NIGHT SHIFT is a new series exploring L.A.’s most decadent social scenes and subcultures after dark.
Say what you will about the Grammys and who won what on Sunday, but the whole affair is much bigger than winners, losers, or who took the stage at the Crypto.com Arena. In Los Angeles, the awards make for not just “music’s biggest night” but music’s biggest and busiest week. And while the scramble to get on party lists can be both ego-crushing and a bit cringey, the effort is usually worth it. In our experience, the glut of glitzy gatherings and music events that ascend upon the city are rivaled only by South By Southwest in Austin, Texas and Coachella weekend in Indio, California.
We’ve learned a few things over the years covering this audacious, action-packed week: magical music moments can happen anywhere (though nothing ever seems to beat Clive Davis’ shindig or MusicCares honors), a good DJ can make or break a scene no matter who’s playing or attending, and everyone in the music industry is pretty exhausted by the time the big night actually rolls around. But is the hyper-hopping from event to event all week worth it? Read on for our recap.
Step and Repeat
Beyond the red carpets, cleverly themed cocktails, salty bites, and passed apps and photo ops, there was lots to inspire music makers and fans this past Grammy week, especially concerning the future and the world around us. Last year, most events were canceled due to the California wildfires and the ceremony itself was turned into a fundraiser for relief efforts. With this in mind, and everything happening in the world right now—including the anti-ICE national shutdown on January 30—Grammy week felt more mindful overall, and this went beyond the “ICE OUT” buttons people wore at parties and the ceremony.
Philanthropy and inclusiveness were front and center this year, from the Fred Armisen-hosted Resonator Awards (presented by We Are Moving the Needle, which empowers women, trans, and non-binary producers and engineers) honoring Chaka Khan, St. Vincent, Haim, and Chappell Roan at Chaplin Studios, to Out in Music‘s Lavender List Awards spotlighting underrepresented up-and-coming LGBTQIA+ creators.
Let Music Fill My World, a nonprofit co-founded by Five For Fighting’s John Ondrasik bringing music education to public schools, had a bevy of bashes too, the most resonant of which had to be Friday night’s UpRoxx FYI Visionaries Panel and party put together by Will.i.am featuring The Game, Natasha Lyonne, Aubrey Plaza, and more discussing what’s next in arts, tech, and culture. Key takeaway: Moving forward, it will be about utilizing these tools to reflect expression, which Will likened to using Google maps “to get you there.”
In the House
The official Grammy House at the majestic Rolling Greens in downtown L.A. hosted a week-long schedule of parties and panels highlighting diverse voices and exploring music creation along with live performances and an opportunity for the general public to get in on the excitement via multiple selfie set-ups, activations from brands like PacSun (the official merch brand for the affair), Vaseline, and Redken, whose partnership with Sabrina Carpenter featured blinged-out hairbrushes and hair product samples. Her presence was also felt at The Aster’s Johnnie Walker Grammy mixer Friday, with Carpenter cocktails and lip-shaped coasters instructing guests on a covetable skill: tying a cherry stem with your tongue. Kudos to the “Espresso” singer’s marketing team on that one.
A gathering of this year’s Best New Artist nominees including Katseye, Sombr, and Lola Young, and a “masterclass” chat with Yungblud was also part of the academy’s educational Grammy U initiative at Rolling Greens, with the biggest takeaways encouraging new musicians to take risks, focus on truth, and an online following and ignore trends, because as Yung himself said, “trends are made to die!”
Strike a Pose
Proving to be much more than a trend, artificial intelligence may have been a big topic of discussion at the week’s panels, but Warner Music embraced it, at least as an event aesthetic. Its annual pre-Grammy event in association with 1X and V Magazine, held at the former Amoeba Music record store in Hollywood, was a robotic rager and space jam. The Thursday night gathering offered a chance to carouse with a soon-to-be new superstar too—NEO (not to be confused with Ne-Yo), 1X’s consumer-ready humanoid home robot, which is now available for pre-order in the U.S.
We spotted Teddy Swims, Linkin Park, Benson Boone, Cara Delevingne, Darren Criss, Dasha, Diane Warren, Dixie D’Amelio, Evan Ross, Rufus Wainwright, Scout Willis, Mark Mothersbaugh, and many more amidst the packed planetary playground, while on stage, PinkPantheress performed along with Noga Erez and Remy Bond, who brought burlesque energy to her sultry jams. Rocco Ritchie closed out the party with a DJ set, though the place was decidedly empty by the time he came on as most had scattered to other celebrations. The remix he spun of his mama Madonna’s iconic hit “Vogue” sounded pretty great, though. Expect to hear the track a lot more in the coming weeks as the promo tune for The Devil Wears Prada 2.
The other big bash Thursday evening, Friends & Family at the historic Ebell theater, saw a fashionable crowd of music industry folks come together for music and maryjane. The long-running social has won “best favors” the past few years, offering complimentary cannabis in its VIP lounge. This year Cheech & Chong THC beverages, RAW rolling papers and vape collab, and hand-rolled joints left everyone in high spirits upstairs, even if the DJs for the evening never managed to fill the dance floor below.
That’s a Rap
F&F has always been one of our favorite party stops, especially when it was held at Paramount Studios back in the day. And we couldn’t help but reminisce about our all time favorite annual Grammy bash, which didn’t happen this year: the legendary Roots Grammy Jam. The funky free for all curated by Questlove was missing from this year’s line-up (he’s out of the country according to his IG) but at least we can look forward to A Roots Picnic, which the jam sort of morphed into, coming to the Hollywood Bowl this summer.
Thankfully, there was still a full-bodied night of hip-hop to enjoy at the Hollywood Palladium Friday where UnitedMasters Grammy party presented Armanii, BigXthaPlug, and Clipse, with a surprise appearance by Pharrell Williams, into the wee hours. Pharrell of course, facilitated Pusha T and Malice’s union and return as Clipse, and prior to their performance and win at the awards Sunday, the party captured the spirit of collaboration that’s always fueled their output.
Sponsored by Visa, McDonald’s, and Hennessy, the show was one of the few Grammy festivities open to the public, who enjoyed free nuggets (with Micky D’s new hot honey sauce) and Hennessy lemonade drinks to wash ’em down. The chill cookout vibe made for a potent contrast to the more exclusive events of the week, and was a poppin’ prelude to the main event where hip-hop proved to be a winning genre across multiple categories again this year.
Read about the Grammy award winners here.
Lina Lecaro, longtime entertainment editor, former doorgirl, booker, DJ and author of Los Angeles’ Best Dive Bars: Drinking and Diving in the City of Angels. Read Lina in LA on Substack for more.
