Flashback: A 2010s EDM Tribute at Avalon

There was a stretch between roughly 2011 and 2016 when EDM stopped being a niche and started being the radio. Flashback spends a Saturday night at Avalon Hollywood replaying that run, top to bottom, on September 19. Doors and music start at 10 PM.

What's on the decks

Three genres carry the night: big room house, electro house, and pop EDM. If those labels don't mean much to you in the abstract, they will the second the first drop lands. Big room is the festival-mainstage sound, all tension and release with a kick you feel in your ribs. Electro house is the dirtier, more distorted cousin that dominated the blog-house era before it went mainstream. Pop EDM is the part everyone knows the words to whether they admit it or not.

No individual DJ names have been announced for this one. That's fairly normal for a tribute format, where the tracklist is the draw and the selector's job is to keep the run of hits moving instead of workshopping new material.

The room

Avalon sits at 1735 Vine St, a block off Hollywood Boulevard, in a 1927 building that's been a vaudeville house, a TV studio, and a rock venue before it became one of the longest-running club rooms in the city. The main floor is tall and boxy with a balcony wrapping the sides, which means the sound hits hard on the ground and you can still find a spot upstairs to breathe.

Getting in, getting there

Admission is free with RSVP before 11 PM, and $15 after that. Do the RSVP. Eleven o'clock arrives faster than you think when you're deciding where to eat first.

The Metro B Line's Hollywood/Vine station is directly across the street, which makes this one of the easier Hollywood events to reach without parking. If you drive, the lots along Vine and Argyle fill by 11 on a Saturday and the street cleaning signs are not decorative.

Bring ID. It's a 21+ room.

See more EDM Los Angeles listings or browse the rest of the things happening in Hollywood this weekend.