- Lot 613, a legal warehouse venue in Downtown LA, has always been a somewhat tricky proposition. The site of illegal raves stretching back to the late '00s, it's essentially a big white box with a massive smoking area. Recently, local promoter Prototype has taken over the space, and they've been trying to create an underground vibe—that is, the feeling you get at the roving warehouse parties that take place around the same neighborhood—while looking after a fully licensed venue that stops serving alcohol at 2 AM. It's a tough juxtaposition and one that's been met with varying degrees of success. (Full disclosure: I co-promoted a party at the venue with Kyle Hall and Mike Huckaby that struggled to retain early momentum into the later hours.) But recently, things have been falling into place, and the team-up with local scene-stormers Fine Time on Saturday, May 21st was ample proof of that.
Of course, it helps when you've booked in about five decades of combined experience behind the decks. Fine Time had lined up a Detroit-rooted lineup worth anticipating—minimal man of God Robert Hood and Mike Servito, the DJ's DJ who has experienced a meteoric rise over the past couple of years. On Saturday, Servito was in control, smoothly deploying bombs like Red7's "I Lost My Shoes On Acid" as the party moved towards full boil.
The lighting was fairly minimal, with some pro overhead gear occasionally sending bright flashes into what otherwise felt like a grubby, dark warehouse. There were a great number of UR and Made In Detroit T-shirts on show, signs that veteran techno heads and Midwest natives had made the trek out for a lineup that they couldn't miss. As Hood watched the crowd from behind Servito, the junior DJ pulled a cheeky move, dropping Floorplan's bona fide smash "Never Grow Old."
Hood has been of two minds lately. Attempting to avoid getting "lost in the melody," he's launched a series of EPs called Paradygm Shift, which follow the Detroit minimal template he gave us on foundational records for Tresor, Axis and his own M-Plant. He's also about to drop another LP as Floorplan, his pounding, gospel-house project.
The first hour of his set was dedicated to the Robert Hood brand of techno. His lifetime in the game and penchant for playing his own material means he never wastes an intro or an outro, and there's a masterful, consistent energy to his sets that's interesting even from a purely technical perspective. As the 4 AM curfew loomed, the place stayed full as he merged into brutally EQ'd disco hits like Giorgio Moroder's "The Chase." By the time he dropped Floorplan's "Magnify," which manages to turn a vocal from Shekinah Glory Ministry into a supercharged house cut, it was Hood's pulpit and we were the ecstatic congregants.