| The Cat Club
(On the Sunset Strip) The Gig (Melrose Avenue, in the cool WeHo section) The Joint (Western edge of "Mid-Town" Los Angeles) The Cat Club - 8911 West Sunset Blvd. - On the Strip (Map for for The Cat Club) Contact: 310-657-0888 Parking: Limited - it's the Strip, after all. Possible spots up behind the Whiskey. Load In: Right through the front door; no place to store gear inside. Venue Type: Little spot, good for trios, good for no-brainer rock-out bands. Room: Small, shoebox-type room - a bar with a small stage at one end. Acoustics: No nuance here; just stand on it loud enough to cover the crowd noise. Stage: Very small, about two feet up, maybe 20-25 feet wide, 15 or so feet deep. House Kit: Yep. Real beat up one the last time I was there. Kit Specs: Kick, one (maybe two) racks, one floor. Check with the "stage manager." Must Bring: Snare, cymbals, kick pedal, throne. Call ahead to be sure. Might Bring: N/A System: Blecch. Couple of cabinets high up out front; can be harsh at times. Monitors: More blecch. One cabinet, up high, pointed at the front edge of the stage. Mix: Loud and aggressive, due to the room. Think of a small garage. Sound Guy: I've seen a different guy each time; just keeping the vocals on top, really. Abstract Notes: This is a cool place to play if you have a small band, and really just want to thrash it on out there. There is no percentage in doing any kind of mellow or mixed-dynamics material in this room. It's really a bar for rockers only. The fact that it's right on the strip - right next door to the venerable Whiskey - gives it some cachet. I wouldn't encourage doing any sort of showcasing there. Heavy drinking, maybe. Really limited seating, and not much ambience. That's not to say the place doesn't have a sort of charm. The place is what it is, and doesn't pretend to be anything else. For a place to take your banging little combo, and invite a few friends to hang out, it will serve just fine. The Gig - 7302 MelroseAvenue - In the cool WeHo section (Map Link For The Gig) Contact: 323-936-4440 Parking: Very limited; spring for the valet if you can afford it. Load In: Door on east side street (Pointsettia Pl.), space inside offstage to store/pre-set. Venue Type: Medium-sized club, maybe a former theater? Room: More long than wide, good build out, good sightlines and ambience. Acoustics: Excellent for loud rock, gets better with larger crowd. OK hard surfaces. Stage: Medium high (about 4 feet), good mid-sized dimensions, carpeted. House Kit: Nope. Kit Specs: N/A. Must Bring: The whole kit, but small to medium size layout will do it. Might Bring: N/A System: Good, with k, s, hh, rts, fts mikes used; plenty of juice. Monitors: Wedges up front, big old floor cabinet next to drum throne. Mix: Balanced, tight; all stage amps miked. Sound Guy: Dave. Professional and fast, knows the room and his job well. Nice guy, too. Abstract Notes: Feels like a club should. The load-in is easy, especially if you arrive plenty early. Security on duty, and will check your ID to make sure you are on his list. Short hallway straight from the side street door leads to a space right behind the stage. All bands keep their gear here, but with everybody moving in and out it never gets overly crowded. There is plenty of room to get stands set up before going up onstage. A short, sturdy wood staircase leads the few steps up to the platform, leaving lots of room on both sides to hand gear up to the stage. The stage platform is high enough to provide good sightlines from everywhere. Cool lighting system, and Dave is an active operator. Bringing your own lighting designer/operator is actually worthwhile for this place. Bonus feature: a heavy black curtain raises as you kick into your first tune, and lowers at the end of your set. Very classy. Spacious enough for even 5 piece bands to feel comfortable. Plenty of mike stands. Lots of surge protectors, cables well dressed. Dave likes to have you give him a dry, dead sound to work with, and he does know just what to do with it. He's got a good touch, well used in this club as the PA carries the whole shebang. I'm sure those up front to about halfway back can hear the stage amps. I've listened from the board ops space in the back of the room, where it's all about the mix from the speakers. Sounded good from there, loud but not muddy. All in all, a very tasty medium level club.. The door guy and the other staffers were all very nice, and drinks are 50% for band members. You'll get a great tight sound and cool ambience at this place. (6/05) The Joint - 8771 W Pico Blvd - Western edge of "Mid-Town" Los Angeles (Map Link for The Joint) Contact: Howy - 310-275-2619 - howybooks@att.net Parking: A few spots behind club in alley are good, or you're on the street. Load In: Doorway to alley open between sets, space inside offstage to store/pre-set. Venue Type: Medium-sized club, former retail space, gutted for this purpose. Room: Big box, high walls, high ceiling, hard surfaces all around. Acoustics: Like a gymnasium, bounce everywhere, very high-mid and hard-edged. Stage: High (about 4.5 feet), smallish, rat's nest of electrics, beat-to-hell carpet. House Kit: The usual garbage kit, but it's not worth bringing a full kit in to this place. Kit Specs: Kick, snare, 8x10, 9x13, 14x14(?), hat stand, 3 cymbal stands, kick pedal. Must Bring: Cymbals, although their stands are pretty poor. Might Bring: Stands (cymbal & snare), snare, pedal, throne. System: Some old beat-up mikes (k,s,rt,ft), used just to "fill in" kit sound in the house. Monitors: 2 old JBL cabs hung above the stage, very rudimentary. Mix: Tough room to mix for, winds up pretty muddy; best to use stage amp dynamics. Sound Guy: Didn't get the name, and he didn't offer; lots of ring/f-back during the set. Abstract Notes: This is a cavernous, poorly lighted barn of a place (watch out for the step down just inside the load-in door!) that sure wasn't built to be a club. Looks like they've been doing some work lately, as there were construction items and sawdust all over the place. There's no backstage area per se, but there is plenty of room to get stands set up before going up onstage. And I do mean "up"! The stage platform is about shoulder-high for me, and I'm 6'2". I lifted my gear up onto the lip of the platform, then went around to the narrow little stairway leading up to the stage from the back. I brought my cymbals (as they were necessary), and brought my snare, one extra cymbal stand, kick pedal and throne as options. I ended up using their snare for two reasons: to save time in set-up and tear-down, and because the sound is so lousy on the whole that it really wouldn't make a difference. The lighting on stage is of the floodlight variety, which only serves to help hide the generally cruddy state of affairs on the platform. Lots of surge protectors (you have to trial and error your way to one that actually works), lots of miscellaneous cables (electrical and sound) and a carpet that alternates between threadbare and clumped up make getting stand, pedal and throne placement done a real challenge. Their kit provides some challenges (stands and mounts are old and difficult to tweak, floor tom is on legs, and therefore low to the ground), and is pretty beat up. The heads the night I played were thrashed and dead. But for a gig at this venue it's not worth the effort to bring in anything better, even with cartage. All in all, pretty much the norm for a low-end club. The door guy was nice, and drinks are 50% for band members. Just don't count on anything like tight sound or cool ambience at this place, and you'll be fine! (12/04) |