The Juice Box

Wow, what a weekend. Who said the scene in San Francisco was dead? Certainly not me, and I have the sore feet and legs to prove it. It was a fun weekend with my friends Marcus and James, Frank, Eric and Sergio, Leif, Tod, Suzan, and a whole cast of others. I love the opportunities given in this city to connect and have fun and with my group of friends, the times on the dance floor are often so silly and fun, it makes any dance party fun. So, with that, my reviews of what was a very busy MLK weekend in San Francisco.

Industry

3.0 out of 5.0 Bottles of Water

I love this party, and the fact that it is still going pretty strong. This weekend introduced the first flagging stage offering at the Mighty club space, and although a couple technical glitches at first, overall I think it was a nice addition, and the flaggers were out to enjoy the space and show off their art form. The evening had Randy Bettis from New York playing a decent set of driving music and vocals, danceable and fun enough to keep my friends and I in a silly space most of the night. One of the more inspiring moments was the song mixing in parts of Obama’s speeches and talking about change which drew a huge applause and hollering from the crowd and brought me goose bumps. Jaime J Sanchez followed up with what I would call a traditional set of music, driving, energy, some dark and sexy moments, and keeping the dance floor full with a pretty hot crowd most of the night. I miss the dance floor bar being opened during this party however, because every time you want a drink you have to wade through the crowd to get it and that can be a bit of work sometimes. The crowd overall was fun, a lot of regulars, and many new faces, but all mostly friendly and out for a good time.

Pornstar

3.0 out of 5.0 Bottles of Water

After a great evening at Industry, we decided to follow a portion of the crowd and keep things going over at the Cat Club with Pornstar. We arrived as John LaPage was finishing his set for the evening. The crowd had been moved up to the front portion of the bar and was a little small, but some folks continued to dance. I only lasted about another hour, but was able to be there long enough to catch Paulo’s set as he started up and it certainly was going in a great direction, with some driving, dark and sexy beats.

Dream

No Rating

Dream had what looked to be the most impressive line-up for the MLK weekend, with lots of DJs and a new venue space called the Cellar. The space is rather interesting with barrel vaulted ceilings and you do feel like you are in an old wine cellar. Colorful lighting made the space cozy, if not too bright. However, technical glitches stopped the opening of the main dance area, and those were being resolved when we arrived. Posted to start at 5PM and go until 3AM, when we arrived around 7PM it was pretty dead, but the music was pretty good (not sure who the DJ was). We hung around for a very short time and decided, with full in and out privileges to head over to Fresh and see what was happening, seeing as it was only a few blocks away. Sadly, we never made it back to Dream, so I have no way of knowing how it all worked out, and thus will give it a no rating from my perspective.

Fresh

3.0 out of 5.0 Bottles of Water

Fresh has a formula of success for a monthly party. The Ruby Skye club space is a great space, and was really being packed in for this party. The crowd was moderate when we arrived, and clearly this was the event that everyone chose to start out the night with. Brett Henrichsen was playing what I would call a very Masterbeat style all night, which would be appropriate for him, and while some of the best music of the night seemed to be in the last 30-40 minutes of his set, the overall night was enjoyable. One thing that does make it challenging at this space is flow, and this seems to lead to the most pushing around I ever see on a dance floor. Nothing like dancing and having some little diva push through you and being rather rude and disrespectful. What does it take to be just a little more friendly on the dance floor and say excuse me (even if the other person does not hear you) and tap lightly on their shoulder or back to get them to move, rather than aggressively push them aside. Additionally, I am not sure what was up with the club facilities, but on the upper level 2 toilets were out of commission and that seemed to lead to sometimes 15 minute or longer lines for the facilities. All that, and we still stayed there until nearly the end, leaving just before midnight.

Sanctuary

3.0 out of 5.0 Bottles of Water

Gus pulled off a regular holiday weekend Sanctuary at Club 1015. We arrived just after midnight and the lines were decent, but moved quickly and the security team got us into the building quickly. The club was warm and steamy, and the front room was set up to be a bit more like a lounge with seating spread around. We got everyone sorted out and headed into the main dance floor to our normal right side of the stage and started to enjoy the evening. Roland Belmares was spinning when we arrived and the music was energetic, vocal and easy to dance too. The crowd was light on the main dance floor when we arrived, as we had expected, and quickly filled up as the Fresh crowd arrived from that party. The upstairs stayed pretty empty all night and the lower level was never opened. The club was very hot as well, but it did not stop me from powering through the evening and dancing and catching up with many friends. As the evening progressed, David Knapp took the decks and pumped up the music a bit more and as more sore feet and legs would say to me, I obviously was enjoying the music. I also appreciated that a real operator was in working the lights for this event. During the past couple parties, since installing all of this new club lighting, it often felt like the lights were on some type of auto-pilot and the strobe effects were over used, thankfully the lighting was in good shape and added to the production value of this party.