Gazzarri's

Closed - Current Keyclub location 
9039 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA

Gazzarri's (February 21, 1967 - 1995) was a nightclub on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, California, United States. The Key Club opened in 1996 at the same location after Gazzari's was demolished.

It is most notable as the location where both The Doors and Van Halen were the featured house bands for long stretches before being discovered. It was also the LA club featured in 'Huey Lewis and The News' MTV video for their hit "The Heart of Rock and Roll."

The club reached its peak of popularity in the mid-1960s through the late 1980s, and was owned and operated by the "Godfather of Rock and Roll", Bill Gazzarri. Gazzarri himself was known for dressing up as a Chicago-style gangster and frequenting the club on performance nights. Located near the corner of Doheny and Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, and just several dozen yards from both the Rainbow Bar and Grill and The Roxy Theatre, Gazarri's became famous as a home of future rock and roll stars.

Along with The Roxy Theatre, The Whisky a Go Go, Troubadour, The Starwood, and other nearby nightclubs, it was a staple of the Los Angeles music scene in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Bands that played at Gazzarri's either prior to or during their mainstream success include The Doors, Buffalo Springfield, Huey Lewis and The News, Tina Turner, Van Halen, Ratt, Cinderella, Quiet Riot, Stryper, Mötley Crüe, Poison, Guns N' Roses, Warrant, and Faster Pussycat. Other notable local, Los Angeles area bands to play there included Redd Kross, Destiny, Shark Island, Taz, Tuff, Foxx, Reinkus Tide, D'Molls, and Pretty Boy Floyd. Many giant, hand-painted pictures of these bands adorned the side of the club's outside wall for many years, acting as yet another over-sized billboard in the already-crowded West Hollywood billboard vista.

The 100 yard stretch of sidewalk on Sunset Boulevard that ran from the front steps of Gazarri's, to the parking lot between the Rainbow Bar and Grill and The Roxy Theatre, was the national center of the 1980s glam metal movement that spawned dozens of MTV bands and radio hits. Aspiring bands and musicians from around the world, coming to Los Angeles to make it big, eventually found themselves on this small stretch of sidewalk passing out their flyers, watching the competition in the clubs, or enjoying the scene packed with thousands of other musicians, famous rock stars, porn stars, groupies, and Los Angeles teenagers.

The bar was also a dance club, and Gazzarri's would often combine the strip-club-like dancing of attractive, young girls in between live band performances. The bar became a favorite hangout for rock n' roll celebrities.

Trivia
Bill Gazzarri liked Van Halen so much that he would tip lead singer David Lee Roth after performances, a rare act for a club owner. However, he thought Roth's name was "Van Halen." Roth was quoted as saying, "He'd come up to me, slip some extra money in my pocket, and say "Here ya go, Van. It was a great night.'"

According to David Lee Roth in his book "Crazy From The Heat", Gazzarri lured young girls to his club office to have sex while Roth watched.

In 1987, Guns N' Roses, who had agreed with their record company not to perform locally, played a sold-out show at Gazzarri's under the secret moniker "Fargyn Bastydges".

The club features prominently in director Penelope Spheeris's documentary of the late 80s Heavy Metal scene The Decline of Western Civilization II: The Metal Years.

The Ash Grove

Closed - A historic nightclub in Los Angeles

The Ash Grove was a folk music club in Los Angeles, founded in 1958 by Ed Pearl and named after the Welsh folk song, "The Ash Grove."

In its short fifteen years, the Ash Grove forever altered the music scene in Los Angeles and helped many artists find a West Coast audience. Bob Dylan recalled that, "I'd seen posters of folk shows at the Ash Grove and used to dream about playing there...." He did.

The club was a locus of interaction between older folk legends, such as Mississippi John Hurt, Son House and Muddy Waters, and young artists that produced the 'Sixties music revolution. Among those Pearl brought to the Ash Grove were Doc Watson, Pete Seeger, June Carter, Johnny Cash, Phil Ochs, Joan Baez, Johnny Otis, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, Ian and Sylvia, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGee, The New Lost City Ramblers, The Weavers, The Greenbriar Boys, Lightning Hopkins, Barbara Dane, Holly Near, Arlo Guthrie, Mance Lipscomb, Guy and Candie Carawan, John Jacob Niles, Bukka White and Kris Kristofferson.

