A week in the life of downtown L.A. entertainment

http://jim.wayne1.googlepages.com/home

A week in the life

...of downtown LA's live entertainment calendar. A separate Google Page for each night of the week, Monday through Sunday.

Sunday's page, for example, might feature Lost Souls Cafe's weekly open mic night. Tuesday: Brazilian jazz at Pete's. And so on.

Media will vary by case, but each page will be a hybrid of text, photos and video. Content will include event footage, venue info, interviews (video and/or text), message boards, maps and whatever else may lend itself to the piece.

In the interest of keeping things evergreen, the idea is to stick to recurring events and focus less on the talent and more on the venue itself. The pages should remain somewhat relevant, even if weekly entertainment calendars should change.

Wikipedia Edit

Updated the Wikipedia entry for Point Break Live!, the small-stage adaptation of the splendidly awful 1991 film Point Break.

The prior entry had correctly noted that the show is running at Charlie O's Cocktail Lounge in downtown L.A., but without a proper citation. The new page includes a reference to the event details, courtesy of the LA Times.

A classy gong showing

Sure, the suddenly fertile downtown LA bar scene is sort of sexy and exciting. Late-night foot traffic seems to thicken every weekend, and á la mode spots like The Edison, The Standard and Elevate are even beginning to draw migrant night crawlers from the west.

But that's the $12-a-drink crowd, which thankfully tends to avoid the Old Bank District (knock on wood).

Anchoring the OBD (not to be confused with this guy) is Bar 107, an irreverent little circus of a dive on 4th and Main. The bar makes up one third of the BarMuda Triangle, along with La Cita and Charley O's, three veteran watering holes in an otherwise pubescent field of downtown upstarts.

Chock full of red pleather, black denim and several shades of body ink, the 107 crowd spans from downtown hipster to USC greekster (the "One-Oh"?); even the occasional Skid Row...ster. They're all usually on hand Wednesday nights to enjoy a delightfully degrading brand of karaoke.

Grab a drink at the front bar and make your way to the back, where you're facing what appears to be a standard karaoke setup: host, DJ, lyric-scrolling TV, Tecate tallboys, etc. But look up to your left to see the why-didn't-I-think-of-that twist: three judges, three dry-erase boards and one shiny, golden gong.

Last year the good people of the 107 set out to create a flip side to the kid-glove, Sunday-night karaokes in Hollywood. It's Bong Show Karaoke, and it's a glorious mess.

It launched with a loyal cult following, and that cult is multiplying by the week. Bartender and founding creator J.P. says Wednesdays have slowly become the bar's busiest night of the week. A surprising success for a late-night brainstorm.



If you suck...

No need to ponder what a tool you look like up there; the three self-proclaimed D-List Celebrity Judges are more than happy to let you know. Jewlander, Heartbraker and Capt. Baby Spaceshits love nothing more than to rub salt in the fresh wounds of a dejected performer. Frankly, their constructive criticism is often more entertaining than the performances themselves. Quite often.

Of course, for those simply atrocious recitals (and there are quite a few), the mighty gong is at the ready. The bad news for those who set it off: you made a horrible ass of yourself and probably are just not a very likable person. The good news: it's over with, and heavy-pouring bartenders J.P. and Naomi know how to numb the trauma of failure.

A look at the four judges (three human, one metal) in action:



If you don't suck...

You could be in the running for the tobacco-use-only grand prize. Make it through your song without getting gonged and get a 1-to-10 score from each of the judges. The high score takes the cake at the end of the evening, when one of a handful of regulars —Bong Jovi, Ginger Balls or Mel, to name a few—is usually in the lead. Some highlights from last Wednesday's top competitors:



We Mentioned Mel...

Whose karaoke-on-speed technique simply should not be trimmed to fit a highlight reel. This inspiring rendition of Dolly Parton's "9 to 5" earned him an impressive 29.5 out of 30:



Not to be outdone by himself, he later bit off some Cyndi Lauper (with a little help from the crowd/judges):




You can stay up to speed on the Bong Show's new MySpace Video Channel. Just one clip of action up so far—Mel, of course...with yours truly delivering a stellar vocal cameo about halfway through. But keep checking back for quality highlights (and lowlights).

