Mark Stefanos
When the temperature drops and early afternoon shadows creep longer this time of year, we’re reminded that LA can be a cold and lonely place. But shorter days mean longer nights, and crisp air makes a sweaty dancefloor all the more inviting. This was a landmark year for the best parties in Los Angeles — these boogies can turn a sprawling, anti-social mega-city into one brimming with community and energy. Sometimes you just need bass shaking your brain and some nerd dancing too hard next to you to really feel something.
Our focus this year remains on the DIY scene, which still offers the best nightlife value you can find. It’s easy to overlook the amount of effort needed to throw a DIY party, let alone a good one. Keep in mind that the DJs, artists, producers and chefs that throw them are literally hosting a giant party for a bunch of strangers from scratch. By their sheer force of will, they’re building thriving communities and making LA a top-tier nightlife city, brick by brick.
It would be a damn dirty shame if a city of this size and stature shut down at 2, and thankfully it doesn’t. This year we included a few late-night staples of the scene that exemplify LA’s unruly and entrepreneurial spirit, which help us celebrate life’s finer things (read: a rumbling, sweaty warehouse). They are a bedrock of our music and party culture, and some of the most fun you can have.
All the parties this year had that je ne sais quoi that made them rise from being great to ones you had to go to every time. But of the stuff we can quantify, the best ones delivered with consistency and frequency: excellent music, production, and upbeat and welcoming crowds. Our pockets are a little lighter this year, so thankfully none of these parties break the bank. And we like non-exclusive parties where anyone can go and have a good time, including your nerdy correspondent who sometimes dances a little too hard (sorry if I bumped you).
We don’t have enough space to honor all the parties worth recognizing and we can only go to so many. Please let us know on Instagram which ones we missed.
Then grab your dancing shoes, your loud friends and finish your McNuggets, because the Uber’s almost here — it’s time to go to the best parties in Los Angeles in 2024.
Pangea Sound by Falcons, SuperNova, Joaqu.n and Sleepy Joe
The team behind Pangea Sound (Mary Huynh @huynhmary)
Pangea Sound has become a cornerstone of the LA scene and one of our city’s best dancefloors. The team is made up of DJs of different backgrounds who individually have been showing us how to get down for years. While our foggy memory recalls a pre-pandemic Pangea, they tell us Pangea Sound was birthed in earnest the Saturday right after LA opened from lockdown in 2021, and since then has been locked in and consistent, filling up larger and larger venues. “I think we all love to share our story through music and explore new sounds that our demographic hasn’t heard yet. Disrupting the norm has been our best success!” Falcons, co-creator and DJ, tells us.
Pangea, of course, is what we call the one big supercontinent before the continental drift that split us apart hundreds of millions of years ago, and the party reflects that ethos. “Pangea is truly about inclusivity. We welcome people from all walks of life. Musically, we love different sounds that keep the energy high while giving our community something new to embrace.” SuperNova, co-creator and DJ, told us. To that end, Pangea really delivers a global sound, where you can regularly hear a mishmash of Afrobeats, Amapiano, Miami Bass, Jersey Club, Latin, Cumbia, Dancehall and more.
We went to several Pangea day-to-night-parties this year that featured a large, nonstop outdoor dancefloor with great DJs, and a wide warehouse with food, drinks, vendors and lounges to kick it when your feet got tired.
Looking ahead, Falcons says we can expect Pangea parties to “continue to feel like a new experience every time, crazier headliners and tons of variety in vibes. Maybe some music on the way too.” SuperNova tells us to expect Pangea on bigger stages, and that he’ll “continue to be a sponge: there is so much music and culture to explore and learn from.”
Lights Down Low by Corey Sizemore and Richie Panic
DJs Corey Sizemore and Richie Panic of Lights Down Low (Courtesy of Holy Mountain)
Lights Down Low has been a mainstay of the late-night scene for as far back as we can remember, and they’ve always put on great parties. But this year they took our fomo to a whole new level, bringing world-class DJs to the liberated warehouse scene.
