It’s the silver anniversary faire la fête of the French discotheque Bardot A Go Go’s annual Bastille Day Party this Saturday, and its co-founder looks back on 25 years of crepes, cigarettes, and 1960s period apparel.

San Francisco has no shortage of French dressing-up opportunities for those who celebrate this weekend’s Bastille Day festivities: the block party on Belden Street is Friday at Happy Hour time, the rather fancy Bastille Day Festival is Saturday at the SF Design Center Galleria, and that new Market Street comedy club/cocktail lounge The Function is having “French Wine Connection" wine parties throughout the month of July.

But the real French tickler of the bunch may be the long-running French pop dance party Bardot A Go Go, whose Bardot A Go Go Bastille Day Party celebrates its 25th anniversary at the Rickshaw Stop Saturday night.

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Bardot A Go Go started in 1998, the combined brainchild of DJs Brother Grimm (Dan Strachota), Pink Frankenstein (Johnnie Lieske), and Cali Kid (Alan Parowski). And its famed Bastille Day parties have now go-go-gone on for 25 years, celebrating all things Brigitte Bardot, Serge Gainsbourg, and Francoise Hardy.

“As for why it's still popular, I'm as shocked as anyone!” Strachota, who’s now head of operations at Rickshaw Stop, tells SFist. “But I guess it's really not like any other party in SF these days. It's far removed from tribute parties to Shrek and Taylor [Swift], and no one even reps the 60s stuff like they used to. Back in the 90s/00s, there were tons of like-minded events and even the Werepad, which was like an actual 60s club.

“Plus the music is just so fun and people get to dress up sexy and goofy at the same time.”

Saturday will not be the 25th anniversary of Bardot A Go Go itself, as the dance party started, not on Bastille Day, but in October 1998 at the old Club Cocodrie, and the event threw its 25th anniversary party last year for Bastille Day. But Saturday is the 25th anniversary of the first Bardot A Go Go Bastille Day Dance Party at Cocodrie in July 1999. Bardot A Go Go then became a weekly party and moved to the old 330 Ritch in the early 2000s, and moved to the Rickshaw Stop when that venue opened in 2004.

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Longtime fans will remember that the event would have hairstylists cutting hair in the club, performances by the Devil-Ettes, and even crepes being prepared and served on-site.

“Someone ran off with our life-sized Bardot placard early on, teaching me the valuable lesson of never leaving the best art near the door,” Strachota says. “There was a pretty funny juxtaposition at an early Cocodrie party when we were on right after an all-ages afternoon death metal show. We used to have actual paid go-go dancers — one French lady who would sing along, another who'd discovered us after her Lusty Lady shift was over.”

Bardot A Go Go is no longer a weekly party, and eventually scaled back to just doing Bastille Day, and birthday party events for Bardot, Gainsbourg, and Francoise Hardy. Now it’s just the Bastille Day event, as Strachota says that “doing it only once a year makes it especially special.”

Bardot A Go Go’s 25th Annual Bastille Day Party is Saturday, July 13 at 9 pm at the Rickshaw Stop (155 Fell Street). $10, Tickets here

Related: SFist Asks a French Expatriate What France Does for Bastille Day? [SFist]

Image via Bardot A Go Go

Thrillpeddlers have been producing their twisted follies and perverse musical revues for nearly 20 years, and Jewels of Paris at The Hypnodrome is their latest madcap musical. When you go to the theater and you are handed a program that says “Original Music and Lyrics by Scrumbly Koldewyn”, you figure you are in for a somewhat irreverent performance. Jewels of Paris is that and more, a surreal and wacky burlesque history whose fantastic cast makes every number dazzle and pop. In fact, Jewels of Paris even delivers actual jewels, as several male cast members’ dicks are proudly on display during many of the show’s musical numbers.

Mr. Koldewyn was one of The Cockettes in their heyday, and the Cockette ethic and imprimatur are all over this show. Drag fans will be excited to see Steven Satyricon in several prominent roles, and burlesque devotees will enjoy finding that Roxanne RedMeat has a phenomenal singing voice. The Jewels of Paris cast is terrific across the board in every single number, delivering a sort of non-linear musical-comedy history of France that lasts more than two hours but never has a dull moment.

Jewels of Paris does not really have an overarching plot. It’s more like two dozen totally unconnected little musical numbers whose only common ground is that they occur in France. This is a ‘warts and all’ history that covers some heavy topics like race, oppression and bigotry. It doesn’t dwell on any of these topics in particular depth, it just brings them up in one number and then moves on to the the next number in a stream-of-consciousness, roulette-wheel fashion that is nonetheless a massively enjoyable ride.

Even when covering its most depressing subject matter, the musical vignettes of Jewels of Paris are all uplifting and delightfully delivered. A Josephine Baker number really effectively pulls your heart strings. A Marie Antoinette number contains a joke that I plan on stealing again and again for years to come. A number on income inequality features perhaps the finest Satan mask I have ever seen in an onstage production.

The make-up work in Jewels of Paris is transcendent and the costumes are first-rate. But what you’ll remember is when those costumes come off. There is substantial and full-frontal nudity in this show. At one point there are four naked dicks flopping around onstage at once. In this critic’s estimation, that’s just awesome.

I would highly recommend going to see Jewels of Paris, but I wouldn’t recommend trying to make much sense of it. Its pastiche of themes and historical events never really comes together in a unifying statement or allegory. Then again, this show doesn’t really need any thought-provoking allegories because it succeeds so thoroughly on a musical entertainment level. If you’re a fan of ‘M for Mature’ musical theater, you’ll find Jewels of Paris to be an unforgettable con-cock-tion.

Thrillpeddlers presents Jewels of Paris at The Hypnodrome (575 10th St.), Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. through May 2. Tickets are available at Hypnodrome ticket page.

In an effort to get inside the mind of French citizenry, SFist asked our very own opera critic, Cedric Westphal - an openly French-born and French-speaking person living right here in San Francisco! - to speak on behalf of his native country.

When asked what his kind do to commemorate Bastille Day, he explains, "Today's Bastille day? Dang, you're right. Well, as all the French people, I'll rejoice that Lance Armstrong won't win the tour de France this year. Also, I'll avoid Belden Lane like the pest."

Now you know.

A motorcycle cop reprimanding a pulled-over driver upon seeing his I.D., "Always the French. You need to drive better." [Overheard by D.P.]

Finally, food from the back of a Toyota (or whatever) we can get behind. The upstanding citizens over at Eater tell us that French food will be available tonight at Folsom and Seventh. Good French good, that is. According to Chez Spencer's Twitter message, "Thursday, May 21 -Spencer on the go-French Take-away will be up and running on Folsom and 7th St at 6:00 pm." So, head over the SOMA, the best neighborhood in San Francisco, and taste some of chef Laurent Katgely's treats.

Shortly before 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, a charter bus carrying French tourists overturned on a Highway 101 overpass in Soledad, about 100 miles southeast of San Francisco, killing at least 5 and injuring over a dozen passengers. According to California Highway Patrol spokesman Brian Wiest, the accident ejected four passengers from the vehicle, "sending one over the side of the road and onto railroad tracks 60 to 70 feet below. "It's a tragedy," Wiest said. "It's certainly one of worst I've seen in a long time." KTVU reports that a total of "36 people had been on board, including 34 French tourists, one Canadian tour guide and an American driver." The group was driving down to Southern California, heading to LAX to fly back to France. Three patients were whisked away to Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital, who are still in critical condition. One, a 52-year-old man, later died, according to hospital spokeswoman Adrienne Laurent. No word yet on what exactly caused the accident.