The California Institute for Abnormal Arts may well be the weirdest place to see a band in Los Angeles. Not only are they a live music venue, they also show terrifying films, host macabre stage shows, and horrible freak shows. The venue itself is stuffed to the gullet with oddities, dead French clowns, mannequins, shrunken heads, and just all-out weird stuff. Yes- there is the corpse of a real dead French clown, Achile Chatouilleu, who died in 1912 lying in a glass case by the bar. CIA has lots of rooms, all painted in crazy patterns, the kind that will make you think you're having some kind of psychotropic experience. The performers here tend to be on the crazy/weird/horrific side, and will often jump into the audience to make sure you're having a crazy/weird/horrific time as well. Check CIA's website before you decide to go, they're not open every night, or even really seem to be on a discernable schedule. Bring some friends, and prepare to walk in to what could have been the local neighborhood bar from Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses. Just one visit will either keep you coming back or running for the hills, but the California Institute for Abnormal Arts is a must-see in the Los Angeles music venue world.