Sunday 26th January 2014
As the dust settles on what was a mammoth weekend for L.A. and the city goes back to it’s usual semi chaotic self, we can fondly reflect on a weekend where the world’s biggest DJs arrived in Hollywood for The 56th Grammy Awards.
The Grammys are to music as to what The Oscars are to movies and, as the ultimate accolade for musicians, they have seen some big changes over the past few years. With more electronic artists rising to the occasion and being nominated for awards—not to mention some walking away with them—you can be rest assured that when they roll in to town–and the DJ elite arrive with them–there will be some pretty epic parties going on.
In the case of Los Angeles and this year’s awards, it was no different. While New York, Miami and Vegas continue to thump their chests and proclaim that their city has the best scene, Los Angeles—which has always held it’s own when it comes to the dance music scene–has been building a reputation of being one of the country’s most important clubbing destinations. And with more and more clubs becoming “DJ friendly” and adapting to the electronic dance music scene currently sweeping the nation, when the big guns roll into town, they have venues more than capable to host them. When it comes checking off all the boxes for the perfect club, look no further than Sound Hollywood.
Having gone through various name changes and facelifts throughout the years, it’s only now that the venue has found it’s true calling and with one of the best sound systems found in Hollywood, the set up certainly compliments the club’s ambitions. This has seen Sound making a point of throwing parties where credibility is put before cash and, with the help from a backroom team all of whom are well-adjusted to the current trends and state of the dance music scene, the club delivers line ups that push the venue to pole position. You only have to look at Pete Tong’s new Friday night residency to know that they like to keep an ace up their sleeve, and speaking about that Ace, Grammy night saw their next play that sent a tremor across Southern Californian not felt for some time.
The Armin Van Buuren Grammy After-Party at Sound was announced only a few days prior to Grammy night and, as soon as the news hit social media, the Sound team were inundated with requests for the L.A. clubbing community to attend. Not that they would get anywhere, however. This would be a party for two kinds of people; industry VIPs and Armin super fans. Through careful selection, capacity was reached and the doors opened to one of Hollywood’s hottest parties in one of it’s top venues.
It’s always a special moment when you see a DJ more accustomed to playing large arenas and high capacity venues, play in an intimate setting. Not only does it make the DJ more human, it brings the scene back full circle to a time were big room acts used to appear in small capacity clubs all the time, long before the $100 ticket, 30,000 capacity area tours. It’s in moments like this when a DJ can really shine and tonight, our host did just that. It was great to see Armin van Buuren, the world’s number two DJ—according the DJ Mag voters—get up close and personal with fans and produce a driving trance set which provided an atmosphere worthy of him, and Sound.
On a night like this, Sounds usual music policy was long forgotten and for one night only, trance music filled the club and you know what? It worked. So can we expect more of these intimate performances from global icons from Sound? Well they have Pete Tong and after witnessing Armin van Buuren—and his fans– having the time of his life in such a fantastic clubbing setting, it may not be a bad idea. It could even be the start of something quite special. Your move Sound…
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