Results tagged “viperroom”

Santa Monica Boulevard sees two huge streets closures a year: Halloween and Gay Pride, both of which that draw hundreds of thousands of people. But for the first time the Sunset Strip is getting its due in a week and a half. "The street has never been closed for something like this, this is a first," explained an excited Nic Adler, the tech savvy owner of The Roxy and one of the Sunset Strip Music Festival organizers.

I was first introduced to The Knux on a late Monday night back in June 2007. Instead of staying at home and resting up for the next work day, I decided to take Interscope up on their invitation to check out the latest addition to their roster perform at the Viper Room. That was a brilliant decision. As I said in my review of their show, "the hours of shut eye lost were worth the chance to have my eyes open to something new and fresh from a genre of music that has been putting me to sleep."

Nic Adler grew up at The Roxy. His father, Lou Adler, opened the club the year Nic was born. He would spend his afternoons after school at the club and grew to dislike the rock music it became so famous for spotlighting.

The Sunset Strip in West Hollywood is notoriously known for its high parking prices. As the Sunset Strip Music Festival approaches, we decided to see to test Sunset Strip business owner's claims of the myth of high priced parking. On a short drive down the famous boulevard, especially on a weekend night, you'll see signs for parking: $15, $20 and various flag wavers who won't announce the high parking price until you're already pulled into their driver way.

In the comments section of yesterday's post on changes at The Viper Room, concert goers are hoping for Indie 103.1's Check One... Two moves eastward while saying such things as "the Sunset Strip is dead." To that, owner of The Roxy, Nic Adler commented back: "True the strip has negelted it self over the last several years but we are well aware of that and are doing our best to bring it back to it legendary status. One show at a time, one show at a time." Crystal Castles plays the venue tonight and and an additional midnight show on Friday.

Over the last couple of weeks, the scene at the Viper Room has been changing -- bartenders were let go, one of the bookers is gone, and now the internal publicist and talent buyer announced a seemingly abrupt departure. Former publicist Annie Geyer writes in an e-mail:

There are four ways to get into The Viper Room's long standing weekly Monday night music bash, 103.1 Check One... Two. The most advertised way is to e-mail them via MySpace to get on the list and enter for free. But if you show up to the door unannounced, it's $10. Likewise, if you show up without the e-mail RSVP, but know a secret password, it's $5. But if you already spent $5 on your Metro Day Pass, then the Viper Room has you taken care of (weekly and monthly passes work too).

Photo by coffeextv via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr.

Luckily, since SXSW Music officially starts on Wednesday, tonight's massive line-up of residencies is hardly affected, save for The Voom Blooms who are replaced by We Barbarians and others at the Viper Room tonight (full list of tonight's residencies after the jump). However, the exodus of Los Angeles based bands is upon us.

Our brain is going to explode with all the great choices tonight. From friggin' amazing jazz (see, we're not swearing) at UCLA to folk-punk sensibilities of The Hackensaw Boys at Tangier in Los Feliz (video after the jump), tonight is a bounty of gold. Also, Jim Bianco will be at Amoeba and it's the first night for Wednesday night March residencies.

Despite SXSW starting up this week with 100+ Los Angeles based bands heading over there, residencies are growing stronger and more venue-diverse across the line, especially on Monday nights where the volume makes it hard to choose from. Here's to a great month of residencies, rock on.

Last Sunday, local electronic pop duo Electrocute (MySpace), perhaps best known for their song "Bikini Bottom" on the soundtrack, concluded their February residency at Spaceland (MySpace) in Silver Lake. The lineup included Totally Radd!! (MySpace) and Har Mar Superstar (MySpace).

More What Made Milwaukee Famous? Yes, more of that!

LA Weekly points us to some hot picks for tonight. About Girl in Coma: "Joan Jett knows a thing or two about rock & roll, and her latest protegees, Girl in a Coma, on her Blackheart label are one of the best and most interesting bands to come out of Texas in a long time," writes Falling James. They also play Alex's Bar in Long Beach tomorrow night. Also, Brian Wahl picks the "rare appearance" of Buddy Collette Big Band, who will be playing at the Terrace Court on the second level of Paseo Colorado at 8 p.m.

