The best clubs in Los Angeles
When you want to do some serious business on the dance floor, it's best to head to smaller, no-frills spots and classic live music venues where the grooves are infectuous and busting a move is the main event. Our picks for the best clubs in Los Angeles will play dance party hits and feed your need for everything from hip hop and salsa to reggae and soul.
Best clubs in Los Angeles
Part Time Punks and Funky Sole at the Echo
Low End Theory at the Airliner
Before you even reach the top of the stairs at this gritty, bi-level dive bar, you can feel the bass booming in your belly. And every Wednesday, Low End Theory is a beat-head's dream, with a massive sound system spitting out a wide range of experimental hip hop and beat-driven electronic music (IDM, dubstep, glitch, etc.). The packed-to-the-gills crowd (it's 18 and up here, so the throng skews young... and male) doesn't so much dance as surrender to the vibration. Keep your eyes peeled for live performances—everyone from Erykah Badu to Odd Future has graced the unassuming stage.
Outspoken and Clinic at Couture
Couture's two major dance nights, Outspoken and Clinic Wednesdays, are probably the most underground-leaning of all the house and techno parties in L.A., with some of the best bookings in town. Of the two, Friday’s Outspoken, is the heavier hitter, hosting the likes of Francois K, Joakim, Martyn, DJ Dan, Ivan Smagghe, Roy Davis Jr. and Pittsburgh Track Authority. Clinic is no slouch either, with bookings like Terry Francis, the Drifter, Edu Imbernon, Patrice Baumel, Adam Shelton and Correspondant’s Jennifer Cardini. Quite a resumé for both, if we’re honest.
Funkmosphere at the Virgil
Mustache Mondays at the Lash
Monday is probably the hardest night of the week to draw a crowd out to party, but don’t tell that to the team behind Mustache Mondays, the long-running, gay-themed (but very-straight-friendly) party at the Lash for the last three years. It's a fashion-forward jam sesh with hosts Grace Towers and Nacho and always-varied DJ sets from its residents and guests like Sporting Life, Lafawndah and Nightsweats, plus live sets from the likes of Maluca and local-boy-done-good Sam Sparro.
Punky Reggae and Rockabilly Thursdays at La Cita
DTLA’s indoor/outdoor Mexi-megalopolis La Cita has been supporting weekly nights of all stripes for more years than Downtown has been re-christened "cool." Resident DJs Michael Stock and Boss Harmz have combined the aesthetics of their other parties—Part Time Punks and Dub Club, respectively—to start Punky Reggae (Fridays), the only party on this list whose name pays tribute to both Bob Marley and The Slits’ Ari Up (RIP). It promises not only punk and reggae, but also mutant disco and post-punk, and even ska. Guest sets come from varied DJs, some of which include the likes of Roger Cretin and Alex Transistor and live performances from genre acts such as Jah Faith & the Royal Lineage, Extra Classic and San Francisco’s Andy Human & the Reptoids. La Cita also plays host to what must be the only rockabilly-themed happy hour in town on Thursdays. So come for the rockabilly, stay for the punk reggae (or the other way around, just show up).
Framework at Sound Nightclub
Dance Yourself Clean at the Satellite
This Saturday night "no frills dance party" started in Seattle before expanding to Portland, NYC and L.A., and even headied out on an 18-city North American tour in 2016. Dance Yourself Clean has an all-inclusive musical vibe playing the dance indie-pop hits of yesteryear as well as today. The party is a welcome throwback to late-'90s/mid-'00s parties like NYC’s Misshapes (or basically any party at this venue when it was still called Spaceland). The kind of party that lovingly lists the bands who play on its flyers and Facebook page. To give you an idea of what to listen for, expect international artists like Cut Copy, Grimes, St. Lucia, Blood Orange, Chromeo, Is Tropical and, obviously, LCD Soundsystem.
Queen Kong at Precinct
This Friday night variety show of debauchery and unapologetic attitude has enough makeup, wigs and heels to sustain you until the following Queen Kong event. Hosted by the Boulet Brothers—the drag queen and gay nightlife icons that hail from NYC—Queen Kong features stage shows from multiple drag celebrities like Alaska Thunderfuck and Kevin Aviance to help you welcome the weekend. After getting your fill of unshameful performances, you can head to the outdoor balcony for a breather and chat with a fellow Eastsider who is so over the WeHo nightlife scene.
Dub Club at Echoplex
Every Wednesday night, the cavernous Echoplex sets sail to Jamaica when this roots reggae party kicks off. The biggest names out of Kingston have played Dub Club, from Sister Nancy and Eek-A-Mouse to Wailing Soul, but the club also welcomes locally-grown talent as well as acts from equally salt-of-the-earth genres like cumbia and Afrobeat. So expect to do more than just sway to the steel drum; most nights, there's bona fide ass shaking underway. You'll be elbow-to-elbow with cool kids and old timers, including a critical mass of dreadlocked rastas and the girls who love them, all feeling irie.
SuperSoul Monday at Dirty Laundry
You’d think Los Angeles would be overrun with ridiculously good soul music nights, but alas, they are fewer and further between than one might like. That being said, SuperSoul Monday is up there with the best of 'em. Having relocated to Hollywood’s Dirty Laundry Bar, resident DJs Adam 12, Prophet and Jedi create a lovely, laid-back funk and soul vibe with assistance from JJ and The Spectacular, doing not one but two live shows a night (10:30pm & midnight), and with guests including Black Thought of The Roots.
For a less sweaty night out...
The best cocktail bars in L.A.
After shaking your ass for an entire night and then tending to some newly-formed blisters, a night of sitting while sipping on a super fancy and intricately prepared cocktail may be exactly what you need. Here's our list of the best cocktail bars in L.A.
