Went to see the Jabbawockeez perform in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand Hotel Thanksgiving…read moreweekend...WOW!!!! I was sooooo entertained!!!..The light show was EPIC...seriously, it was one of THE best overall shows that I have seen in Vegas. It captures you from start to finish!.. people of all backgrounds, and all ages, will enjoy this show!!..A MUST SEE if you're in vegas. Phenomenal show!

I am an avid fan of Universal Studios' Halloween Horror Nights (HHN), and my friends and I try to…read moremake a trip each year to see what each coast has to offer. For the past couple years, Universal Studios Hollywood has included the Jabbawockeez as a performance for the event. For those unfamiliar, the Jabbawockeez is a hip-hop dance crew who won the first season of America's Best Dance Crew. Their performance at Universal Studios Hollywood is one I'm glad I attended. There are multiple showtimes throughout the night, so for the most part, fitting it into your night is easy. If you have Express tickets, there is an Express seating area. I definitely recommend you take advantage of that - the seating here can be pretty cramped, and some of the performances are very full. This year's show had a loose plot around the Jabbawockeez landing on Earth and having to find their way back home in outer space. The music was varied, but they do tend to lean towards hip-hop which I like. They definitely put on a show - I don't know how people can do this 6-7 times per night, at about 20-25 minutes per show. However, even at the latest show at 1:30AM, they had energy and excitement. They also do a little bit of audience involvement which is fun. The main complaint I hear from people is that the Jabbawockeez do not fit the horror theme of HHN. However, I'm reviewing their performance on the virtues of their performance solely, not whether or not I feel it fits into the event. And honestly, I think it fits fine. Their costumes and masks help make them less human-like, and while it may not be scary or creepy, it still fits aesthetically in my opinion. And look, after hours of walking, I will take anything that lets me sit for a few minutes... Overall, I really enjoyed the 2017 performance from the Jabbawockeez at HHN, and I would gladly attend again. If you're there, and you're open to something that isn't strictly horror, check it out.

It has been a while since I've seen live theater; so when the opportunity arose, I immediately…read morejumped at the opportunity to watch it. The theater is tucked away in a quaint neighborhood, while waiting for the show to start, they had offered the guests wine, water and some beer. They only have two gender neutral bathrooms, so go early, or make sure you have plenty of time to spare in case there is a line. The play itself was simple but filled with so much passion. The actors were phenomenal, and filled the room with amazing charisma. The stage was but two crates on the floor, with no other props to aid the visuals. But even with such a minimalistic display, the actors story was conveyed in such a way that you don't need any more. I do admit there were parts to the story that had left me baffled, I would love to ask Cory some questions and see if my interpretation was correct. A great night, with a wonderful cast. The lighting definitely set the right mood, and the actors, again, definitely made the play. #blessed #amazing #hashtag

I absolutely loved this play. It was performed at Atwater Village Theatre in one of the smaller…read morespaces, which made for a really enjoyable experience. The actors were so close, at one point the lead female actor was laying at my feet. The play was set in LA, in the not too distant future. They touched on modern life subjects such as dating, relationships, love, cell phone addiction etc., all whilst trying to survive an apocalypse. I laughed out loud a lot. And I truly felt like I was living in their Apocalyptic world. The cast were fantastic! Parking is available in a small lot adjacent to the theatre, however I got street parking no problem. Wine and beer is available for a donation. The staff working at this theatre were also great.

It was my first time going to one of these events and had an amazing time! Went with a couple of…read morefriends and did one day only. Came to check out deadmau5 and Calvin Harris. Wished I got a chance to check out the other performers. I would suggest to get dropped off since parking is insane! Also, wear comfy shoes that u don't mind getting dirty. Be prepared to get dirt all over it and getting them stepped on by other people (rude!). A huge negative are the porta potties. DISGUSTING. I mean, I don't expect them to be clean or smelling like roses. But it got so bad that I stopped drinking alcohol And water just so I won't pee!!! Yea...that bad. I won't go graphic on how it looked. Also FYI they don't check bags as thoroughly as they do with you. They pat you down like nobody's business.

