Make Your Own Party

These days, everyone's a DJ at San Francisco's DIY nightclubs

Bill Picture

The Bay Area’s creative energy and do-it-yourself spirit have spawned a new generation of clubgoers who aren’t content just going to parties. They want to be the party. At Rx Gallery’s monthly Backlit Lounge night, for example, laptop-toting musicians can plug into a proper club sound system and play the tracks they’ve cooked up in their bedroom studios. The brainchild of Mississippi native Onyx Ashanti, who got his DIY start producing shopper-stopping weekend sidewalk jam sessions outside the Virgin Megastore, the Lounge affords amateur DJs the room—physical and creative—to do their thing, whatever that thing might be. “Some of it’s dance oriented, but some of it is ambient or noise art,” Ashanti explains. “There are no rules. It’s an artists’ lounge. You sign up online, you come, and you play.” The party has received a warm reception from local clubbers and is set to go weekly.

Backlit Lounge
10:41 p.m.

THE SCENE
Partygoers clutch
notebook cases and import beers, admiring each other’s hardware with red, monitor-burned eyes while they eagerly wait for their chance to play.

THE SOUND TRACK
Weird is not only tolerated, but encouraged. Nothing is too avant-garde for this forward-thinking crowd of music lovers.

EAVESDROPPING
Partygoers talk “plug-ins” and “software” and exchange e-mail addresses and instant-message IDs for possible future collaborations.

THE CROWD
Scruffy IT types and rave scene graduates compete for space on the club’s online sign-up sheet.
Backlit Lounge, monthly at Rx Gallery, 132 Eddy St., San Francisco, 415-474-7973. Visit www.myspace.com/backlit loungesf for details on the next party.

Elsewhere
Anyone can plug in an iPod and be a DJ for 20 minutes at 21st Amendment’s iPod Night. Wednesdays, 563 Second St., S.F., 415-369-0900. At the Knockout’s Digital DJ Happy Hour party, iDJs (that is, iPod DJs) get 30 minutes to wow fellow barflies. Musical tastes, like the crowd, skew hip. Tuesdays, 3223 Mission St., S.F., 415-550-6994. There’s no better place for a DIY-er to refuel than Levende Lounge on Sunday morning. The Boogie Brunch’s build-your-own Bloody Mary and eggs benedict bars let the bleary-eyed play bartender and chef. 1710 Mission St., S.F., 415-864-5585.