Mission Mission

At last month’s show at the Knockout, they didn’t take the stage until after midnight on a weeknight, and it seemed like a lot of working-stiff types didn’t stick around.

The band is a little different since the hiatus (as explained in this Examiner article), but it’s still Dominant Legs and it still rules.

And they’re playing this Saturday at the 20th Street Block Party! And it’s during the day! And it’s free! Here’s the lineup:

RSVP and invite your friends (and buy VIP tickets if you’re fancy).

In case you weren’t aware, the Mission-based folks at Noise Pop have taken over booking duties at Market Street’s historic Swedish American Hall, and they’re doing a lot of cool stuff. (I saw Little Wings there a couple weeks back and it was tiiiiiight.)

This Friday, Willis Earl Beal is playing, and he’s got a new album out, and here’s a song from it:

To win a pair of tickets, leave an interesting Willis Earl Beal factoid in the comments section below. Winner will be decided based on merit, and notified asap. Contest ends this Wednesday at 6pm.

Happy Labor Day from all of us at Pops Bar! You work hard all the time, today the only thing that should work hard is your liver. Pops Bar has you covered for your post work entertainment giving you a reason to look forward to every single night of the week. Hop on Pops for Motown on Mondays, Trivia Tuesdays, Whatever Wednesdays, BFF.fm Thursdays and dance party mayhem every Friday & Saturday!

Check out this week’s entertainment line up at Pops Bar:

9/8/15 TUESDAY

Trivia Tuesdays

Pops Quiz

$2 to play

8:30-10:30PM

Join us every Tuesday of the month and test your wits at Pops trivia night “POP’s Quiz” where your brain may get stump on categories such as Pop’s culture, Sports, Movies, Music and more, with little snippets of audio and visual effects too! It starts at 7:00pm ends at 10:00pm. So come on in for some good ole fashion competition and a night of drinking with the crew! It is a 2 dollar cover and winner gets the pot!! so tell friends and family because the more peeps the steeper the cash prize is!!

MUSIC THERAPY

Electro-Cumbia Breaks, Hip Hop, Nu Latin Beats

9PM-1:30am

No Cover

21 UP

9/9/15 WEDNESDAY

Happy Hour Entertainment 6-9PM

Rude Awakenings

Forgotten underground classics of the 60s, 70s and 80s with DJs Cathy 2-Tone and Scooter Stalin.

WHATEVER WEDNESDAY

9PM-1:30AM

Whatever Wednesday is YOUR PARTY, literally. You got DJ skills? Have you been itching to show ALL your friends? Its your turn to take over the night and mix it up. Send us your request, your best mix and we’ll see what we can do to get you your turn.

Email: tom@popssf.com

No Cover

21 UP

9/10/15 THURSDAY

Happy Hour Entertainment 6-9pm with Drew Smith.

BFF.FM Night

9PM-1:30AM

Rotating DJs from local BFF.fm radio! This week: Cult of Riffs classic metal night

Come support local community radio.

No Cover

9/11/15 FRIDAY

Happy Hour Entertainment 6-9pm with Kid Gorgeous:

Rare Grooves, Deep Cuts; Soul, Funk, Psychedelic, Cumbia, Reggae and Beyond with Your Boy Kid Gorgeous!

24 & York

Rap Music + Cheap PBR + No Cover + Good Company

9PM-1:30AM

No Cover

9/12/15 SATURDAY

Happy Hour Entertainment 6-9PM with Lonesome Lester

Lonesome Lester plays three kinds of music: his music, old music, and his old music. Armed with a ukulele, occasionally joined by an acquaintance or two, Lester plays Tin Pan Alley favorites as well as his own songs…which sound like Tin Pan Alley favorites.

ALL 80s EVERYTHING: DANCE PARTY

ALL VINYL / ALL NIGHT

Curated Dance music of the 80s: Funk, Boogie, new wave, pop, r&b, rap, house, reggae, New 80s edits, and Dance Jams influenced by the 80s

Residents:

Host DJ Boom Bostic

SF ant (SF Artist Networking Talent)

Teemoney: Dj, Author, Writer, and much more…

(Adventures in Dirty South Hip Hop)

9:00pm-1:30am

No Cover

21 UP

POPS BAR

2800 24th Street @ York

San Francisco, CA 94110

www.popssf.com

RSVP and invite your friends!

