West LA lacking any hip music (club, summer, festival)

[King0fthehill]

Originally Posted by Island_OnThe_Land

One final comment: if you look at the people who live in West Hollywood and West LA it's perhaps not surprising that you get more bland, less cutting edge stuff there. Silverlake, Echo Park, Los Feliz residents are far more likely to go out and support hip, funky bands (IMO).

I agree 100%. Just look at the people in those areas:

prettyugly.: Silverlake
prettyugly.: Search results for echo park

No surprises here..

[AnUnidentifiedMale]

Originally Posted by King0fthehill

I agree 100%. Just look at the people in those areas:

prettyugly.: Silverlake
prettyugly.: Search results for echo park

No surprises here..

I didn't see many ugly people there. You must have a narrow idea of what constitutes beauty.

[Los Angel]

You can catch some good shows at Malibu Inn, The Brixton (Redondo), El Rey Theatre (Miracle Mile), House of Blues (you do have to check every now & then), Saints & Sinners Tour right now (alternative rock), 14 Below (Santa Monica), caught a few good shows here, Cat Club (Weho) all depends on whose there, The Good Hurt (WLA), alternative rock.

There are a few places still on the westside.

[alaplex]

Thanks for the information. The Brixton is all Classic Rock though. Maybe I wasn't clear but I meant way west side like west of Lacienega. 14 Below is one and the Good Hurt is awful. Tried that a few times and they don't get the same bands as the eastside. Usually pretty bad. Maybe I need to keep an open mind and not rule out places I have been. Thanks though.

[King0fthehill]

Originally Posted by AnUnidentifiedMale

I didn't see many ugly people there. You must have a narrow idea of what constitutes beauty.

What?

I said look at the people, they look like people who would be into hipper music. You must've misunderstood me. No worries..

[Los Angel]

Originally Posted by alaplex

Thanks for the information. The Brixton is all Classic Rock though.

Maybe that's the line up right now, but the brixton is one of those venues you have to check their calendar, because they will surprise you, and you'll miss and all time rare favorite.

Originally Posted by alaplex

Maybe I wasn't clear but I meant way west side like west of Lacienega. Good Hurt is awful. Tried that a few times and they don't get the same bands as the eastside. Usually pretty bad.

You should call or check out whose playing.

Originally Posted by alaplex

Maybe I need to keep an open mind and not rule out places I have been.

Most definitly because you'll miss out on some really good shows. Every night is a different story at a live music venue.

Also check out The Gig on Melrose (see schedule first). Plus don't rule out places like The Key club, as trendy as it may seem, they do on occassion book really good acts. If your an ol school punk, The Adolescensts and TSOL are playing next week. Genitorturers play there every summer (for the S&M industrial crowd), hell of a show.

The shows are here. You have to get yourself into "The Scene".

[BRinSM]

Originally Posted by alaplex

Thanks for the information. The Brixton is all Classic Rock though. Maybe I wasn't clear but I meant way west side like west of Lacienega. 14 Below is one and the Good Hurt is awful. Tried that a few times and they don't get the same bands as the eastside. Usually pretty bad. Maybe I need to keep an open mind and not rule out places I have been. Thanks though.

have you been to the air conditioned loung in venice? i know they have indie nights. also, i remember a couple of years back, they had the summer strummer at bergemont station. i'm not sure if that was a one time thing though, especially since it was heavily promoted by indie 103 (RIP). besides that, the rock scene is on the other side of town. the closest venue to the westside where any decent bands play is the troubador (sp?). that's just the way it is. actually, i almost forgot, bad religion did play a show at the santa monica civic center within the last couple of years. hopefully they bring back shows to that historic venue.

[majoun]

Originally Posted by alaplex

Thanks for the information. The Brixton is all Classic Rock though. Maybe I wasn't clear but I meant way west side like west of Lacienega. 14 Below is one and the Good Hurt is awful. Tried that a few times and they don't get the same bands as the eastside. Usually pretty bad. Maybe I need to keep an open mind and not rule out places I have been. Thanks though.

Of the places Los Angel named, only the El Rey and House of Blues are east of La Cienega (and the HoB is only one block east of La Cienega).

Keeping an underground/indie rock club going on the far west side has been a challenge for years and there hasn't been a successful one since the Music Machine in Santa Monica in the 80s/very early 90s. The far west side tends to be more into blues and world music for live music. Combine this with Beverly Hills and Culver City both having very strict laws regarding noise and very strict law enforcement, and that's why you have blues, world music, folk, and country predominating. Also, people from Hollywood and points east, and from the Valley, are reluctant to drive through West Side traffic.

And yes, Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Culver City, and West L.A. do have a higher average age than most of L.A. County. Santa Monica, less so, but only because of more families with kids. "Family flight", which originated in LAUSD areas of the west side, spread to BH and Culver more than it spread to SM. However, due to enforcement of drinking ages being stricter in the L.A. area than in, for example, San Francisco (if the 21 drinking age was enforced every bar in the Haight would be out of business), there's less of a potential audience.

The only far west side neighborhood that could really support a venue of that type is Venice (as the demographic's more like Los Feliz and Silver Lake than it is like, for example, Culver City, Brentwood, or Mar Vista) - there have been attempts over the years but for some reason none have ever lasted. Air Conditioned Lounge was going last time I was in L.A. but I'm not sure if that's still going.

[majoun]

Originally Posted by BRinSM

have you been to the air conditioned loung in venice? i know they have indie nights. also, i remember a couple of years back, they had the summer strummer at bergemont station. i'm not sure if that was a one time thing though, especially since it was heavily promoted by indie 103 (RIP). besides that, the rock scene is on the other side of town. the closest venue to the westside where any decent bands play is the troubador (sp?). that's just the way it is. actually, i almost forgot, bad religion did play a show at the santa monica civic center within the last couple of years. hopefully they bring back shows to that historic venue.

The Troubadour's definitely west side - it's just not far west side. I'd consider the Strip clubs to be west side, also, even if there's not much of interest there. OTOH, the El Rey being in the Miracle Mile neighborhood isn't west side (even though the Miracle Mile's MUCH closer to WeHo than let's say SM is)

My Bloody Valentine also played at the SM Civic within the last year. (Bob Dylan also returned to the Civic within the last year but Bob falls outside the perimeter of the genres we're talking about). The Civic really should be used more. Unfortunately, due to some violence when Public Enemy played the Civic in 1989, the city of SM banned concerts of any type there for some time, and even before that they'd got increasingly uptight about concerts. They seem to have changed their tune if they'd allow Bad Religion to play there, as their audiences would be rowdier than My Bloody Valentine's audiences. MBV aren't native to SoCal, but Kevin Shields lives in Venice - yet another Irish expat in the beach areas.

The pier shows in 2007 - my last full summer in SoCal - did feature Patti Smith and Sonic Youth iirc, although both have been around a long time (Patti's been going since the '70s, Sonic Youth since the '80s).

[Lord Lionheart]

Originally Posted by alaplex

thanks everyone. I believe that Lord Lionheart just made my point for me. Harvelles (strictly blues)
McCabe guitar shop (no bar, all acoustic), Temple bar (mostly music with other cultural influences).
Never been to Zanzibar. Maybe it's worth a try. But where is the alternative rock?

I guess it depends what you define as 'hip'. Seems that you exclude Blues (Harvelle's), Acoustic (McCabe's), Techno (Zanzibar) and alternative rock (The Good Hurt & The Air Conditioned Lounge). Classic Rock, World music & Reggae( Santa Monica Pier), all available in Santa Monica/Venice. Maybe you need to broaden your musical horizons or specify what you define as hip