A "University" of Folk Music
Folk singer Ross Altman likened the Ash Grove to a "West Coast University of Folk Music." Ry Cooder first played back-up guitar at the Ash Grove when he was sixteen years old. Linda Ronstadt got her start hanging out at the Ash Grove. "My goal in those days was just to play the Ash Grove in Los Angeles because that was the center of folk music at the time," she remembered. "The first place I went in Los Angeles was the Ash Grove. That is where I met Kenny Edwards. Kenny liked Mexican music and we started the Stone Ponys."

While the club was best known for "folk" or "roots" music, such as bluegrass and blues, Ed Pearl also featured socially-committed jazz and rock artists, such as Oscar Brown, Jr., Chuck Berry and Jackson Browne. And, long before there was a recognized "world" genre in the music industry, the Ash Grove provided a venue in Los Angeles for such diverse performers as Ravi Shankar, Mongo Santamaria, Miriam Makeba and the Virgin Islands Steel Band.

The Ash Grove also became associated with the cultural and political ferment of the 1960s. In the coffee house tradition, Pearl encouraged an occasional mix of music with poetry, lecture, film or comedy. Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl, Rowan & Martin and Steve Allen brought their comedy and commentary to the Ash Grove. Luis Valdez's El Teatro Campesino performed, as did Dr. Demento, poet Charles Bukowski and artists campaigning against the Vietnam war, such as Jane Fonda.

Attacks and Closing
When travelers returning from Cuba gave talks or showed Cuban films, the Ash Grove became the target of angry demonstrations and threatened violence by Cuban exiles. A series of fires, including what patrons believed was an arson attack, led to the club's demise in 1973.

Following the military coup in Chile that same year, Pearl lent his expertise to Los Angeles solidarity activists, helping them set up major concerts for such Latin American nueva cancion groups as Inti-Illimani, Quilapayun, Los Parra and Los Folkloristas, as well as the first-ever Los Angeles concert by Catalan singer-songwriter Joan Manuel Serrat. These events were part of the gestation of world music in Los Angeles.

Legacy
Some 3,000 hours of recorded live performances at the Ash Grove have survived. In 2007 Aiyana Elliott, who made an award-winning 2000 documentary about the life of her father, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, began work on a film exploring the history of the Ash Grove. A three-day concert and workshop series to commemorate the Ash Grove's fiftieth anniversary was scheduled for April 18-20, 2008, at UCLA.

In a way, the Ash Grove was a victim of its own success, helping develop Los Angeles audiences for younger musicians who then needed larger venues for their concerts. But none of the city's new clubs consistently emphasized the roots music that Pearl put at the heart of the Ash Grove's line up. Pearl blamed consolidation in the music industry for undermining the coffeehouse music tradition and closing the door on socially-committed artists. The big companies bought up small labels to gain control of their catalogues, he said; but they then did not support or promote new folk music talent. Corporate control of radio playlists homogenized musical culture, according to Pearl.

After the Ash Grove closed in 1973, LA Times music critic Robert Hilburn wrote its obituary, which included an anecdote about the club's influence on the Rolling Stones: "On his way out of the Ash Grove one night, Mick Jagger, a frequent visitor to the club, shook Pearl's hand in gratitude. He simply wanted to thank Pearl for all the entertainment – and no doubt musical education – the club had given him." And, Hilburn concluded, "The Ash Grove's contribution to this city's musical heritage was invaluable."

The Cobalt Cafe

22047 Sherman Way Canoga Park, CA
www.cobaltcafe.com
818.346.1698 

The Cobalt Cafe is an all ages venue in Canoga Park, California that caters to local bands that range from punk to Heavy metal to alternative. Some of the bands that got their start there include AFI, Jimmy Eat World, Less Than Jake, Incubus, Strung Out, Linkin Park (as Hybrid Theory), Avenged Sevenfold, Hoobastank, California Redemption, Shrouds Of Silence, and more. Hoobastank also included a prank call to Cobalt Cafe on their early release of Muffins EP

Early History
The Cobalt Cafe was founded by Dave Politi on January 17, 1991 - three days before the Gulf War. The Cobalt was one of the first coffee houses that started in the sleepy San Fernando Valley and was fashioned after the same manner of coffee house that San Francisco is known for. The original location of the Cobalt was on Ventura Boulevard in Woodland Hills, California where it remained for three years. The style of the Cobalt then consisted of acoustic music, weekly poetry readings, as well as an open mic night. Celebrities such as Mick Taylor from the Rolling Stones played there and Angelo from FishBone read poetry. January 14, 1994 was the Grand Opening of the Cobalt at its current location in Canoga Park, just three days before the Northridge earthquake.

