Al’s Bar Is the Place to Make Friends

While Hollywood was all a-flush with the Toilet Boys, New York rockers who whirled in to play Make-Up and Scream last weekend, we reacquainted ourselves with L.A.’s ultimate party potty--the one at Al’s Bar. You haven’t lived unless you’ve done time at this downtown music haven (21 years and counting).

We popped in Friday to go off the Deep Eynde. Talk about art-damaged: This post-punk collective performed two hours late because they couldn’t get their drum kit out of storage. Despite the snare snafu, Deep Eynde singer Fate Fatal’s silver body paint and Mohawk held up swimmingly.

Aside from the philosophical graffiti on the bathroom walls, the coolest thing about Al’s Bar is it’s easy to make new friends. This time, we hooked up with folks from Bakersfield, Huntington Beach, Echo Park and Beverly Hills. Yep, we caught some director slumming. . . . Speaking of cool places not in Hollywood, we found ourselves loitering in downtown Pomona last week to catch a hot show by Goldfinger.

To avoid the stench of jaded Angelenos, the quartet celebrated the release of its new album, “Stomping Ground,” at Pomona’s all-ages Glass House. It was a nutso, punk rock love-in, with front man John Feldman inviting audience members to jump on stage to sing the group’s “Here in My Bedroom” hit. Man, if I ever rolled with a posse, it would be those hellcats. . . . Hung out on the Porch, the new name of the House of Blues’ refurbished restaurant. Lemme tell you, it’s an improvement.

Next time my aunt from Illinois comes a-knockin’ and wants to go a-rockin’, she can dine at the West Hollywood nightclub without having her eardrums blown out by, say, thundering rock en espanol. The Porch’s main attraction is the sound of silence. That is to say it is sealed off from the main stage. . . . L.A.’s famed fetish dance club, Sin-A-Matic, is set to jump off tonight at the El Rey Theatre. In the spirit of that trippy New Wave outfit, Devo, we’ve got the following advice: Whip it good!