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Where is my “House”?

Vessel is one of San Francisco's newest nightclubs. VIP tables come with built in buckets for iced bottle service.Well, I just got back from a week in San Francisco. A week of some business and a good bit of pleasure. One thing I love about trade shows are the mingling with clients, great dinners at top notch restaurants, and yes, the parties. Most of the larger companies in my industry love to throw big parties to attract attention to themselves. These parties are usually hosted at some of the coolest clubs I’ve been in. It’s nice because I get to see what Harrisburg is missing 51 weeks out of the year.

One thing that is special about San Franciscan nightlife is the music. Almost everywhere you go there is a DJ and just about everywhere there is a DJ there is house music. I’m not talking stuff you can hear on the radio or in jukeboxes, I’m talkin beats and rhythm. The house music they play in the city by the bay is more soulful and relaxed than most forms of electronic music. Take for example a DJ named Donovan. Donovan first introduced me to “west coast house music” a few years ago at a party at Ruby Skye. From then on I was hooked. Every time I would be out and see a DJ at a bar or nightclub, I would hope to hear something similar and hope it would be mixed right and not miss a beat. As far as I can see in my local area, I still haven’t found it yet.

This past week, every bar or club I went into there was a DJ spinning house. Be it Mighty, Vessel, Wish, or Dragon Bar. Even a restaurant called Sushi Groove had an actual DJ behind the turntables crafting his music. Who does this? Never once during my time out there did I see a jukebox on the wall like I might find at the Brick Haus or hear Nickelback being played by a DJ at Molly Brannigans.

I usually don’t try to condemn my own city for being backward or behind the times, but I’ll say it this time — wake up Harrisburg!

Enjoy this set from DJ Kevin Manning. Recorded April 28 @ Wish, San Francisco.

Here is another album I’m enjoying right now.

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Posted by Bone on Thursday, May 3rd, 2007 at 11:20 am.

8 Responses to “Where is my “House”?”

300 MB! It’s gonna take a while but I’m looking forward to hearing it.

Left by Amanda on May 3rd, 2007

It actually starts off with house during the first hour or so and then the playlist moves more toward old school hip hop. I was there around the transition into Sir Mix a Lot.

Left by Bone on May 3rd, 2007

House music has been long gone from the Harrisburg area. I plan on getting my fill when I head out to Vegas this year. Jet, Tryst, Light - all the good venues out there either have house nights or, at the very least, house rooms. For a while there, it seemed like even the major A-grade clubs nationwide dropped the genre in favor of more hip hop. Now it seems to be staging a comeback, but in the more chilled out avenues where it rightfully belongs.

Left by floor9 on May 5th, 2007

Deep House is one of my favorite House genres for sure. No scratch that, it is one of my favorite music genres period! There is no doubt that San Fran is and has always been one of the hotbeds for this great music. You should look into Miguel Migs, Kaskade, Mark Farina and just about anything else on the Om label (the Mushroom Jazz series quickly comes to mind).

You are not condemning your city and Harrisburg IS backwards, especially when it comes to the music! It’s a decent little place over all, but it will never offer anything for those not fitting into the average Top40s “Oh this song is so hot because it is on Kiss Fm 100 times a day!” mold. That’s a real shame too, because there was a time when Harrisburg had some clubs that strayed far from the norm…

Left by dskillz on May 5th, 2007

Love Migs and most anything on the Naked Music label too. Hoping to see if Miguel makes it back to Mosaic in Baltimore again this year.

This city’s lack of quality music shows it’s lack of sophistication.

Left by Bone on May 5th, 2007

–This city’s lack of quality music shows it’s lack of sophistication.–

I totally agree, Bone.

Harrisburg is such a strange place: on one hand it’s nothing more than the typical PA small town. Yet on another, it is a decent-sized metro and the State Capital, and it really does feel like it should be much more than it is. When I lived there, not a day went by where I didn’t wish it was more like Atlanta, Phoenix, etc., etc., and a big, very important city in its own right besides just being known as the capital.

I’m not trying to bash da ‘burg here and there really are some wonderful things about it, but I don’t see it ever being more than what it is. And I say this because the world is moving way too fast these days and the mentality there makes everything move way too slow, leaving it even further in the dust…

Left by dskillz on May 5th, 2007

before my tirade, i should mention that you would really enjoy matt hart (a local house dj - very soulful stuff) if you look out for the name. he’s one of the dj’s in rotation at g-man’s thursday night series.

the following is just my own opinion of what i’ve seen: south of nyc and east of the mississippi river has never been a very fertile place for house music. the only people that i’ve seen that are into really house music are dj’s and diehard clubbers, which does not make a very large population of fans. i don’t think the east coast had as much access to house music in it’s heyday in comparison to the midwest and the west coast. alternately, the midwest has almost no hip-hop nights. i was in lincoln a few years ago and there were no radio stations with an urban format and all the clubs played trance; an almost total flip-flop of what we have here.

i think its anthropological more than anything else; but outside of nyc and miami / south beach (and arguably a few small pockets in between), the east coast has never had too much exposure to house on a large scale and i don’t see it starting to catch on any time soon. i think its too foreign, especially in this area where anything remotely foreign has an uphill battle.

Left by cosby on May 8th, 2007

It’s very upsetting to me that such music doesn’t exist here. I hear Spy Club does house/electro every other Saturday, but I haven’t been there yet to confirm that. I personally am a DJ who just moved back to the area, and I’m into all types of EDM. I get the feeling that as soon as everybody starts getting sick of this minimal hip hop b.s., they’ll come back around. It goes in cycles really. As far as 4-to-the-floor dance beats in clubs, it started in the 70’s with disco and picked up with techno and house in the 90’s, so we’ll probably see another upswing in the next decade or so.

If anybody’s looking for an EDM DJ or knows of a place that would want one, let me know. :D

Left by t.i.d.u.s. on March 27th, 2009

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