This is really a recording studio with a "live soundstage" and full 5.1 Surround Sound DVD recording capabilites. But the audience area feels like a Manhattan loft with cement floors and woven textiles here and there. Best of all are the leather couches that give the air of a friend's living room. The spinning disco ball casts spotlights that run at an angle on the wall so you feel like you are on a ship or ready to fall down, but otherwise everything there has a great vibe to it: from the back alley entrance rather than using the clubby looking front door, the NY types that run the place, and the industry-insider crowd that was at the opening (I didn't see a single person from the African crowd that follows the music, in fact quite a few there had never seen an African band before).

Watch for this club to become the "in" Hollywood spot. Everything about it is designed to create a rich speakeasy feel, with a band that jams rather than polishes their act. Pure old-school highlife jazz and funky afrobeat (including covers of Fela songs) are the order of the night with Remi Kabaka and The Batakoto Rhythms as the regular house band. They are trying to recreate the glory days in the 60's when Remi had his own underground club in Lagos that was the place to hang and jam.

Updated March 1: It appears that Club 56 will only hold special events and that the Fela Night will move to a different location nearby. Destination unknown at this point.