Two Rooms: L.A.'s Newest Gateway to Live Music

Mixed Asian Media - March 10, 2023

By Jalen Jones

Photos by Andre Nuestro

Looking for weekend plans? Lauren Lee has officially kicked off Two Rooms, a new monthly show in Los Angeles focusing on “feel-it-in-your-bones” live music. The event series is the “third space” you didn’t know you needed, where you can celebrate the enthralling energy that’s only possible in real-life, real-time, analog connections. The first show, which premiered in February themed as “The Friends & Family Show,” featured acts Nite Mrkt, Mc Tingbudong, and Cherbear. Lauren put the feeling best in her own words, “You know when you catch the opener you didn’t come to see, and they’re so good they don’t just turn your head, they break your neck? That’s the kind of artist I’m interested in booking.”

What sets Two Rooms apart from other shows is in its very name — two rooms come to life for every show: one room dedicated toward honoring live music, and a second room acting as a meeting place between artists, industry leaders, fans, and casual minglers. “My friends in the AAPI community and I realized we are a part of an incredible, empowering, nurturing community, but our reach didn’t extend far beyond that bubble. Two Rooms is a post-pandemic, friendship-making project, where all our different communities can mingle and grow stronger.” Ambitious, social, and contagiously eager, Lauren Lee quickly steers our conversation toward how Two Rooms came to be, and how its premiere also doubles as her 30th birthday party.

“I’m very excited about it. I've been throwing events since college, and have worked for festivals, talent buyers, venues, and artists management. Since I was 18, I wanted to own and manage my own venue. I’ve been pursuing this forever with lots of stops and starts, and learned a lot of lessons along the way regarding how to do things, how not to do things, how to work with people. I actually started an event series in January of 2020, which was going to be a monthly show. We did two shows, and sold out both times.”

This previous show was through Traktivist, an Asian American platform created to bring more visibility and sustainability to Asian American artists. Despite its early success, Lauren had to discontinue her previous monthly show due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She recalls filming a promo video with her team, and witnessing an NBA game shut down as their television played in the background. Two Rooms arrives in the wake of the pandemic — Lauren’s way of taking a stand for herself, and for L.A.’s creative and social community.

“A lot of the creative community took a break collectively. It's hard to be creative when you're in that situation. Everyone really thought through what their next step was going to be, myself included. At the end of two years of pandemic, I realized that I needed to get back into doing events. Like seriously — I'm not waiting for anyone to say yes, I am not waiting for another wave of COVID to hit… This is really just me being sick of the stops and starts and just doing it. 

Over the course of the pandemic I realized a lot about how much autonomy I have as a person. I used to wait for permission, from lots of different sources. This is me not asking for permission. I'm funding it myself, I've done all the branding, I've found the artists and have had them do branding for me as well. I've given them my vision; I am dedicated to doing everything right this time, and not stopping! I'm very passionate about that.”

I ask Lauren to tell me what sets Two Rooms apart from the rest — after all, L.A. has so many monthly shows to choose from.

“[Two Rooms] values really good live music, but also having community, and building that community.” She decides to explain the community aspect of Two Rooms first. “I'm getting older. I go to shows and I'm like, ‘It's too loud, I can't talk to my friends’ — boring shit. But all of my music career has been built on community; it's been built on the friends that I've made, the connections I've been able to make. Especially in post-pandemic times, I find myself at a lot more events where I'm meeting tons of people. I meet them one time, but don't really get a chance to continue to become friends with them — as in, have a central place where we all can gather all the time. [Two Rooms] is kind of a response to that.

I heard this term on TikTok — it’s called a ‘third place.’ There’s home, there’s school or work, and then this third place is where you have regular unplanned interactions with people and start to build community… I understand the importance of that space, and so I want this to become like a third place for people. I’m also Chinese, and Asian American. What we’ve built [in the Asian American community] is amazing and beautiful, but it’s a very small community. I’m looking for expansion, but don’t want to go out and venture on my own — I want to bring everyone together! I want to find members of the Latino community, members of the Black community, members of the queer community, and bring us all together. I want to start this movement of allyship in music that doesn’t have to be this really intense allyship allyship, you know?” Lauren exudes an air of casualness, matching the destined essence of Two Rooms. “I want us all to hang out at a show like that, and be like, ‘Okay, let’s exchange business cards. How do we move forward together?’”

