scott schultz

Stream: The Virgins “Rich Girls”

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Friday I had decided to take the evening off and catch up on my Tivo when my friend texted me about a secret show with the Virgins at the R Bar in Koreatown. I had never been to the R Bar, but I did have a friend in Koreatown who owed me drinks and lived around the corner, and I like the Virgins’ radio hit “Rich Girls,” so I was an easy sell. The club is an anonymous bar—it was a speakeasy during prohibition. The mic checks went on for almost an hour, but once they started, the Virgins put on a solid 45-minute set of white boy “Emotional Rescue”-style disco rock. The NYC band is road-tight and fairly predictable, right down to closing the show with the radio hit. Personally, I prefer the local bands that I typically shoot in Silverlake and Echo Park a lot better than this Nylon-approved band. The R Bar is a fun place to catch live music, and I look forward to shooting more bands there. The layout is different from the Silverlake clubs, and it’s good to see some live rock near Mid-Wilshire. The stage setup is a little snug, so the crowd is right up there with the band, and I’m looking forward to seeing local bands there. The Virgins are still young, and they have a good foundation, so I will catch them again, but these New Yorkers don’t yet rank with the better L.A. locals.

—Scott Schultz