New* Things #5: Boomtown Brewery

Boomtown Brewery is, like many DTLA breweries, tucked away a bit but it’s worth heading off the beaten path to check it out. I’m a fan of the Mic Czech and Bad Hombre beers and it’s a decent spot to watch a game. I’ve been here for their karaoke night but the space is a bit too big and the stage a bit too high for my liking. I always prefer my karaoke as a sing-a-long rather than a solo performance and this is a kind of place where groups will cheer on their friend but often go back to talking when someone they don’t know is up on stage. The vibe was so off for me that I didn’t even bother putting my name in. They do have a Tuesday night trivia night that I might try to check out one of these days though.

In the end, it feels like it’s best suited for a place for a big group event - birthdays or corporate parties but I feel that way about a lot of breweries. It is definitely not a place to go in you’re looking to mingle and meet people. Even the pool tables feel more like a group signing up for the table rather than a running game. It is still a great place to go if you’re waiting for the doors to open at The Morocccan Lounge, which is right down the street.

New Things #4: Jesse Roper

I was wondering if I should count this as two new things because this is also the first time that I’ve ever seen opener Ali Angel but I feel like that’s too much. For my 500 New Things challenge, I’m only going to count the headliner of concerts. Although in this case, I will say that I might have liked the opener more. And I did laugh when she performed this song because she opened by saying the song is “She Says It’s Alright” but that a lot of people think it says “Jesus said it’s alright” and I have to side with the lot of people because it absolutely sounds like that.

Unfortunately for Jesse Roper, he had a couple of sound issues to deal with and his opener is apparently from LA so she had a bigger crowd than he did. Always a bummer to see the crowd file out after the first act. Still, Jesse didn’t let him phase him and he came out and put on a great show. I learned from Jesse from my addiction to MLB The Show ‘26. He has a song on there and I dug it although I did think it had to be a cover since it has such a classic feel to it.

All in all, not the most memorable evening of the year but it was a good Saturday night.

New* Things #3: The Morroccan Lounge

The Moroccan Lunge is a small music venue in the northern part of Little Tokyo in downtown Los Angeles. When you first walk in, there’s a bar area and then the stage area is in the back. They claim that the capacity is 250 people but that seems like it would be VERY uncomfortable. One pro-tip that I learned is that there is a kind of bench in the back of the stage area to sit on but you are also allowed to stand on it so for more packed shows, that’s probably the second best place to be if you can’t get near the front.

The sound guy did not have the best night. The vocals were sometimes too loud and the keyboard player for the headliner was set to 0 for the first two songs. When he launched into a solo, everyone was kind of staring at him in confusion until the lead singer finally said, “Wait, can any of you hear him?” After a loud NO! and the singer saying “C’mon, turn that shit up!”, the sound guy finally turned the volume up on the keyboards.

Still, I like smaller shows and this is a solid venue. Based on tonight, I would recommend it as a date spot but that’s because the music in the bar area was low. I went on a date here years ago and it was a disaster. The music was loud, I couldn’t hear my date. We went for Live Band Karaoke which was a mess because you put your song in and then there’s basically a lottery to see who sings but if someone else chose your song, then there’s another lottery to see who gets to sing. Given this set-up, you’d think they would show which songs are going to be played but, no, it’s only like one or two songs ahead that are listed, and since you can only put one song in, you could just stand there with no hopes of ever getting on stage. Which is what happened to my date and I. It was just not a fun night but this latest visit gives me hope for the future. Well, for others, I’ve given up on dating. But that’s a whole ‘nother blog post.