A short list rather than a complete one. Small rooms, warehouse parties and free bar sets across the next week, weighted towards the eastside and with the arena tier deliberately left out.
Jeremy Sole and Captain Planet both built their reputations on records most people in the room will not recognise and will nonetheless dance to. Seventeen dollars, and the closest good night to Highland Park this week.
Deep house until six in the morning. Lubelski has been a fixture of the LA underground for years. Warehouse rules apply: you buy the ticket, then they send the address.
Vinyl-only and outdoors on a Sunday evening. Free before seven, which is also when it is most pleasant to be outside.
Free, on a Thursday, eight minutes from Highland Park. The Airliner runs these without fanfare and they are consistently worth the short drive.
Dub techno and deep house, free, in a small Silver Lake room. Pairs naturally with an early start at The Airliner the same night.
Afro house from one of the few artists in that lane with a genuinely distinct sound rather than a template. Sound is a proper club with a proper system, which this material needs.
Free, all ages, outdoors in Elysian Park from noon. The rare event on this list you could bring anyone to, and it is essentially next door.
Sabo's Sol Selectas records have quietly shaped a whole strand of organic house. Note the ticketer lists this as rescheduled — confirm the date before you make plans.
Ten dollars, eighteen and over, and finished before midnight on a Sunday. The experimental-techno end of the city, at a scale where you can actually hear what the artists are doing.
Fitzpatrick is a serious techno booking and this runs to five in the morning. Another address-on-purchase warehouse night — normal for the format, worth knowing before you commit.
A disco night in a Silver Lake flamenco theatre, which is a stranger and better room for it than any purpose-built club. Fourteen dollars and close to home.
Worth reading carefully: this is a DJ set, not the band. If you are going expecting Sylvan Esso songs played live, go somewhere else. If you want to hear what they play when they are not performing their own material, this is the rarer thing.
Jeremy Sole and Captain Planet both built their reputations on records most people in the room will not recognise and will nonetheless dance to. Seventeen dollars, and the closest good night to Highland Park this week.
Ethio Cali have been playing Ethiopian jazz in Los Angeles for fifteen years, and DJ Nu-Mark came out of Jurassic 5. Free, downtown, and the most musically interesting thing happening on Saturday.
Three drum and bass names who can actually fill a room on their own, on one bill. Exchange is bigger and glossier than most of this list, but for this music that is the point.
Randomer has spent a decade making techno that refuses to sit still, and this runs until six. The most uncompromising booking of the week.
A CD release party, which tells you most of what you need to know about the sensibility. SFV Acid is a real LA original. Free.
Pairs that work geographically — an early show and a late one close enough together to do both without a miserable drive in between.
Both free, both eastside, roughly ten minutes apart. Start at The Airliner at eight, be at Silverlake Lounge by ten.
A free Saturday, if you want one. Elysian Park in the afternoon, downtown for Ethio Cali at six, and Sun Space afterwards. All three cost nothing.
A list is only useful if you know what it rejects. These were on sale and deliberately not included.