When people think of Los Angeles, what comes to mind is often movie making and movie stars. Along with that comes premieres and after parties. During my time of living in LA, and due to the fact that I married into a movie-making family, I’ve had the fortunate opportunity to attend a few movie premieres, the most recent of which was Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows, and what an evening it was.

My husband and I arrived at Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood in a car with my father-in-law, my husband’s brother and his wife. After a few photos of us all together at the beginning of the red carpet, we left my father-in-law behind to continue with the photographers, and we proceeded onwards to the entrance of the theater. Once inside we helped ourselves to the free popcorn and sodas and headed to our seats. We were not allowed to linger in the lobby during this special event.

The movie eventually began. It takes a while for all the stars to make their way down the red carpet and to their seats. During that time, we hung out in our seats munching our popcorn and caught occasional glimpses of famous faces and said hello to more familiar ones.

An interesting aspect of movie premieres is that there’s applause at every name and company that comes up in the credits, and then of course there’s great applause and many congratulatory greetings at the end.

After the movie, we all headed across the street to the after-party. We were guided down the middle of Hollywood Boulevard as crowds of fans, and probably some lucky tourists who were at the right place at the right time, tried to get views and photos of the stars from behind the barriers.

A tent had been set up in a parking lot and it was decorated and adorned to look just like we were entering the mansion that was a focal point in the movie. Inside chandeliers and disco balls were hanging from the ceiling, just like in the party scene in the movie. In the movie’s mansion, there is a grand staircase and of course this staircase was featured at the after party as well.

The highpoint of the evening was a performance by Alice Cooper. Alice Cooper performs at a party in the movie, and he took the stage with gusto at the after party as well. What we soon discovered was that Johnny Depp was also on stage, playing guitar. Soon, another famous guitarist joined them, Joe Perry of Aerosmith. And then what do you know, Steven Tyler of Aerosmith and American Idol fame jumped on stage as well. It became a super star-studded concert performance of epic proportions, about which you can read more here if you’re interested.

Can you pick out Johnny Depp, Joe Perry, Steven Tyler, and Alice Cooper?

Not all after parties have this kind of entertainment.  This one will stand out for a long time.