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Alice Cooper, Ace Frehley @ Nokia Theater 10/28/09
It should be quite apparent by now that electronic music has officially made a comeback in LA in the past couple years, if not more recently than that. While supergroups such as Daft Punk and the Chemical Brothers have maintained a steady stronghold on the genre since their inception, it would be easy to argue that electronic music never left. However, being an electronic music fan in Los Angeles seems to be slightly different than anywhere else. Why is that? Is it because of LA's rich rock n' roll history, or is it simply because we live in such a decentralized metropolis? Let's discuss further...
To cite a primary argument in support of LA's burgeoning electronic scene, a few weeks back French DJ duo Justice played a show at the Henry Fonda Theatre which sold out months prior, resulting in the group adding another show the following day. The Justice cognoscenti in LA quickly flocked to the Viper Room later in the evening for an afterparty, where Justice migrated west to perform as a special guest. The house was packed. 
Earlier this year, another DJ duo from Toronto called MSTRKRFT played a "secret show" at the Roxy celebrating the release of an issue of BPM magazine. This LAistah put her name on the list the day the show was announced, and a few weeks later stood awestruck as the line crawled for several blocks down Sunset Blvd. At 6pm. The show was set to start around 12:30am.
Back in the day it seemed as if the only way a So Cal technophile could get his or her electro fix was to drive out to San Bernardino to catch Insomniac's Electronic Daisy Festival or Nocturnal Wonderland, and now both of these massive events featuring the biggest names in the genre are held at Exposition Park (just east of USC.) So what happened? Did electronic music become more mainstream in LA, or has nothing changed in the recent years? Are LA DJ's making the same impressions around the globe as, lets say, our Parisian counterparts? We'd like to get your take on it. So while we crank up the Simian Mobile Disco, tell us what you think.
Images courtesy of Insomniac's website.
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There is no doubt that the eletronic music scene grew fast. In 2005, I went to high school for my sophmore year in Central California. When I came back to LA, I noticed that there were more and more eletronic shows that I were willing to go to. I am not sure if it's just going to be a trend; but I sure hope it stays. BTW, the Justice and Daft Punk were amazing :)
There is a really wicked underground electronica scene in LA. If you haven't been to a downtown LA on the weekend, there are shuttles shuffling people back and forth to these warehouse parties. I've seen Federico Aubele and Thievery Corporation play DJ sets in these underground parties... You just have to be in the know... but hush hush, we don't want word to get around
the echoplex is a good place to see electronic music.
Is this a joke?
While LA might have a bigger electronic scene than say, Albuquerque, for the second-largest city in America it has a paltry scene. In my brief time living in Prague, a city that barely tops a million people, I saw more major acts than I have in most of my life in LA.
The bottom line is that people in LA generally don't care to go see electronic music, so acts aren't really that compelled to play here. Acts that normally sell out massive venues in other parts of the world get booked in places like the Knitting Factory or Spaceland and count themselves lucky if they sell it out.
DJ Vadim didn't even sell out the Knitting Factory the other day. Is that a joke? Is that even possible?
So you get a couple groups with cross-over appeal that manage to bring in a crowd (even though attendance at Detour was disappointing). Just a visit to the Ninja Tune website shows you how much they want to come here...
If you'd ever spent any extended time in Europe, you'd understand how deprived we truly are... Hell, even San Francisco has a scene that blows us out of the water!
My interview with Allan Wilson from !!! a couple weeks ago shed light on this as well. They're a rock band that plays dance music - when they play shows in Europe every venue is set up as a dance venue whereas in the States only a tiny percentage are set up that way. I don't know that LA is any worse off than any other US city, I think the US in general just doesn't get it.
I have always been impressed with the frequency of performances by high profile electronica acts in Los Angeles. Certainly LA cannot compete with what Europe has to offer, but it is arguably be one of the best electronica cities in the US, in my opinion.
Recently I spent a week in Ibiza seeing a lot of top DJ's doing club sets. Interestingly most of these DJ's were in LA of the course of the following four weeks.
There even seems to be a "classic electronica" scene as evidenced by the huge crowd at the recent Underworld Hollywood Bowl show.
I have always been impressed with the frequency of performances by high profile electronica acts in Los Angeles. Certainly LA cannot compete with what Europe has to offer, but it is arguably be one of the best electronica cities in the US, in my opinion.
Recently I spent a week in Ibiza seeing a lot of top DJ's doing club sets. Interestingly most of these DJ's were in LA of the course of the following four weeks.
There even seems to be a "classic electronica" scene as evidenced by the huge crowd at the recent Underworld Hollywood Bowl show.
Hmm. So maybe we can argue that LA encompasses all music scenes, whereas other genres in cities in Europe, for example, tend to see electronic music as the dominant genre?
I lived in Milan, Italy for about a year, and needless to say, rock music is not their best export.
with all this talk of LA being the center of all electronica - then why cant i think of ONE quality artist from LA? all the best acts are from europe....