full, why people have issues with Pink as a space. Simply put, it's got no flow. When the dancefloor is full you're constantly being bumped by people trying to get through to the restrooms or coat check, and then there's that corner you have to turn to in order to get to the back bar. It's a weird space, and I would find it difficult to spend a lot of time hanging out there (plus, I don't usually hang out in places that advertise bottles of Dom Perignon for $300 on the mirrors behind the bar).

New Year's News

Now that the turkey feast is done and we can hear the sweet sound of canned Christmas music in the cabs (I heard a great ditty called "Christmas in San Francisco" on Thursday), thoughts turn to our last big party day of the year, New Year's Eve. It's a tough night, since everbody wants to do something, but everybody wants to do something with their friends, meaning all bets are off about what will turn out to be the big parties of the night. However, little birds have told me to expect at least three big gay parties:

Afterglow - Comfort and Joy is currently planning on another New Year's Eve party in one of their traditional party locations.

Drunk and Horny - Jeff and Gary will be welcoming "500 of our most intimate friends" into an underground warehouse location (likely known to many readers of this blog) with a main dance area, a chill room, and a special "wet dream lounge." Lord Kook has also been invited to DJ the main room.

Fag Fridays New Year's Eve at Pink - with Juanita More, check out the Pink website for more info.

If you all hear of anything else that sounds like a fun way to ring in 2008 (yay, at last, a Democrat in the White House!) drop me a line and let me know about it.

Update:
Erik over at Metrowize sent me a link to their list of all the major club events that are happening. If you're looking for something a bit more "structured" (and pricey) there are some interesting options here.

The Lame-O Weekend

Grey skies, damp fog, chilly air, sniffles - all the elements came together this weekend to finally kick my hibernating instinct into gear. As the days grow shorter so too does my attention to the outside world, especially now that the boyfriend and I have the comfy apartment with the fireplace and enough room to entertain a few friends of our own with low-cost televisual entertainments.

We did make it out on Friday night to a couple birthday parties (again, what's with all the Scorpios around here?), one for Comfort and Joy impressario Kitten Calfee, the other for DJ Donimo at Heat. Kitten's party was jam-packed with burners, trannies, and alternaqueers, and after noticing that a significant percentage of the guys (and a few of the women) were sporting mohawks, I almost decided that I need to find myself a less-common coif. I spotted Juanita Fajita on her way to Raya Light's step-down party (where Juanita's performance included the consuption of a "beef liver" fashioned out of raspberry and blueberry jello) and watched a strip-tease in the living room, but the boyfriend and I left before everyone's clothes started coming off.

Heat was again a fun night of dancing, though it would have been nice to have had a few more people on the dancefloor with us. There were some great interpretations of 80s New York Studio 54 style, and performances of Grace Jones and Donna Summer that were nicely integrated into the DJ sets themselves. I spotted a photographer for a club glossy in the crowd and he certainly got some good snaps for the "seen out and about" section. His presence made me think about how few events there are in SF, a place filled with people who are into costumes and fine millinery, where there's really incentive to put on your fine flashy threads and strut around. I hope more people will get into Heat as a fun fashion scene at the December installment -it's even got me re-considering what I should do about my clubbing wardrobe.

And then, after Friday, we just pooped out. I heard that the Miss Trannyshack pageant at the Gift Center on Saturday night was actually kind of a bore - it got started almost an a hour and a half late and at 1.30 the final act had just performed. As my source told me, it was bunch of performances that had two elements out of five right - as we later decided, once you take the "shack" out of "trannyshack," it begins to lose its edge and just becomes another San Francisco institution with big wigs, like Beach Blanket Babylon. My big disappointment, though, was not making it to French Kiss at Pink on Sunday evening to hear JD Samson of Le Tigre - I had really been looking forward to a Sunday evening of drinks and electro, but the boyfriend and I spent the whole afternoon with our friend J shooting corny Christmas pix to send to our families, and by the time we had taken him out to dinner for his help, and settled down to the chores we needed to get done, I found it much more attractive to finish up a mission in Medal of Honor: Airborne and go to bed with some Nyquil for my cold than to rouse up the energy to go out. And that's how lame *I* was this weekend; how about you?

