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Narrative chapter
The Story of BREAD
A retrospective on how a group of friends built space for adventurous club music in San Francisco.
This is a retrospective of BREAD: how a group of friends carved out a lane for left-field club music in a city that was changing fast.
For the durable, research-friendly version of this material, use the BREAD Archive index and its source-linked pages.
For source-oriented event rows, use the Event Ledger (Working).
The Setting: San Francisco, 2014
In the mid-2010s, San Francisco nightlife was shifting alongside the second tech boom. The Mission was changing quickly, and a lot of rooms were leaning into safer, more polished booking.
A big part of that landscape was accessible tech-house and “work hard, play hard” party culture.
Early Direction (2014–2015)
Cage A (Kanav) and Prawns wanted to hear a different range: sounds they were finding through SoundCloud and scenes in London and Chicago that felt rougher, faster, and more off-center.
They started BREAD with a straightforward intention: book under-the-radar club music in venues that did not usually center it.
Chapter 1: The Experiment (2015)
On Friday, February 13, 2015, they ran a pilot at F8 on Folsom. Through spring and fall, that test phase turned into a regular run of numbered events and early guest bookings.
Chapter 2: Growth Period (2016)
By 2016, BREAD had a clearer rhythm: steadier residency cadence, tighter visual identity, and bigger swings on guests.
Key booking: Archive notes treat the Jlin SF debut period as a defining booking in this phase.
Related run: The same period includes Distal, Celestial Trax, Neana, Deadboy, Murlo, and a Tectonic / Different Circles-adjacent billing period that helped shape the party’s direction. It also includes a Bok Bok + Girl Unit booking run produced in collaboration with Sure Thing and Parameter.
Chapter 3: Venue-Pressure Period (2017–2018)
As venue pressure and scene conditions shifted citywide, BREAD moved into a bunker-era stretch around Underground SF. The sound opened into warmer, diasporic rhythmic frameworks and a broader floor mix.
This phase includes lineups around Mr. Mitch + Kozee and later Kelman Duran + Suda before the final club-night chapter closes in 2018.
This phase also includes a Rabit + Pinch + Logos + Mumdance + Caski booking run in collaboration with Parameter.
Chapter 4: Mutual Aid Streams (2021)
When pandemic shutdowns erased dance-floor infrastructure, BREAD shifted to telethon-style streams. Those broadcasts kept community ties active while raising funds for mutual-aid and relief work.
Event Detail Snapshot (expanded)
| Date | Event | Format | Detail highlights |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015-02-13 | Pilot at F8 | Club night | Helix + residents; first known formal event marker. |
| 2015-05-29 | BREAD #1 period | Club night | Public screenshot materials confirm active programming cadence by May 2015. |
| 2015-11-06 | BREAD #3 period | Club night | Doctor Jeep-era booking window appears in screenshot records. |
| 2016-03-25 | BREAD #5 / Jlin window | Club night | Defining growth-era booking and reputation milestone in archive notes. |
| 2016-09-04 | Weekend special period | Club night | Dehousy / Nargiz / The Dance Pit screenshot materials align with broadening booking scope. |
| 2017-05-26 | UGSF phase marker | Club night | Mr. Mitch + Kozee appears in user-provided canonical timeline notes. |
| 2018-05-12 | Final phase marker | Club night | Final chapter context linked to late-period lineup notes. |
| 2021-01-02 | New Year fundraiser stream | Twitch telethon | Fundraiser framing includes NBDA + Atlanta Solidarity Fund and global time-zone scheduling. |
| 2021-03-13 | Six Years stream | Twitch telethon | Anniversary stream period in broader mutual-aid chapter. |
| 2021-07-10 | Long Bread Summer | Twitch telethon | Fundraiser for Rebuilding Alliance and Oxygen for India. |
The Legacy
BREAD’s club-night run had a clear beginning, middle, and end.
It showed there was sustained room in SF for experimental, forward-looking club programming.
It also left behind a network that continued beyond the original dance floor.
In crisis years, that same network was redirected toward material-aid fundraising.