View from the DJ booth in the new wave/darkwave room at Klub Nocturno, 11/01/25 (Pic: Liz O.)
It’s Halloween weekend and the Dodgers won the World Series a handful of minutes before the club opened. Needless to say that the vibe was strong at Klub Nocturno on Saturday night. I was in the DJ booth in the new wave vs. darkwave all night and, even when the room was at its most densely packed, people seemed to be in a really good mood. Ex Lover played live and I enjoyed their set.
There wasn’t anything extremely new in my DJ sets last night, but I was happy to see more people out on the dance floor for the new-ish songs from Ultra Sunn, French Police, N8NOFACE and Alice Glass. Set list is below. All 2025 releases are in bold and link back to previous mentions on Beatique.
I’ve had Cerrone’s new version of “Supernature,” with Christine and the Queens on vocals, on my laptop since it came out last summer, but I’ve only played it out once before tonight. IDK why as it’s a really good, fresh version of a disco classic. Anyhow, I played it for the second time tonight because it was Halloween and Underground was packed and it seemed like the best opportunity to give it another spin. It did really well.
Anyhow, I’m writing this at three in the morning because, even though I’m exhausted, I can’t get to sleep yet. Halloween was a vibe, even if I was too lazy to get together a costume and grabbed my husband’s old mask and army jacket and went as a human fly. The mask lasted about an hour before I started sweating and came to the realization that I do actually need to wear my glasses. None of that matters. What matters was that the crowd was good and there are more people dancing to “Highway Man” from The New Eves and Confidence Man’s collab with Jade, “Gossip,” is a legit dance floor hit now. Set list is below. All 2025 releases are in bold and link back to previous posts where they appear.
I didn’t take pics at Underground last night, so here’s one of Ora the Molecule at El Cid back in May. (Pic: Liz O.)
Someone asked about a song I played at Club Underground last night and I wasn’t sure what it was at the time, but it was probably “Nobody Cares” by Ora the Molecule, since it was the only new song in that chunk of time. Also, people have asked about it elsewhere recently. It’s my favorite song on, Dance Therapy, the latest album from Ora the Molecule (who, for those reading in L.A. on Saturday, is playing at the Bob Baker Marionette Theater’s costume ball tonight) and it’s been doing really well on the dance floor. I’m guessing it’s because the song is true— “Oh, you’re feeling weird?/ Well, guess what/Nobody cares.”
Anyhow, I played the second half of the night and the set list is below. The 2025 releases are in bold and link back to other mentions on this lil’ blog. Don’t forget to snag yourself a ticket or two or more for Club Underground’s Halloween Party.
It was an ordinary Sunday in Los Angeles. I heard one driver blasting Zapp while walking from the Metro station to Salt Box Records, another blasting Debbie Deb as I walked back. Second Street was packed with teenagers dressed in goth garb and anime gear and indie sleaze vintage with Labubus hanging off their bags.
Salt Box Sessions was a blast. Did some digging through the vinyl bins. The Miracles 45 that I got made it into the set. I went more soul than disco in the set, but the song that got the biggest reaction was “Les Yeux de Laura” by Goût de Luxe. It really impressed a French guy, who took a photo of it. I don’t know anything about the band or the song and the only reason why I know the title means “The Eyes of Laura” is because I Googled it and the movie The Eyes of Laura Mars (which is amazing, see it, if you haven’t) was one of the results. It is, however, a 45 that I found in the bins at Salt Box not too long ago.
French Police live at The Novo on 10/16/25 (Pic: Liz O.)
I’ve seen French Police a few times this year and last night’s show at The Novo was the best of them. The energy was really high, both from the band and the crowd. I watched the show from stage left, where you’re looking at a diagonal past the band and into the crowd. L.A. has a rep for not dancing at shows, but, here, seemingly everyone was bouncing around, even in the balcony seats, maybe especially in the balcony seats.
Riki does a terrific cover of “Porque Te Vas,” the Jeanette song, that’s on her second album, Gold and I was so excited to hear her play it live in the opening set that I can’t remember what else was in the set. Again, I watched from stage left and noticed how the crowd was vibing.