We’re talking — “Five nights of Jamie xx, drum and bass legend Goldie, the LA premier of everyone’s favorite band Fcukers, our infamous Rave to the Grave party where Dom Dolla, Tiga, and Skream all played back to back, a free party with Caribou to celebrate their Shrine show, two of our favorite DJs DOSS and Chloé Caillet and our NYE show with Eris Drew and LSDXOXO,” co-founders and DJs Corey Sizemore and Richie Panic reminded us. All at some of the best venues in the city. Holy moly.
Birthed in San Francisco 18 years ago, the founders got sick of the “culture clash with the tech professionals sucking the fun out of things” and eventually abandoned ship and headed south.
So what’s the secret to throwing great parties for nearly two decades that only get better?
Their “roving” party means they’re able to tailor each one to the vibe they want to bring. And you’ve got to be true believers who really love it — “Our parties are a slice of hedonistic randomness fed into the open mouth of a hungry and exciting city. We are fans of all the DJs and artists and people that come out. We want to hang with them all and have the best time. We love to get lost in the music and find a respite from a city that is all at once the most beautiful place in the world but also demands a lot back. If you can lose yourself in a dance floor for a few hours a week, you can be ready for whatever life has to offer. Or you could say we love a professional freak out.”
Next year they’ll continue to keep the playfulness alive and tell us they may have a few tricks up their sleeve. With parties like LDL in our city, you just can’t help but turn into a nocturnal degenerate.
“At the end of the day Lights Down Low is a vision shared by 2 people brought to life by many, and sustained by an incredible crowd of robust party maniacs, late-night freaks, and crazy dancers,” they tell us. To many of us, that sounds like home.
lightsdownlow.com | @lights_down_low
Capicúa by Chef Vic Ramos and Massiel Muñoz
Chef Vic Ramos and Massiel Muñoz of Capicúa (Courtesy of Capicúa)
Those of us who hate socializing on an empty stomach are constantly asking — how can you have a party without food? LA native Chef Vic Ramos has flipped the question on its head — why have a food event if you can’t turn it into a banger party?
His answer is Capicúa: part food pop-up, part dance party, and a full-time celebration of all things Dominican and Puerto Rican. Co-created with his cousin Massiel Muñoz, Capicúa is a family affair. It’s become a ritual for LA Caribbean hermanos, primos, tías y tíos looking to enjoy authentic cuisine over a game of dominoes, have a cocktail, and move their hips to bachata, merengue, dembow, reggaeton and salsa.
Chef Vic Ramos started cooking as a youngster, eventually going to culinary school and working in restaurants before founding his catering business. Capicúa launched as a party at a park, which then blew up and moved to The Friend in Silverlake, which also blew up and had to be turned into a larger thing, landing most often this year at the lovely indoor/outdoor High Tide downtown. They’ve been going strong once a month for well over two years now.
“Growing up here in Los Angeles, I feel like there wasn’t a lot of representation of the Dominican and Puerto Rican culture, so I feel like it’s my duty to provide that for the city I grew up in,” Ramos says. He clearly has succeeded, filling the void with great lineups, terrific food and immaculate vibes — credited to the excellent hosting skills from him, Muñoz and the team. Resident DJs Giselle Peppers, SuperNova (who’s pulling double duty on the list this year) and Argenis Hernandez, along with a deep bench, keep the dancefloor flaming from early til close.
In our Instagram coverage, stressless15 wrote: “Tell em what Capicúa means Vic! It’s when in the game of dominoes you have the game on both sides on lock! Which is what u got going on right now bro!” That felt just about right.
Altogether, it’s one of the most finely curated, warm and delicioso parties in LA. Expect bigger venues and all sorts of variations of the format looking ahead.
Hardly Home — WASEEL, City James, VIVALATINA, KAZADI, Plexas, and Jayellz
DJ, producer and founder of Hardly Home, WASEEL (Courtesy of Hardly Home)
With all the sun, fun, and nice, good-looking people in this city, being Hardly Home is an idea we can really get behind.