UPDATE, 12:10 P.M.: We forgot to remind you that Sia is playing this afternoon in Santa Monica for free. 2:00 p.m., Starbucks, random (see first bullet in Extra, Extra list).

Willie Nelson may be playing downtown tonight, but if you want some folk rock that's local and amazingly fresh, go hear Brian Wright and the Waco Tragedies. We heard them last week at their first show of their Hotel Cafe February residency and it was in-your-face and beautiful. But you've got a tough choice if you like this kind of music because when it rains, it pours -- Canadian acoustic folk soul-grass band, The Duhks, will be at the Knitting Factory.

Harry Morton, son of famed Hard Rock hotelier Peter Morton, is no longer content with opening crudely-named margarita bars. No, the Li-Lo-lovin' entrepreneur has decided to purchase the infamous Sunset Strip club The Viper Room: with plans to franchise, of course. While the Viper Room has only been a part of the Strip since 1993, it immediately rocketed to infamy when River Phoenix collapsed and died of a heroin overdose outside the club in the fall of that same year.

Tickets are still amazingly available for tonight's intimate Macy Gray show at Hotel Cafe in Hollywood. For something a little more rock n' roll, Hell Ya! and Girl School are teaming up in their monthly residency at The Viper Room with The Vacation in the first night of their weekly February residency (for a guide to February residencies, check this out). Otherwise, there is truly something for everyone tonight -- we recommend some psychedelic rock with The Entrance Band, Thursday night residents at the Silverlake Lounge.

For those who joined us last night (thank you for coming!), we witnessed many hot and bothered moments with an excellent band we've never hard before -- The Makers (we can't find their website, help). They are in residency at Seven Grand every Tuesday and we highly recommend checking them out. For tonight, first night residencies for this month happen at the Viper Room, Hotel Cafe and the Silverlake Lounge (see our Guide to February Rock Music Residencies). We're feeling a bit rustic today, so we recommend Brian Wright & the Waco Tragedies at Hotel Cafe.

Month-long residencies are one of the best ways to catch up-and-coming bands in Los Angeles. You have at least four times to catch a band, and each time, if they are gaining popularity over each show, it will be harder to see them. Last Thursday at their final residency concert, The Airborne Toxic Event played a sold out show with another 300 fans not getting in at the door. That's how crazy residencies can be. Catch 'em while you can. Here's your February line-up:

Last chance to catch bands in their Monday night January residencies. That, plus Fred Armisen, who LA Weekly says "does Prince better than Prince."

It may be a holiday, yet Mondays are always a guaranteed good night for music with all the residencies in addition to tonight's appearance of Venice local Harry Perry (pictured right) in WeHo

Two weeks ago, local band Rocket (MySpace), recently profiled by The LA Times' Kevin Bronson, performed at The Viper Room in West Hollywood.

On Monday night, local artist and Downtown resident Elizabeth McGrath (formerly of Tongue) and her gothic country band Miss Derringer (MySpace) performed as the headliners of Indie 103.1 (MySpace)'s Check One Two Mondays at The Viper Room in West Hollywood.

Since the Mezzanine Owls got canceled tonight after we listed them in Tonight in Rock, we're adding one more band to consider -- Rocket.

Acoustice performance of "Love My Way" by the Psychedelic Furs

The Wiggles Do The Humpty Dance. It's trippy!

"Imaginary Places" - Busdriver (and excellent vid filmed on the streets of LA and a great piece too)

"La Gallina" - Ozomatli

Last Friday, I made a plan to go out to Club Underground at The Echo for my birthday, and I had all my friends meet me there. On a total stroke of luck, I realized a band I had discovered a month or so before was also playing that night before Club Underground started. So I told everyone to get there at 9 if they wanted to see a good band first.