Going Club-Hopping on the Internet: Think Small

Club-hopping in the Southland no longer requires expensive clothes and parking headaches. Now you can pour yourself a tall one, put on your jammies and turn on the computer.

Despite the fact that the glowing screen engages, at best, only a couple of the five senses required to enjoy the total club experience, creators of new Web sites are offering “live” nightclub experiences online.

Al’s Bar claims to have first Web-cast in July 1999, making the hip downtown dive one of the local cyber pioneers. When asked about the value of Web-casting, club owner Al Kreisal joked, “Well, it gives you a chance to broaden your audience and sell more crap.” A visit to https://www.alsbar.net shows photos of the graffiti-laden walls and lists upcoming shows like Leif Garrett and Babyland. Unfortunately, there is no place on the Web site for the visitor to “draw.”

“People will have to get out of their chairs and come down here if they want to do graffiti,” Kreisal says.

House of Blues’ site (https://www.hob.com) offers information and schedules and accessible archives of past shows. Now you can have the Blues Brothers’ off-key singing at the office, too. Visually arresting, Hob.com is easy to use and, surprisingly, links to Web-casts from clubs other than the popular Sunset Strip night spot.

Like most music sites, the club Web-casting sites require a 56K modem or faster connection and some kind of music-playing program such as RealPlayer or Windows Media Player. The site will prompt you regarding the player. Many are free downloads but have billboard advertising. Or the upgrades may cost you.

Even at 56K, the music performance visuals will be jerky. For the most up-to-date computer users with DSL, however, the video is as good as TV provides. Also, watch out for net congestion, which can happen on typically busy Internet times such as weekends and evenings. Video quality can be greatly hampered during these times.

New York’s Knitting Factory, which is about to open a new facility on Hollywood Boulevard, will Web-cast it’s performances from https://www.knitmedia.com. The text-heavy site has links to artists’ Web sites--one of several advantages performers get from Webcasting.

“Think of all the people in the Midwest who can’t make it to Hollywood for the club scene,” says Knitmedia media relations director Meredith Kammerer. “The bands get extra promotion because they can e-mail their fans to announce the show and their fans can watch it at home! And it’s all free.”

At the Knitting Factory, artists must approve Web-casting of their performances. Kammerer also claims that the live Internet shows can’t be downloaded or pirated--although some computer-savvy pals seemed to be able to accomplish this task quite easily.

Clubs that don’t have their own sites have other options. Robert Tauro, owner of Arcadia on the Santa Monica Pier, contracted to present artists on Warner Bros. record labels, and part of the deal is that shows will be broadcast at https://www.entertainmentdom.com. Other clubs have hooked up with umbrella sites, such as https://www.LA2Nite.com, which has listings and live Web-casting, or https://www.lalive.com, which broadcasts and archives concerts, some just in audio.

Lalive.com recently broadcast a show by solo guitarist Martin Sexton that felt surprisingly engaging and intimate. The sound quality at all of the sites is excellent. The video will no doubt improve as the technology advances.

Visit virtuetv.com when you need a little hit of club action abroad. I recently caught L7’s smashing performance at The Garage in London.

Like many Internet claims, Webcasters are quick to insist that their shows are reaching everyone in the world. Al’s Bar touts an average of 40,000 people logged on to their Web casts. At a recent Web site launch party, record label executives bragged that “millions are logged on at this very moment.”

A quick check with an engineer revealed that there were only 7 people watching the show via the Internet. Two of them were people I asked to review the site while I attended the live event. They reported that the Web cast kept breaking up and the image fluttered.

Although most sites eventually work out the kinks, don’t expect perfection--even when things are running perfectly.

The performing area, for instance, may be only a little larger than a postage stamp on the computer screen; try to enlarge it, and it will diffuse into an abstract image. Few home speakers can be heard across the room, let alone duplicate the bone vibrating sound of a typical club. New devices such as the WOW unit can be added to your system to boost sound.

And while clubs broadcast shows, few are bringing the feel and social mixing in the audience into the cyber experience. A nightclub is about a room full of sound, a vibe, night scents and locking eyes with a stranger across a crowded room. Your computer can give you the music, but it’s still nothing like being there.