Launching in May 2023 at The Continental Club downtown, Hardly Home has quickly grown into an umbrella brand for massive parties, including the both-floor nighttime takeover of Los Globos called Play Hard, and a year end day-to-night block party that was one for the books, bringing out a lineup of performances from 4Batz, Smino, Buddy, P-Lo, Westside Boogie, Kal Banx, Anastazja, Chuck Inglish and over 4,000 party goers.
With the tagline “Connecting flights through music,” Hardly Home grew organically. Along with City James (rapper, director and artist), VIVALATINA (artist, video producer and DJ), KAZADI (DJ), Plexas (video producer and marketing), and Jayellz (artist and entrepreneur), founder WASEEL has tapped into the moment, delivering rambunctious affairs where you can vibe to rap, RnB and all sorts of dance music with a great crowd.
Sparked from his Palestinian roots, WASEEL tells us he, “started DJing when I was 13 after watching a family friend DJ in his garage during an Eid dinner party.” Coming up, we can expect a broader spectrum of events, including release parties, brand activations, block parties, charity drives, and more, both locally and globally,
WASEEL says, “The party is very special and important to me because it’s transforming into more than just a party. It’s turning into its own living thing, powered by our audience and their support. It makes me really think about what more we can do to diversify ourselves in the pursuit of bringing more people together.”
Nightshift by Blind Tiger: BINGEWATCH, Jenessa Acosta and Nicholas Troiano
DJs at Nightshift (@hi.gunpowder)
The tagline for this party is, “IT’S TIME TO CLOCK IN TO YOUR NIGHTSHIFT.” Yes, boss, we are ready to get cooking!
Blind Tiger is an artist collective founded in late 2020 by CEO BINGEWATCH, and later expanded into a team and larger event series by the summer of 2021. Nightshift is their nightly — yes, seven days a week — afters that has awesome sound, an excellent dance floor, and a consistently satisfying dark and sexy vibe. They showcase the best of underground house, defined by “a strong underlying bass groove, paired with a relentless 4×4 beat is the backbone of the whole night,” and feature big-name vets, secret guests and up-and-coming DJs alike.
“It’s a place to express ourselves as artists, follow our dreams, engage with our community, and work within the industry all at the same time. Music is our passion and these events give people a place to experience some of the best house music in Los Angeles and beyond,” they tell us.
Although it’s not at an expansive warehouse, the dancefloor is deceptively ample and dense enough to feel almost endless at peak hours.
In 2025, expect the Blind Tiger collective to deliver bigger monthly showcases, not only in LA, but as a series of pop-up events across America and outside the country. “We plan to launch an official Blind Tiger record label and a Nightshift Edit & Remix SoundCloud channel, and you can also expect a bigger merch and product line available soon.” Upcoming, they will be hosting BT Garage here in LA on Dec. 28, will be at the Ocaso Festival pre-party in Costa Rica on Jan. 30, 2025, and Miami Music Week in March.
The team behind Nightshift has discovered the formula: just be really good every night and people will keep coming. Count us in, again and again and again.
blindtiger.la | @blindtiger.la | @nightshift.la
Heat Check by Jorden Smooth, Ozzy Oz & Mana Moves
Mana Moves, Jorden Smooth and Ozzy Oz of Heat Check (Courtesy of Heat Check)
We have a great late-night scene in LA, but it’s always been a bit lopsided, mostly featuring electronic music. In just about a year, Heat Check has stepped in and changed that narrative with epic events featuring “Melanated Music” — a term they’ve coined that includes hip hop, RnB, Afrobeats, Amapiano, Latin Funk, baile, dance hall, Jersey Club, UK Garage, and many others.
But it’s not just a great standard late affair — it’s also an elaborate and meticulously produced, fully-immersive experience. We’re talking great DJs and a giant dance floor, but also vendors, fire dancers, art paintings, you name it. In basically a year, they’ve created a whole new layer to the scene, growing from venues with 350 capacity to ones with space for 1,500.
“It started with identifying the lack of representation of global rhythmic sound & Afro-centric celebration in the late-night space. Next, it evolved into a thirst for elevating the traditional dance party, wanting to incorporate art & culture into the production to pair with the music,” founders Jorden Smooth, Ozzy Oz & Mana Moves tell us.
