In Defense of Underground Music and Arts Venues
Every city needs an underground. The first music event I attended after moving to Los Angeles took place in a warehouse. It was a psychedelic trance party thrown by a crew called Sixth Sense. The location was somewhere in pregentrification Hollywood, when many of its commercial districts were virtually derelict. Outside was an urban wasteland, but inside the party was filled with color, sound and life: loud, pulsating music, black lights, people in hippie/raver attire � phat pants, dreadlocks, fluorescent sneakers, T-shirts with mandalas printed on them. I made a lot of new friends and danced my ass off. It was fantastic. In the years since � more years than I care to admit � I've probably attended hundreds of other underground events in various locales, from warehouses and lofts to deserts and forests. One event took place after hours in a gym, with a boxing ring doubling as a dance floor. Another happened at a paintball park. Soundstages, ranches, decrepit theaters, ...