The Seen: Hello Dollies

The biggest surprise of Saturday night's pre-Grammy bash thrown by Rhino Entertainment and Los Angeles magazine (proceeds benefited L.A. Works) was not that salty punk headliners New York Dolls are still loud and still rock, nor was it the very un-Hollywood, very un-self-conscious dancing to a "Single Ladies" remix that filled the floor in the last minutes of a DJ set by Juno director Jason Reitman and Mateo Messina. Nor was it any post-Jackass prank reverberations from Wee-Man, nor any post-Laguna Beach reality from Chase Johnson, though both were in attendance. No, the biggest surprise of the night was from the (sadly) non-lipstick-ed lips of David Johansen, longtime lead singer of the Dolls. "We're going to play a new song tonight. It's called … 'Jazz Odyssey'." Stunned silence. Then, nervous laughter. Johansen gave a wry, "Just kidding," and the Dolls began to thunder again, even louder than before. Some things never change.

All photographs courtesy of Forest Casey except #11 photograph by Docuvitae