- An iconic party bows out in style.
- I remember my first Low End Theory. Amon Tobin was the secret guest, and it was notably busy for a Wednesday night, full of kids who were so focused on the music that they barely bothered to dance. I would later learn this was pretty much standard for the weekly event, which ran almost every Wednesday for 12 years. Whether it had special guests—Thom Yorke and James Blake among them—or just the core team of residents (Daddy Kev, DJ Nobody and DJ D Styles), you could count on it to be packed. Put aside the fact that it helped launch the careers of artists like Flying Lotus and Nosaj Thing, or that it single-handedly defined the sound of the Los Angeles beat scene. Most importantly, Low End Theory fostered a community that remained dedicated for years.
That tight-knit scene came out in full force on Wednesday, August 8th for Low End Theory's last party ever, at The Airliner in Lincoln Heights. Though tickets were allocated mostly for "friends and family," there was still a line stretching to the end of the block, and it was nearly impossible to move inside during the night's peak. The queue to get onto the second level was so absurd it was impossible for me to see the Odd Future reunion going on up there. (Missing key acts while trying to move around the venue is basically a rite of passage for Low End Theory attendees.)
If Low End Theory's crowd remained unwavering over the years, so did its musical ethos, a sound rooted in hip-hop but extended out to many other planes. Wednesday's special guests outlined that diversity. You had rappers Tyler, The Creator, Earl Sweatshirt and A$AP Rocky, glitch-hop pioneers The Glitch Mob, pop-crossover star TOKiMONSTA, Brainfeeder artist Taylor McFerrin and Utah producer Tsuruda—artists who have taken their sound in very different directions but remain grounded in experimental hip-hop.
Even with these guests, the night belonged to the party's core artists: Daddy Kev, DJ Nobody and DJ D Styles. Another Low End Theory member, Jake Jenkins, played my favourite set, a raucous and bumpy affair that jumped from new favourites (Ross From Friends) to old-school anthems like Hudson Mohawke's "Scud Books." It was around this time it hit me: in this sea of head-nodders, fist-pumpers and dancers, something crucial for US dance music was coming to an end. The energy in the room was a mixture of ecstasy and melancholy, which gave every track an electric force.
When the residents jumped back on to bring the party home, the crowd was so locked they could have played anything. They went for old hip-hop and boom-bap beat scene stuff. The last track was "Excursions" by A Tribe Called Quest, a group who not only gave Low End Theory its name but helped to inspire its spiritual approach to hip-hop, combining jazz and experimental music while focusing on soul and artistry over fashion. In their farewell statement on Instagram, the crew said that they had "overstayed their welcome." But judging from the room of producers and diehard fans who stayed until the very last song, that was far from the truth. The impact of what Low End Theory accomplished will last much longer than their residency at The Airliner.
Photo credit /
Dan From Another Place (via Instagram)