HARDfest's Halloween installment, wisely planned the weekend after Insomniac's Escape from…read moreWonderland, brought an impressive lineup and dense crowds to the Los Angeles State Historic Park. It was a BLAST. And now it's time for a breakdown! LOCATION & PARKING 5 stars here. LA State Historic Park is a 20-minute walk from Union Station (and even closer to the Chinatown stop of the Gold Line), and HARD worked with the LA Metro to provide free rides on all Metro lines for anyone with a ticket. SCORE. And if you planned ahead like me, you found a station with free onsite parking (although it may have been far away, at least you didn't have to sit in traffic to get to your destination!). A festival that encourages you to save money on both gas AND parking is already awesome in my book. GETTING IN & OUT This is the single biggest reason that this event wasn't 5 stars for me. Some things can't really be helped, like a rowdy crowd, but about an hour and a half after the music started, apparently some people moved some bike racks that had been used as barricades and totally messed up the lines to get in. HARD had to reset a bunch of stuff and so by the time I got there (punishment for being late?), I stood in a huge, nebulous crowd with no idea where the entrance was and no clue when I'd ever reach it. I can tolerate this bullshit when I have a bajillion decibels coming at me and lazers melting my eyes, but just to get in? I'm ready to murder the next person who so much as brushes up against my shoulder. Overheard in the crowd: "C'mon man, don't make me smoke all my weed out HERE!" I understand that bad crowds aren't necessarily the organizers' fault. BUT a bullhorn and a soapbox would have been really useful at this point. SOMEthing to let us know what was going on, or that we were even in the right place. Instead there was a slow movement as people were let in and eventually I found myself at the entrance, 40 minutes later, having missed the first set that I wanted to see. EVENT LAYOUT Super manageable. In some cases, almost too close. There were four stages with - true to form - a small variety of genres to please different palates. You had moombahton tucked in the back, dubstep towards the middle, the big headliners on the main stage, and even a smaller stage (charmingly called the Red Bull "DIscotheque") for funky house. This was a great setup, even though at some points there was a little sound bleed between the Red Bull stage and the main HARD Stage. But walking from one end of the event to the other was less than 10 minutes. There was an assortment of food and beverage vendors, but it was $4 waters for me all night. CROWD Yeah, so we talked about the bike racks. That aside, this was another super cool crowd. Less dressed up than Escape the weekend prior, I think, but overall super chill. I actually was meeting up with friends, but in some cases had lost them by the end of the evening, or didn't even get a chance to meet up with them before my battery went dead. No matter; there were plenty of people around and striking up conversations and making festival friends was a piece of cake...it's actually part of the experience. One note about cell phone service in the LA State Historic Park: IT SUCKS. Even with my robust Verizon 4G megamegamegabattery phone, it still ate up half the battery life just getting a signal. If the damn thing didn't double as a camera, I'd have opted to leave it behind. MUSIC Noooooo complaints here. Justice. Major Lazer telling people to throw shit up in the air (for reals! https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151139787248920&set=a.391711083919.169340.7739623919&type=1&theater). Bro Safari. Knife Party yelling at some clown to get down off the truss. Soul Clap playing Ronnie Hudson's 1982 "West Coast Poplock" from which you'd recognize Tupac's "California Love" chorus, and making several new fans (one here!). Overall it was a ridiculously fun night under the stars and a great way to send out a spectacular Halloween week. Come for the music, come for the lights, stay for the experience, because it doesn't have to end just 'cause they're shutting it down at 2!

LA Weekly presents Food & Wine Festival at the California Market Center (CMC). Food porn…read moreextravaganza....oh heaven help me!! So many representing LA eats that the line to get in was weaving out the door. It was well worth it as 40 of the hottest restaurants presented an amuse bouche of their signature bites & alcoholic beverage samples. Mingling with chefs, meeting new people and talking about food was a nice way to end the weekend. Great venue at the California Market Center offering spectacular panoramic views of the city. It was large enough that I didn't feel claustrophobic with the volume of people attending and enough tables and chairs to pace yourself. Surprisingly it wasn't too bad getting out of the parking building either and thought it was well facilitated. LA knows how to do it and LA Weekly had a very successful event. Salud #theessentials till next year!

I signed up for this event assuming it would be like all other food and wine festivals. That is,…read morean overpriced, overcrowded mess of booths and people unsuccessfully intermingling in the hot sun or hot indoor space. Thankfully I can report The Essentials 2015 mostly chipped away at my negative stereotypes. The food we sampled was all quite good, the beer and wine quite drinkable, and the hard booze creatively mixed. Our group appreciated that none of the tables made a point to stamp the ridiculous "drink card" everyone was issued. Make no mistake, the event was PACKED, but once inside the crowds were only an issue for certain restaurants. Thankfully it didn't impact the temperature, as we were fully comfortable start to finish. Some vendors went above and beyond with their food, while others proffered more pedestrian bites. Though I don't remember too many specifics, a few establishments were just really, really good. A big "thank you!" to Connie & Ted's, L&E, and Providence for providing exquisitely fresh oysters on the half shell. Sounds like at least a 4-star review at this point, right? Yup, but I have to voice what I feel are a few legitimate qualms. First, the signs for each vendor were SO small they were often invisible behind the chefs and people in line. Second, a better laid-out map would have worked wonders, as the one provided was essentially useless. The third and fourth issues require their own paragraph. We arrived prior to the 2:00 p.m. opening time for general admission. However, the organizers let us in late, and the throngs of people waiting outside further delayed the process. Long story short, we finally got into the event at 3:00...not cool. To boot, most of the "prestigious" vendors (e.g., Melisse, Hungry Cat) completely ran out of food as early as 3:30. Either they received bad information about the number of tickets sold, or they simply brought whatever quantities they wanted. Regardless of the reason, this was completely unfair to those of us who paid to try their food. I couldn't help feeling a little ripped off. This was definitely an improvement over other foodie festivals. We had a GREAT time. However, there are certainly some kinks that need to be ironed out. I can't wait to go again next time and hopefully leave a 5-star review!

