Live Report: Flamingosis at the Lodge Room in Highland Park (June 1, 2024)

Stephen Jabaut

June 5

For a West-sider, the East Side of Los Angeles can be an elusive minx of a place. To get there in the late afternoon, one must brave bottle-necked freeways and traverse a choked pack downtown skyscrapers in order reach the hip and hilly enclaves of the East side. Trendy neighborhoods like Eagle Rock, Atwater Village, and in this case Highland Park, are laden with top-notch restaurants, shoppes, and music venues that make the drive worth it.

That extra little push of driving is not without it's rewards. Parking is cheap, and abundant. Before Flamingosis, we caught some Peruvian food at a place called "Rosty." We ordered fried plantains, and tenderloin sliced over a pesto spaghetti, along with a Leche de Tigre ceviche. The food was top notch, and with our bellies' now full, we made our way over to the Lodge in Highland Park to catch the opener.

The venue itself was a high ceilinged open room, attached to a bar and restaurant called the Checker Room. We found ourselves sneaking under the velvet curtain to use the restaurant bathroom throughout the show, since it had no line and was much cleaner. The Checker Room also offered a great cocktail selection if you wanted to have a drink before or after the performance.

The opener, Diastrata (formerly known as Recess) was a great warm up while people found their way into the venue. The openers would later come on stage to play with the headliner. A clean and hazy smoke hung over the crowd from the sparked joints, and the floors were noticeably not sticky. You've really got to give it to the East side crowds, they know the value of giving space at shows. The audience was respectful, dancey, and felt very safe.

Flamingosis came on after a bathroom break between sets. The artist, Aaron Valesquez, utilized computer mixing with live instruments to create a kind of electro-funk jazz set for the audience. If you have ever listened to Pretty Lights, it was kind of like a stripped down version of that sound. And perhaps a little bit more relaxed and less thumping.

The production had a lot of great ideas worked into the set. Flamingosis integrated hits from the 70s and 90s; including "Return of the Mack" by Mark Morrison. He also took vocal samples from the Nickelodeon cartoon series, Hey Arnold. Much to the delight of the crowd—Millennial nostalgia reigns. Audience members took joy in whispering "Stoop Kid's afraid to leave his stoop" to each other. Although, we would have liked to have heard some of those live trumpets play the Hey Arnold theme while we were in that Football-head-space.

For all it's great ideas, the mixing was a little messy, just a touch off beat. It was not enough to take away from the good time, but it was definitely noticeable. I imagine it is a difficult task to coordinate, computers, decks, and live instruments. But Flamingosis would definitely benefit from flowing those fun elements into and out of his set with more attention to rhythm.

On the whole though, the quality of the sound, the live instruments, and the front-man-nature of Flamingosis did make this a fun show to attend. He would drop into dialogue with the crowd, explaining the origin of his stage name as a word of frisbee culture. He revealed that his father was a world champion around freestyle frisbee, and that the stage name honors him.

After a celebrated encore, the East side attendees dispersed back on to the lively Figueroa street, where the bar scene was in full boom. Jeni's ice cream was still open for anyone craving a late night snack. And my compatriot and I made our way back to our car, and drove back to the west side with zero traffic.

Flamingosis recently released his new album, Better Will Come which Indy Review has reviewed here.

https://open.spotify.com/album/1L01NCxCJxNFuL7OgyuvOv?si=oYEBEbFNT_66oUn6dXP5Wg