Article by: Jacquelyn Herbert
Photographs Courtesy of: Monzelle Dozier

“I think that what we’re really going for here is a place where people can come and see good art rather than [the] generic,” says Heather Rae, the VP of Booking at the Dakota Lounge in Santa Monica. Rising from Temple Bar’s ashes, the one-year-old music venue, restaurant, and bar strives to serve as more than just a typical music venue. Rae sums up the venue’s purpose by stating, “We wanted to use the best parts of what Temple Bar was and add our own vision of where we see the live music industry going.”

With each night geared toward a certain genre of music, Dakota Lounge aspires to leave no sound or style neglected.  ”We’re not just forward-thinking in terms of hip hop, electro, and DJ, but now we have this well-rounded spectrum of the future trends of all types of music, which [we] think is important.  We don’t want to focus on just one genre,” Rae comments when reflecting on the very diverse artists hosted by Dakota Lounge.  Performers ranging from Janelle Monae to U-N-I, Trevor Hall, Matisyahu, and Gray Kid have already graced the stage at Dakota Lounge and left audiences with many memorable experiences, including stage eccentricities such as an antlered host doing push ups between sets and on a rare occasion, Dita Von Teese in a porcelain bathtub beginning a dance number for Josh Duhamel’s and Fergie’s bachelor-bachelorette party.  Rae comments, “We’re in the live music industry so we don’t want to have bands just come in and perform just for themselves.  We want fully integrated shows where people have the experience of witnessing [a] band’s music, and the bands have the experience of getting out to [the] people.”

Aiding and abetting in these unforgettable nights are Rae and her co-worker Brandon Lavoie, who both handle the venue’s booking. The cause for the venue’s stellar performances and memorable acts derive from their live music philosophy, “It’s one thing to listen to an mp3 or see a You Tube clip online, but I’m a big advocate that the experience is what it’s really about.  I like seeing the bands play live, and if I see that energy in a positive way at that time, then I’m sold,” says Brandon.

In favor of the artistic experience, Dakota Lounge has started a Sunday-night ritual called “Across the Pond,” allowing more underground acts to venture into Santa Monica, including but not limited to, music found more frequently in the Silverlake area, as well as local artists – artists whose work premieres at “Across the Pond” and then remains on exhibit there for a month.  Rae mentions, “Up until Dakota Lounge, I was doing a lot of the really underground events like poetry book releases, and that’s kind of what I did…you’ll see that integration of art and DJ and music and culture more in smaller spots, but for our 300 capacity music venue to take that, I think that’s really cool.”

Dakota Lounge fills its nights with a kind of consistency allowing music lovers to bank on their favorite genre each night, each week.  Sunday’s “Across the Pond” aren’t the only recurring crowd, as Mondays are reserved for acoustic singer/songwriter sets, Tuesdays, rock, Wednesdays are college-themed night incorporating local, young, aspiring artists, while Thursdays turn Dakota Lounge into a salsa club.

Rae comments on the slightly off-beat Thursday nights saying, “It probably doesn’t fully play into Brandon and mine’s vision of what we want the music to be, but when me and Sabrina (one of Dakota’s two owners) lived together, we were always like, ‘we wish we had a sexy salsa bar, where we could put on heels and just go and dance to an authentic 14-piece salsa band like jamming and sweating on stage’…and literally on Thursdays we clear all the tables and chairs because every square inch is covered by people dancing by the bar, outside on the sidewalk, in the lounge it’s awesome.”

In the same way that you look for adventures and experiences with your friends, Dakota Lounge strives to do the same.  Rae reminisces over a recent Dakota experience saying, “In that moment, when you’re a part of this crowd, and experiencing something that is only happening because you put it together, you realize that this is what the industry should be about…it should be just a bunch of people that are all friends.”  And that’s the exact vibe the venue employs, literally.  The entire staff are the best of friends, filling in for each other, hanging out, and joking around, all while running a venue that emanates that vibe.

After all, Dakota is an Indian word, meaning friend.

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