“Our goal was to create a safe space where nothing is bound by color or gender, a place that drives creativity and time has no construct. Your only social currency is presence and energy, there’s no hierarchy of social status or financial prowess. Where no one’s a VIP ’cause if you’re here, you ARE a VIP.”
Themed events this year included Coachella, “Art Basel in LA,” Art Basel Miami, Juneteenth, Rolling Loud after party, BET Weekend and Cinco de Fuego. And we can expect a lot more coming up from their ambitious founders — more late-night events but also earlier ones, charity events, a new YouTube channel/podcast “Heat Check Radio” and other live stream experiences they plan to launch. Keep a lookout on their socials for a NYE bash.
Now that they’ve been established as a vital organ of our nightlife, we’ll be prepping for the Heat they bring us in the new year.
Haza Party by Myyuh and Carmen Sandiego
Ya Tab Tab Night by Akram Hamdan and Rami Nassif
With production by Karla Haddad of MJLS
It’s crazy to think that just five years ago, consistent large-scale Arabic music parties were virtually unheard of in LA. These days we are blessed with all kinds of Arabic celebrations that share with us why the culture cooked up in the cradle of civilization is universally enjoyable.
This year two touring parties stood out as the new must-go Arabic events — Haza Party of New York and Ya Tab Tab Night from Canada. With the help of LA-based Karla Haddad of her independent promotion house MJLS, these two parties were must-gos for those looking to dance to some tabla. We love frequency, so while each party was only here twice, together they were able to keep our dabke desires satisfied (Satisfied but not really full, you know? Hurry back y’all.)
“We focus on playing Arab, Asian, and African dance music. This is very much a diaspora dance party, giving a space for people to connect not only with the music that reminds them of wherever they call home, but to also connect with each other on the dance floor. We often see the same people return over and over again for this reason,” DJs Myyuh and Carmen Sandiego tell us about Haza Party.
DJs Myyuh and Carmen Sandiego of Haza Party (Sam Burriss)
“Haza means shake, literally in Arabic, a name we chose because we wanted people to feel encouraged to express themselves through dance. The name also mirrors the meaning we hold true for ourselves with this party, being that it allows us a space to express ourselves as artists and release our own energy through our craft as DJs,” the two DJs of Egyptian descent explained.
Ya Tab Tab Night started in Canada, helmed by Palestinian creative director Akram Hamdan and Lebanese DJ and producer Rami Nassif. “We bonded over our shared obsession with Arabic pop culture and humor. A few years ago, the only places you would hear mainstream Arabic music was at weddings, cultural events, or restaurants but never in a club. On a personal level, we just wanted a place to dance to the music we like with our friends. So we hosted what we thought would be our only event. 30 events and five cities later — here we are.”
Akram Hamdan and Rami Nassif of Ya Tab Tab Night (Wessam Hazaymeh)
Named after Nancy Ajram’s classic “YaTabtab Wa Dalaa,” Ya Tab Tab is focused mainly on Arabic pop, but infuses the whole of culture — fashion, dance, film, TikToks, and TV, whether it’s through performances or visuals. “The vibe is often … chaotic, from dancing gorillas to beauty pageant shows; every show has a different energy, but it is always fun, inclusive, and tries to capture different art forms from our culture. It’s as if your Arabic ‘For You’ page was in a club.”
A tireless purveyor of culture, Karla Haddad, Founding Partner MJLS, carried a lot of the on-the-ground load in LA, as well as the marketing, to make these parties happen. “MJLS, derived from the Arabic word ‘Majlis,’ is an independent promoter that amplifies Middle Eastern & North African (MENA) artists and creatives through curated experiences and event activations. The community we already built through this platform helped amplify both parties’ reach as we announced their LA dates.”
Karla Haddad of MJLS (Courtesy MJLS)
“In the new year, we plan to partner with more artists, collectives, and parties globally, further supporting the talent coming out of our region and bringing the community together in unique and memorable ways,” Haddad added.
Yes, more. We want more.
@thehazaparty | @yatabtabnight | karlahaddad.com | @the.mjls
The LA Weekly Dec. 20, 2024 cover