FKA Twigs dropped a new album, Eusexua, on Friday. I haven’t had a chance to listen to the whole thing yet, but, I really like the song “Drums of Death,” so I tried it out to open last night’s set at The Mermaid and you’re probably going to be hearing it more in my sets. Splash! Sundays is genre-free, so the set ranges from ‘60s rock and soul to new darkwave and indie.
I woke up Sunday morning with “Silver Rings” from Matt Berry’s new album, Heard Noises, stuck in my head, so that made it into last night’s set, sandwiched in between Shocking Blue and Los Bravos. Other new-ish songs in the set include “No Longer Mine,” from South Bay soul group Thee Heart Tones, and Male Tears’ latest synthpop jam, “Little Doll.” Keep scrolling for the rest of the set list.
This Sunday, January 26, I’ll be DJing at The Mermaid for Splash! This is an open format night, so anything goes as far as the music is concerned. Music starts at 8 p.m. and goes until 1 a.m. There’s no cover and it’s 21+. You’ll find the Mermaid at 428 E. 2nd Street in Little Tokyo. There is street and lot parking in the neighborhood and The Mermaid is just a couple blocks away from Metro’s A/E Line station. Hope to see you there!
As for the rest of the weekend, and early next week, check out the list below to see what’s happening in L.A. While Jamie XX’s dates at the Shrine are sold out, there are some other fantastic shows happening around town, from Tropa Magica at Alex’s Bar in Long Beach to Nuovo Testamento at Saturday night’s Abortion Access Benefit at the Lodge Room and Travis on Tuesday at The Wiltern.
From the looks of it, the David Lynch film screenings— like Fire Walk With Me at Brain Dead on Thursday night and Blue Velvet on Sunday at the Aero— are sold out. Some other worthwhile screenings include Oldboy at Gardena Cinema on Friday and Viridiana at Vidiots on Saturday.If you’re in/around Orange County, Tank Girl (!!!) Is playing at The Frida on Monday night.
Keep reading for details on these and more events happening in L.A. between Thursday, January 23 and Wednesday, January 29.
Confidence Man dropped a Christmas banger last week, called “Santa’s Comin Down the Chimney.” It has a late-‘90s electro-techno thing going, like Dopplereffekt or Miss Kittin and the Hacker, which is really weird for a Christmas song and something that I, a person who is extremely picky about holiday tunes, can appreciate. If you were at The Mermaid for Splash! Sundays last night, you might have heard it sandwiched in between Del the Funky Homosapien and Crystal Castles.
Splash is an open format night, so, really, anything goes as far as the music is concerned. Since this was the Sunday before Christmas, and The Mermaid has its “Siren Who Stole Xmas” pop-up going on right now, I brought a few of my favorite holiday jams, like Charo’s disco-fied “(Mamacita) ¿Donde Esta Santa Claus?” and a really specific remix of “El Burrito de Belen” that took one holiday season of heavy Googling to find.
Still, I could have kicked myself for forgetting to download Los Bitchos’ holiday EP before the gig, but all their songs are good for a party, so “Talkie Talkie, Charlie Charlie,” from the band’s latest album,Talkie Talkie, made it into the set. Male Tears’ new one, “Little Doll,” which landed in Friday night’s set at Catch One, made a reappearance. A handful of 2024 faves— Fontaines D.C., Pet Shop Boys and La Femme included— turned up in Sunday night’s set too. It’s a real mixed bag, but I swear, if you were there and heard the set, which lasted from 8 p.m. until about 10:30 or so, it totally made sense. Keep scrollin’ to see what else was heard at Splash! Sundays on December 22. Next gig is New Year’s Eve at Underground. See you there.
The holidays have arrived at The Mermaid (Photo: Liz O.)
The Legend of the Stardust Brothers is playing on one of the TV sets inside The Mermaid when I arrive. The movie is bonkers in the best way possible and, since it just started, I take that as a sign that tonight’s going to be a good night. And it is. I start playing a little before 8 p.m. and, not long into the set, someone starts dancing to Amy Winehouse, then continues through Freda Payne at Stevie Wonder. Someone else starts head-bopping to Talking Heads and the guy who was dancing to the soul jams sings along with Madonna.
Splash!, on Sundays at The Mermaid, is not a genre-specific night, so really, anything goes at the DJ table. For two-and-a-half hours, I jump across decades, from the 1960s until today. I work in “My Generation,” from the latest La Femme album, which I’ve been listening to on repeat since I bought it earlier last week, and two songs from Fontaines D.C.’s album-of-the-fucking-year, Romance.
The crowd ebbs and flows, as is usual at bars, but it’s always a vibe. A group sitting next to me ask about “Tears Run Rings.” It’s Marc Almond, I tell them, “y’know, from Soft Cell.” They don’t know. I realize that we’re at a point where young adult Angelenos don’t remember the good KROQ Flashback Weekends, when you could hear “Sex Dwarf,” and maybe even “It’s a Mugs Game,” several times before Sunday night came around. I think that my new calling might be preserving the legacy of Los Angeles as a city where Soft Cell is not a one-hit-wonder.
The Phantom of the Paradise is playing when I finish up my set at around 10:30 p.m. David and Stefano take over on DJ duties. (Go listen to their project Tibia, especially if you’re into synthwave.) They’re playing jams and I hang out for close to an hour after I play to chat with them and wait for the rideshare prices to drop. Camp Flog Gnaw, which was happening at Dodger Stadium, must have just let out because Lyft is a good $3 more than it normally is at this time and Uber is more than double it’s usual price. When Lyft finally comes down to a rate that I’ll settle for paying, I head home. I mention the show and the surge prices to my driver, who starts telling me about how much less the drivers are making now than pre-pandemic. He said the drivers are basically “fighting for crumbs” right now, which I understand, and which you probably get too, because that’s life in the 2020s if you aren’t the sort of person who can pay to make elections go your way. It’s a conversation that I’ve had with a lot of drivers lately, but this one ends on a hopeful note, and I think that this same conversation keeps happening is hope. It means that people are seeing that tech wields far too much power over our existence right now and things have to change.
