After four days of driving, ten hours of This American Life and a thousand songs by Creedence Clearwater Revival and Blue Oyster Cult, arguments with about 12 different sleazebag motel managers, and some of the most breathtakingly beautiful/mind numbingly boring Southwestern landscapes, we touched down in LA.

I’m surprised how many places I’ve heard of, or feel familiar with. Every sign for Barstow brought up a hundred random quotes from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Every sign for San Dimas made me (or Sarah) yell out a line from Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.

We kind of sped into town so we could see our friends Moneypenny play Dim Mak Tuesdays with Them Jeans, Pase Rock, and Steed Lord. We got there towards the end of their set. Jess and Chess were vamping it up for an amassing crown that was becoming acquainted with them for the first time. Chess tore into some synths, while Jessica was pounded the shit out of some cowbells. It’s always pretty dope to see hometown heads out of their element, especially when they’re rocking it.

Next up was Steed Lord. Somehow I’d totally missed the boat on this group. I’d heard the name before but I wasn’t very familiar with them. Their look was a mix of the fashionable and the fashionably ugly, and so was their music, a much rave-ier take on electropop than I’m used to, that owed more to LA Style’s “James Brown Is Dead” than any of the Ed Banger retreads that are dominating the live band danceparty scene these days.

Glamour and trash. It’s a theme that repeated throughout the night, and from my limited experience here, kinda sums up Downtown Hollywood as a whole. As a DJ duo, Moneypenny is pretty fearless and experimental with their choices, but as a band their sound is super clean, super tight, and incredibly poppy. Cinespace was simultaneously bourgie and trashy as fuck, right down to the smoking lounge with the open air skylight that rivaled the VIP areas in some of Chicago’s best clubs, despite reeking of nicotine. Glam and trash. Glitter and guts. Downtown Hollywood. Fuck the world.