The best clubs in Los Angeles, from Avalon to Exchange LA and Sound

Avalon and the Hollywood Palace.

Avalon Hollywood stands at 1735 Vine Street, near the corner of Hollywood and Vine and across the road from the Capitol Records Building. It opened on 24 January 1927 as the Hollywood Playhouse, a theatre. The building changed names several times, including the El Capitan and the Jerry Lewis Theatre, and from 1964 it was the Hollywood Palace, where ABC filmed a variety show. DJ Mag notes that the Beatles made their West Coast debut there that year.

It was sold in 1978 and reopened as The Palace, a music venue: the Ramones played their final show there on 6 August 1996. In September 2002 it was bought again and renamed Avalon, and from 2004 its club night, Avaland, brought in the DJs who defined the big-room trance and progressive house era: Tiësto, Sasha, John Digweed and Paul Oakenfold.

Avalon is still the room for that sound. DJ Mag placed it at number 64 in its Top 100 Clubs for 2026, with a Void Acoustics system, and in 2025 Eric Prydz played his 20 Years of Pryda show there. Insomniac bought the club in September 2025, its first change of ownership in 50 years, according to DJ Mag. Avalon also hosts Tongue Pop, an LGBTQ+ series, and Tigerheat on Thursdays.

Exchange LA and the Stock Exchange building.

Exchange LA is at 618 Spring Street, in the building where the Los Angeles Stock Exchange traded from 1931 to 1986. The building has been a Historic-Cultural Monument of the city since 3 January 1979. A nightclub called The Stock Exchange opened there in the late 1980s, and Exchange LA opened in 2010 after a renovation of about $5 million.

DJ Mag describes four floors over 25,000 square feet, and ranked the club 48th in the world in 2026. It closed briefly in 2024 for renovation and reopened with a 360-degree video wall. Its newest series, Mutate, is for hard techno.

Insomniac and the LA rave.

Insomniac was founded by Pasquale Rotella, and its first festival in the city set the pattern for the rest. The Electric Daisy Carnival began in 1991 in Chino, run by Stephen Hauptfuhr, and Insomniac's first EDC was in 1997 at the Shrine Expo Hall in Los Angeles. From 2007 to 2010 it filled the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The 2010 edition drew about 185,000 people, and a 15-year-old, Sasha Rodriguez, died after attending. The next year the festival moved to Las Vegas, where it has stayed: the EDC Las Vegas guide covers it.

Insomniac kept its clubs at home. It runs Academy LA, Exchange LA and Avalon, along with Create and the warehouse parties of Factory 93, so a large share of the big Los Angeles nightclubs book through one company.

The best clubs in Los Angeles now.

Of the nightclubs in Los Angeles, four made DJ Mag's Top 100 Clubs for 2026: Academy LA at 44, Exchange LA at 48, Avalon at 64 and Sound at 86. All five clubs that 6AM names for the city made its list of the 40 best house and techno clubs in North America: Academy LA, Lot 613, Sound, Exchange LA and Avalon.

Academy LA is on Hollywood Boulevard, holds about 1,000 and is run by Insomniac. DJ Mag counts 145 LED panels in the ceiling, a Funktion-One system and two patios. Among the best clubs in LA, it is the one that books the widest range, from Korolova to Benny Benassi and Gryffin.

Sound and LA house music.

Sound opened in Hollywood in 2012, on Las Palmas Avenue, and holds about 600. DJ Mag says the name says it all: it has a Funktion-One system and 3D-mapped visuals, and books house and techno DJs such as Maceo Plex, CamelPhat and Max Styler. 6AM points to its California redwood interior and calls it the room for deep house and the underground.

Framework, the Friday party, has been at Sound since 2015, according to Time Out, with DJs including Danny Tenaglia, Soul Clap, Marques Wyatt, Stacey Pullen, Seth Troxler and Felix da Housecat. Framework also throws bigger events around the city: Hot Since 82 played its Knee Deep in Los Angeles night at Union Station.

Marques Wyatt, on that Framework list, is one of the city's own house DJs. This set was recorded for Beatport in Los Angeles in 2021.

Catch One.

Jewel's Catch One, at 4067 West Pico Boulevard, was opened in 1973 by Jewel Thais-Williams. It became the longest-running Black gay dance club in Los Angeles, and Sylvester, Whitney Houston and Madonna all appeared there.

In November 2015 the building was bought by new owners, the Edelsons. It was briefly called Union and is now Catch One again.

Warehouses and EDM clubs in Los Angeles.

The underground side of LA nightlife leans on warehouses. Lot 613, on Imperial Street, is a 6,000-square-foot warehouse with a courtyard of the same size, and LA Weekly named it the city's best club in 2016 and 2018. Lights Down Low, a Los Angeles party, brought Boys Noize to play for Boiler Room in 2021.

For EDM clubs Los Angeles has Academy LA and Avalon, both now Insomniac rooms, which book the big-room names and trance between the techno nights. Exchange LA covers both ends, with mainstage DJs on some nights and Mutate on others.

Hear Los Angeles before you go.

For other cities, the NYC clubs guide, the Chicago clubs guide and the Miami clubs guide cover the rest of the American circuit, and the best nightclubs in the world puts these rooms in a wider list.