This isn’t a show review, btw, because I think it’s weird to review shows in which one is a participant and I was on DJ duty for Klub Nocturno’s support sets. I played the tunes for the first hour and then for the half-hour between Riki and French Police. So, all this is to say that it was a fantastic night. The set list is below.
It’s late. The club has ended and I’ve been in the DJ booth all night, so I’m both exhausted and loquacious. We’re talking music and the conversation jumps from Fontaines D.C. to Kneecap to Bob Vylan with a hundred different asides. My mind is a jumbled reflection of my Instagram feed, which is how the English duo came up in conversation. My friends don’t know too much about Bob Vylan, but they’ve been high on my timeline for months, so I get into the whole story about the Glastonbury incident and how they don’t have a tour visa for the U.S. now. It’s all documented in this story from The Guardian, but the details sound particularly absurd when you’re recounting them aloud. Then again, just about everything in the news sounds more absurd out loud these days.
The last song at Underground last night was “Favourite” by Fontaines D.C. and, when I saw people singing along, I thought finally. Romance has been out for over a year now. It was my favorite album of 2024. It was a lot of people’s favorite album of last year. Both Larry and I have been playing multiple tracks off the album since it came out, and we were both playing Fontaines D.C. before Romance, but it wasn’t until this past summer that I really started to see the band hit with the indie club crowd here in L.A. Back in the pre-algorithm days, that would have been really unusual, but now it’s kind of normal. A band can meet all the metrics by which it would be considered successful, like award nominations and sold-out shows, and people still don’t know who they are because their “personalized” feeds are really just regurgitating nostalgia content based on basic demographic info and passive likes, served with a dollop of hot takes on Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpenter to make you feel like you know what’s happening in the world.
What I’m saying is that the internet is making us sad and uncool, so go out to a real club and dance to the music that real people put together into sets that would baffle Spotify. Dance to the new stuff. If you don’t know it this week, you’ll know it next week.
Anyhow, here’s last night’s set list, which includes new music The New Eves, Gorillaz (with Sparks), Alice Glass and more, plus a few oldies that I haven’t played in a really long time, like “Cupid Boy” from Kylie Minogue’s best album, the Scissor Sisters/Mylo mashup and probably some other tunes. All 2025 releases are in bold and link back to other references here on the blog.
Oh, before we get to the set list, be sure to pick up tickets for Halloween at Club Underground. Both floors of Grand Star Jazz Club will be open on Friday, October 31, and there will be a costume contest.
Last week, Ultra Sunn released The Beast in You. While the Belgian duo’s sophomore album isn’t quite a departure from previous club hits like “Keep Your Eyes Peeled” and “Broken Monsters,” or last year’s debut full-length, US, it shows some welcome growth from the EBM outfit.
Heavily influenced by European dance music of the late 1980s and early 1990s, Ultra Sunn excels at songs that bridge the old and the new. It’s no wonder that they’ve been one of the most requested artists I’ve seen while DJing. Most of their songs are around 124 or 125 BPM, which is solidly mid-tempo when you’re DJing a darkwave night, and they fit perfectly in between Front 242 and Nitzer Ebb classics and more recent bangers from Boy Harsher and Sextile. This kind of consistency makes Ultra Sunn songs ideal for club play, but it’s also what makes them less interesting for at home listening. That’s very common amongst artists who work in hyper-specific niches of dance music, but, nonetheless, I can’t help wondering what it would sound like if Ultra Sunn stepped outside of the comfort zone.
On her latest album, Amateur, Molly Nilsson considers how a word that is derived from the Latin for “lover” or “admirer” came to mean a lack of experience or professionalism. “I see ‘amateurism’ as a delighted, even foolish, protest,” says Nilsson in a statement on the album’s Bandcamp page. “Protest against everything. Of what’s expected of someone, or expected of someone to desire or strive for. To be elite, to be expert, to be professional, to be a master, to excel and succeed. Where’s the joy in that?”
Played a rock set at Harvard and Stone on Thursday night. It was a mix of music from, basically, the 1960s to today. Got everyone from The Stooges to Lambrini Girls in it. No, I didn’t get to see Lambrini Girls on Wednesday night, unfortunately. The videos I saw were pretty wild. I’m a little jealous of everyone who did go. Anyhow, here’s the set list.
