I’m a 20th century man who only lately has been feeling the 21st century. With that in mind, most of my professional achievements are now old-school: from magazines I started such as Beach Culture, RayGun, Speak, Gravity, Revolution, from books on everything from geeks to music video to beach volleyball, from consultancies with companies like Disney, Rollerblade and Reebok. People have paid me to write, to teach, to skate and even to dance. But they never, not once, paid me for sex.
I readily admit, it’s taken me awhile to back into today. But I figure it’s time to pay attention to Marshall McLuhan and marry the Internet’s style and substance into something that makes a 20th century guy feel at home. If you can help, I’m all ears.
Compression Expands the Boundaries of LA Nightlife
I was there. Were you?
I’ve been promising to write about Compression, my favorite party in Los Angeles, for two months now but the problem is that while I’ve never yet had a bad night there, reporting on something in which everything works so well just makes for bland copy in the “great party, you shoulda’ been there” mode.
Of course, there is the angle that sometime nice guys do win. It didn’t seem that way about 18 months ago, when I first heard about Robtronik’s plan to bring old-school techno to Los Angeles, I told him he had lost his mind over the idea that hundreds of LA locals would come out to hear DJs like Juan Atkins, Kevin Sanderson and Derrik May trot out the old classics.
But I was wrong.
They came out in droves and Compression, a party that galvanized the techno community, was on its way. It didn’t hurt that they soon picked up the best of the emerging minimal scene, with rising stars like Matthew Dear, Ryan Elliot and Cobblestone Jazz, the astounding trio featuring revered techno producer Matthew Johnson who killed the place last Friday night with a spectacular live set. Or that as usual, the people who packed the place were as friendly and interesting as the music.
Which just goes to show you that all you have to do to ignite a subculture is to build a better mousetrap. Compression (www.compressionla.com), which at the moment is at King King in the heart of Hollywood on the first and third Friday of every month, is my favorite party in town. And that’s not just because it has the music I love the most, but because the space is intimate enough to ensure that the people who come to the club are there for the music, rather than the scene.
This was never more evident last year, when Matthew Dear played King King and then jumped over to the Avalon, where he is about to begin an occasional residency. At King King, the room was full of fans and friends, and the set reached electrifying heights. At the Avalon, with some of the old guard safely sequestered in the comfortable backstage areas, you could bet that nine out of ten clubbers had no idea who was spinning. Without diminishing Dear’s efforts or the risk Avalon is taking by bringing great underground talent to the mainstream club audience, Dear didn’t come near the “up close and personal” vibe he had at Compression.
But to find out why, you really have to come and see for yourself. When you do, I’ll personally introduce you to Rob, Andre or Matt and they can tell you all about their plans to make Compression an even bigger part of Los Angeles nightlife. By then, I may even manage to capture the magic of Compression in print. But until then, I’ll be hanging out at Compression events, secure in the knowledge that at long last, my promise to them has been kept and this blog is now history.
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NEIL! How's it going? Eff, Sada's husband from Australia. Really from Laguna, but from Australia right now. I won't ask if you remember Sada, cuz if you don't you've already stopped ready. Just stumbled across your website and thought I'd say hey. Cya
