Mustache Harbor sails back into Bimbo's

The Bay Area's yacht-rock institution brings the smooth stuff back to North Beach next Friday, and the club's calendar already has it marked sold out.

Picture the Bimbo's 365 Club on a Friday with a yacht-rock band on stage. That's the setup when Mustache Harbor is in town, and next Friday they're back. The band plays Bimbo's 365 Club on Friday, November 13, at 8 p.m. Tickets were $36.40 through TicketWeb.

The Bimbo's home page bills it as *Mustache Harbor: Yacht Rock Forever*, with doors at 7 and a 21 and up policy. That subtitle about sums up the band's mission.

Mustache Harbor has been playing the Bay Area since around 2010, when its Loveboat yacht-rock parties at 111 Minna mixed live music with 1980s costume themes, as Funcheap's listings recall. Time Out summed up the repertoire as the soothing hits of Steely Dan, Kenny Loggins, Little River Band and their contemporaries.

San Francisco is the band's home port. Our records have 54 Mustache Harbor shows here, more than in any other market, and Bimbo's is its regular big-night room. The venue's Mustache Harbor page shows the band coming back again and again, including a March date this year on TicketWeb. This isn't a tribute act passing through. It's a standing local tradition, and November 13 is its latest stop.

Yacht rock is a genre built on not trying too hard. Mustache Harbor tries very hard to make that look easy.

It works because the songs are better than the joke. Mustache Harbor has lasted.

Bimbo's is the right ship for it, too. The North Beach club, at 1025 Columbus Avenue, has an Art Deco look and serves dinner at booths and tables around the dance floor, which suits songs written for a cocktail and a convertible. A Friday 8 p.m. start leaves time for dinner in the neighborhood first.

If you got a ticket, dig out the boat shoes. If you didn't, keep an eye on the band's next Bimbo's date. On this evidence, there will be one.

Sources: Bimbo's 365 Club: Shows (bimbos365club.com); Bimbo's 365 Club home page (bimbos365club.com); Bimbo's 365 Club: Mustache Harbor (bimbos365club.com); TicketWeb: Mustache Harbor at Bimbo's 365 Club (Nov 13) (ticketweb.com); TicketWeb: Mustache Harbor at Bimbo's 365 Club (March) (ticketweb.com); Time Out: Mustache Harbor + Petty Theft (timeout.com); Funcheap: Loveboat 80s Yacht Rock Party with Mustache Harbor at 111 Minna (sf.funcheap.com); JamBase show listing (jambase.com); Bimbo's 365 Club - Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)