Where to hear live music in Hollywood: Part II

Photo of the Hollywood Palladium in 1947, by George Garrigues.

To continue with my series for where to hear live music in Hollywood, I will take you a little south and east of the Hollywood Bowl. All of these places will seem a lot more intimate than my first recommendation. From cabarets to giant ballrooms, you have a lot of opportunities in this area to hear live music. Although some I would think twice about if you care about sound over experience. If you are deciding where you want to spend those hard-earned dollars, maybe my reviews will help you decide.

Note: Before you proceed, maybe you should know that I am an admitted music nerd, and sound is critical to me. As a blogger, I struggle with talking to you about places where I personally haven’t had good experiences. Maybe the last two venues on this list wandered into Yelp review territory. I apologize in advance.

Recommended

Hotel Cafe

Hiding amongst the “it” places along Cahuenga Blvd is the Hotel Cafe. This intimate cabaret-style venue is the home for singer-songwriters who are trying to break into wider audiences. The stage is stripped down and often just a band and their instruments, so these people need to really know how to sing or play. Artists can’t depend on someone on the other side making them sound better than they are. Lady Gaga and Katy Perry played at the Hotel Cafe before making it big.

Pro

• You might not know who the artist is, but isn’t that part of the fun? Also, you might get to say, “I knew them before they were big.”
• They always list set times on their twitter account, which is what every venue should be doing
• Tickets are inexpensive, making it a cheap night out

Con

• You might not know who the artist/band is, so it might make you decide not to go
• Parking

Details

• Would I recommend it?: YES
• Website: http://www.hotelcafe.com/ 
• Cost: it varies
• Ages: 21+

[Getting there: This venue is a quick walk from the Metro Red Line Hollywood & Vine station]

Recommended with caveats

The Hollywood Palladium

Walking into the Palladium the first time, I realize that it reminded me of something. Is it a ballroom, a roller rink, a well-worn stadium? You can tell that this place has definitely seen some shit. 

These are my observations from seeing Massive Attack on night two of three this past October.

The ticket and venue noted that the doors were opening at 6:30 p.m., which was going to be a hard feat to travel from Santa Monica to Hollywood in weeknight traffic. The night before, the band updated their Facebook page to say that they were going on at 8:15 p.m. Since there was not a peep on their social media that day, we split the difference and arrived close 7:45 p.m., starving post work on a Wednesday night. There is a small cantina serving food all very reminiscent of an iron range hockey arena, nachos, hotdogs, and pizza. We split a hotdog and grabbed drinks. The beer, vodka soda, and food costing over $40 in total. I wasn’t expecting to be dazzled by the venue’s food, but perhaps I shouldn’t have worried so much about missing something and took my own advice about where to eat in the area.

We walked into the stage area and noticed very tinny sounding music coming from somewhere. I thought at first, a bored person brought their portable Bluetooth speaker and set up their phone on the stage. I realized after a few minutes that it was the venue’s sound system. The music chosen as a warm-up the crowd for Massive Attack was boy bands and Britney Spears on a loop. Although it is interesting to note that both Savage Garden’s “Truly Madly Deeply” and Massive Attack’s “Teardrop” came out a year apart from each other, it got old pretty quick and put a damper on enjoying the space pre-concert. Also, this concert was co-sponsored by KCRW, who I turn to when I want to hear varied and well-curated music, so the disappointment was two-fold. I was later told the boy band and 90s pop is the Palladium’s standard pre-band mix.

Needless to say, what was coming from the speakers was a little alarming, would that be what Massive Attack would sound like? Like they were playing inside a tin-can? All treble no bass? In the end, when they came on at 9:00 p.m., they sounded great, and everything early 20s me would have dreamed of. A friend who I talked to a few days later said that the reason they sounded good was that a lot of bands have learned to bring their own sound system to the Palladium. Not entirely sure that is true, but it is sad to think that an iconic venue isn’t equipped with decent tech. 

In the end, seeing Massive Attack was everything I wanted, but that had everything to do with the band and not the venue.

Pro

• A lot of well-known bands play there
• It is a historic venue
• The venue is convenient to both public transit and a wide variety of food options

Con

• Rumor is that the in-house sound system is bad
• That pre-band playlist!!
• They oversell the place

Details

• Would I recommend it?: It is hard to tell from one experience, But if the rumors are true, you may hope the band brings their own sound system and playlist
• Website: https://www.hollywoodpalladium.com/ 
• Cost: Varies
• Ages: Varies

[Getting there: This venue is a quick walk from the Metro Red Line Hollywood & Vine station]

Here is my playlist to play before bands like Massive Attack should anyone need any ideas. 

I am not sure

The Fonda

Have you ever gone to a concert and wanted your money back?

I have mixed feelings about The Fonda. Quite a few years ago, I saw a smaller band and I thought the place was pretty great. My other experience seeing Gary Clark Jr was very different and pretty awful, hence wanting my money back.

I usually get to shows later, maybe halfway through the opening band’s set. If you have tickets in the GA balcony at the Fonda, you can’t do this. They oversell it, which is what happened for this concert. When we arrived right before Gary Clark Jr. started his set, the balcony was so packed that the area behind the seating was stacked, half a dozen or so people deep. I couldn’t see the band when they started playing, only a wall of people’s backs.

Gary Clark Jr is a pretty decent singer, which you would never have known if seeing him at the Fonda was your only experience. His vocals and chats with the audience sounded very reminiscent of Peanuts teacher mumbling. Something was definitely wrong with his microphone. Which is too bad, he is pretty funny. During the songs, you could only hear the keyboard and the guitar. These two instruments were competing with each other the whole set, and more often than not, the keyboard was winning. Sad, because one of the reasons you see him is because he is an excellent guitar player. To see if we could solve any of our problems, we decided to go to the downstairs bar to see if the sound was better there, it wasn’t.

In the end, I paid a lot of money not to see or hear an artist I was looking forward to experiencing in concert. I felt so cheated that as soon as I found out he was playing at the Bowl, I bought the best seats I could afford.

Pro

I am hoping it was an off night….

Con

…but what if it wasn’t

Details

• Would I recommend it?: Not really, I would wait and see the band somewhere else.
• Website: https://www.fondatheatre.com/ 
• Cost: Varies
• Ages: Varies

I hope to update this post with information about The Ford, but it is one of the last concert venues I have yet to visit in Los Angeles. If you have any tips or disagree with my reviews, feel free to leave a comment so that others can see your advice.

I have two more posts about Hollywood and then I am moving on. If you have already grown tired of Hollywood, I talk about other areas of this city all the time on Facebook and in my Monthly Calendar.