KCRW ‘Masquerade’ Fundraiser: Our NPR Station Is Way Cooler Than Yours

Photo: Henry Rollins by Jeremiah Garcia

Not sure how the rest of the NPR umbrella is faring in its fundraising efforts in the wake of the Juan Williams fiasco. But here in Los Angeles, our member station KCRW seems to have figured out a nice formula for bringing in the cash — being awesome. KCRW put on its annual Halloween-eve “Masquerade” fundraising party on Saturday. And let’s just say this was not your mid-90s scweddy balls NPR scene.

This Fishie showed up at around 11 at night and there was a woman in wet, white lace soaking in a Victorian bathtub getting her feet rubbed and moaning orgasmicly. As we said: awesome.

The event was held at the cavernous Park Plaza and it was packed — there were easily a few thousand costumed heads. 14 KCRW DJs took turns sharing four different stages throughout the building. Tickets were 75 bucks a pop and the event looked to be sold out — not  bad, especially considering the entertainment largely consisted of DJ sets you can listen to for free on the radio every week.  It certainly speaks to the station’s cultural cache that they were able to pack a massive space relying mainly on their in-house guys. That said, Cut Chemist, Gram Rabbit and The Duke Spirit also had sets.

Photo: Jeremiah Garcia

Highlights:

• Henry Rollins in a Superman costume rocking out to James Brown and generally selecting an amazing hour long set of music. Not bad for a guy who doesn’t seem to really like DJs.
• The aforementioned orgasmic Victorian woman in the bathtub and other oddities from the avaunt garde performing troupe Lucent Dossier.
• The Park Plaza building itself — a Gothic treasure that architects today don’t seem to have the talent or work ethic to improve upon, so they put up crappy glass and steel Modernist garbage instead.
• The ghost storytelling parlor — a quiet antechamber where performers took turns telling at times bittersweet, sexy or scary stories. Much cooler than we’re probably making it sound.

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