Alie Ward

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Detours

Alie Ward
Detours Wednesday, 11:15 p.m.: I am totally crying. This is embarrassing. Peripheral vision reveals my boyfriend suppressing a smirk as I bawl through Billy Bragg’s encore at the Fonda. The audience is united in a choral outpouring, singing in unison with the silver-haired Brit: “I don’t want to change the......
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Lights Out, Spud Dick

Alie Ward
Lights Out, Spud Dick Tuesday, 10:14 p.m.: Spontaneity makes a fool of me as I chance an unplanned stop at Silverlake Lounge to catch Dead Ponies, a shiny new band fronted by Midnight Movies alumnus Jason Hammons. At the club’s threshold, I realize I’m cashless, and my ATM card is......
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Mental Ward

Alie Ward
Nightranger columnist Lina Lecaro is taking a break to prepare for impending motherhood. While she’s feathering her nest, writer and illustrator Alie Ward will post dispatches from the club scene. Fever Tuesday, 11:11 p.m.: Safari Sam’s is in chaos. Scenesters in all manner of ironic fashions clog the venue and......
Opening act the Films (animal-mask dudes) sat in during Simon Dawes set (Photo by Wild Don Lewis)

Simon Says Rock

Alie Ward
SIMON DAWES at the Troubadour, September 1 Seemed reasonable to assume Simon Dawes was a solo artist, but it turned out not one of these lanky lads is named Simon Dawes. Fine. And though the vintage-style rock and the low, drawling vocals on their upcoming debut, Carnivore, led me to......

Petty-Complaint Junction

Alie Ward
“There are too many white people here.” Mark and I leaned against the wall under an awning, cowering from the midday broil at Sunset Junction. Mark himself is a white dude, and my Anglo skin is so fair that it borders on albinism; watching the parade of increasingly sun-seared Caucasians......
Slamming to the Circle Jerks (Photos by Wild Don Lewis)

Shanghai Neck-Lick

Alie Ward
Fuck Yeah Fest at the Echo and environs, August 18-20 “I would totally give you advice, but I...am...wasted.” A shaggy stranger in an Amoeba shirt had his head in my passenger window. Judging from the heavy eyelids and drool, I knew he would be of no help in locating the......
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Hipster How-to: The Klute Kut

Alie Ward
It’s a Tuesday night. You’re being abducted by hipsters and taken to Cinespace. Your only hope for escaping unnoticed is a quick and cheap disguise. Grab some household scissors and follow our handy guide (see figs. 1-4), and in minutes you too can be a Klute klone, conveying an enviable......
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Vegas in the E.R.

Alie Ward
GNARLS BARKLEY at Avalon, July 23 “If they come out in Ghostbusters outfits, I’m gonna take my shirt off and throw it at them.” The young man with the linebacker build scratched at his cottony goatee and added to no one in particular, “And my pants.” Dense with anticipation, Sunday......
Scanners

Anticlimax

Alie Ward
Scanners At Cinespace, July 11 I wanted to fall in love last Tuesday. I braved my way through a sweaty hive of hipsters, desperate for the stomach punch of lusty obsession. I admit, I was on the prowl, seeking my sonic soulmate in the form of a British foursome, the......
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Mush Is Good Music

Alie Ward
Through a weathered wooden gate at the base of Laurel Canyon, down a brick path lined with peonies, one finds the cozy oasis of Mush Records. The independent record label is home to a cache of richly electronic, underground hip-hop, indie rawk and “saturated folk” acts, and the vibe here......