This event will be a blast. All the club's and people involved are amazing. September 23rd 2017 is…read moreDoomsday Ball. Get ready.

I went to Nic's last weekend in Beverly Hills and didn't know what to expect other than a crowd. We…read moreget to the door and the doorman mentions that there is a band playing so there was a cover, we were there for drinks so we went on in. About 30 minutes later..the funk began. This band is good. So good that I began thinking about my upcoming nuptuals and how great it would be to have a live band. They played all funk and motown hits. People could not stop dancing and the music was totally magnetic. We didn't stop until they stopped playing their first set. We got out of there quickly so that we wouldn't be tempted to stay too late. WOW, they were sooo good. I guess they have several band size options but the one that was playing was 5-men and Chuck was the lead singer. I'll have to update my review after my wedding :), hopefully!

It had cool shit to do, lots of room to wander and a good lineup on Saturday. Flume, Chromeo, St…read more Lucia... I understood the whole snowboard competition thing, but when all that was over and someone was willing to let me use his board, plus there was no one on the snow ramp, why wouldn't they let me snowboard down like one time!? It would only take a second, geez. I had fun on Saturday and everyone who attended was seriously PLUR and the bomb dot com, including the merchandise young woman who helped me A LOT. She went super duper out of her way to find me a small jacket when they checked the other booth, made a phone call of some sort, 2 people were looking in the back, the mannequin had on a size Large and then suddenly she came out seriously genuinely happy for me with the small that I wanted, even though I wanted the jacket badly enough to agree to just buy the large one. She was really cool for doing all that. No one in LA goes to any trouble to help, but she really really did. She was on a mission and had no other reason to help me beside that she was an amazing individual. They had cool art work and a badass truck that I kept bothering security about to know whose the owner and if I could buy it right now. He did not even really speak in the same language as I did, so it was not going to happen and I was really sure I would drive off in that truck that night, which was Sunday because they painted it over those 2 days. The parking situation was not cool to say the least though- got to figure that one out. It was pouring rain on Sunday and they did a buy one shirt and get a sweatshirt free or probably vice versa, but you have to walk so many miles to your car because anywhere you park you'll either have to walk many miles to get in or to get out. That was my main complaint, but otherwise, I'll always go again. It was pretty rad.

This was my second year attending Air and Style. Last year I had an absolute blast and found that…read morethe event was very well organized with a really good lineup. However, this year was the complete opposite. My friend and I got VIP but only got mailed VIP bracelets and never actual tickets. I knew this seemed off because most other festivals have an area on the bracelets that is scannable for entry. After contact both FrontGate tickets and Air and Style directly, they had told me that all I needed were the bracelets to get in. However, upon arriving, the people scanning the tickets at the door told us we had to wait in the will call line to get tickets. I looked on the air and style Facebook page the next day and found that many other VIP people ran into the same problem. I don't know if they changed management this year or something but the event just seemed so much more unorganized. They released the app and set times only a day or two before the festival which made things more hectic in terms of planning. They also started running out of their drinks on day two. VIP didn't really come with many perks besides a separate bar and a front viewing area for the main stage so I don't think it's worth the money. However, Air and Style is worth it in my opinion if you're just buying GA tickets and the lineup is good as the 2017 one.

I came here to see "I Love My Wife" with my girlfriend. The show was a little behind the times,…read moreand the audience seemed to be from the same generation. Since this theater is in the veteran center, so I guess the average age of its patrons makes sense. The student tickets for the show weren't that expensive ($20), but the parking was a ripoff. The theater itself was average sized, not meant for huge performance, but not so small that you feel like you're in someone's living room. The acoustics and lighting seemed OK, but I'm not a huge critic of that kind of stuff, so you probably shouldn't take my word for it.

This smart venue is tucked behind San Vincente in Brentwood. I went to see Billy 'Fucking' Connolly…read morewhich was an amazing 2hr show...! There is ample (if a little expensive) $7 parking next to the theatre, but oddly there is no bar. (Well, I guess Royce Hall at UCLA doesn't have one either, but it's odd to me). However, there is a private bar which you get access to if you're a $100 member and a concession stand with snacks and coffee etc. The seating is well laid out and the ushers get you to your seat, even if you arrive late. Nice. The crowd was kinda mature, but I did see some other younger faces, but we all left as united Connolly fans by the end.