Justice and Diplo: dance music's mega-hitters play S.F.

By Tony Ware, Evan James

published: March 26, 2008

The Ultimate Fighting Championship and electronic music have never had more in common. Like jujitsu's hyperextended submissions, muay thai's concussive strikes, and mixed martial arts' ground-and-pound, the powerhouse Parisian duo Justice threatens you to tap or break. Tracks from the group's full-length debut, †, quickly mount you, and with attenuating, unflagging bass constrict your torso, the aggressively compressed riffs pummeling through your guard. Compared to Justice, opening DJ Diplo is like drunken kung fu; the international producer puckishly blends B'more club, baile, electro, dancehall, tech-funk, and hip-house, with an emphasis on flushed bass. Catch them together on Thursday, March 27, at the Concourse at SF Design Center at 8 p.m. Admission is $35; visit www.apeconcerts.com for more info. — Tony Ware

With a name that evokes the great gay earthquake of 1906, Manquake ranks as one of San Francisco's finest rattletraps of homespun homosexual hedonism. Thematic metaphors mix when this natural-disaster-identifying club night unfolds before the portholes of the nautically inclined Gangway. Music comes courtesy of DJ Bus Station John (the disco doyenne of Tubesteak Connection, the ROD, and Double Dutch Disco), leaving the Tenderloin dive all aquiver with R&B classics, '70s and '80s hi-NRG, and rare disco. Come for the drink specials and stay for the men rubbing their tectonic plates and anchors together when Manquake takes place on Saturday, March 29 (and every Saturday), at the Gangway at 9 p.m.; call 776-6828 for more info. — Evan James

No other sexually ambiguous club night wears its Kierkegaardian handle quite as well as Gay/Not Gay. Guests walking into El Rio on a Monday evening immediately succumb to a meltdown of libidinal uncertainty and psychological ambiguity. Fortunately, DJs Mrs. Robinson and Jenny Hoyston spin a fastidious selection of recherché oldies, punk, and a veritable boodle of sonic bibelots. All of which is to say that the DJs play music that, like the clientele, may or may not be gay. Gay/Not Gay takes place Monday, March 31 (and every Monday), at El Rio at 9 p.m. Admission is $4-$8; visit www.elriosf.com for more info. — E.J.