If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em in the beat

SPUNDAE, the heavyweight dance music promoter whose Saturday nights attracted thousands to Circus Disco for the last six years, has cut ties with the Hollywood nightclub to join forces with Avalon Hollywood and its Saturday enterprise, Avaland.

The new alliance comes amid stiff competition for weekend dance crowds and the top-drawer DJs who attract them -- a game currently being won by Giant’s promotion at the Hollywood Boulevard club Vanguard.

Spundae, which supplanted Giant at Circus Disco in 2001, plans to showcase its resident and guest DJs in various rooms at Avaland. “Both nights were competing for the same DJs and the same people,” Spundae co-owner Peter Beckers said. “This way we can collaborate and use combined marketing efforts.”

Garrett Chau, a former booking agent who is now Avaland’s director of promotions and bookings, instigated the move. “I booked DJs throughout North America, including with the fellows at Spundae, Damien Murphy at Liquified and Reza Gerani at Go Ventures,” Chau said. “And when I started with Avalon, one of the things we used to talk about was our desire to work together.”

Giant director Dave Dean declined to comment except to say he is happy with his promotion’s Saturday night success -- which, he said, owes not only to the top DJ talent but also to “a well-run club with all the amenities we need.... The relationship with Vanguard has been the best one I’ve ever had.”

Ron Rivlin, a booking agent who handles DJs such as Little Louie Vega and Infected Mushroom, among others, said Giant is top dog on Saturdays because that’s where “the educated dance critics go.”

But Spundae, which puts on dance nights in Las Vegas on Thursdays and San Francisco on Fridays, hopes the alliance will enable bookers to route DJs the same way that concert promoters do rock acts, letting the talent do a mini West Coast swing.

“The whole Live Nation concept hasn’t picked up in the dance music scene, so if they can do that, I’ll go with them,” Rivlin said. “If they can tap into that and offer multiple dates, then I think agents will definitely go with them over their competitors. It’s a huge selling point for any agent, especially if it’s with a trustworthy, credible promoter.”

As for Circus Disco, owner Gene LaPietra said his venue will continue to book electronic acts under its own name. “We have 33 years of promotion behind us.”

weekend@latimes.com

Times staff writer Kevin Bronson contributed to this report.