Shakin’ it with Monet and friends

THERE’S throbbing techno music playing to a half-empty dance floor, but the people within the floor’s perimeter are shaking wildly, following the 4/4 beat abetted by weird whistles and wacky whirls. There’s the preppy couple, dressed in Abercrombie white and too-short skirt; the hipster Harry, with his angular, black hair and vintage shoes; and the dancing grandma, waving her arms in the air like she just doesn’t care, as excited as the schoolkid next to her.

We’re obviously not at a new, hot Sunset Strip club. So where in Hollywood are we?

The Getty Museum. Thanks for asking. It’s late afternoon on a Friday, it seems as if half the city is here for “Fridays Off the 405,” the free, monthly party hosted by Flavorpill LA, the weekly online newsletter covering music, arts and culture. It’s one of several weekend and evening offerings (including “Summer Sessions”) that morphs the museum’s role from staid institution to entertainment destination. Or, at least, a decent place to hang out.

This evening marked the second “Off the 405” of the summer -- the first featured L.A. mainstay Jimmy Tamborello (half of the platinum duo the Postal Service) playing found music and scaring the clientele into the museum. Tonight, however, things are a bit different.

The galleries are still open late, but the bustle isn’t inside, it’s out. The lines for drinks stretch far back toward the garden, with “get drunk at an art museum” apparently high on the to-do list of the city’s 9-to-5ers. Wine is served and beers are clinked. Downstairs, at the cafe, they’re sold out of grilled chicken salad. A Caesar salad (or a ham sandwich) will have to do.

A couple can have a quiet conversation here or in the garden to the left; one table is surrounded by twentysomethings who lean in and speak in hushed tones. Maybe they’re just playing Risk.

The beat goes on upstairs, as DJ Jeff Samuel -- known to tech-heads as the American rep on Germany’s uber-credible Kompakt label -- gets the groove kicking. Now the dance-floor is wholly full, ringed by picnic tables bulging with accountants, waiters, salesmen, students, actors, musicians ... L.A.’s melting pot, personified.

As the music is shut down at 9, exactly, the zombie hordes who started their Friday night at one of the oddest dance spots in town disperse. A mist descends over the top of the 405 as they board the monorail.

Somewhere inside the museum, a lonely Monet is crying.

*

The Tab

Parking $7.00

Food, drinks $25.10

Where: Getty Center, 1200 Getty Center Drive, L.A. “Fridays Off the 405,” monthly, 6 to 9 p.m.; “Summer Sessions” outdoor concerts, July 8, 15 and 22. Free. www.getty.edu/visit/calendar/events/Performances.html

What: Two glasses of merlot, Caesar salad, ham and brie sandwich.

Total $32.10