Jamie Jones takes San Francisco on a journey at Audio SF

It’s shortly after 1:00 a.m., and the streets are sprawling with all sorts of characters. Halloween weekend in San Francisco is always a crazy one, and you’re bound to see as many pleasant surprises as you are oddities — it’s crucial you be aware of your surroundings lest you miss one of those notable moments you’ll be talking about for years to come. Jamie Jones is playing to a sold-out crowd at Audio San Francisco, and the line is still teeming with people trying to get inside the door. Few shows in San Francisco elicit such a response from the active night owls of the city. Albeit, this is largely due to the amount of opportunities eager party-goers are given nearly every weekend, with plenty of promoters bringing in international talent on a regular basis across multiple venues. However, Jamie Jones playing at Audio is surely not one to miss and it’s evident that plenty of people have marked their calendars for this show.

Jamie Jones is making his yearly trip over to the U.S. now that the Ibiza Summer season has officially ended. With stops back and forth across the country, he’s still got plenty of gigs to play during his more relaxed schedule from the European festival circuit. Back inside, the party seems like it’s only getting started – a rare sight considering last call is quickly approaching with less than an hour to go. The crowd showed no signs of stopping any time soon – and Jamie certainly knew this. Upon re-entering the venue, the crew buckled in for what was sure to be a long night in the best nightclub San Francisco has to offer. Luckily the dance floor was now moving much more fluidly – rather than being greeted with the typical “Hey, watch out!” your newfound neighbor on the dance floor was instead grinning ear to ear as you both kept moving with the rhythm. Aw yes, it was about that time. The real party-goers were in for the long haul while the heavy-drinkers and posh bottle service-folk were long gone.

Perhaps the best surprise of the night was the flow of Jamie’s set. Arguably, this may be the best time to catch an international touring DJ as they’re hot off an 8-month run across numerous gigs in countless countries. You can always expect Jamie’s taste in groovy, yet equally hard-hitting basslines to be the focal point of his DJ sets. However, on this night he took it a step further with one of the best acid-house fueled sets I’ve personally ever seen in San Francisco. This was only complemented by Audio SF’s outrageous sound system, which is essentially designed to be loud enough for a venue at least twice its size. The most memorable and intense moment of his set was characterized by an unreleased gem of a driving acid-house track featuring a rubbery 303-driven bassline and dark vocals over it. At this point, the crowd was going absolutely wild for what seemed to last an eternity. We had all gotten our fix, whether we were looking for it or not. After the dark techno journey that comprised most of his set, he brought the energy back down with some cheeky feel-good disco edits — the perfect ending to a long night. The one takeaway that I have from this night was his technical ability to seamlessly transition amongst tracks. Granted, this is a given for most DJ’s at his level, but with a careful ear it was clear throughout the night that he was consistently mixing between 3-4 channels and layering elements of certain tracks over one-another for 10+ minutes at a time.

If you’re interested in catching Jamie Jones play, your next opportunity will be in Los Angeles on December 29th. He’ll be performing a special Open-To-Close set with The Martinez Brothers in Los Angeles. Tickets will be on sale this Thursday, November 15th at 12:00 p.m. In the mean time, you can catch a glimpse of a recent set by Jamie Jones below.