Happening in L.A.

Klub Nocturno, Confidence Man, Pump up the Volume and More Happening in L.A. March 7 – 12, 2025

Klub Nocturno March 8, 2025 flyer at Catch One in Los Angeles

Klub Nocturno is back at Catch One on Saturday night with five rooms for one cover price. This month’s lineup: Rock en Español vs. Cumbia, New Wave vs. Darkwave, System of a Down Night, Sad Bunny Night (old school vs. new school reggaeton) and Disco. I’ll be dropping the bangers in the New Wave vs. Darkwave room, so drop by if you want to dance to Molchat Doma, French Police, Boy Harsher, The Cure, Depeche Mode and more. Click here to get your tickets for Saturday, March 8 at Klub Nocturno. It’s 18+ and the party starts at 9:30 p.m. Catch One is at 4067 W. Pico 90019. 

As for the rest of the week, Molchat Doma and Sextile at the Palladium and The Altons and The Sinseers at Belasco, both on Friday night, are basically sold out, unless you feel like paying over $100 for resale tickets. Still, there’s a hell of a lot going on this weekend and next week that isn’t sold out. Confidence Man, who you’ve definitely heard in my DJ sets, plays the Fonda on Thursday night. Over at Catalina Bar on the same night, Mink Stole (!!!) And Peaches Christ will be debuting “Idol Worship” in L.A. 

On the movie front, Alamo Drafthouse launches its month of David Lynch programming this weekend with Blue Velvet and Eraserhead and Brain Dead has a bunch of Wes Anderson films on the calendar. Meanwhile, Allan Moyle has three films screening in L.A. this weekend. The Rubber Gun, from 1977, plays Los Feliz Theater on Thursday and Friday is a double feature of Pump Up the Volume and Times Square. He’ll be doing Q/As for both those events. 

For more info on these and more events, keep scrolling. 

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Adventures in L.A.

The Death of the 1990s Coffee House and the Third Place

Mike Meyers So I Married an Axe Murderer coffee House screenshot
Mike Myers in So I Married an Axe Murderer ordering a ’90s coffee house cappuccino

There’s no shortage of irony in the news, but I nearly fell out of my chair laughing when I read a New York Times piece about how Starbucks wants to bring back the “third place.” A third place is not a corporate imitation of a coffee house that serves the same menu at every location. It is not a carefully cultivated vibe of Brand Safe Boredom that extends from its forgettable decor to the inoffensive playlists played at a volume that ensures you will never actually remember what you heard. 

If you’re on the chattier social apps, then you’ve probably seen people describe the third places they wish they had, which, for some reason, always seem to sound like the public libraries they clearly don’t patronize. But, third places were a real thing. Once upon a time, people did have their own, local versions of the DoubleR or the Central Perk. Technically, they still exist. Underground, where I often guest DJ, happens every week. If you’re a regular there, it is a third place. Last year, I wrote a story about the pinball tournaments at Revenge Of.  For pinball players, that absolutely falls into the category of “the third place.”

The whole concept of the third place, though, began its death spiral well before the pandemic. I suspect that there are multiple reasons for that, but let’s start with Corporate Coffee. 

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Interview

Fear is the Mind Killer: Inside the World of Optometry

Optometry press photo of John Tejada and March Adstrum
Photo courtesy of Optometry

Imagine you’re trapped inside a machine, looking for a way out. You feel a cold beat and tense rhythm, hear bleeps lurking in the background. It’s unsettling. Then, in the distance, a voice repeats the phrase you know from Dune. “Fear is the mind killer.” You see Timothée Chalamet or Kyle MacLachlan or some other Paul Atreides who lives in your head survive the box of pain. You feel relief. 

That’s what it’s like to hear “Fear (is the Mind Killer),” the Optometry song, for the first time. From Lemuria, the L.A.-based duo’s sophomore album, the song is an homage to Dune as much as it is a reflection on life in the 2020s. 

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Music

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart and More New Music for February 2025

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart Perfect Right Now Slumberland Collection

This month, French Police dropped a new EP, Espera, and Optometry’s sophomore album, Lemuria, hit the web. Plus, Marie Davidson’s latest album, City of Clowns, came out today. And, on the rarities front, Drop Nineteens’ demo collection, 1991 was officially released in early February and new compilation Goodbye Horses: The Many Lives of Q Lazzarus, which I reviewed for Bandcamp, digs into the vast and eclectic catalog of the late singer. 

But, there’s a lot more music that came out in February, so much that I’ve probably heard a fraction of one percent of it, which includes the handful of releases that I’ve recommended below. Give them a listen when you have the chance. 

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New Music

It’s Marie Davidson vs. Big Tech on City of Clowns

Marie Davidson City of Clowns album cover

Is there an album title better suited for 2025 than City of Clowns, the latest from Marie Davidson? Just this week, Meta dropped some Instagram users into a new level of doomscroll hell, Jeff Bezos decided that WaPo’s opinion page would push “personal liberties and free markets,” and I can’t even keep up with the New Adventures of Trump and Musk. These dudes are a bunch of fucking clowns with far too much power over our daily lives. 

