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. 

With a laptop set up in front of the staircase that stands in the center of the small, two-story gallery, Neyva opened with a dreamy house track, “Barbarella.”  Standing outside the gallery, about twenty feet or so from the front door, my vantage point was ideal. I could see Neyva begin the song from behind a table covered in a pink cloth. The building’s blue exterior, with Leiminspace written in cursive and hearts dotting the two is, framed this scene. Right before the second verse, Neyva, dressed in sheer white and with long brown-and-blonde bangs scraping the top of crystal pink glasses, moved in front of the table, then briefly headed outside, where the crowd gathered around them.

Earlier in the day, I had run into Schelsey from Leiminspace, who told me about that night’s event, which was tied to the gallery’s current exhibition, “Yours, Forever,” from artists Susan Aparicio and Monica Juarez. Were it not for that encounter, I wouldn’t have known this was happening, despite the fact that I’ve followed the gallery on socials for about as long as it’s been open. (In fact, I wrote about an exhibition at the gallery for Los Angeles Magazine back in 2018.) But, that’s just life in a timeline dominated by ads and memes. No one really knows what’s going on unless you just happen to bump into someone who says, “hey, there’s a show tonight” while you’re at a convenience store making a heat wave run for really cold drinks. From my own experience, though, even those kinds of interactions don’t necessarily bring more bodies to the party, which is why I made sure to stop by Leiminspace after going out for dinner. At that point, the event was well underway and I didn’t know how long I could stay. Once Neyva’s performance began, though, I knew I would be sticking around for their whole set. 

Neyva’s music is cross-genre and their voice is strong enough to handle both contemporary dance music and more traditional ballads, like “Para Siempre,” which was one of the highlights of the show. They also have a very physical and emotional style of performance, frequently crouching close to the ground during the set. The energy during the show was top-level and the line between the performance and the crowd was fluid. People moved in and out of the venue as the performance progressed. At one point, I saw a couple walk by the gallery, then stop to see what was happening. They started dancing and stuck around for a couple songs. 

The previous Tuesday, I visited Leiminspace and saw the current show. “Yours, Forever,” references the products and pop culture of the turn of the millennium— think Powerpuff Girls and flip phones— while exploring, per the exhibition statement, “emotions of fulfillment and emptiness that blossom in the gap between physical and digital space.” The mixed media exhibit includes clay sculptures from Monica Juarez and fused glass art from Susan Aparicio. It’s both a fun and thought-provoking show that reminded me both of the promise that tech held in the ‘00s and how much it has let us down in the past decade-and-a-half. 

On Saturday, I was only able to catch Neyva play, but their set seemed to reflect the themes of the show. The performance had a lot of the spirit of ‘00s L.A. DIY music, where shows could, and did, happen virtually anywhere and, no matter the size of the space or the crowd, it was always a vibe. 

“Yours, Forever” ends its run at Leiminspace on Saturday, August 10 with a closing party, so be sure to check it out if you’re in the area.  Neyva’s music is available on Bandcamp.

Liz O. is an L.A.-based writer and DJ. Read her recently published work and check out her upcoming gigs.

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