Compared to New York or Los Angeles, where you need money and attitude in equal amounts, San Francisco’s nightlife demands little of either.
Though replete with its fair share of all-night raves, this is not, on the whole, a 24-hour city. The approach to socializing is often surprisingly low-key, manifest in its smooth supper clubs where you can listen to excellent music and eat your dinner. San Franciscans love their grub and do not see why they should forsake it in order to have a good night out.
Though obviously subject to fads and fashions, and usually very on top of the music scene, the city has a style peculiar to itself - it is done without addiction to hip credentials and yet has a kind of cool-camp. The casualness is contagious and evident in a club scene that - far as it is from the cutting edge - is encouragingly inexpensive compared to other cities. Thirty dollars can buy you a decent night out, including cover charge, a few drinks and maybe even a taxi home.
The live music scene is similarly economical - and, frankly, what the city does best. San Franciscans may be relatively unconcerned with being up-to-the-minute, but there are some excellent rock, jazz and folk venues all over town, many entertaining you for no more than the price of a drink. San Francisco has a somewhat better reputation for opera and classical music. Its orchestra and opera association are among the most highly regarded in the country. Theater is more accessible and much less costly, with discount tickets available, but most of the mainstream downtown venues - barring a couple of exceptions - are mediocre, forever staging Broadway reruns. You’d do better to take some time to explore the infinitely more interesting fringe circuit.
Cabaret and comedy are also lively: some excellent clubs host an increasingly healthy and varied diet of good comedians. Film, too, is almost as big an obsession as eating in San Francisco. The range of film is first-class, and you may well be surprised by the sheer number of movie theaters - repertory and current-release - that flourish. The Pacific Film Archive, one of the world’s finest film libraries, fills its screens with obscure but brilliant art flicks. The Hong Kong Film Festival, Jewish Film Festival and San Rafael Film Festival are also successful Bay Area screenings.
The best places to look up listings about what’s happening are: the Sunday Chronicle’s “Pink Pages” supplement, the free weekly Bay Guardian, the San Francisco Weekly, CitySearch http://www.citysearch7.com and Sidewalk http://www.sanfrancisco.sidewalk.com on the web and a host of other more specific local publications available in street boxes and at newsstands.
For tickets, BASS (415/776-1999 or 510/762-2277), the Bay Area Seating Service, is the major Bay Area booking agency. You can either reserve with a credit card on these numbers, or in person at one of their many branches in record stores such as Tower Records or Wherehouse. Theater tickets are also on sale at the Tix ticket booth on Union Square.