{"id":213100,"date":"2026-03-10T13:21:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T13:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/213100\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T13:21:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T13:21:09","slug":"club-darc-fixes-its-atrocious-sound-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/213100\/","title":{"rendered":"Club Darc fixes its atrocious sound problem"},"content":{"rendered":"

Second time\u2019s a charm for Club Darc. A week after opening-night sound complaints led to refund demands, Goldenvoice\u2019s heavily hyped \u2014 and sold out \u2014 new electronic dance music series vastly improved the soundscape in time for Peggy Gou\u2019s Saturday show at Shed A on San Francisco\u2019s Pier 48, according to attendees.<\/p>\n

The turnaround follows a wave of criticism about<\/a> the debut show on Feb. 27, which was headlined by DJ Chris Stussy and billed as the start of a new marquee EDM experience in San Francisco from the promoter behind Coachella. During and after the show, attendees flooded social media complaining that they could barely hear the music: \u201cA \u201990s Honda Civic has a better sound system,\u201d one commenter wrote on Instagram. \u201cMy bathtub has better acoustics,\u201d wrote another. In response, on March 5 Club Darc acknowledged the issues, saying the sound during opening weekend \u201cdidn\u2019t meet our standards\u201d and pledging that the team would improve it before the next show.<\/p>\n

Gabe Hougard, who attended both weekends, described a dramatic difference on night two.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was kind of crazy,\u201d Hougard said. \u201cAnywhere you were in the warehouse, you could hear it. Even in the back, the sound was better than the best sound you could have heard at Chris Stussy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"BrightAt the sold-out second night of Club Darc, the music could actually be heard. | Source: Meg Tanaka<\/p>\n

Warehouse venues are notoriously difficult spaces for sound engineering, and experts told The Standard that opening night is often a time to identify and troubleshoot problems.<\/p>\n

Goldenvoice declined to explain how it fixed the issues.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was definitely much better than the first weekend,\u201d said an attendee named Miles, who declined to give his last name. \u201cThe venue overall felt different.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Miles said he noticed several changes around the warehouse, including large black curtains hung along the walls near the stage. Several attendees speculated that additional speakers may have been added or repositioned around the warehouse\u2019s support columns, while others pointed to the curtains as possible sound treatment.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Spoelstra, an attendee who has experience producing music, said the second weekend felt like a transformation, including revamped and stimulating visuals.<\/p>\n

\u201cCompared with the first weekend, it felt like a totally new club,\u201d Spoelstra said. \u201cThe crowd was better, and the atmosphere totally matched.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Audio engineer Jonathan Claybaugh, who attended the second show, said the sound on the general admission floor was solid but there were lingering issues in the VIP section, which he said was \u201conly good on the corners.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor what you are paying to be up there, it should sound great,\u201d he said. Tickets for this section run approximately $200.<\/p>\n

Several people said ventilation inside the warehouse also seemed better, thanks to additional fans placed near the exits. (Many concertgoers had complained about the heat the week prior.)<\/p>\n

They also praised the promoters for handing out phone camera stickers, which are used to discourage filming inside the venue, and which left less sticky residue than on the first night.<\/p>\n

Club Darc\u2019s run continues through mid-May with a lineup of major international DJs including Mau P, Prospa, and Michael Bibi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Second time\u2019s a charm for Club Darc. A week after opening-night sound complaints led to refund demands, Goldenvoice\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213101,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[22907,330,143,145,144,2031,94148],"class_list":["post-213100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-electronic-music","tag-music","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-parties","tag-portola-music-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}