Ana Sia

My friend Christie showed some strong interest in going out dancing on Friday night and asked me for a suggestion. I have been trying to get out and see Ana Sia for awhile and knew she was on the bill for that night at 1015 Folsom. By looking at the flier, you'd think Ana was some super opening act and Adam Freeland was the main event. I had seen Freeland a couple of times already at Burning Man this year. I liked his sets. They had good energy and kept people dancing. Keeping to my tendency to describe music using at least three genres or artists, I would describe him as techno/elektro/rock.

But Ana Sia had been elusive to me. I had only seen her one time before at the Howeird Street Fair over a year ago. She was playing this glitchy hip hop (some call glitch hop) that was spinning the sunny daytime crowd into a groovy frenzy. She is one of those artists that clearly feels the groove of her own set and dances right along with the crowd while putting her set together. She has a focused intensity while playing, turning knobs and staring at her electronics, while her petite frame bobs and rocks to the beat. It's a cue to the crowd just how funky the beat is. And they seem to take the cues from her.

Finally I had a chance to see her again.

Christie was hot to run down to the club around 10 pm. I said "No way." I know a little about the tendency of these late night clubs to be virtually empty until it starts getting really late. She was worried about missing a good act. But I knew we would just be standing around for hours. No earlier than 11:30 in my opinion.

About quarter to midnight, we got to the club and guess what? Three of the four dance floor rooms were shut. Only the front room was open. Only around a hundred people in a club designed to hold one or two thousand.

After midnight, the main room finally opened and DJ Mehdi started playing. We were satisfied that we could hang with his music for awhile if need be, but after a bit took a walk to check other rooms. An-ten-nae and Laura were playing in the front room and were rocking some strong glitchy beats. We were sold and stuck around there dancing. It was clear that the front room and main room had completely different crowds. There were clearly some more playa costumes and the crowd had a more spiritual look while the main room had a more mainstream following. There was no clear headliner in this club tonight. Two distinct main events.

I love the burners. They are generally warm, friendly, love to adorn themselves in delightful attire, and love to dance. That night was no exception.

After a bit, Ana Sia got on the decks and continued the thoughts of her predecessors, but all I really remember is that the groove got turned up a notch. I just remember looking all around me on the dance floor with faces looking astounded at how funky, how hard the groove was, how much fun this music was.

The place wasn't packed though. As best I could tell, this was because it was Love Week. The Love Parade was to start early the next morning, and those inclined to listen to music like this likely had grand plans to dance and party all day Saturday and probably well into Sunday. Only the hard core fans made it out the night before to see their "must see" artists.

I probably would have been in the more conservative group without having been encouraged by Christie to attend.

I'm glad we did.

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