As an East Coast boy recently on vacation in los angeles, I made sure to go
out *every* night in order to check out the scene (and possibly make the
inevitable tedious comparisons to NYC).
Fortunately, my friend in L.A. was on the so-called "summer break" enjoyed by
academics, so he was ready to paint the town red-orange-purple as well.
So, permit me to drop a few nuggets describing events that we
experienced...ah, hell, it's good to get away from the computer occasionally,
there's life going on out there.
Breakbeat Science: a weekly jungle party, currently held at DeVille's in
West Hollywood, a cool space with a long thin narrow bar eventually opening
up at the far end into a dark, cavernous room with very high ceilings.
Straight-ahead jungle and breakbeat done right, a very havin' it crowd the
night I was there. The "big pants" were not in effect, fashion-watchers take
note. Good to see a sweaty jumpin' jungle crowd that wasn't totally
male-dominated.
Black Dot Collective: Avant-folk human-beatbox afrocentric confrontational
performance art. This was one of the weirdest live performances I've seen in
a while. I believe they are from the Oakland area. Recommended.
DJ Plan 9 From Outer Space: Dropping the way-abstract shit like the cat's
ass in the downstairs room (free) at Luna Park. DJ Plan 9, lovingly
described as "the freak" by his trumpet-playing collaborator, mixes downtempo
grooves with strange ephemera, like an Edith Bunker anecdote or a
moon-landing narration.
Konkrete Jungle (at Spaceland in Silver Lake): Appeared to be a West Coast
strain of New York's long-running Konkrete Jungle. Featured a DJ, a
crouching woman mouthing inaudible vocals, and a live drummer who wasn't
quite tight enough with the DJ's beat. Goofy breakdancers. Adequate.
Big Beat and Electro at the Viper Room: The infamous Viper Room, scene of
the demise of River Phoenix, is seeped in a cocaine producer-fucker vibe. In
the smaller downstairs room, an abstract dj spins in the corner, the tattooed
slinky camel girl offers free packs of Camels to those who relinquish their
name and address to the Camel marketing juggernaut (this despite the
ILLEGALITY of smoking in clubs in L.A., an ordinance flagrantly ignored at
the Viper Room). In the main room, a DJ spins electro...turns out to be DJ
Punk-Roc. I shake his hand, although I am uncertain about his album.
Commodore Sloat: A giant cockroach, sauntering down the street in the Cathay
Circle district. Strangely, the street down which this mighty vermin
swaggers is also called "Commodore Sloat." If you see the Commodore, get out
of his way, as I did.
- Fred Church
bigkumquat@aol.com
http://www.thelocus.com/kumquat (mp3's and free cd's, as always)
np: Thug - 123 Heart