But video does this act no justice. Slide down to 4th and Main downtown any Wednesday night to hear, feel and smell the nonsense live. The gong rings at 11.

--

Finally, we would be remiss not to call attention to this 2006 teaser for what appears to have been a Bar 107 TV pilot. Not sure what ever happened to that, but sadly I have to say the bar is slightly more refined nowadays. Slightly.

The Guide steps up web coverage

They're still in beta, but The Guide, the LA Times' arts and events rag, is poised to steal some share from its online adversaries. Like Metromix, Citysearch and LA Weekly, this print-cum-web guide dishes bar and restaurant reviews, previews the bright spots on LA's arts calendar and tacks on a range of exclusive features in the wine/dine/music/theater/art department. 

We swapped e-mails with The Guide Content Producer Liam Gowing for his take on covering la la land, what lies ahead for the site and why LA Live is going to suck (for him). 

--

TSD: First off, what exactly is your role at The Guide?

Liam Gowing: I write a weekly recreation and adventure column called "Action Man" for print and web. It's an exercise in first-person, "gonzo" journalism, which is to say I fully participate in the event I'm describing, make no effort to conceal my point-of-view going in or bias coming out, and imbue the whole thing with as much personality as my editor allows. Occasionally, I do video segments to go with the web versions of the column (Rock n' Roll Fantasy Camp, the Lucha VaVoom wedding)

The column is going to be the flagship of a forthcoming section of the Guide, which will probably launch in August, called "Active L.A." I'm starting to lay the groundwork for that now.

I write a purely informational column called "Will Call" every week as well, which gathers up all the pop (i.e. rock, hip-hop, R&B, big-name DJ) concerts, for which advance tickets will become available over the next week; I blog about the highlights every week as well.

I co-administer the daily musical "Best Bets" on the website with the Music section producer, August Brown. (Write some, edit others, keep tabs on all).

I contribute various articles on semi-weekly basis: Featured previews for our "8 Things" print section, short previews called "Candies," and random contributions to our popular "Underrated/Overrated" section.

I occasionally I write lead stories and sidebars (Cover story on Midnight Ridazz, "Black" LA).

I write up events for the website on an ad hoc basis and have for many months been part of a long-term effort to visit, photograph and describe restaurants and night-life venues in Greater LA.


TSD: How does The Guide go about covering the live entertainment scene in LA? Obviously most notable bands stay out west, but how much attention do you devote to the smaller gigs downtown? For example, would you ever cover something at Lost Souls Cafe or 2nd Street Jazz?

LG: To be honest, we are so focused on previewing and featuring events we do very little to cover/review events. That's the Calendar section's job.

TSD: What is the staff makeup on the entertainment beat, and what sort of musical backgrounds/interests do you have?

LG: I'm actually doing me best to transition out of music-writing, which I did almost exclusively for 5 years (freelancing for LA Weekly, SPIN, Filter and NME from 2002 till Summer 2006, when I became City Editor of the Onion's LA paper). August is our music guy now and he's indie-rock oriented with a general interest in popular music, be it mainstream or classic rock (Dad-rock he would call it), hip-hop and R&B and straight-up pop. He and I are two of 10 content producers (sections listed below). We have a photo editor, two deputy eds in print, two in interactive, and one overseeing everything, plus two at-large print writers, one at-large interactive writer, 3 listings people and (as of last week) 3 interns.

TSD: The Guide is mainly a print entity, but I notice you have a beta site up. How is that coming, and what sort of relationship will you have with your LA Times web sibling, Metromix?

LG: It may look like a print entity now, but print is just the tip of the iceberg. Eventually, when we get our CMS (content mgmt system) squared away and our website redesigned, we will have everything in print online plus much more. Our goal is to list (if not preview/review) every event in SoCal in live music, restaurants, bars and clubs, local film stuff, events and festivals, art and architecture, kids and family stuff, and (once phase 2 is completed) shopping and recreation.

TSD: Any notable developments on deck for the site?

LG: Get a better web-crawling service, refining the CMS, restructuring the site more to our liking. A LOT!