Lauren recognizes the need for a space that brings us together and lets us simply enjoy ourselves, without work or politics weighing us down. But this is not to imply she doesn’t value progress in America’s marginalized communities. She recalls a recent realization, sparked when she saw Shang Chi marked as the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first Asian superhero — a leveraging hand when it came to Asians’ presence in mainstream media.

“That was like a huge marker of like, okay, as someone who’s pretty white passing, it’s time for me to start making moves — to start using my face as an ambassador that gets these different communities to intermingle. Making sure they know that entering communities of color isn’t ‘scary’ or ‘intimidating,’ or like they have to already have all the right answers… Just starting to build this season of allyship that we need.”

Our conversation takes us from the community room of Two Rooms, to the live music room. As someone who’s received a Bachelor of Music, Lauren admits that the friends and connections she historically makes are naturally biased towards the music-sphere. Luckily, this has helped her understand the life, habits, and desires of musicians to a T. “I am basically only friends with musicians, and [they all] hate content creation — they hate having to play their song to lip sync or make a dance to it, or whatever. What musicians really love and live for is performing live. It’s what gives them life, and that’s been true for every musician I’ve met. Part of [Two Rooms] is that I want to celebrate people who are just fucking amazing live.

It’s like when you think to go get a drink while the opener plays, and you’re surprised by how incredible they are. Whether it’s talent, or energy, or quality of their voice — something makes you listen to them. Really honoring that part of musicianship and artistry is important to me. Live music has always been a special space of connection for me — where artists can be like, ‘Alright, this is my heart, this is my insecurities, this is my hopes and dreams,’ and a room full of people respond back and say ‘me too.’ It’s huge. It still gives me goosebumps.”

Lauren reminisces over a surprising experience she had while watching a performance of a song called “Punk Rock Barbie.” During his performance of the song, the man dressed in a Coach jacket, pearls, and hand tattoos pointed at a girl in the front of the crowd, and declared her as his punk rock Barbie. “It was incredible,” Lauren says with a tender fondness. She was shocked to discover a new interest in punk rock kindling within, sparked by the flint and steel of the “Punk Rock Barbie” performance. The shocking newness of her experience reveals that Two Rooms is uniquely positioned to solve a very modern-day problem: the difficulty of naturally finding new music — especially songs that are outside of listeners’ usual genres. 

“If you're on Spotify, sure they may do a great job of helping you discover new artists, but it's always in the same genre. It’s because the algorithm is going to bring you things you like rather than things you don't like, right? It’s the same with social media. I really have to go way out of my way to find new artists and try to check my own biases.” The increasing algorithmization of modern culture seems to have made it more difficult for those who seek an increasingly diverse listening experience.

“It’s very challenging. I’m like everyone else — I have a genre, right? I love R&B and hip hop. But I also had an emo music streak, because that's what I listened to when I was in high school. So I have different ruts that I'm challenging myself to get out of, because there are so many amazing, for example, punk rock bands! I think there's something in an amazing live act that you just see, and are like ‘oh my god, is punk rock really good???’” As someone who may have never liked punk rock, that can be amazing. I want to book those artists, to share that experience with my friends, and anyone else who comes to the show.

This really speaks to being mixed — like the need for diversity is in my blood, literally. [Exploring new genres through live music] is something I'm challenging myself to do, and also what I want to challenge other people to do. Challenge your expectations, sit with something that's new and maybe even uncomfortable for a bit, so that you can learn more about the big world that we live in. Even the big world that's just Los Angeles!”

Two Rooms has announced that it will be back for another electrifying show in May. 

You can follow Lauren Lee and Two Rooms on Instagram @ tworooms__

See you in the second room!