But, enough about politics, let’s get the music, right? Sorry, that’s not going to happen with City of Clowns. Influenced by Shoshana Zuboff’s book, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, the not-so-subtle theme throughout Marie Davidson’s new album is the control that Big Tech wields over us. Take “Demolition” as an example, when Davidson whispers, “I want your data” in a flirtatious voice, like the platform that’s going to seduce you into handing over the details of your life that you don’t even share with your closest confidantes.

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Beatique Mix

The Beatique Mix 2/25 feat. Chromatics, FKA Twigs, Mareux, Optometry and More

On Sunday night, when I was DJing at The Mermaid for Splash! I mixed together “Cherry” from Chromatics with “Drums of Death,” from FKA Twigs’ latest album, and Mareux’s songs “DTLA.” It was one of those impromptu things that I really liked and I made a mental note to keep that in mind for future sets. 

The following morning, I woke up with the Dinner In America song still stuck in my head. I had to do something to get it out, so I pulled those three songs and built a set around it, opening and closing the set with two other frequent earworms. It did the trick, at least for now, and I liked it enough to post it for this month’s Beatique Mix. Also included in this set are Taleen Kali’s cover of My Bloody Valentine’s song “Cupid Come,” from her new EP, and “Bon Voyage,” from Optometry’s new album, Lemuria. Track list is below. Enjoy!

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Happening in L.A.

L.A. Zine Fest, Mr. Black, Deftones and More Happening in L.A. From February 27 – March 5

The Adventures of Prince Achmed Lotte Reiniger
Lotte Reiniger’s 1926 animated feature The Adventures of Prince Achmed screens at PRS on Saturday, March 1 with live score by Elf Freedom

Love zines? This weekend, L.A. Zine fest takes over The Broad. You can learn how to DIY print media or just see what’s available to read in the super-indie press at the afternoon-long event, which is free to attend on both Saturday and Sunday. 

At the cusp of the ‘00s and ‘10s, Mr. Black was the place to be on Tuesday nights. The soiree returns for one night only on Saturday, March 1 at Bardot in Hollywood. Also on Saturday night, Lotte Reiniger’s nearly century-old animated feature The Adventures of Prince Achmed screens at Philosophical Research Society with a live score from Elf Freedom. 

While I don’t typically post about the stadium concerts, it seemed worthwhile to note that, at the time of writing this, there were still a few tickets left for Deftones and The Mars Volta at the Forum on Wednesday, March 5. 

Scroll down for details on these and more events happening in L.A. between Thursday, February 27 through Wednesday March 5.

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Movies

Dinner in America and the “Watermelon” Earworm

Dinner in America screenshot Emily Skeggs and Patty
Patty (Emily Skeggs) singing “Watermelon” in Dinner in America

I had “Watermelon,” the song that Patty sings in Dinner in America, stuck in my head for nearly a week, so I decided to watch the movie again. Of course, the earworm burrowed deeper into my brain.

“Fuck the rest of them

Fuck ‘em all

Fuck ‘em all but us”

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The Playlist

New Fontaines D.C. and Everything Else You Heard at Splash! at The Mermaid 2/23/25

Two skulls in a heart at The Mermaid bar in Little Tokyo Los Angeles (Photo: Liz Ohanesian)
Heart and skulls at The Mermaid 2/23/25 (Pic: Liz O.)

Fontaines D.C. dropped a new track last week, “It’s Amazing to Be Young” and the song was one of two from the Irish band to turn up in my set for Splash! at the Mermaid last night. Another new-ish tune worth mentioning is “The Silence That Remains” by The Horrors, which is from their forthcoming album, Night Life. It’s out on March 21 and I’m really looking forward to it. 

Recent releases from Optometry, Mogwai, Dustbowl Champion and FKA Twigs also made it into the Splash! set, but since there are no genre limitations for this night, I tend to play whatever is stuck in my head in the days leading up to the gig. Tracey Ullman’s cover of “They Don’t Know” was that song earlier last week until it was dislodged by the most persistent earworm I’ve had in a while. I’ll reveal what that song is tomorrow, but it is somewhere on this five-hour set list, so maybe you’ll figure it out before then.  

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New Music

L.A. Duo Optometry Returns With Sophomore Album, Lemuria

Optometry Lemuria album cover
Lemuria is the second full-length album from L.A.-based duo Optometry

Read Beatique’s interview “Fear is the Mind Killer: Inside the World of Optometry”

Lemuria, the sophomore album from Optometry, has the best closer I’ve heard in a long time, so we’re going to start this review at the end. “Never Coming Back” is in the vein of what’s considered post-punk right now. It has a running-for-your-life tempo (over 160 bpm for those of you who keep track of these things), a gloomy synth and a “Ceremony” sad guitar. It’s dark— really, it sounds like the cliff-hanger ending of a TV show— but also danceable and it’s become my favorite track on the album, which is out today on Palette Recordings.

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