New owners have taken over the Thee Parkside’s property at 17th and Wisconsin in SF and, given the neighborhood’s gentrification, we can expect condos to rise where that little punk dive bar used to be. Picking up the slack beginning in January, Kilowatt, which is a few blocks west of Parkside on 16th between Valencia and Guerrero, will dedicate first Monday evenings to C & W bands at Handsome Hawk’s Honky-Tonk Hayride.
Further south, Amado’s at Valencia and 21st has been struggling to reopen. Like a pop-up, sometimes it’s open, but mainly it’s not. The echoes of it’s flooded basement stage and reduced parking on Valencia, not to mention the current economic climate, have Amado’s in a bind. Ireland’s 32 in the inner Sunset has resumed booking live bands including, occasionally, Smelley Kelley’s Honky-Tonk Night Time Band, yet their mainstay is bar bands to drink by.
HWS had its first visit to Music City and found it an amazing resource that stages bands, provides rehearsal spaces,, offers artist development programs, and much more. This business is focused entirely on cultural development in the music sphere.
Noelle and the Deserters’ Momma Tried has relocated from Thee Stork Club in Oakland to Toot’s Tavern in Crockett. Find Toot’s and other shows on the Hicks with Sticks calendar, updated regularly by Stompin’ Steve Hathaway whose Cupertino Barndance airs Sundays at 9pm on KKUP.
Club DeLuxe has been rumored to be reopening for years. Earlier in the year, HWS provided eye-witness confirmation that work was progressing, and in October they’d started booking bands for a January opening. Alas, all those dates have been cancelled and not rescheduled. At least we’re confident that it’s genuinely a matter of when rather than if.
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