Today
The Cobalt holds shows priced between 6$ and $8 almost every night of the week and has an open mic reading night on Tuesdays hosted by Rick Lupert

The Cobalt Cafe hosts a Battle of the Bands every Sunday of each Month. 15 Bands are involved 5 Bands play each of the 3 Sunday's and the winner of each Sunday move to the finals on the 4th Sunday, where cash prizes are awarded to the best bands.

The Roxy Theatre

9009 W Sunset Blvd, West Hollywood, California 90069
www.theroxyonsunset.com

The Roxy Theatre (often just The Roxy) is a famous nightclub on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, California.

It was opened on September 23, 1973 by Elmer Valentine and Lou Adler along with original partners David Geffen, Elliot Roberts and Peter Asher and PushPlay. They took over building previously occupied by a strip club owned by Chuck Landis called the Largo. (Adler was actually responsible for bringing the stage play The Rocky Horror Show to the United States, and it opened its first American run at The Roxy Theatre in 1974, before it was made into the movie The Rocky Horror Picture Show the next year.)

Paul Reubens, then a struggling comedian, introduced his Pee-Wee Herman character in a raunchy revue here in 1981 that included other aspiring comics including Phil Hartman and Elayne Boosler.

Hundreds of famous and yet-to-be-famous acts such as Bruce Springsteen, Brian Wilson, Nirvana, Tori Amos, Foo Fighters, Meat Loaf, Guns N' Roses, Isbelle Razors, Al Stewart, Linkin Park, Jane's Addiction, David Bowie, Jay-Z, and even the Pussycat Dolls have played this highly prestigious venue.

The small On The Rox bar above the club has hosted a wide variety of debauchery in its history; it was a regular hangout for John Lennon, Harry Nilsson, Alice Cooper and Keith Moon during Lennon's "lost weekend" in 1975, and in the 1980s hosted parties arranged by Heidi Fleiss.

According to LA.com, On The Rox "may be forever known as the club where John Belushi partied before fatally overdosing. That may sound like a sordid reason for the club's fame, but it only underscores the hard-partying reputation that befits a room equipped with two stripper poles.

Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention recorded most of their celebrated Roxy and Elsewhere album during December 1973 at The Roxy. Warren Zevon's live album "Stand in the Fire" was recorded during five shows he played at The Roxy in 1980.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers played their first show with their then new drummer Chad Smith at the venue on January 22, 1989.

The Coconut Teaszer was a bar and club on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles, California in the 1990s, formerly located at 8117 Sunset Blvd. (at the corner of Crescent Heights).

Their downstairs bar was called the Crooked Bar.

The Coconut Teaszer was a 1990s landmark for musicians to get noticed, and had hosted many bands including Stone Temple Pilots, Rage Against The Machine, Weazer, Stray Cats, Social Destortion, Hole, Gin Blossoms, Green Day, The Wallflowers, Smashmouth, Radiohead, and Alien Ant Farm.

For nearly three decades, the Coconut Teaszer was a bastion of L.A. rock. Bands such as the Wallflowers, Alien Ant Farm and Weezer had weekly residencies at the Sunset Strip nightclub and each walked away with major label deals. The Coconut Teaszer featured the first L.A. showcases by Nirvana and Green Day.

After closing, the 8117 Sunset Blvd. location later became the Shelter supperclub and then Privilege supperclub.

Viper Room

8852 Sunset Blvd, West Hollywood, California 90069
www.viperroom.com

The Viper Room is a nightclub located on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, California. It was opened in 1993 and was partly owned by actor Johnny Depp until 2004. The club is well known for having been the site where actor River Phoenix died of a drug overdose on Halloween morning in 1993.

Even following Phoenix’s death, the club remained a hang-out for Hollywood’s hottest young actors. Regulars included Jennifer Aniston and Sean Penn. Adding to that group, Adam Duritz, the lead singer of Counting Crows, hid out as a Viper Room bartender in late 1994 - early 1995 to escape his newfound fame.

Johnny Depp had asked Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers to play the club's opening night. They gladly obliged.

In Oliver Stone’s film, The Doors (1991), the Viper Room was used as a filming location for scenes depicting the London Fog, also of West Hollywood. London Fog was a lesser-known nightclub next to the Whisky a Go Go where The Doors had their first regular gig for four months in early 1966.

