Promising Nightwatch Needs a Guiding Hand

The Nightwatch isn’t exactly a hit, but it has too many promising qualities to be dismissed as a miss. The penthouse club in Hollywood is currently lurking somewhere in the middle.

Located on the top level of a 19-story building in Hollywood, the Nightwatch offers a dramatic, near-360-degree view of the city, in itself a stunning attribute.

The downside? Despite being located in a ’60 sky-rise, the club has a decor that suggests a low-level knockoff of Louis XIV--complete with amateurish, view-blocking paintings of royalty on the windowpanes. If the designers had gone with the theme of the building itself, creating a ‘60s-style cocktail lounge, the Nightwatch would have been right in sync with the times and easily could have become one of the premier dance clubs in town.

As it is, Saturday night’s “High Society” promotion is the club’s only consistently successful night. Although the 6-month-old venue is currently in the process of revamping its scheduled dance nights, High Society continues to attract a devoted crowd ranging from Eurotrash hipsters to tattooed homeboys.

Divided by double elevators into two separate rooms, the club includes a main dance floor on the north side and a dining room and intimate dance area to the south. With a roster of deejays including Marques Wyatt and Pat Glasser, the main “deep house” dance room keeps the music coming loud, fast and furious. In the dining area, the noise level drops a few notches as deejays turn guests on to an international blend of acid jazz and funk. High Society shows that the Nightwatch could be a promising venture. It just needs a bit more vision.

* The Nightwatch, 6290 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood. 21 and over (18 and over on Sundays), cover varies. (213) 871-2995.

*

Club Buzz: The Red Hot Chili Peppers put Hollywood Moguls on the map over the weekend, performing an unannounced set at the revamped club to an audience that included Courtney Love and Billy Corgan (who ventured over to the Hollywood club after performing with his group, the Smashing Pumpkins, at the Palace). Having just received its full bar license on Jan. 1, the club is now open six nights a week and includes live music Thursday through Saturday (comedy is slated Monday through Wednesday).

* Hollywood Moguls, (213) 465-7449.