This Friday is Depeche Mode x New Order night at Club Underground and I’ll be back on the decks with Larry G. and special guest Rose Knows. Both floors of the Grand Star Jazz Club will be open and, in addition to a motherload of Depeche Mode and New Order hits and deep cuts, we’ll be playing indie, Britpop, new wave, darkwave, electro and more. Click on this link to get discount, advance tickets now. Party starts at 9:30 p.m. on Friday, April 18 and it’s 21+. The Grand Star is located at 943 N. Broadway, inside Chinatown’s Central Plaza, right next to the Bruce Lee statue. See you on the dance floor!
As for the rest of the week, Museum of Home Video is at Vidiots (4884 Eagle Rock Blvd. 90041) on Thursday night for the 5 Minutes Game, where they play the first five minutes of a handful of totally obscure movies and the audience votes on which one will be screened in full.
If you need a dose of cuteness this weekend, Saturday afternoon is the Blessing of the Animals outside of Olvera Street (Main Street between Arcadia and Cesar Chavez) from 2-3 p.m. This is a traditional event that’s been happening at Olvera Street since 1930. People bring everything from lizards to farm animals, but the crowd is canine-heavy and, let me tell you, it’s probably the best dog fashion of the year.
TBH, this weekend is better for movie screenings than shows. If you’re on the Westside on Saturday night, do try to check out the screening of New Wave, the documentary about Southern California’s Vietnamese-American dance music culture in the 1980s, at UCLA’s Billy Wilder Theater. It’s a great documentary (I interviewed director Elizabeth Ai about it for Southern California News Group last year) and the screening will feature a Q&A session with Ai, singer Lynda Trang Ðài and DJ BPM, aka Ian Nguyen. It’s also free, but seats are first come-first served. Showtime is 7:30 p.m. Also screening on Saturday night is Tokyo Drifter, a killer (no pun intended) 1960s yakuza film from Seijun Suzuki with a unique visual style. I loved this movie and definitely recommend catching the 9:45 p.m. screening at Vidiots if you haven’t seen it.
Philosophical Research Society’s 7th House film program is hosting The Animation Freakout Hangout on Sunday, a day-long festival with selections curated by EXP TV, Animation Breakdown, Whammy! Analog and Cathode Cinema. This looks like it will be an incredible event. There’s a festival pass available, but you can also buy tickets for individual screenings, which run from 3 p.m. until 9:30 p.m.
Sunday is Easter and 4/20, which makes Life of Brian ideal holiday viewing, but Alamo Drafthouse’s screening is already sold out. However, if you can wait a day or two (or three), there are tickets to see the Monty Python classic on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
For next week’s recommendations, head to Discover Los Angeles, where my listings for the week of April 21 are already posted. A highlight that I’ll mention here is British producer/musician Rex the Dog, who is playing Clinic at Jungle (1640 N. Cahuenga 90028) on Wednesday, April 23.
Liz O. is an L.A.-based writer and DJ. Read her recently published work and check out her upcoming gigs or listen to the latest Beatique Mix. Follow on Instagram for more updates.
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