As part of the settlement of a lawsuit involving the disappearance of co-owner Anthony Fox in 2001, Depp relinquished his ownership of the Viper Room in 2004.  Until early 2008, the club was owned by Darin Feinstein, Bevan Cooney, and Blackhawk Capital Partners, Inc. The club is currently owned by Harry Morton, President and CEO of Pink Taco, and the son of Hard Rock Cafe co-founder Peter Morton. Morton plans to turn the gritty Sunset Strip club into a global franchise by opening several live music venues throughout the world, all of which will bear the name "The Viper Room."

The Troubadour

9081 Santa Monica Blvd West Hollywood, CA 90069
http://www.troubadour.com/

The Troubadour is a nightclub located in West Hollywood, California, USA, at 9081 Santa Monica Boulevard just east of Doheny Drive and the border of Beverly Hills.

The club opened in 1957. It was a major center for folk music in the 1960s, and subsequently singer-songwriters and rock.

The Troubadour played an important role in the careers of Elton John, Linda Ronstadt, Hoyt Axton, The Eagles, The Byrds, Joni Mitchell and other prominent and successful performers, who played engagements there establishing their fame. On August 25, 1970, Neil Diamond introduced Elton John, who performed his first show in the United States at the Troubadour. In 1974, John Lennon and his friend, Harry Nilsson, were ejected from the club for drunkenly heckling the Smothers Brothers. Randy Newman started out at the club and comics Cheech & Chong were discovered there. In 1975, Elton John returned to do a series of special anniversary concerts. In November 2007, James Taylor and Carole King played a series of concerts commemorating the nightclub's 50th anniversary and reuniting the two from their 1970 performance.

Other alumni include Damien Rice, Lenny Bruce, Neil Diamond, Leo Kottke, James Taylor, Bruce Springsteen, the Pointer Sisters, Sheryl Crow, George Carlin, Tom Waits, Rickie Lee Jones and too many more to name. The Troubadour was also home to folk legends such as Bob Dylan, Ramblin' Jack Elliot and Arlo Guthrie.

The Troubadour would also feature New Wave and punk in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and became virtually synonymous with heavy metal bands like Mötley Crüe, Guns N' Roses and W.A.S.P. in the 1980s and 1990s. In fact Guns N' Roses played their first show at the Troubadour and they were also "discovered" by a Geffen A&R representative at the club. There are a variety of styles of music played at the Troubadour to the present day and it continues to be one of Hollywood's favorite and most respected places to see live music.

The Troubadour was created by Doug Weston in the late 50’s as a coffee house on La Cienega Blvd. It then moved to its current location shortly after opening, and has remained open continuously ever since that first day. Some say there is no other club in the country that can compare to its infamous long standing Rock N Roll history.

In the late 70’s early 80’s Doug Weston had become weakened from both pressures of running the club throughout 50’s, 60’s and 70’s and excessive drug use. By the end of the 70’s, staff and crowd problems at the club had made it truly a dangerous place, so Doug asked a long time friend to become his partner to save the club..Eddie Karayan. Eddie knew very little about Rock N Roll and with English as a second language took on the challenge to help his friend and save The Troubadour.

Eddie is now the sole owner of the Troubadour and his daughter, Christine took over management of the Club after graduating college with a degree in Management, and runs the club today along with her sister Lenna.

In 1998 Doug Weston passed away from natural causes. There was a memorial held at the Troubadour with preformances and dedications from famous muscians spanning four decades of Rock N Roll as a Tribute To Doug Weston for his role in the success in so many muscian's careers.

Today, it is well known for presenting emerging UK artists (Radiohead, Coldplay, Franz Ferdinand, Arctic Monkeys), punk/hardcore acts,such bands Billy Talent & Rise Against, the latter filming five nights in a row for a DVD, Generation Lost. It is also still a popular venue to showcase sing-songwriters: Ray Lamontagne, Joanna Newsom, Fiona Apple.

Whisky a Go Go

8901 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
http://www.whiskyagogo.com/
INFORMATION (310)-652-4202 X15  

The Whisky a Go Go is a nightclub in West Hollywood, California. It is located at 8901 Sunset Boulevard on the Sunset Strip.

The correct spelling of the name, often misspelled as "Whiskey", is confirmed by the signage of the nightclub's exterior, as well as on the club's web site.

In 1958 the first Whisky a Go-Go in North America opened in Chicago, Illinois on the corner of Rush and Chestnut Streets. It has been called the first real American discothèque. In Paris, the original accented Whisky à Go-Go opened in 1947. A relatively new Whisky a Go-Go has been opened at the Old Port of Tel Aviv.

