LALate's Names Best Party for Summer of 2003

[lalate]

Sometimes mistakes breed success.

Earlier this week, our LALate email account got blasted by LALaters saying "hey, where's THIS holiday's weekend party." You see at LALate, through no intended purpose, we have accidentally educated our clubgoers in understanding that for holidays in LA the warehouse scene is where you need to be. There is a time for White Lotus and similar venues. But when a 3-day Holiday rolls around in LA, there is undoubtedly a killer warehouse special one-time party kicking it in LA that will beat, yes, beat, any party in neighboring Vegas or Mexico. If you know LA, you should not be sitting in traffic to Vegas if there is a special warehouse party going down right in your own backyard.

So as you see from our LALate 7Day Planner, this being our 1 week anniversary, we forgot to look for a special warehouse party until we started getting these emails later in the week. So quickly we scrambled and rummaged through our archives emails and BANG we found one we hadn't read yet.

You see, on Memorial Weekend, LALate attended an incredible warehouse party in Downtown LA (the review is archived somewhere here) and on NYE LALate attended the best NYE party on the west coast - another warehouse party. But the question, was this Labor Day Warehouse party going to be as good?

AB-SO-LUTE-LY IN-CRED-IB-LE! That's what it was. If you saw our teasersHere andHere, you probably understand that we had fun. But how much fun?

This Labor Day 18 Hour Party gets LALate's nod as the Best Music Party of the Summer of 2003! Yep. It was that good.

You parked in Korea town, took an unmarked shuttle bus playing hiphop (your only taste of that genre for the evening) through a miriad of dark warehouse streets until you get to some unmarked people. Someone in the van says "hey, they use to have parties here a longtime ago." How the person can even see what the building looks like being almost totally dark the streets, we have no clue.

The van door opens. "First row only please" says the van driver. Our we walk onto, could it be, a red carpet. There LALate found ourselves on a red carpet with at least 10 security guards in yellow and black outfits looking like they are protecting the Franklin Mint with shoulder-mounted mikes and all. Patdown search. Card swipping. Separation of lines. Guestlist and nonguest lines. Sorry to everyone who attended who wasn't without LALate - we think we almost took over the whole discounted guestlist closing the RSVP time out early days before the event.

"Enjoy your evening" said another guard as we entered what we couldn't imagine.

ON THE RIGHT - an absolutely stunning portable bar underlit lighting up with stainless steel staffed and run by a corporate catering service taking credit card transactions and all.

STRAIGHT AHEAD - the biggest black tent you can rent. Under-decored with white sails and ended with a big screen tv. Purpose - your First DJ stand. Style - mindblowing house euroebeats.

ON THE LEFT - into the warehouse we go.

FIRST FLOOR - Dance floor #2. DJ spinning madly. Style - tribal and funky house.

SECOND FLOOR - Arguably the headliner room. A huge barn like room. Now, let's just stop here and say we saw Ferry Corsten courtesy of Spundae at the House of Blues the night before and THIS warehouse party had a light show 50 times better. You have NEVER seen a lightshow like this in a party of this magnitude. Four sync'ing lights on stage. Three sets floading the floor from the sides. Black Light. It goes on and on. There was a light engineer stationed behind the DJ. Style - industrial house.

18 hours. 18 djs.

You basically became educated on house music running from one flavor of house in one room into an entirely different flavor of house in another room - excellnet for the musically educating ear.

While the crowd had a bad ratio, was relatively tame, not good for hooking up, and there was a problem with door operations later in the evening, this event was a mind blowing music and dancing experience. If you like house, if you like Spundae, if you like to dance, if you like large scale productions (this cost at least $15 grand to put on, THIS was an expensive operation) in a secret location, THIS party was it.

By 4 am you look at your watch and say -- wow, have I really been dancing since late last night nonstop? Yes you had. A crowd that pulled in girls dressed in everything from cocktail dresses to fatigues and bandanas, and guys dressed in everything from shirtless with sweat pants to fitted dress shirts, this was a great cross section of generally very nice, presentable people. And one last thing --- you thought you were at the American Dancing Competition! LALate has NEVER seen so many people dance so good and uniquely in our life - we tons of people (LALate included) "showcase" dancing for the crowds informally.

Well, yes, this gets it. The Best Music Party of the Summer of 2003! And to be honest, if nothing else comes around by December 31, this party will share nods with NYE 2002-2003's party as LALate's pick for the Best Party of the Year. It was that good. If you love house music and love to dance, it was a great joy to be a part of this party we accidentally almost never even read in our email inbox until just before the holiday.

Happy Labor Day from LALate.com.