LOS ANGELES: Neon Indian/Crystal Castles | BoxEight/TempSpaces/Casino Party

My week in LA started on a Tuesday at Cinespace, I was in LA to do a Spring 2010 Shoot for a Huge company I’ll tell you guys about in the future. One of my favorite places on a Tuesday in L.A. is Cinespace, they have Dim Mak Tuesdays there which is Steve Aoki‘s dance party.

They ended up having bands playing in the back and I caught this group, just two people, one on a synth and another on violin and guitar, it was one of the coolest things I’ve seen in awhile!  I met up with my Friend Ivy Levan, who models in Los Angeles, that night.  Everytime Im there the energy and atmosphere is oh so good!  The Next day I felt it for sure, but breakfast at TART was just the trick to get me going. After an exhausting day on the shoot I headed back to the hotel and changed then headed to Hollywood for Club Moscow @ Boardners.

I was there to visit my friend Keith Wilson who’s the promoter for the club and DJs there all the time, he also acts & models around Los Angeles.  I stayed there until about 1 a.m. and then headed over to this new spot called Bardot over on Vine up From Hollywood Blvd.  From what I heard about it from a few friends I saw at Moscow, it’s the hot spot on Wednesdays in Hollywood, celebrities are spotted there all the time.  It’s dark on the inside, and almost seems like a maze with it’s numerous hallways and low lighting — in other words I loved it.  My sister Natalie met up with me there and the rest of the night was just hectic electricity to say the least.

I got done early around 6 p.m. Thursday with shooting, which was amazing because earlier that day my friends in Neon Indian/Vega flew into L.A. for a show with Crystal Castles at the Siren Studio on Santa Monica Blvd. in Hollywood. When I got to the venue there was a line around the corner and the venue was already to capacity, 300 people.  Thank god I was on the list!  I walked in and straight into the dressing room to see Ronnie, Jason, Allen, & Leanne.  Crystal Castles shared the same dressing room with them, we basically all hung out and drank until they went on.  Once they started the electricity in the room was like a god damn transformer blew for a 10 block radius around us.  I saw more feet moving and heads swinging then a kiss concert on ecstasy, L.A. showed their dancing addiction that night.  I happen to get a bunch of really good shots of them but after the second song the venue made all of the photographers stop taking photos, too bad I got the ones I wanted!  I also happen to see a hamster cage device holding about 100 running hamsters on stage left, weirdest stage prop ever?!

When Crystal Castles finally took the stage after some quick drinkin’ and last minute shots the room was so noisy you had to literally yell into someone’s ear next to you ear talk.  They had a few strobe lights littered across the stage and drum set, and as soon as the music started the lead singer Alice Glass grabbed one of them near her, jammed it up her shirt, and started screaming the night away.  It was one of the best live shows I’ve seen in awhile, really, the energy was fire.  After the show we all hung out in the dressing room drinking and such until me and my friend Marisol decided we would head to my friends studio’s party going on downtown, Boxeight Studios.  Saosin, Eye Alaska, P.O.S., and InnerPartySystem and a few other bands were kicking off the Pacsun Tour there.  When we got there, the bands had already played but my friend Dirk Mai, a local photographer in L.A. that’s amazing, was still there, along with some of the bands and a huge crowd.  I actually got to take a pic of hang out with some of the guys from Saosin while I was there.  Sonny Moore or ‘Skrillex’, formally of From First To Last was there DJing, he’s currently working on a lot of solo stuff you all should definitely check out!

Photos By:  Dustin Hollywood