Lodge Room: a guide to Highland Park's upstairs concert hall

Lodge Room sits on the second floor of the Highland Park Masonic Lodge on North Figueroa, a 1923 Spanish Colonial Revival building with a 500-capacity hall upstairs. Wood floor, raised stage, a small balcony, and acoustics that suit a singer-songwriter as well as a guitar band.

The Spaceland Presents team programmes the room. Bookings lean indie, alt-country, experimental, leftfield rock, and the occasional electronic show. The hall fills the gap between the small Echo Park bars and the bigger downtown venues. Nearly every show is seated for the front half and standing at the back.

The door

Open door, ticketed in advance. Staff check IDs at the bar, scan tickets at the top of the stairs, and refuse anyone visibly drunk or aggressive. The crowd is mixed-age and the door reads accordingly.

What works at the door:

• Tickets in advance through the Spaceland Presents site or DICE.
• Arriving on time. Sets start close to the listed time.
• ID at the bar for drinks.
• Cash or card. Both work.

What does not:

• Showing up at 11pm hoping for walk-up. Most shows end early.
• Loud talkers at the front during quiet sets.
• Tall hats at the front.
• Photos with flash. The room does not allow it.

Will-call lines move fast. Most shows sell out in advance for the bigger touring acts.

When to arrive

Doors open at 7pm or 8pm for most shows. The opener is usually onstage by 8:30pm. The headliner runs from around 9:30pm to 11pm. The room clears out by midnight.

For a spot on the rail, arrive at doors. For a seat in the balcony, arrive at doors and head straight upstairs.

Inside

One hall, one stage, one balcony. The wood floor is original and gives the room a warm low end. The PA is a proper concert rig, tuned for the depth of the hall rather than club volume. The balcony wraps around the back and side and holds about 80.

Programming character: heavy on the indie touring circuit, with regular leftfield bookings. Names that have held the room: Jenny Lewis, Cass McCombs, Bonnie Prince Billy, Mary Lattimore, Yo La Tengo, Phil Cook, Adrianne Lenker solo runs, plus a steady run of experimental and ambient nights.

Phones are allowed. No flash, no obstruction of the people behind you.

What it costs

Tickets run $25 to $50 in advance for most shows. Drinks at the bar are $9 to $14. Water at the bar is free. Coat check is small and rarely needed.

Rules

No flash photography. No talking loudly during quiet sets. No standing in the aisles. The staff are polite and firm. Anyone disrupting the room gets a warning, and then asked to leave.

The hall allows: sitting on the floor at the front during seated shows, moving to the balcony between songs, leaving and re-entering with a stamp, lingering at the bar after the headliner finishes.

Why it matters

Lodge Room filled a real hole in Los Angeles. The city had small clubs and large theatres. It needed something in the middle, with care taken over the sound and the booking, and the Highland Park hall has been that room since Spaceland took over its programming. The 500 capacity hits the sweet spot for serious touring acts who want a real listening room but still need the door to make sense.

The booking team's instinct for what works in the space has produced some of the most talked-about Los Angeles shows of the last five years. Mary Lattimore's harp residencies, Cass McCombs' acoustic runs, the regular Adrianne Lenker drop-ins. The room is the closest thing the city has to a Café Carlyle for the indie circuit, without the formality.

The building also still functions as an active Masonic lodge, which is the kind of Los Angeles fact you cannot make up. Members hold their meetings downstairs while a touring band sound-checks above their heads. The hall has its own kitchen and bar on the floor, and the staff treat the room with the kind of care that long-running music spaces earn over decades. Highland Park has changed around it. The hall has not.