From a grey, drizzly afternoon on the patio with Liva K and Malive to a harder-than-expected Kölsch set after dark, ORIGIN’s grand opening weekend made a strong case for a permanent, music-first home downtown.
Written by Eric B. Thornton
Anyone who has spent a weekend in the Arts District knows 613 Imperial Street. For years it was LOT 613, an industrial warehouse and courtyard with a long history of club nights, live shows and art-driven programming. On October 9 and 10, it reopened as ORIGIN, and for the first time, the address has a permanent identity of its own.
The people behind it aren’t new to this block, or this city. ORIGIN is the first fixed venue from Roni Mehrabian and Cyril Bitar, the duo behind SBCLTR and Minimal Effort, whose calendar over the years has included Brunch Electronik, LABYRINTO, FLOAT, The Maze and the Resolutions New Year’s parties. Between them, they bring more than 20 years of throwing parties in LA. Downtown’s club conversation has revolved around Exchange LA since Insomniac moved into the old Stock Exchange building in 2011, so an independent, roughly 1,000-capacity room built specifically for electronic music is a genuine shift in the map.
“A purpose-built, music-first space with a clear identity and a long-term vision to become a cultural institution in Los Angeles.”
— ORIGIN
The build shows that intent. Designer Marc Dizon, whose credits include Brooklyn Mirage, Output, Hakkasan and Sound Nightclub, shaped the industrial shell into a main room plus a large outdoor patio. The sound is a custom analog KV2 Audio system tuned to carry evenly from the dancefloor up to the mezzanine, with a separate rig engineered for the open air. The plan going forward is Fridays for headline and independent electronic bookings and Saturdays that alternate between daytime outdoor parties and late-night house and techno, plus quarterly Arts District parties across the whole space.
Friday belonged to MRAK, the solo project of Carmine Conte, one half of Tale Of Us and co-founder of Afterlife. Saturday is where ORIGIN showed what it’s really built to do, and it’s the day I spent there.
THE DAY
The afternoon program ran outdoors from 4 to 11 p.m., with Komma b2b Noyze Komplaynt opening at 4. The sky didn’t cooperate. It stayed cloudy and grey all afternoon, with a little rain on and off, not exactly the sunny LA day party the flyer’s sunset gradient promised. It didn’t matter.
Liva K, the Greek DJ and producer Konstantinos Livathinos, has spent years as a resident at VOID in Mykonos, and his sound leans on Afro-house rhythms and piano-led melodies built for exactly this kind of open-air setting. Sharing the bill was Malive, the Brazilian producer who made his name producing for Brazil’s hip-hop scene, including Djonga’s “Olho de Tigre,” before crossing into house with releases on labels like Defected and Diynamic. Two very different routes into the same groove.
THE NIGHT
After dark, the party moved inside, and the mood flipped. I came back late on a friend’s invitation for Kölsch, the Copenhagen producer Rune Reilly Kölsch, with Lauren Nikohl in support.
If you know Kölsch from his records on Kompakt, the wistful, melodic albums like 1977, you might have expected a sentimental night. That’s not what he brought. He played noticeably harder than his usual sound, and inside, on a brand-new system, it was dope.
That contrast was the best thing about the weekend. The day and the night felt like two different clubs sharing the same address, one loose and outdoors under a grey sky, one dark and driving inside, and both made sense. That flexibility is exactly what ORIGIN says it was designed for, and on day two, it delivered.
There’s already a next chapter on the calendar. On Halloween, the same block hosts The Maze, Mehrabian and Bitar’s own immersive party, now moving in from Union Station. For a venue that wants to become an institution, that’s a good start. See you on the patio, rain or shine.
ORIGIN, 613/617 Imperial Street, Arts District, Los Angeles. 21+. Upcoming events and tickets at originlosangeles.com.