Voxtrox live at Pacific Electric, March 2026 (Pic: Liz O.)
“You should see the green room, it’s like a boutique hotel,” says Voxtrot singer Ramesh Srivastava on stage at Pacific Electric. It’s Thursday night and the Chinatown concert venue has been open about week, with Voxtrot’s headlining concert being just the second, open-to-the-public event here. The newness of Pacific Electric is very much a part of the buzz in the atmosphere. You can see it in the way the crowd moves about the unfamiliar space, peeking around corners to see where the bathroom is, glancing up from the ground level to catch a view of the balcony. You can see it, too, in the staff, so fresh-faced and friendly. They’ve yet to be grizzled by entitled party people and messy drunks.
I was at Pacific Electric to see Voxtrot, who I had recently interviewed, but, given that the venue is brand new, this post is focused on the space itself. (Here’s the link for the story on Voxtrot.) You may have read about Pacific Electric previously, as it was featured in the L.A. Times and Time Out prior to the opening, but, maybe you want to read about the experience from someone who went to a show there.
A crowd gathers outside a gift shop on Broadway in Chinatown (Pic: Liz O.)
One of the first things I learned after moving to Chinatown was to avoid walking down Broadway on the weekends. This was well over a decade ago- before the high rent apartments and perennial line at Howlin’ Ray’s were a thing- and the sidewalk scene on the neighborhood’s main drag was poppin’ throughout the weekends. Back then, trying to get from Point A to Point B was like maneuvering your way through a house party where your goal is to squeeze through a tightly packed crowd of people and stuff without knocking over a vase or getting stabbed by a pointy plant. Then the pandemic happened and, perhaps like most of downtown save for Little Tokyo, the crowds didn’t come back in the same numbers.
On the Saturday after Lunar New Year, though, Chinatown felt like it did before lockdown. I walked along Broadway- after the past six years, I forgot my old rule- and quickly backed up against a wall, near a row of plants, to let large group of teenagers pass. I got caught in wave after wave of gridlock and teetered along the curb trying to bypass the nearly impenetrable crowd in front of Yang Chow and the oversized stroller parked between a store and a rack of tchotchkes. At Scoops, which was my destination, my first two ice cream choices were sold out and the third nearly so. It had been busy all day, I heard, and, even as dinner time approached, people were still hanging around.
Mark your calendars for Friday, October 25 because Club Underground’s Halloween party will be taking over both floors of Grand Star Jazz Club in Chinatown. Halloween at Underground is always a blast, so you won’t want to miss out on this.
Last Friday, I played upstairs at Underground from open to close. Check out the set list below.
Neyva live at Leiminspace on August 3, 2024 (Pic: Liz O.)
It was a quiet Saturday night in Chinatown. Out on Broadway, all the shops, as well as many of the restaurants, were closed by 8 p.m. The day-trippers had long gone and the club crowd was yet to arrive. In that strange in between time, though, the scene on Lei Min Way, a small, pedestrian-only street inside Central Plaza that tourists always miss, was a vibe.
The crowd gathered in and around art gallery Leiminspace wasn’t large, but it was high-quality. That’s the thing people often don’t understand about events— maybe because real life doesn’t translate well on social media— the size of a crowd doesn’t determine whether or not something is worthwhile. What matters is how engaged people are with what’s happening in that IRL space. And it was clear from the first note of Neyva’s set that people were rapt by both the music and the performance.
I took a photo while I was DJing and then remembered why I don’t take photos when I DJ.
Thanks to Larry G. for having me back at Underground on Friday night and for everyone who showed up and hit the dance floor. Some notes on last night’s set: I played the newest additions to my virtual crates really early, so you probably didn’t hear them. Mostly, I wanted to see what “Cadenas de la Infancia” and “I Forget” sounded like in a club. I might stick with them. I might not, but both Mueran Humano’s album, Reemplazante, and Jaako Eino Kalevi’s album, Chaos Magic, have been playing on repeat at home and I absolutely recommend getting both.
Toto Coelo 12″ single with the extended dance mix of “Milk from the Coconut.” (Pic: Liz O.)
Thanks so much to everyone who came out to the Grand Star on Sunday for Disco Matinee. It was so much fun to dig through my vinyl crates for this one and even more fun to play alongside Jus’ B and Televandalist.
