Look, we're not here to tell you what to listen to — that's your business, and we take the "liberty" part of liberty-minded pretty seriously. If Smokedope2016 is your thing, have at it. The Regency Ballroom remains one of SF's better mid-sized venues, a gorgeous Moorish-revival space that somehow survives in a city that has made it its mission to regulate, tax, and permit every form of fun out of existence.

And that's actually the story worth paying attention to. San Francisco's live music and nightlife scene has been hemorrhaging venues for years — victims of noise complaints, impossible permitting processes, and a regulatory environment that treats a concert like a hazmat incident. Every show that actually happens at a place like the Regency is a minor miracle of bureaucratic survival.

The city loves to brand itself as a cultural capital, but the Board of Supervisors seems far more interested in passing symbolic resolutions than in making it easier for venues to keep their doors open and their stages lit. Entertainment commission hearings, sound ordinance compliance, late-night permit renewals — the red tape alone could fill the Regency's dance floor.

So whether The Comedown Tour is your speed or not, the fact that San Francisco still has venues capable of hosting shows like this is something worth appreciating — and worth protecting from a city government that seems perpetually confused about what makes a city actually worth living in.

Grab your tickets, enjoy the show, and maybe write your supervisor about streamlining venue permits while you're at it.