Though the club was billed as a discothèque, meaning only recordings with no bands, the Whisky a Go Go opened with a live band led by Johnny Rivers and a short-skirted female DJ spinning records between sets from a suspended cage at the right of the stage. When, in July 1965, the DJ danced during Rivers' set, the audience thought it was part of the act and the concept of Go-Go dancers in cages was born. Rivers rode the Whisky-born "go-go" craze to national fame with records recorded partly "live at the Whisky." The Miracles recorded the song "Going to a Go-Go" in 1966 (which was covered in 1982 by The Rolling Stones), and Whisky a Go Go franchises sprang up all over the country.

In 1966, the Whisky was one of the centers of the Sunset Strip police riots. The club was often in conflict with the County of Los Angeles, which once ordered that the name be changed, claiming "whisky" was a bad influence. It was the "Whisk?" for a while.

Arguably, the rock and roll scene in Los Angeles was born when the Whisky started operation. From rock to punk to heavy metal, the club stood at the forefront of many musical trends.

The Whisky played an important role in many musical careers, especially for bands based in Southern California. The Byrds, Alice Cooper, Buffalo Springfield and Love were regulars, and The Doors were the house band for a while-- until the debut of the "Oedipal Section" of "The End" got them fired. Van Morrison's band Them had a two-week residency in June, 1966, with The Doors as the opening act. On the last night they all jammed together on Gloria . Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention got their record contract based on a performance at the Whisky. Jimi Hendrix came by to jam when Sam & Dave headlined. Otis Redding recorded his album In Person at the Whiskey a Go Go there in 1966. The Turtles performed there when their newest (and biggest-selling) single "Happy Together" was becoming a hit, only to lose their new bassist, Chip Douglas (who had arranged the song), to the Monkees; guitarist Michael Nesmith invited him to become their producer. (He returned to the Turtles a year later, to produce them.).Neil Diamond also played at the Whisky on occasion. Chicago Transit Authority (later Chicago) was also a house band until discovered by Jimi Hendrix and brought on tour in 1968. Many British performers made their first headlining performances in the area at the Whisky, including The Kinks, The Who, Cream, Led Zeppelin, Roxy Music and Oasis.

Dustin Hoffman's character 'Benjamin' can be seen running out of The Whisky in the 1967 film The Graduate.

Arthur Lee of Love immortalized the Whisky in the song Maybe the people would be the times or Between Clark and Hilldale. "Here they always play my songs," he would sing on the side two opener of Forever Changes. The Whisky was located on the strip between the streets Clark and Hilldale

In the mid-1970s, The Whisky was the home of The Cycle Sluts, a cabaret show. However, Kim Fowley was able to persuade the management to return the club to rock music. On Thanksgiving Day, 1976, two Fowley-managed bands, Venus & The Razorblades and The Quick, began a four-night stand. Thanks to the club being filled, the Whisky continued on as a rock 'n' roll club.

The Whisky was a focus of the emerging New Wave and punk rock movements in the late 1970s, and frequently presented local acts as diverse as The Germs (which recorded its first album there), The Runaways, Quiet Riot, X, Mötley Crüe and Van Halen while playing host to early performances by the Ramones, The Dictators, The Misfits, Blondie, Talking Heads, Elvis Costello, XTC and The Jam.

The Whisky fell on hard times once the first flush of punk rock lost steam, and closed its doors in 1982. It reopened in 1986 as a "four-wall", a venue that could be rented by promoters and bands. Although a few booths remain on the perimeter, the interior has mostly been transformed into a bare, seatless space where the audience is forced to stand throughout the performances. A few sets of tables and chairs remain in the upstairs area, but these are often roped off as a "VIP" section, reserved for special guests of the bands, record executives, etc. Against this new economic backdrop, a number of hard rock and metal bands, including Guns N' Roses and Metallica, rose to prominence in the 1980s.

During the early 1990s, the Whisky hosted a number of Seattle-based musicians who would later be dubbed "the godfathers of grunge", including Soundgarden, Nirvana, Mudhoney, The Melvins, and 7 Year Bitch.

After re-uniting in early 2007, The Police held a live webcast of a rehearsal at the Whisky on February 12, 2007, and Avril Lavigne on November 6.

Criticism
Many bands, music insiders, promoters and others have criticized the Whisky as being a "pay to play" venue; that is, the venue charges an up-front fee to performing artists for the use of their facilities.