Lina Lecaro

​It was another great year for nightlife in Los Angeles. Despite the economy, party vibes inside the clubs were as creative and crazy as ever. From hip-hop haps to gay grinders, electro-a-go-go's to arty parties, the energy was contagious. Sure, many of Hollywood's swankier spots struggled to sell enough bottles, but those aren't our focus anyway. The club nights that kept us coming back never rested on their laurels. They sought to book the best DJs and attract the most bodacious crowds. Here, then, are the ten best Los Angeles club nights of the year.

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Lina Lecaro

Ogre and Bill Moseley scare up some noise

​Oghr
El Rey Theatre
12/11/11

Better than: Trent Reznor scoring a horror film.

Like so many industrial artists, collaboration fuels the fiendish sounds of Nivek Ogre. The same is true of his latest project, Ohgr, his group with composer Mark Walk. While Ogre's seminal industrial group, Skinny Puppy, is about the singer/writer/producer exorcising his demons in an aggressive, often horrific way, Ohgr explores theatricality more impishly, through movement and interaction while providing the sonic lashings and dissonance one would expect.

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​See also:
*Our review of Korn at Hollywood Palladium, 12/6/11
*Porter Robinson: The Libertarian Dubstep Guy
*In Defense Of "Fratstep:" An Open Letter To James Blake

It's been a controversial week on the dubstep front. First, there's a libertarian dubstep guy, and then we had to deal with a spin-off called "fratstep."

Now Korn is saying they invented dubstep?!

Kind of. "We were dubstep before there was dubstep," the nu-metal act's frontman told Billboard recently. "Tempos at 140 with half-time drums, huge bassed-out riffs. We used to bring out 120 subwoofers and line them across the whole front of the stage, 60 subs per side. We were all about the bass."


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Lina Lecaro

​KIIS Lady Gaga, David Guetta, Gym Class Heroes, Flo Rida, Nick Canon, Karmin and others
KIIS Jingle Ball
At Nokia Theatre
12-3-11

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, but the annual blizzard of branded radio station holiday concerts somehow brings in the season like nothing else: big production, bold names, glitzy amusements and assorted musical gifts.

Of course, the biggest gift is always the headliner at these things, and at this year's KIIS FM Jingle Ball Lady Gaga was the main event. While she didn't wear a Santa suit, she treated the crowd to a "KIISmas" themed set, complete with bizarre holiday props, costume changes and requisite childhood anecdotes. If you saw that weird Thanksgiving special she did on ABC a few weeks ago, just image it Yuletide-themed and you'll get the idea.

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Lina Lecaro

Corey Taylor, John 5, Scott Ian, Henry Rollins, and others

​See also: Henry Rollins: The Column! The Time I Drank The Sweat From My Socks Onstage

Drop in the Bucket benefit
Henry Rollins, Scott Ian, Mike Watt, Corey Taylor, Dave Navarro and others
Avalon
11/30/11

Last night handfuls of heavy musicians took the stage for a worthy cause, Drop In The Bucket, which funds water wells, sanitation systems and other programs in the ravaged regions of South Sudan.

Punk god and Weekly columnist Henry Rollins was the ringleader for the affair, which provided a non-stop assortment of music and words. It was all punctuated by a mostly metal mashup at the end of the night that left everyone exalted and exhausted.

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Lina Lecaro

​Club Runway
Circus Disco
11/19/11

Call it '90s club kid redux, compare it to the wacky, avant-garde fashion popularized by Lady Gaga, or simply marvel at the strange beauty of it all. But there's no denying that over-the-top, other-worldly self-expression in nightlife is back in Los Angeles.

L.A. may be the capital of flip-flop casual by day, but after dark, it's an entirely different animal. The new party at Circus Disco, called Runway, sure was a jungle Saturday, with two full catwalks on which anyone could pounce and prowl.

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Lina Lecaro

​See also:
*Fuck Guilty Pleasures: Drake Is An Incredible Lyricist
*Funky Homosapiens: The Best Rapper Names Of All Time

"Today the climate changes!" proclaimed Busta Rhymes to a horde of Hollywood hipsteratti and actor/model types inside the gaudy, graffiti-swathed walls of street artist Mr. Brainwash's new pop-up gallery on La Brea Ave.

Rhymes wasn't talking about global warming, but the launch of Google Music. The new online service from the search engine beamoth is aiming big, with a focused intent to mesh social media like never before and take us all away from iTunes or Spotify.

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Lina Lecaro

​See also: Gwar guitarist Cory Smoot found dead on tour bus this morning following show in Minneapolis

GWAR
House of Blues, Sunset
Nov. 12, 2011

A piece of sad news threatened to cast a pall over last night's GWAR concert. The band's guitarist died on November 3 during their current tour; the cause of death is not yet known, but by all accounts Cory Smoot -- aka "Flattus Maximus" -- was a healthy guy.

What we do know is it's been an emotional 10 days for his bandmates continuing on with tour. If their House of Blues performance last night was any indication, they are channeling the pain by being louder, lewder, and more liquid-drenched than ever.

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Mark the Cobrasnake

Still Dim Mak-in it!

​Defying the flighty fickle tendencies of Hollywood nightlife for nearly 10 years, the second story club at Ivar and Hollywood Blvd. originally known as Cinespace has found unique ways to stay in the game. Last weekend we attended an invite only Details magazine event there that doubled as an unveiling of its latest incarnation, Room 86. We also talked with the club's co-owner Kimberly Roussel about what's ahead for the space.

Steve Aoki's Dim Mak Tuesdays has, of course, been the venue's biggest success story, prompting them to re-dub the back room Dim Mak Studios last year. The front of the building meanwhile, became home to Paul & Andre, a temporary pop up concept from New York DJ Paul Sevigny (Chloe's bro) and Andre Saravia, which featured a separate entrance on Cosmo street. That ended just last month.

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Lina Lecaro

​Black Cards
Details@Midnight at Room 86
11-4-11

Better than: Ashlee Simpson trying to be punk.

Pete Wentz was known for overshadowing everyone in his band Fall Out Boy, but can he do the same if his lead singer is a hot chick? Last night we found out, when his new band Black Cards played a not-so-surprise set for the traveling party known as Details @ Midnight in Hollywood. The answer: sort of. The popular pop-punker has gone in a completely new direction, replacing his bass for a laptop and his previous band's goofy rock grinds with rhythms that go from raw and banging to dance radio friendly. Wentz's fame aside, the band's viability will have as much to do with the vocals and charisma of Cards singer, newcomer Bebe Rexha, and her chemistry with him. They've got it, but it needs to be honed on stage a lot better and the music as a whole could use clearer focus.

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