Most concerts listings treat a venue as a single address. Neck of the Woods is two venues that happen to share a stairwell. The building at 406 Clement Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues in the Inner Richmond, holds roughly 6,500 square feet of event space split across two floors, and each floor has its own stage. Upstairs takes about 450 people standing, or 250 seated. Downstairs holds about 150. On a busy Friday both rooms are working at once, running two different bills with two different crowds, and the only thing telling you which one you bought a ticket to is a line of small type on the confirmation email.
The upstairs and downstairs rooms often run different shows on the same night, and the doors are minutes apart. Ask Karpo which floor your ticket is for and what else on Clement is still serving when the set ends.
Upstairs and downstairs are not the same venue
The upstairs room is the one people picture when they picture a club: a proper sound system, a large open dance floor, and a lounge section along the front that looks down onto Clement Street through the windows. It is built for a headliner and a crowd that intends to stand for two hours. If a touring act with a real following is on the bill, this is where they are playing, and the room fills from the front.
Downstairs is a smaller and much more forgiving proposition. It has its own stage, aimed at up-and-coming acts, plus four flat-screen televisions, a fifteen-foot projector screen and free Wi-Fi — a set of features that tells you plainly it is not only a concert room. It hosts showcases, screenings, watch parties and a lot of local bills. A downstairs ticket is usually cheaper and the room is usually less full, which for certain kinds of shows is the better deal rather than the consolation prize.
The calendar is wider than the word 'concerts' suggests
This is not a single-genre room. The programming runs across rising indie bands, hip-hop and electronic sets, Latin dance nights and regular stand-up showcases, which means the same building can be a punk show on Thursday, a salsa night on Friday and a comedy bill on Sunday. That breadth is useful if you are the kind of person who checks one venue's calendar rather than searching by artist. It is also a warning: reading the venue name alone tells you almost nothing about what kind of night you are walking into.
The site has a long memory to draw on. Music has been happening in this building since 1973, under several names, and the house count runs to more than ten thousand acts across those decades — Otis Redding, Etta James, Richie Havens, Buddy Guy, Huey Lewis, Third Eye Blind and Metallica among them, along with a young DMC of Run-DMC. None of that shows up in the room's decor, which is deliberately plain. It shows up in the booking, which still swings unusually wide for a neighbourhood venue.
Arrival time, and what the Richmond does to it
Clement Street is a dining street first and a nightlife street second. That is the single most useful thing to know about timing a show here. The blocks around the venue are dense with Chinese, Burmese, Vietnamese and Russian restaurants, most of which are busiest between six and eight and many of which start winding down while the headliner is still on. Eating before doors rather than after is not a preference here, it is a logistics decision.
Upstairs, with a dance floor and no fixed seating, position matters more than early arrival for most of the room — but the lounge overlooking the street is a limited resource and goes first. If you want a spot where you can hear the band and still have a conversation, that lounge is the answer, and the answer expires early. Downstairs, with 150 capacity, the geometry is simpler: get there for doors and you will be close to the stage regardless.
Getting there and getting home
The Inner Richmond has no rail service, which shapes the end of the night more than the beginning. Muni bus lines run along Clement, Geary and California, and the Geary corridor a block north is the fastest way in from downtown. Coming from the east side of the city, the ride is long enough that a late second set can put you at the mercy of headway gaps on the way back. Check the last departure before you commit to staying for the encore, or plan on a car.
Parking exists in the Richmond in a way it does not in the Mission or SoMa, but it is residential parking, which means a slow loop of the numbered avenues and a walk of several blocks on a show night. It is usually easier than downtown and almost never as easy as it looks on a map.
Practical notes
Neck of the Woods is at 406 Clement Street, San Francisco, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues in the Inner Richmond. The building holds two stages across roughly 6,500 square feet: the upstairs room takes about 450 standing or 250 seated and has the main sound system, dance floor and a street-facing lounge; the downstairs room holds about 150 and has its own stage plus four televisions and a fifteen-foot projector screen. Check which floor your show is on before you go — both can run on the same night. Programming spans indie, hip-hop, electronic, Latin dance nights and stand-up, so read the bill rather than the venue name. Buses run on Clement, Geary and California; there is no nearby rail, so check return service before the second set. Eat on Clement before doors rather than after.
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Sources consulted: dothebay.com · indieonthemove.com · sfstation.com
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Ask Karpo first
Want to know which floor tonight's show is on, whether the upstairs lounge is already gone, and what is still open on Clement after the set? Ask Karpo for the current Neck of the Woods calendar, a sensible arrival time for the room you booked, and a late-night food plan in the Inner Richmond before you head out.
