If the Walt Disney Music Hall is where your mom serves tea, then the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (REDCAT) is the black-box basement hangout for the kids.

This literally underground space features experimental art from dance, live theater, film and video screenings. The stark 3,000-square-foot gallery space will display pretty much anything from photography to large-scale sculptural installations. However, you probably won't see stodgy, blue-haired matrons at this out-there space, even though the REDCAT is no garage theater. It boasts Walt Disney Concert Hall-quality acoustics and has two sound systems to accommodate live performances and screenings. The Gallery is hooked up like a hip-hop mogul's Escalade with ethernet and fiber-optic lines, floors with extreme weight-load capacity, and access to remote light and soundboards. And no basement hangout is complete without a wet bar. The plywood-walled lounge is a pleasantly warm repose from Disney Hall's silver and steel. Pierced and tattooed REDCAT patrons can sip coffee or a cocktail while waiting for traffic-stuck friends. And the Angeleno culture books for browsing and buying come from Dutton's Brentwood Bookstore, another one of LA's independent-minded establishments.
—LA.com