A youth pass gets a ride on the indie train
Shaggy heads and pointy-toed pumps, mod ties and neon plastic jewelry, denim flares and rock button-covered jackets touting groups such as the Who, the Thrills and the Cure. Nearly every music era’s fashion trend saunters through Underground on a Friday night.
The 18-and-older club with a British bent -- a fixture at Tempest in West Hollywood for four years -- continues to attract a faithful following of young’uns who are just starting to seek out alternatives to the commercial rock and pop they’ve been force-fed.
Call it a weekly coming-out party for musical tastes.
And the club’s creator, Larry Gjurgevich, couldn’t be a happier host. “I thought that there was so much good music out there that wasn’t being heard,” the avid record collector/clubgoer-turned-promoter recalls. “I wanted to go beyond what was on TV and radio but really mix it up for people.”
Mix it he did. Along with DJ partner Dia (also a resident at Saturday’s similarly themed, if less intimate, Hollywood mega-club Bang!), Gjurgevich has been sandwiching U.K.-based and neo-new wave bands around better-known artists from the 1980s (the Smiths), ‘70s (the Stones) and ‘60s (James Brown), presenting their music in context with its influences and showing contemporary rock’s potential in the here and now.
It’s an approach that the club’s younger patrons, such as 18-year-old Rebecca Balin, find inspiring. “I didn’t know there were clubs that played this kind of music until recently,” says Balin, who discovered the gathering from one of its colorful fliers (emblazoned with the blue-and-red symbol for the London subway). “I love that rock music has become a lot more dancey.”
Like many teenagers, Balin, who wears a striped top and a glittery flower in her short brown tresses, says her tastes have changed as she’s gotten older, and clubs like Underground serve as a primary source of exposure.
Of course, with Indie 103.1 FM helping broaden radio’s palette in L.A., it’s easier for music fans with voracious appetites to discover new forms. These days, groups such as Franz Ferdinand, Interpol, the Killers, the Rapture, the Strokes and the Faint are no more “indie” than they are “underground,” but the club was championing all of them back when they were unknowns, via demos and imports.
These artists still have their place on Underground’s set lists, but you’re more likely to hear alternatives to each group’s current single, mixed in with next-big-things such as British darlings the Libertines, the Futureheads and Kasabian. Even tunes from locals such as the Adored or the old soul anthems of Edwin Starr and Gloria Jones find their way into the mix.
Although Gjurgevich prefers XFM out of London or local Internet station Little Radio, he does admit that Indie 103.1’s success has encouraged him and his DJs to push the envelope more. “I guess you could say it’s made us go to further extremes in digging up new music,” he says.
Taking chances on the decks can be risky in a dance club environment, but Tempest’s setup allows for the stretch.
The WeHo eaterie is dark, cozy and decidedly unswanky, with a tiny dance floor and adjoining stage (often packed with look-at-me types who become the unofficial go-go grinders of the eve).
The floor is the hub of the club, yes, but there’s action going on around it -- at the bar, in the upper-level dining area filled with candlelit booths, and especially on the narrow stretch of patio outside, where the music is almost secondary to socializing and chatting about who’s with whom, or which great band played the Troubadour last night.
Tempest owner Michael Najjar attributes Underground’s staying power to “its ability to reinvent itself,” but ultimately, it’s the clubgoers, not the club, who continue to evolve.
Gjurgevich loves that the crowds are getting younger and seeking out new sounds at his happening. And though Underground strives to be exclusive in its sonic vision, it’s anything but when it comes to atmosphere and attitude.
“We’ve always tried to keep the vibe friendly,” he says. “It’s a very inclusive club, and that’s why the kids keep coming back.”
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Underground
Where: Tempest, 7323 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood
When: 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. Friday
Price: $5; younger than 21, $7; free with flier before 10:30
Info: (323) 850-5115 or www.clubunderground.net
Lina Lecaro can be reached at weekend@latimes.com.
