S.F.’s Amnesia set to close after memorable run
Amnesia, a longtime bar and music venue on San Francisco’s Valencia Street, is set to close at the end of February — at least in its current incarnation.
Social media had been buzzing for days about the venue’s potential closure. On Friday, Jan. 17, a statement confirming the news was posted to the bar’s Twitter account. The note indicates the owners plan to hold on to the space’s entertainment license as they figure out what comes next.
“The rumors are true,” the tweet said, including a screenshot of a lengthy statement.
“With full clarity, we know we will not be able to maintain the same model that exists today,” the statement read, adding “853 Valencia has been a neighborhood bargathering space for over 100 years; this will not go away.”
Losing Amnesia is another blow to the city’s oncethriving independent music scene — and to Valencia, one of the most gentrified streets in the Mis
sion District.
Before Amnesia opened in 2002, the venue was known as the Chameleon and before that it was the Chatterbox. Through all these lives, the space has always been a place for a wide variety of musical acts. These days, you could wander in and find an indie band on stage or a room full of people dancing to gypsy jazz.
Dave Ricketts and his band Gaucho were the first to play Amnesia when it opened 18 years ago. The band has performed there on Wednesday nights ever since.
“That was a very deep place and, of course, losing it is ... I wouldn’t know how to describe it,” he says. “It’s like losing a loved one.”
The venue offered a place for musicians to learn from and teach one another. There was an intimacy to Amnesia, Ricketts says. “It was a very grassroots thing that we’ve all taken very seriously.”
He can rattle off any number of stories about the music hall. One time, he says, his guitar was stolen and everybody pitched in some money to help him buy a new one.
San Francisco musician Andrew St. James is a little newer to Amnesia. In 2018, he started throwing a party called “Fast Times” at Amnesia — like the bar itself, the party was something of a “local music hang.” Newcomers to the scene would take the stage, trying to get their sounds out into the world. Sometimes, if an act fell through, one of the bartenders would just jump onstage and start playing for the crowd.
“On top of that, there were no rules,” St. James says. “It was kind of like come be yourself.”
He has one more party scheduled before the venue closes and notes that while he does have other places to move his party, they won’t be Amnesia.
“The no rules, no bulls—, weird throwntogetherness about it,” St. James says. “It’s a special place.”