Upcoming Event: JD Samson from Le Tigre Spinning at French Kiss, Sunday Nov 18

I posted before about French Kiss at Pink, but haven't been able to make it there yet (school night and all that). But, this Sunday, JD Samson from Le Tigre is the guest DJ, and Mykill tells me that there are more special surprises in store too, so if this cold hasn't beaten me down I'll definitely be there. C'mon, it's a short week, go out and party on a Sunday night! $4 wells and $2PBRs! Craaaaazy!

French Kiss at Pink
10PM - "late"
$5 cover (what a bargain!)
2925 16th St. x South Van Ness

Upcoming Event: French Kiss Sundays at Pink, Sunday October 14 and Beyond

DJ Mykill dropped me an email recently to tell me about his new French Kiss night at Pink on Sundays that he DJs with Forever 21 "spinning the best in new electro, discopunk, bmore, indie rock remixes, mash ups, and various party jams. We have some great drink specials, $4 wells and $2 PBR's plus a free PINK shot for every guest from 10pm - 11pm." It's a tough night for me to make it out, what with my manager doing great things like scheduling meetings for 9AM on Monday morning, but it sounds like it could be a great way to pass a Sunday evening when you're up for the naughtiness of being out late on a school night. Watch for special guests, like tonights appearance by Larry Tee.

Update: Fag Fridays Moving to Pink!

This past weekend I got an email from David Peterson, who, along with his partner Jose Mineros, have been the impresarios behind Fag Fridays at the End Up. David saw my posting about the end of Fag Fridays and contacted me to set the record straight on some rumors that were swirling around, and to also let me know that Fag Fridays might be leaving the End Up, but was ready to start anew at Pink. The boyfriend and I met David and Jose for some drinks at 440 Casto and found out some interesting info about the history of Fag Fridays, and well as plans for the future.

David started working at The End Up in 1994 as the general manager, and soon afterward hired Jose to work as a promotions manager. One thing led to another and in 1996, while sitting on the beach together, the two of them came up with the concept for Fag Fridays, from the name right down to what they wanted it to achieve; as Jose put it, if they could bring one couple together on the dancefloor, and have a relationship blossom from that experience, they would consider the whole undertaking to be a success. Eleven years later they are probably responsible for more gay men hooking up together than craigslist, what with anywhere from 400 – 700 guys turning out every Friday night to get down.

In their eleven year run they’ve seen lots of change in the gay club scene, including the great club crackdown of 2001, which led to the super-strict, bummer security pat-down routine patrons now have to endure at the door. They have also seen The End Up change hands, passing last year from the last surviving brother of the original owner to an east-coast LLC that owns the business, if not the building. And here’s the reason for the passing of Fag Fridays; not that the boys have given up on the scene, or that they’ve broken up (a rumor they find particularly amusing). Rather, the new owners just want more money for the use of the space and the bar guarantee, to such an extent that running the night is no longer economically viable without jacking up the cover to $20, a price that they think would change the nature of the night in ways they don’t want.

David and Jose had considered just saying that’s it, we’ve had a good run and it’s over now; David even went so far as to find another job for himself, now working as Sales Manager for the revived Temple club. But as soon as word got out, offers started coming in from several promoters, including one very prominent club owner, to bring Fag Fridays to their spaces. After considering all the possibilities, the boys settled on Pink.

As one of the bastions of San Francisco house Pink seems like a good fit for Fag Fridays; there will be challenges too, though, since Fag Fridays is, in some ways, inherently connected in people’s minds with the End Up space. There’s also the issue of how the upcoming generation of gay clubbers relate to the Fag Fridays house sound. One the other hand, moving to Pink will allow David and Jose to do some things that they’ve wanted to do for a long time, like drop the cover charge down a few bucks. Pink will also not enforce their usual dress code for Fag Fridays, and just because the booze has to stop flowing at 2AM doesn’t mean the music will stop. Jose emphasized to me that one of the things they always wanted with Fag Fridays was to create a more intimate space that was in contrast to the big mega club event, and Pink seems ideally suited for this.

The new Fag Fridays at Pink is scheduled to take off on October 19, with New York’s Tedd Patterson (famed for his Vibal parties at Cielo in the Meatpacking District) headlining. It promises to be an event, and I’ll be anxious to check it out and see how Fag Fridays adapts to its new home.