GAG Is Your Fave Pop Stars’ Fave LA Party
With bar close at 2 AM in Los Angeles, the pressure is always on to pack in your night early (before any afters, at least).
For one year now, GAG at the West Hollywood EDITION has served as the city’s go-to party for the type of club kid who wants to hear those club classics… club, club classics. Launched by Alex Chapman and Zoe Gitter, GAG has booked special DJ sets from the likes of Trixie Mattel and Tove Lo, while locking in stacked guest lists for every installment: Hari Nef, Kim Petras, Symone, Ashnikko, Dorian Electra and Zara Larsson have all stopped by, sweating with the crowd and hopping behind the DJ booth.
To celebrate GAG’s one-year anniversary on April 25, Chapman and Gitter brought in the 1975’s George Daniel, who arrived with his fiancé Charli XCX. Once announced, the lineup inevitably attracted excitement online among Angels, who lined up around the block of the Edition to party with the queen of the club scene herself. Of course, Daniel played “Club Classics” off BRAT, and the room went wild. For GAG’s co-founders, this is the recipe for a solid LA party: “good music” and a “good crew.”
See photos from GAG’s one-year celebration, below, and read about Alex Chapman and Zoe Gitter’s contribution to LA nightlife.
How did you two first connect?
Alex Chapman: We have a mutual friend,
Blu DeTiger, who asked us both to DJ her birthday. We ended up going b2b and had so much fun — I think our styles complement each other really well.
How did the idea for GAG initially come about?
Zoe Gitter: Alex and I have both traveled and partied all over the world, and felt there weren’t many iconic parties in LA that felt the same. We wanted to bring some of that energy here — create a night where people could really dance to good music and feel sexy.
What did you see missing from LA nightlife when developing GAG?
Alex Chapman: Something that’s glam where you can also dance and be gay. It’s either warehouses or sit-down drinks here. I wanted a place where I could hear Kylie Minogue remixes without having to use a port a potty.
What’s the difference between NYC and LA nightlife?
Zoe Gitter: Ugh, everything. I mean parties that can go until 4 AM are an entirely different deal. The energy gets hotter, the DJs create an even more intense environment. I feel like scenes in NY are deeper and the music gets grittier. Since LA is such an early city, we’re trying to pack all of that in before 2 AM.
What’s the secret to a really good night out in LA?
Alex Chapman: Good music, a good crew and an afters that’s just exclusive enough.
What go-to song really gets the GAG crowd going?
Zoe Gitter: Anything by Kim or Charli.
What’s the wildest song request you’ve received?
Alex Chapman: I used to throw a party called “Duh” in New York. One time Lindsay Lohan came — she didn’t like what I was playing, so she handed me her phone and asked me to play music from it. The phone was dead, but I thought that was super iconic nonetheless.
Who’s been the craziest GAG guest to date?
Zoe Gitter: Charli XCX and George Daniel tore the house down.
What’s been your most memorable GAG night of the past year?
Alex Chapman: Playing “Club Classics” in a club with Charli was pretty insane.
What’s the first thing you do when you get home from GAG?
Zoe Gitter: Toss and turn over how iconic it was.
Photography: The Cobrasnake
With bar close at 2 AM in Los Angeles, the pressure is always on to pack in your night early (before any afters, at least). For one year now, GAG at the West Hollywood EDITION has served as the city’s go-to party for the type of club kid who wants to hear those club classics……