One of the great benefits of being laid off is that now I have the time to check out all those weekly events that would normally keep me up past my bedtime. In a celebratory mood after attending the Entertainment Commission meeting on Tuesday, I decided to go check out Auralism Record's lil brthr at Club 222 Hyde, one of the rotating events in the club's weekly Techno Tuesdays. It was an unexpectedly active event for a Tuesday night, with some great minimal techno that, while it might not necessarily move you into a long session of sweaty dancing, is certainly great for head-nodding and getting plastered with your friends on absurdly cheap drinks while munching on some fine, homemade, thin-crust pizza.
OK, let's get to the drinks: $2.00 for a vodka tonic! Yes, that's right, $2.00! The first time I paid I thought I misheard the man, then counted my change. A better bargain in San Francisco I don't know of, but I should point out that if you really want to blend into the crowd here, order yourself a Pilsner Urquell tall boy.
I arrived right around 10 and shortly thereafter ran into David Peterson and his partner Jose Mineros, who is starting a new urban house night called Collide at Club 222 on Saturdays. We chatted in the upstairs bar for a while, during which time I found myself nodding along to some easy-going minimal techno with a consistent shuffle beat from resident Roman Stange. When I went back down into the dance area there were about 25 heads hanging out, listening to a female DJ who I think was Dima, with a few folks doing the jerky spazz dance, but mostly just bobbing along. I liked her set quite a bit, varying as it did from Outhud's "Put it away, put it away, put it away, dad" (which made me laugh when she put it on) to a remix of The Rapture's "W.A.Y.U.H.", to some fairly dark stuff that bordered on minimal psy, winding up, just as I was leaving, with Sammy Dee and Guido Schneider's "Styleways" (I think this is right, I recognized the track from Ricardo Villalobos' "Blue" disc in the Green&Blue compilation, but my audio memory is little fuzzy this morning). Overall a darker, deeper set of the sort that I appreciate, and the fact that she seemed to be playing exclusively on vinyl was even more endearing.
I counted about fifty people in the whole place when I left around 12.30, a certainly respectable showing for a Tuesday night; Alland Byallo even popped by to drop off flyer's for this Saturday's Kontrol. If you've got a free Tuesday night and an even freer Wednesday morning you should definitely come by and check out what's happening at Techno Tuesdays, you're bound to hear some good tunes, get plastered on cheap drinks, and maybe sober up with some tasty pizza after the aroma of it baking compels you to try some.
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