Club Review : Lava Lounge Still on Top of the Wave of Surf Music

When the Lava Lounge opened its doors for the first time in December of 1993, surf and lounge-style music hadn’t become a Hollywood trend. These were the pre-”Pulp Fiction” days, and Quentin Tarantino, an early Lava Lounge customer, most likely drew inspiration from the lavishly tiki-ed club.

Before Hollywood had the Lava Lounge, a glitzy one-room shack that mixes and matches tropical island kitsch with a Vegas-style panache, you had to join your parents at places like the Tonga Room (a faux-hurricane theme restaurant at the top of San Francisco’s Fairmont Hotel) when you wanted drinks to come with umbrellas and plastic mermaids.

That’s why this venue took scenesters by storm: You could get the tiki tackiness without any parental supervision, and yet the ‘60s-influenced live music showcased at the Lava each week borrows its sounds from the pre-happy days. So if your parents happen to be in town, well, you know where to take them.

Not only does the Lava Lounge continue to ride the musical wave it started, but one of the coolest elements of the Lounge is that it helped usher in a club-going maturity for many of its guests. This isn’t the place to drop cigarette butts carelessly on the floor while a punk rock trio sings about death. This is the place where you dress a little classy while listening to the slow surf sounds of the Blue Hawaiians, or where you attempt to swing in time to the unique “jump blues” of the Caballeros (who are scheduled to perform at the Lava Lounge on New Year’s Eve).

And if you haven’t buzzed by this season to witness the Lounge in all its gold-bedecked glory, you’re missing out: Even the marlin hanging on the back wall is still sporting a Santa hat.

* The Lava Lounge, 1533 N. La Brea Ave., Hollywood. 21 & over, cover varies. (213) 876-6612.

Club Buzz: Santa may know who’s been naughty or nice, but at Sin-A-Matic’s New Year’s Eve celebration, the emphasis will be on naughty. The famed fetish club, which takes place every Saturday at Club 7969, will move to 500 N. Western Ave. on Dec. 31 for a night of go-go dancing, “sensual abandon” and multiple deejays. . . . For a rasta-inspired New Year’s, check out the “Reggae Boat Party,” which departs from Seaport Village in Long Beach at 9 p.m. on Dec. 31 and is scheduled to include fireworks and a live reggae band.

* Sin-A-Matic, (213) 654-0280. New Year’s Eve “Reggae Boat Party,” (310) 498-0091.