TSD: LA Live is going to bring a couple new venues to downtown. How, if at all, is that going to affect what you guys do?

LG: Yeah, it means more work!

TSD: Any idea what sort of acts the Conga Room and Club Nokia are expected to draw?

LG: Humans? Seriously, Conga Room draws urban, Latin, jazz and dance-oriented stuff, and Nokia will be major acts who could probably play Staples but want better sound and plusher seats for their audiences.

Musical shares

We're going to change things up a little today and take a look at political campaign finance, Rock-the-Vote style. The dollars may not be rolling into the music industry like they used to, but some LA artists do still manage to set something aside for their favorite politicians.  

And while downtown may be home to a ton of musicians, few of them appear willing to shed any scratch on campaign contributions, according to CQ Moneyline. Thus, we'll step outside the nine-double-oh ZIPs for the sake of this little investigation.

Below is a list of SoCal's top 11 musical campaign contributors for 2007-08. Most have probably played the Staples Center at some point, so we can at least say they've set foot downtown. 

I, for one, had expected to see a lot more Romneys, Huckabees and Thompsons on the list. 

Burt Bacharach

$20,000 --> Democratic National Committee

"That's What Friends Are For"
Don Henley

$19,200 --> Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Niki Tsongas (MA), Tom Udall (NM), Mark Udall (CO)

"Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough"
Barry Manilow

$11,500 --> Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Joe Biden, Ron Paul

"Because It's Christmas"
Bonnie Raitt

$9,900 --> DSCC, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, John Edwards, Al Franken (MN), John Hall (NY), Loretta Sanchez (CA)

"You're Gonna Get What's Coming"
Herb Alpert

$7,900 --> Hillary Clinton, Barbara Boxer (CA), Barney Frank (MA)

"A Taste Of Honey"
Stone Gossard

$4,700 --> Barack Obama, Al Franken

"Better Man"
Jimmy Buffett

$4,600 --> Joe Sestak (PA)

"Money Back Guarantee"
Graham Nash

$3,300 --> Barack Obama, DCCC

"Find the Cost of Freedom"
Vicki Randle

$2,500 --> Barack Obama, John Hall

"I'm the Guitarist for the Tonight Show Band And I Still Donated More Than Sheryl Crow"
Will.i.am

$2,300 --> Barack Obama

"My Humps"
Jackson Browne

$2,000 --> Al Franken, Moveon.org

"For America"

Source: CQ Moneyline

What up, Crow? A measly grand for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is the best you can shell out? Henley owns you.

Jazz Jam on 2nd Street

2nd Street Jazz is an oft-overlooked little gem in Little Tokyo. Tucked away on the neighborhood's main drag, the cozy bar/lounge draws a mixed bag of post-sushi strollers and seasoned musicians to check out the nightly gigs.


And given the sign above the door, casual stoppers-by may be surprised to find the music calendar runs the genre gamut. You may walk into a night of live hip-hop, rock, soul or, of course, jazz on any given night.

But Tuesday is open jazz jam night, often home to a small community of USC music students eager to stretch their extracurricular chops. A trio of them christened the dimly lit stage tonight, with Richard Sears (piano), Kevin Hoffman (bass) and Ken Dakota (drums) vamping and improvising over a setlist of original compositions and straight-ahead jazz standards.



Things are relatively uneventful back at the bar area, where a small handful of listeners nursed the one-drink minimum. But it's early yet, and things will get busier as the night pushes on. It's worth checking out at happy hour for the drink specials and modest small plates menu.



Meanwhile, a few other musicians file in, and what appears to be a USC music community slowly forms at a couple tables by the stage. They order, um, Cokes and catch up on old times. Back on stage, drummer Ken Dakota closes out the trio's set with an edge.



Swing by the club when you need to unwind with a relaxed, inexpensive atmosphere and some top-notch musicianship.

