Changes/chances

Pub date February 23, 2010
WriterMarke B.
SectionSuper Ego

superego@sfbg.com

SUPER EGO Sorry to put a slight damper on the socks-knocking, thrillingly complex, and exuberant nightlife decade we’re just rafting into. (Listen to Tensnake, Move D, Matías Aguayo, Minimal Wave, Zombie Disco Squad, and recently reinvigorated legends Jeff Mills, Greg Wilson, and Todd Edwards for clues to the new.) But I’ve got to launch some shout-outs to some Bay club people and places no longer with us. Clubwise, the consistently excellent techno-plus happy hour Qoöl (www.qoolsf.com) ended its 15-year run at 111 Minna last month, so founders Spesh and Jondi et al could concentrate on their label, Loöq, and larger affairs. And high-voltage, bare-fleshed electro blackout BlowUp (www.blowupsf.com) quit after five years due to capacity overflow at the Rickshaw Stop.

On sadder notes, promoter Chantal Salkey, who revolutionized the womens club scene with her summer Mango tea-dances, upping the party power of lesbians of color into global sounds, passed away, as did David Kapp, the former manager of Deco (and several pre-gentrification Polk Street bars), who brought conceptual disco and wet alternaqueers to the Tenderloin. Let’s dedicate an extra twirl this week to the pioneers.

 


BASS GAMES: MARIJUANA CHANCES

Light one up and get pixilated with the true-electro kids of Party Effects (www.partyeffects.biz), as they skunk out swank palace Otis with unthinkable low-end roll and passionate blips. Live P.A.s from Adeptus, Dade Elderon, Marnacle, and Tarythyas dust it, while glamourpuss hostesses Domonique and Alexis pinch it tight. With $10 bottomless drafts, it’ll be slow-motion anarchy.

Thu/25 and last Thursdays, 10 p.m., free. Otis, 25 Maiden Lane, SF. www.otissf.com

 


KISS MY BLACK ASS

New York City’s great and kiki classic-house KMBA party, helmed by Quentin Harris — my vote for house producer of the ’00s — is landing at Triple Crown with Harris and SF’s David Harness. Expect energetic cuts with generous dollops of sass: at the last KMBA I attended, Quentin dropped all eight minutes of his slinky edit of DJ DeMarko’s “Drop a House.” The red lights flashed.

Fri/26, 10 p.m.–4 a.m., $10. Triple Crown, 1760 Market, SF. www.triplecrownsf.com

 


REBEL RAVE

This party, put on by the Crosstown Rebels label, confuses yet delights me. The intriguing featured players — Damian Lazarus, Deniz Kurtel, Jamie Jones, and Seth Troxler — possess unassuming demeanors and ravaging musical intellects that span the neo-edit, house revival, minimal, and techno-pop genres. Yet the joint’s being marketed harder than a Steve Aoki appearance in 2k7. TV cameras! Hookah room! Wear your “Rebel Rave” gear! Fortunately, the potential greatness and actual fun of the music should cut through the hype static.

Fri/26, 10 p.m.–4 a.m., $20. Mighty, 119 Utah, SF. www.mighty119.com

 


CUTE FANG

Possibly no one has done more to sustain the classic SF techno sound — chunky, funky, sample-heavy, breaks-laced, and often unabashedly rave-y — than homegirl Forest Green. Her recent, bass-blasting productions on Daly City Records and her own Cute Fang recordings have bravely updated the groove, prepping it for its inevitable third or fourth comeback. She’ll be celebrating her birthday with a roiling lineup, including Clairity, Ethan Miller, Dragn’fly, Triple D, Raydeus, and more.

Sat/27, 8 p.m., $5. Shine, 1337 Mission, SF. www.forestgreen.org

 


MARTIN KEMP

Is UK Funky a trap? One of the most exciting sounds of the past couple years, the British genre revived two-step beats, added dubstep atmospherics, and incorporated R&B, tribal, and Latin flourishes. But the organic sheen of the music — bongos, vibes, strings — soon rubbed off, leaving UK Funky in a strange electro No Man’s Land (full of men, of course). Future-eared brothers Martin Kemp and Brackles are the best current candidates to move the movement forward, infusing their DJ sets with enough experiment to keep it fresh while playing with UK Funky’s natural air of loveliness that grabbed ears and asses in the first place. Kemp will turn up the gas at the banging new Icee Hot party.

Sat/27, 10 p.m., $5. 222 Hyde, SF. www.222hyde.com