Pomp, Sax and Circumstance

President Clinton was in the house at Billboard Live on Monday night (we know this because the Secret Service would not allow anyone to use the handy Bank of America ATM on the Sunset Strip--the most popular one in the area). The rumor was that U2 was going to perform but it didn’t pan out. Instead, the president himself played sax with a jazz trio. . . .

There’s just something cool about rock stars making the scene, i.e., it usually means there’s a scene to be made. Dave Grohl turned up at the Opium Den on Monday night for a performance by L.A. locals Agnes Gooch, who played to a sold-out house (there was actually a line to get in). Gooch, which has been likened to a revved-up Cheap Trick, was celebrating the release of its debut album, “Blind,” before embarking on a second stage tour of Lollapalooza duty. . . .

Some like it hot and others like it low, low, low-key. That’s probably why the Drawing Room is a bar of choice for Silver Lake and Los Feliz denizens, as well as celebrities who want to keep it down down low. On occasion, you can find Tim Roth playing darts at the Hillhurst Avenue bar, as well as that terminal scenester Leonardo DiCaprio, who also hangs out around the corner at House of Pies (we’re serious). . . . Urb magazine took over a row of tables Monday at Louis XIV, the Euro-trash hang on La Brea Avenue in L.A., in honor of two U.K. Tek-step deejays, Fierce and Nico, who performed the night before at the Pink in Santa Monica at the jungle club Science. Fierce and Nico, who are not Euro-trash but rather modest lads, are popular for pioneering the techno-oriented drum-and-bass form (although they hate that label).