Who knows, you may be lucky enough to catch Rufus Thomas, who will never, ever play here:

You Me and Iowa At Charlie O's

There's something about a construction zone that makes a band sound extra tight. Or at least extra tough. Such was the case Thursday night at Charlie O's, downtown's coolest mid-renovation gig space. From the exposed pipes to the bumper-stickered bathroom mirrors to the mean bartenders, there's something very CBGB about the joint. And indeed, local indie rockers You Me And Iowa would have sounded right at home at the late NYC rock pit. A visual sampling:

A Lost Souls Saturday

It's almost 7 pm; not exactly high-traffic hour for Lost Souls Cafe. In fact, this downtown cafe often takes the day off on Saturday. Things should start to pick up in an hour or so; or at least that's what Chase Frank is hoping. She's booked for a free, all ages gig at 8pm. In fact, looks like the staff is digging some sidewalk signage out of the maintenance closet to alert passersby of the show; a necessity for this cafe, tucked as it is in the most inconspicuous of downtown L.A. alleys, just off the corner 4th and Main streets. 

So I guess we'll see what kind of foot traffic rolls in for the show, but for now it's pretty empty. Just four laptop-lit faces, mine included, scattered around the perimeter of the main room. Indeed, free wireless is a draw here, and of course comes with the assumption that you'll buy something to sip or munch on.

One more laptop of note: the one driving the house sound system. The music is always loud and always good at Lost Souls. Often it's hip-hop, funk and soul, with the occasional side-order of jazz, classic rock or electronica. Each barista fancies a different sound, and they all have good ears for whatever they're into (some work with killradio.org, an L.A.-based internet radio station). Today it's Jamar, who is apparently digging on house music (ever hear the theme song from Da Ali G Show's Bruno segment? "Crank it uuuup.") But whatever the flavor, the music is a big piece of the vibe that keeps the regulars coming back. 

Starting to pick up a little bit now. No sign of a band yet, but bodies are rolling in—including one of a yellow lab—and expectant staffers are straightening up for the evening crowd. Someone just ordered a beer, a new addition to the principally coffee shop menu. Beer, wine and sake service began in early January and has boosted attendance at nightly events. 

Downtown Live

All this "new downtown" buzz seems to amplify with each new upstart. Most recently, it was the state-of-the-art Nokia Theatre, which has been drawing big-ticket entertainment to the hood since its Eagles/Dixie Chicks grand opening a few months ago. When the adjacent LA Live nightlife mall finally opens its doors in October, downtown will be home to about a dozen new bars, restaurants and music venues...not to mention a bowling alley and a movie theater. And in the meantime, there's no telling how many new establishments will spring up and breathe fresh life into other parts of the neighborhood.

But if it's live entertainment you seek, you needn't hold your breath for all that jazz. The neighborhood had a pulse before Staples, Nokia and the Disney Concert Hall, and there's plenty of quality, affordable recreation to be found in downtown's many tucked-away nooks. From live music to stand-up to open mics to gong-show karaoke, it's all here—and for the most part, it's all pretty underrepresented on the web. Not entirely, though:

Downtown LA Scene
A sub-site of the LA Downtown News, which is appropriately the rag most atuned to downtown's live entertainment offerings. This is a neighborhood "things to do" site, featuring everything from restaurant reviews to event listings. Calendars are divided by category, including "Events," "Sports" and "Rock, Pop, Jazz" to name a few. Here you'll be able to find out about any conceivable thing happening Downtown on a given day. Event descriptions are generally brief, one-sentence snapshots. Good range of coverage, but shallow on content and not very navigable.

Metromix Los Angeles
Metromix is sort of like Citysearch with a more localized, hands-on touch. And while it is by no means a downtown-specific site, their offices are in the neighborhood (LA Times affiliate), and they have done some features on downtown bars and restaurants. As for entertainment coverage, Metromix does a good job of covering area goings-on, but aptly focuses most of its feature content on the higher-profile gigs and happenings in the LA area, most of which are not taking place downtown. Open mic night at downtown's Lost Souls Cafe, for example, wouldn't merit their attention. Same goes for LA Weekly, the LA Times and Citysearch.

Downtown Los Angeles Directory
Bills itself as "a simple directory to explore downtown Los Angeles." And simple, it is. This is basically just a categorized aggregator of external links to the websites of downtown restaurants, music venues, galleries, etc. No event listings and no original content such as reviews or features.

max lies to women.

he told me.