Rocking It In SF

When I lived in Minnesota, there were never any good shows coming through in January because seriously, who would choose to roll through MN in the dead of winter? Luckily, San Francisco rainy season doesn't scare the music away. I was able to hit two shows in January, which were fun but very different from each other.

The first one we hit was deejay Steve Aoki (also known as Kid Millionaire). He does electro house music and founded his own label (Dim Mak) to release other electro house musicians. Outside of producing and deejaying, he's a club promoter, a restaurant investor and got a college degree in women's studies. He's actually a pretty interesting guy if you check out his Wiki page. I saw Aoki deejay two years ago back at the Fine Line in Minneapolis, which is a fairly small venue. There were maybe 200 people at this show. Now he's headlining (Datsik was the opener and was pretty good, so check him out at Coachella 2012) a show at the Bill Graham Auditorium by the Civic Center in front of thousands of raving fans. Now what I really want to discuss is those raving fans. The show was supposed to be 18+. We walked up the the building and it was clear it was going to be something entirely different. I don't think they were at all enforcing legit ID checks on 15 year-olds having fake IDs that say they're 18. Not only were they super younger, but they were decked out in raver outfits. And these were the cool raver outfits of the 90s, these were Gaga-esque. Apparently the new club ensemble of today's youth is a Victoria's Secret pushup bra and underwear set with fishnets and heels. I was over-dressed and totally okay with it. The actual show was pretty good. Aoki definitely has a stage presence, although I wish he spent more time DJing and less time running around stage, taking Twitpics and throwing cake onto the crowd.

The other show I went to was Fitz & the Tantrums. I hadn't heard of them until 2011's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival but when I saw them there, I was blown away. They were easily my favorite of the weekend. The band's energy is so positive and magnetic. They get the entire audience dancing and waving their hands. The type of music is hard to explain, it's like a combination of American soul, indie, pop and blues. The band was founded in 2008 out of LA and while I'd heard their name around over the years, I'd never really heard them. Michael Fitzpatrick is the lead singer and keyboardist. He puts everything he's got into the performance, so I was super impressed. The one women, Noelle Scaggs, does vocals and percussion and adds that almost bluesy, jazzy soul feel to a lot of the songs. Their January show in San Francisco was at the Regency Ballroom on Van Ness, where I hadn't been before. The space is great and if you get there early, you can snag a seat on the upper level with a great view. Fitz & the Tantrums played two nights in a row and while I'm not sure if they were sold out, it was definitely packed. Check out this band live if you can!