The club was jumping on a Tuesday, just like the song said.
Ashley Hayward, a dancer who is considered royalty at Jumbo's Clown Room, took over Los Angeles with a crew of sexy, enticing weirdos for a new concept: The Night Scene.
It was a night of live music from Night Boys, featuring punk classics and performances from some of the hottest freaks in Los Angeles. And if you were wondering where every good-looking alternative baddie in Los Angeles was on Tuesday night, they were here.
The show opened with DJ Rose spinning a set tailor-made for aging punks as distorted videos flickered behind them—static TV, John Waters smoking before a movie commercial, women caressing phallic-shaped flowers. Long before the band even took the stage, people were already dancing.
Ashley told me the idea came after reading Love Goes to Buildings on Fire: Five Years in New York That Changed Music Forever, a history of the underground scenes that collided in 1970s New York. Ashley took her inspiration from CBGB and the way punk, disco, no wave, and hip-hop all fed into each other to create something unique in L.A.
"I had been asked if I wanted to take over a night at Mister T's Room in Highland Park," Ashley tells L.A. TACO. "I knew if I was going to create a night, it had to be something I felt the city was missing."
Ashley brought the idea to Noah, the bassist and lead singer of Night Boys, who was DJing a burlesque night with them at Highland Park Bowl.
"I told him about the idea, and he said, 'Sick. Let me put together a band.' And here we are,” she says.
The vibe of Zebulon is dark, moody, and a transplant itself since the bar was literally brought over from Brooklyn—old bikers sat at the bar while first-timers waited to get their draft beers.
The crowd skewed older than most Eastside shows, which was refreshing—no drunk 21-year-olds, just drunk 27-year-olds. Aging punks and goths mixed comfortably with those who recently earned the legal right to drink dressed in leather boots and mini skirts, dragging bewildered boyfriends behind them.
Partygoers came to the event through a variety of channels.
"I saw it on the Zebulon website and could just tell it was for me," one attendee named Steve told me. Others said a friend had gone to a previous Night Scene and couldn't stop talking about how confusing and exciting it was, so they came to see it for themselves.
Jumbo's Clown Room legends were scattered throughout the room, mingling with a crowd that was hot, trashy, and endlessly interesting. I came in completely blind, hoping to be surprised.
If you ever wondered what the jukebox jamboree in the movie “Cry-Baby” turns into past 11 p.m., this was it. None of the performers were chosen by accident.
"Authenticity is a core value of mine," Ashley says. "Everyone in The Night Scene is a true-blue freak. I didn't find them—we found each other somehow."
Night Boys took the stage, the singer like Lux Interior reincarnated, oozing sleazy sex appeal before ripping into The Cramps' "Bikini Girls With Machine Guns." Dancers emerge carrying prop guns, ski masks, and the classic bikini-girl oversized white T-shirt.
As I assessed the vibe, it started to make sense: It's part-punk show, part-strip show. Imagine Jumbo's if they didn't have to wear double underwear.
Ashley herself entered in a sheer dress laced with neon pink lining and a bright yellow thong, eight-inch blue glitter heels, blown-out curls, and neon yellow nails.
Angelyne walked so Ashley could run.
Dollar bills started flying. You'd swear Ashley was eight feet tall, dancing atop an old folding beach chair before disappearing beneath a blanket of ones and body glitter. She looked like an angel who somehow got trapped inside the walls of Zebulon.
The next act, Trauma Boner, could fill a novel on his own. Walking out wearing giant shorts, high socks, a poncho, and a Budweiser beach towel while carrying a watermelon, he slowly stripped down to trailer-trash boxers with the seat cut out, revealing tattoos perfectly framing his ass. He strolled to the edge of the stage and started working his fingers into the watermelon until it exploded across the front rows. Watermelon flew everywhere as jaws dropped wider with every second.
Kitty, another Jumbo's legend, performed as Stagger Lee, a nod to the American folklore pimp—a modern cowboy in head-to-toe leather, smoking cigarettes and drinking whiskey while shot-gunning a Black & Mild into the mouths of audience members. Kitty grabbed people by the head and thrusted them into their pelvis, wearing boxers stitched with a simple "fuck you." on them.
Then Annelisa appeared with giant leather boots and boxing shorts, inviting a man onstage to crawl around on all fours like a dog before convincing the crowd to cheer louder and louder as he was kicked in the balls from behind. He collapsed, laughed, got back on all fours, and happily did it all over again.
Meanwhile, Trauma Boner was on the bleachers drinking champagne off Kitty's feet over a heart-shaped kiddie pool while a crowd formed over them cheering, reaching for stray drops splashing off of her feet. Champagne sprayed across the room, no safe seat in the house because everywhere was a splash zone.
The Night Scene has everyone's kink covered—you just have to figure out which one is yours.
Ashley closed the evening with a song called "Don't Do His Laundry," dedicated to every man who doesn't eat pussy. Before leaving the stage, they sent the audience home with one final message:
"Release the Epstein files. Fuck ICE. And fuck AI. Use your fucking brain."
Ashley hopes Night Scene eventually tours, incorporating underground performers from every city it visits. Longer term, they dream of something even bigger: a permanent Los Angeles residency, "like Crazy Horse in Paris or The Box in New York—but Night Scene in L.A."
People spilled into the smoking patio smiling, soaked in champagne, wearing more glitter than they arrived with and carrying a new core memory to pull out the next time the world feels especially bleak. The pheromones were out on Tuesday.
Rock and roll isn't dead. It's just at The Night Scene.
Pull up August 29 for the next party.
