View more photos in Lina Lecaro's “Nightranger: Family Guy Emmy Party, 3D Dance Floor & More” slideshow.

Spaced Out
Guess it had to end some time. After celebrating its two-year anniversary just a couple weeks ago, the popular Fountain Avenue venue known as Temporary Spaces finally lives up to its original roaming concept, bidding adieu to the building it transformed into a trendster hot spot and gearing up to take on a new locale. And the next one’s a doozy, too. At the final T.S. Fountain bash Friday night, creator Sean Patrick revealed that Spaces will reopen at the legendary East Melrose room known as Gabah, which, L.A.’s longtime resident punks will recall, used to be the Anti-Club. Big shoes to fill, that’s for sure. Gabah was the home of many a funky jam: the I&I Soundsystem boys’ first party, Chocolate Bar and the Rootdown (now at El Cid) but in recent years, it has definitely lost its cool boho vibe, offering more mainstream and hardcore hip-hop fare. That’s all about to change now that Patrick (who brought everything from live bands like Metronomy, the Outlines and Phantom Planet’s Alex Greenwald to decksmiths including Holy Ghost, DJ AM and LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy to his tiny spot) is transforming it into TS2. The changes won’t just be crowd- and music-wise, either. Expect a similarly classy yet sassy interior makeover for the place, which will utilize many of the fixtures and furnishings from the first club. Oh, and unlike the original, there is a finite end to part deux of this danceteria. Patrick tells us they only have the Gabah space for a year, as it is scheduled to be leveled after that to make room for a strip mall.

What will come of its former Fountain & Normandie home? If local vice cops have it their way, nada. Overzealous authorities apparently booted TS after attending Adam 12’s old-school rap-music night AFEX, which may attract one of the hippest hip-hop crowds in town, but — and we’re just speculating here — might have been a little too street-stylin’ for their taste, considering the building’s cracky past. Come on, coppers, the only Eight Balls ever seen at that joint were Old English forties in paper bags! 12’s sizzlin’ Thursday night will move over to the new Spaces on October 1, but the official unveiling will be the popular girlie-grinder Booby-Trap, the night before, Wednesday, September 30. Rounding out TS2’s schedule, a new Friday-night techno/house dance-off from the Droog collective and the return of Patrick’s BIG Saturday bump-fest with help, from Moscow’s Keith Wilson and the groovy guys known as ISHOWMYSELF, the latter of whom pumped up the farewell party Friday along with Chris Holmes, another great spinner sure to be more than a temporary guest at the new venue.

 

Family Affair
With the VMAs moving back to NYC this year, L.A. clubbers might have been spared any crazy Kanye postparty run-ins, but we also missed out on the freebie fanfare and fabulous fetes that precede and follow that event. That means it was up to the Emmy Awards last week to bring it, bash-wise. There were some goodies to be had and grooves to grind to during the week, but we’re gonna guess the shindig thown by Family Guy’s Seth MacFarlane (with help from NightVision Entertainment and Bolthouse Productions) was the swingin’-est of all. Bottomless Belvedere and Jack Daniel’s, a gluttonous amount of sweets and savory treats, and a 40-piece orchestra complete with red-spangled sexpots jiggling to the jazz-ma-tazz were just some of the amusements. MacFarlane (looking dapper in a black suit and fedora) even took the stage with Maroon 5’s Adam Levine for a very loose rendition of Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” as the band played behind them — a pairing that had many a minidressed dame in the crowd swooning. For us, though, the highlight was getting some real (chat) time with the inimitable Bill Maher, whose wry political rabble-rousing makes him downright worship-worthy to us. Ironic, we know. We’ve seen him out and about but never had the guts to approach. What was the difference this time? His date. Instead of the usual exotic glamazon we’ve seen him with before, Billy had a young, bespectacled punkette — complete with lip piercing — on his arm. Our kinda gal. Sure enough, the former L.A. Weekly cover boy was chill, sharing that he doesn’t do the nightlife as much as he used to but that he does check out Nightranger scoop. Made our eve. As Family Guy’s baby Stewie would say, “Victory is mine!” Unfortunately, victory was not in the cards for Mac. The FOX cartoon, which was nominated for Best Comedy, lost to 30 Rock. Still, it was the first time in 50 years an animated show was up for the award, and at least the party, which included a wonderfully odd mix of guests (snowboarder Shaun White, Incubus’ Brandon Boyd, Gossip Girl’s Jessica Szhor, Alyssa Milano and Brigitte Nielsen, to name a few), was a big winner.

 

Honorable Dimension
There’s not much that could compete with a huge orchestra playing in front of large, projected cartoons for drunken famous people, but at the same club only a couple of nights before, another event came close. Intergalactic Star Wars battles, blood-splattering Final Destination imagery and underwater swimming with fishy visuals so realistic we almost started flapping our fins. These are just a few of the mind-blowing sights shown on a giant screen overlooking the dance floor at 3opolis, the world’s first “3-D–enabled nightclub experience.” The trippy/techy gathering (which debuted at Planet Hollywood in Vegas a couple months ago) took over Avalon last Wednesday, offering a head-spinning club environment with wild lighting and loudness courtesy of Benji Madden on the decks. We enjoyed the seriously awesome eye candy, but here’s why we don’t think it will work as a nightclub concept: 1) Corey Hart cool aside, everyone has to wear dark glasses inside, making it hard to see each other and interact; 2) the big screen is too distracting to actually lose yourself on the floor; 3) booze and motion sickness–inducing images are not a good combo. Our suggestion? 3-D nightlife should be a side-room thing, not the main event, and instead of upscale megaclubs, they should rage at raves. Check out 3opolis.com for more info on future events.

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