This Friday, April 12, is The Strokes Nite at Club Underground and I’ll be DJing alongside Larry G. for it. Both floors of Grand Star Jazz Club will be open, so you’ll get a good dose of hits and deep cuts from The Strokes, as well as all your Underground favorites. The party starts at 9:30 p.m. and goes until 2 a.m.
Tickets are available now on both Dice and Eventbrite, so scoop up yours now.
The Grand Star is located at 943 N. Broadway in Chinatown’s Central Plaza. Both street and lot parking is available and the venue is a short walk from Metro’s A Line station in Chinatown. This is a 21+ event.
When everyone is vibing to Animal Collective and they realize I’ve turned my camera on the crowd.
It was so good to be back at Underground last night. Both floors of the Grand Star were open on Friday night, with Larry playing Depeche Mode and New Order jams upstairs and Scarlett Casanova and I playing everything else downstairs. The crowd was a lot of fun. I was happy to see “Loneliness,” the latest Pet Shop Boys single, do well on the dancer floor. What did even better though was TR/ST’s cover of the PSB classic “Being Boring,” which is one of my current favorites. The most successful of the new tunes, though, was “Sangre de Oro,” from Twin Tribes’ latest album, Pendulum. The song also did extremely well at Nocturno’s party in Phoenix last month. Anyhow, thank you for dancing. Here’s the set list.
Set 1:
ABC “Be Near Me”
Kylie Minogue “Cupid Boy”
Saint Etienne “We’re in the City”
Royksopp “Ice Machine (Ewan Pearson Remix)”
Sally Shapiro “Rent”
Human League “Seconds”
Echo and the Bunnymen “In Bluer Skies”
Chromatics “Ceremony”
Chameleons “Reptile”
The Cure “Primary”
Set 2:
Ladytron “Playgirl”
Gorillaz “Dare (DFA Remix)”
Pet Shop Boys “West End Girls”
TR/ST, Jake Shears “Being Boring”
Boy Harsher, Ms. Boan “Machina”
Yaz “Situation”
Talking Heads “Girlfriend Is Better” (request)
Sophie Ellis Bextor “Murder on the Dancefloor” (request)
The Bucketheads “The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall Into My Mind) (Armand Van Helden Re-edit)”
The Rapture “House of Jealous Lovers”
Confidence Man “Angry Girl”
Le Tigre “Deceptacon”
Wet Leg “Chaise Longue”
Set 3:
Donna Summer “Our Love”
New Order “Blue Monday”
Trans X “Living on Video”
Vitalic “La Rock 01”
Crystal Castles, Robert Smith “Not in Love”
Soft Cell “Tainted Love”
Bloc Party “Banquet”
Molchat Doma “sudno (Boris Ryzhy)”
Twin Tribes “Sangre de Oro”
Los Prisioneros “Tren al Sur (Basic Remix)”
Nine Inch Nails “Closer”
Tom Tom Club “Genius of Love”
Daft Punk “Da Funk”
Chumbawamba “Tubthumping”
Set 4:
Pet Shop Boys “Loneliness”
Hercules & Love Affair “Blind”
Animal Collective “My Girls”
Tame Impala “Is It True”
Mr. Flagio “Take a Chance”
My Mine “Hypnotic Tango”
Righeira “Vamos a la Playa”
Desireless “Voyage Voyage”
Q Lazarus “Goodbye Horses”
Depeche Mode “Nodisco”
New Order “Sub-Culture”
If you’re around Cypress Park today, catch me playing records at Footsie’s for Razorcake’s party, which is from 5-10 p.m. and keep checking back here or follow me on Instagram because I have a bunch of stuff to announce in the next day or so.
Club Underground‘s next Depeche Mode x New Order night is Friday, March 8. Larry G., Scarlett Casanova and I, Liz O., will be your DJs and both floors of Grand Star Jazz Club will be open.
Tickets for Depeche Mode x New Order Night at Club Underground are available on both Eventbrite and Dice. Pick up yours as soon as possible and join us at Grand Star Jazz Club in Chinatown on March 8. Party starts at 9:30 p.m. and is 21+.
I’m not DJing this week, but there’s so much to do in town that I’m looking forward to going out just for fun. The list below is a small sample of L.A. music events for this week, including some killer live shows and DJ events with low or no covers, one record swap and a few reasonably priced film screenings.
