By A. Austin

On any given evening in the Inner Richmond, the many bars and restaurants on Clement Street are lit up and peopled by families, dates and groups of students. Somewhere between Fifth and Sixth avenues, a captivating sound can be heard.

On Mondays, it is salsa music. Tuesdays are for karaoke, and Wednesdays are for open mics. The rest of the week is filled with hardcore shows, indie performances, stand-up comedy, drag shows and more. These events are from Neck of the Woods, a staple of San Francisco’s westside music scene.

Danny Berliner has been the general manager and booker at Neck of the Woods for more than three years. He is in charge of all the events that take place at the iconic venue.

“I get to have some free reign,” he said. “Every once in a while, (the owners) get more involved, for one reason or another, but for the most part, they have other businesses in the City to run.”

Berliner said this free reign has given Neck of the Woods a platform to host many incredible Bay-Area acts, including Oakland-based NUXIA, which performs ethereal, experimental music; Let Them Eat Horses, a San Francisco/Oakland emo band and the Bay Area’s Losa, which plays “arena rock for your backyard.”

Berliner varies his approach on how he chooses bands.

“It’s just my philosophy to try to do as many kinds of events and keep it as versatile as possible,” Berliner said. “I think the open mic here is a great place for a lot of musicians to come out on a Wednesday night, get their chops up and get to perform on a stage in a city that has a decreasing amount of places that host up and coming artists. We obviously have a lot of touring acts too, but I often push for locals to be on stage.”

The Bay-Area “queer-oriented rock and roll” band Let Them Eat Horses performed on Sunday, Oct. 19. They have played Neck of the Woods three times. Their name is a cross between the phrases “let them eat cake” and “I’m so hungry I could eat a horse,” which is a “statement about wealth disparity,” band member Valerie said.

The band members include Valerie (guitar), Vicky (vocals), Rain (bass) and Jackson (drums), who are all active in the Bay Area hardcore punk scene. They say that, generally, the East Bay, and Oakland especially, respond better to their genre of music, but that Neck of the Woods is the San Francisco exception as one of the few all-ages venues in the City.

“I know we have been hosting a lot of hardcore punk shows,” Berliner said, “and again we host all kinds of things, but I would say, at least since COVID-19, it’s interesting that the hardcore punk scene is really, really coming strong. I didn’t feel like it was nearly as strong before Covid, but it feels a lot bigger now.”

The talent at Neck of the Woods is not just on stage but is also handing you your tickets and making your drinks. Many of the staff are creatives in their own right. Bartender Liam and security officer Zack are both musicians outside of their work. Liam is a guitarist and said that the “community feeling” of the venue is what keeps him there. He enjoys listening to the music night after night, despite having to wear earplugs.

“It’s important for a place like this to exist,” he said about the local-friendly atmosphere.

Zack agrees. He’s the drummer for San Francisco indie band Mint. He emphasized the “diverse, tight knit” music scene that is supported at Neck of the Woods, and in San Francisco generally. He came to work at the venue after playing there and meeting the managers.

Even Berliner finds time to perform as solo rap act Wolflangis, delivering “weird and underground” lyrics inspired by East Coast sounds of the 1990s and 2000s.

While creativity comes naturally to him, he says covering venue expenses is “by far the most difficult part of this job.” In Berliner’s experience, fewer people are going out since the pandemic. They are drinking less, expenses are up and ticket prices need to remain accessible, he explained. He said he always wants artists “to feel like they were paid properly,” but there is little or no “support system for venues to host local artists or anything like that in San Francisco.”

Berliner said the briefly active Independent Venue Alliance that started during the COVID-19 shutdown was helpful to network and form relationships between struggling venues. He said he wishes the City would provide more relief to support nightlife.

As the staff suggested, community is essential to Neck of the Woods.

“It’s very rare, especially in this City, that places like this continue to exist,” Berliner said. “Especially being on this end and knowing how much of an uphill battle it is to keep it going. I would really say go see live music and go out to venues as much as you can. Especially small venues and local artists, because lord knows if there weren’t the few people out there who do that, the few places that we do have available to us would not be here, including (Neck of the Woods).”

Neck of the Woods is located at 406 Clement St. and is open every night of the week from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. For event calendars and show dates, visit neckofthewoodssf.com.