It was almost exactly a year ago that we asked “What the fuck is happening with Sunflower?” But now they’re back in action…

Here’s the Wild SF Walking Tours crew eating there RIGHT NOW:

Thanks for the heads-up, you guys!!

Saturday, September 12, 2015, Guac-Off is gonna be wiiiiild.

Starring my favorite happy hour DJ, Nick Pal. Here’s the deal:

Nick Pal spins short songs because life is short. Power pop, hard rock, punk and pop vinyl.

RSVP and invite your pals!

Professional drone pilot Renee Lusano was chillin’ at a swimming hole when some wild shit happened:

A video posted by W R E N E E . C O M (@wrenees) on Sep 2, 2015 at 11:31am PDT

See lots more footage on Renee’s blog here.

And for goodness sake be careful next time you’re at a swimming hole.

(Also, I was checking out the Columbia River Gorge last week and saw a whole chunk of forest go up in extremely violent flames in like 30 seconds, which was also gnarly. Be careful anytime you’re anywhere.)

If you grew up in the 80s and 90s, and in a family that encouraged an interest in the theatre, you probably saw The Phantom of the Opera. We both did, several times, and when we heard there was a new tour of it coming to SHN’s Orpheum Theater we were interested to see how it aged. Could it still be as mind-blowingly cool as we remembered? Or, does Andrew Lloyd Webber actually suck, as we’ve been told as adults, although we secretly refuse to believe it. What better way to confront the realities of our youth than a night of Drama Talk and Drinks?

Photo by Matthew Murphy

Brittany: Man, Phantom of the Opera…

Katie: It’s so different from what I remember as a kid.

B: It was beautiful, and an amazing spectacle, but it’s sooo creepy. Was it always that creepy?

K: I don’t remember it being that creepy.

B: Maybe as a kid I didn’t get all the weird sexual undertones the Phantom is giving off, but he’s a spooky dude. He was a stalker, kidnapper, murderer, and although it didn’t happen on stage, I’m pretty sure a rapist. Or at least aspirationally a rapist.

K: Yeah, he had a really unhealthy obsession with Christine.

B: I thought he was just a scary looking guy, not a maniac.

K: Yeah, I remember him being misunderstood. In my childhood memory he was just an abused kid, who wanted to make music, and to be accepted for who he was. I don’t remember him being so sick and abusive.

B: Yeah, in the last scene the way he pinned her to the bed was really violent. Like there should have been trigger warnings. No means no.

K: Seriously, no means no, Phantom. But even though the story was way darker than I remember, the crazy sets, and flashy costumes, the pyrotechnics, and falling chandeliers made it an amazingly enjoyable time. Maybe even a better time than I thought it would be. Even though it was lots of song and dance and musical theatre-ness, the story was kind of dysfunctional, which I like.

B: It’s still Phantom, the music is the same, it just felt a little different watching it as an adult.

K: Yeah, I was super entertained, just oddly uncomfortable.

The Verdict: This tour is as good as The Phantom of the Opera can be, although maybe slightly creepier than you remember it as a child. It’s got all the flash, fog, and fabulous costumes you expect from a Broadway tour, and a formidable cast that can really make the complexities in the score shine. As long as you like this play, or at the very least like big blockbuster musicals, you’ll enjoy this.

The Drama Talk: If you’re a child of 80s musical theater, you probably grew up on Phantom, and know if you can tolerate another Andrew Lloyd Webber show or not. If you can, this show will not disappoint. After all these years it still kept us engaged and awed with it’s impressive spectacle. If you don’t know The Phantom of The Opera, a word of caution, it is named that for a reason, it’s kind of Opera-y. Be prepared for some trills and most of the show being sung. If that doesn’t scare you away, you’ll probably have a great time, but you really do need to be okay with operatic musicals to enjoy this classic.

The Drinks: Always looking for new bars nearish the theater, we decided to check out Forgery, a fancy cocktail bar that opened a couple months ago on Mission. Brittany got the Delicious Sour, and Katie got a Cool Runnings, and we toasted to a creepy night of revisiting childhood favorites.

The Phantom of the Opera runs through October 4th at SHN’s Orpheum Theater. Tickets can be purchased directly through their website, but if you’re looking for a deal they do have a Rush for this show as well. A limited number of $40 tickets are available beginning 2 hours prior to curtain at the SHN Orpheum Theatre Box Office- cash only – 2 per-person. Goldstar also currently has a few performances available at $75/seat.