Pop Music Reviews : House of Blues Opening Bash Worth Wait

“Help Ever. Hurt Never.”

The words, visible on every video monitor at the House of Blues during its private opening bash on Friday, are the motto of the new Sunset Strip nightclub. While the club’s employees made a laudable attempt to be helpful, the hourlong wait in line outside certainly hurt a few Hollywood egos.

But the party--the first in a series of invitation-only inaugural events before it opens to the public on Sunday with Isaac Hayes headlining--was worth the wait. Despite the crush of people vying for the hottest ticket in town, the event made the recent lineup of Oscar night parties seem stodgy in comparison.

Inside, guests repeatedly uttered the same sentiment: “I don’t feel like I’m in L.A.” Some decided the spacious, blues-themed room--with a collection of “outsider” and blues-based art as impressive as the lineup of upcoming acts--has the look and feel of a New Orleans venue.

Keith Richards, k.d. lang, Dustin Hoffman, Brad Pitt and Snoop Doggy Dogg were among the 1,000 folks in the second-level restaurant and the jam-packed dance floor rocking out to the evening’s highlight--a 15-song set by club investors Aerosmith. The stage, which is decorated with numerous religious icons (when they move it’s not an act of God, but of an ingenious hydraulic system), is easily visible from nearly every nook and cranny, and the sound system is first-rate. To paraphrase one of Aerosmith’s highly audible lyrics, House of Blues is clearly not the same old song and dance.