But, anyhow, you probably just came here to see what I played last night, so here’s the set list. Maybe come out to a gig soon. Click on this link to see where I’m playing next.
Sunday night, I played an open format set for Splash! at The Mermaid from 8 p.m. until last call. It started out as a quiet night, which was to be expected given the excitement of the past two nights in L.A. I didn’t mind the night’s slow start either, because it gave me time to DJ and catch up with friends who I hadn’t seen in ages and stopped by early in the evening.
At around midnight, though, a swell of people came into The Mermaid. Once I spotted the wave, I rode it and dropped the L.A. party bangers, like “Nowhere Girl,” “Living on Video” and “Send Me an Angel,” plus, of course “Blue Monday” and “Two of Hearts.” When I realized that we were close to last call, I slowed it down with the Art Laboldies. To give credit where it’s due, playing “Darling Baby” by The Elgins came via a dude who was blasting the song from his bike while cycling through Chinatown recently.
Between Halloween and the start of the World Series at Dodger Stadium, this weekend is going to be bonkers. If you don’t have plans, perhaps you’ll consider going to one of my gigs this weekend. I’m actually DJing all weekend and all the sets are going to be different. Keep reading for all the details.
Friday, September 27, is Oasis Nite at Club Underground. Both floors of Grand Star Jazz Club will be open, with Larry G. and me (Liz O.) DJing from 9:30 p.m. until 2 a.m. Tickets are available now, so click on this link to pick up yours. The Grand Star is located at 943 N. Broadway, right next to the Bruce Lee statue in Chinatown’s Central Plaza, and it’s a 21+ venue.
Then on Sunday, September 29, I’ll be playing Splash at The Mermaid with DJ Vanish. This is an open format night— so, really, anything goes musically— that is from 8 p.m. until 1 a.m. Vanish is playing the first half of the night and I’m doing the second. There’s no cover and it’s 21+. The Mermaid is at 428 E. 2nd St. in Little Toyo.
As for the rest of the weekend and early next week, here are just a few things I’ve noticed happening in L.A. that are under $30 and not sold out. For more options, check out my Get Into the L.A. Groove column for Discover Los Angeles. Click on this link for shows happening this weekend. For events happening the week of September 30, click here.
I had just returned home after a meeting and noticed a text asking if I could fill in for the opening DJ set at Splash!, which was set to start in a little over an hour. I said I could get there at 7:45, then ran out, got dinner, ate half a banh mi, wrapped up the other half for later that night, grabbed my laptop and the controller that I had yet to unpack from Nocturno on Saturday night, scheduled a ride and showed up at 7:43 p.m., which was more than enough time to set up and get started at 8 p.m.
Since I still had my Nocturno folder loaded into Rekordbox, I played more of an alt. ‘80s set, with a few other random songs that I either happened to have on my laptop or was able to download quickly. It ended up being a great night. I met some super cool people, dropped some tunes I hadn’t played out in a while (“Get the Balance Right,” “Our Darkness,” “No More Words) and finished with Pia Zadora and Jermaine Jackson’s duet “When the Rain Begins to Fall,” from the sci-fi epic Voyage of the Rock Aliens, because why not?
Here’s the set list. I’m still scheduling August gigs, so I don’t know when I’m playing next, so follow on Instagram and I’ll the next date when I have it.
Christmas in July continues at The Mermaid. (Pic: Liz O.)
It was totally last minute, but I filled in for Splash! at The Mermaid on Tuesday night, playing ’80s music from 8 p.m. until last call. I was in a Roxy Music, Japan and Duran Duran mood, which manifested in the set. Plus, I’ve had the Real Life song “Openhearted” stuck in my head on-and-off for a few weeks, so that made an appearance in the set too. Check out the set list below.
The Mermaid’s Christmas in July tiki mugs, including a Christmas tree, a sand/snow man and a gingerbread man. (Pic: Liz O.)
Splash! is Dolce Vita’s new Tuesday night ‘80s party at The Mermaid. You’ll still hear Italo disco in the mix, but you’ll also hear new wave, synthpop and more subgenres of the decade’s dance music . I played for the first time since the rebrand for the first half of the night tonight and it was lot of fun to get to drop some of my Italo favorites (Ken Laszlo, Pino D’Angio) with a few of the ‘80s night standards (OMD, The Cure, etc.), some tunes that I don’t get to play out so much (Olivia Newton-John “Twist of Fate”) and a few tracks from the era that are actually new to me (Angelyne “Sex Goddess,” thanks to the Dark Entries reissue). Oh, and I was able to work in the best song from Voyage of the Rock Aliens (Real Life “Openhearted”), a movie I’ve been trying to write about for a while, but I still can’t make sense of it, which might be the point. My only regret is not adding Pia Zadora to my ‘80s virtual crate. Next time.
Also, it’s Christmas in July at The Mermaid. The tiki mugs in the top photo are part of the promotion. You can buy one solo or with one of the drinks on the Cocktails for a Cause menu, all of which have Christmas horror names, like Santa’s Slay. The mugs were so cute— my favorite is the sand/snow man in the center of the photo— so I had to take a photo.
