Lucent L’amour, February 13, 2010, Shrine Expo Hall

Stick an exaggeratedly tall feather in your fedora hat and call it The Do LaB Valentine’s. On Saturday, February 13, the LA-based Do LaB crew transformed the Shrine Expo Hall into their own shrine to love, music, and art for the 5th annual Lucent L’amour. Calling itself “a visionary love fest,” Lucent L’amour promised to be “the transformation of one night into a spontaneous combustion of love and mayhem.”

Hey, the Burning Man crowd has to do something to fill the 357 days of the year that they aren’t spending on the Playa.

Inspired installation art is The Do LaB’s signature, and as usual they crossed all their t’s and dotted all their i’s. A big temple in the center of the floor glittered with golden, ornate detail. In the back of the main dance floor, a huge glowing tree climbed to the ceiling, with seating around its roots. It was Home Tree standing in the middle of a forest of décor and costuming that felt like a nod to everyone’s favorite fetish right now–Avatar.

And the crowd at Lucent L’amour was more than eye candy–they were eye triple-chocolate-truffle-cake-with-sprinkles. Navigating the fest were people in goddess headdresses, long fur coats, guy-liner, bunny ears, animal heads, feathers. Twisted mimes stilt-walked next to teddy-bear-headed pixies in lacy bloomers.

The second floor balcony level offered the Go Big lounge for those who shelled out for a VIP-style pass. The lounge had dance floor views, fresh fruit and yogurt pretzels, a separate bar, and velvet beds and seating–which were used for snuggle piles and intimate hugs as early as 10 p.m.

Full photo gallery below.

At about that time, Ana Sia was taking the main stage, rocking her dirty glitchy beats, getting the crowd energized for the night. On the outside stage, the performers varied from psychedelic sideshow acts like the Yard Dogs Road Show to eclectic bands like Beats Antique.

Also outdoors, the Lucent Dossier neo-Vaudvillers swung around on trapezes, giving us their best silent circus “O” faces. Flame-throwing intricate junk structures rose high in front of the Hug Deli. At the Deli, two compliments can get you anything off the menu of hugs, from a Gangsta Hug to a Beverly Hills Air Kiss Hug.

After walking around outside, my friend and I headed back up to the Go Big lounge for drinks and found a significant line. We were about three people away from beer time (yay), when a lady approached wearing a red windbreaker with “ALCOHOL COMPLIANCE SUPERVISOR” on the back. Duh duh duhhhh. Alcohol sales ended at 12 a.m.! Buzzkill.

I Googled “bar” and within 5 minutes we power walked up Figueroa to 901 Bar, a 100% USC Trojans bar–-the polar opposite of Lucent L’amour’s dirty beats and imaginative, glowing atmosphere. No one looked older than 22, Olympic speed-skating flickered on the flat screens, and–no lie–”Party in the USA” by Miley Cyrus was blasting. We had our drinks and were out the door back to Lucent L’amour.

Back in the Shrine, N.A.S.A. was bringing their hip-hop slash electronic alien invasion to the main stage. Silver-skirted go-go dancers were hopping around to “Intergalactic” by the Beastie Boys, with “Thriller” footage on the big screens. An alien costumed b-boy did handstands and the ambassador from Mars Attacks hyped the crowd in front of an inflatable space station. After mixing Rage Against the Machine into “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” the crowd was brought on stage to dance out the set.

The crowd was starting to look like human lava lamps, bubbling and morphing and dancing around. Bassnectar and his long, death metal hair took the main stage next, a favorite and major draw for this event. A guy behind him played what looked like an over-sized Wacom tablet. It was like the futuristic version of the already whoa-futuristic keytars of the ‘80s. Whatever he was drawing had the crowd going nuts. Maybe it was this:

Lazer Sword closed out the night in the outdoor area and Stanton Warriors took the main stage around 2:30 to wrap up the night with psychedelic cupids, beats, and Alice’s tea party on the main stage.

I would now like to give Lucent L’amour two compliments (you’re pretty and you have a nice personality) and get a Group Hug in return. XOXO.