Overview:
The latest incarnation of the DNA Lounge, under JWZ's ownership is now open. Actually,
they had their grand reopening on July 13th, 2001. It's located at 375 Eleventh Street in
San Francisco, California, and the phone number is (415)626-1409. There is a fair
amount of street parking, but beware the parking garage across the street - if you don't get
your car by 2am or so, you can't pick it up until they reopen in the morning (at 4am, I
believe).
The DNA Lounge is a night club in the truest sense of the word. The city of San Francisco tried to restrict the hours and operations of the club, but, thanks to a little bit of grass-roots activism, JWZ managed to get the permits necessary to keep the place open late. For most events, the doors open at 9pm and stay open until sometime the next morning. They do have to stop serving alcohol at 2am, but I believe the bar reopens at 6am. In other words, they are very serious about the late night partying here.
The club is not huge, but its not too small either. The main room is two stories with bars along the front wall (opposite the main stage) both upstairs and down. Upstairs there are internet kiosks running the GNOME desktop on Linux, from which you can browse the web, email your friends, etc. Whether or not these are really necessary or even desirable in a club is questionable, but they definately add to the high-tech ambiance of the place.
There is an additional chill room / 2nd stage area with lots of comfy seating upstairs and situated sort of behind the main stage. The restrooms are on the ground level on either side of the stage, and the mens room, at least, is the cleanest I've ever seen in a club. I've heard that they clean them during the night, and, gasp, even add toilet paper. Seriously though, the cleanliness of the restrooms adds to the impression that the management actually gives a damn about your clubbing experience, and not just your money.
The club features both live and dj-mixed music, and makes an excellent venue for live electronica acts. I saw Simon Posford aka Hallucinogen (a big name in Goa) aka Shpongle there on December 7th, 2001, and it was definately worth the $20 or so ticket price. In keeping with the tech ambiance, the club's website(http://www.dnalounge.com) is pretty much amazing. Not only does JWZ document the whole process of getting the club up and running, he also provides the source code to all the software that makes it tick. The web site is also a great place to check out 24 hour live streaming audio and video of the place, so you can check out the crowd before your roll out. Equally as cool is the archive, where you can listen to every show from the past two weeks. Considering they stay open all night, this amounts to a great deal of music.
You should go there if:
You're a geek, you like clubbing, or are into electronic music, and are looking for a refreshingly cool and friendly place to hang out.
You should not go there if:
You're looking for a typical velvet-rope pick-up club scene.
Things to watch out for:
If you're going to see a big-name show, try to buy pre-sale tickets, or you will be sorely disappointed when you show up, stand in line, and don't get in.
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