DECADES OF DECADENCE TO CLIMAX IN L.A. IN 2016, WHEN MÖTLEY CRÜE RETURNS TO ROCK SUNSET ONE LAST TIME
‘After New Year’s [2016], we’ll do three nights at one of the arenas in L.A. and then do a special show at the Whisky-a-Go-Go on our 35th anniversary.’
— VINCE NEIL (Las Vegas Weekly)
STREET ARTIST HUGE GIVES THE SUNSET STRIP A ‘MINI KISS’
A curious new character has popped up on Sunset Boulevard this week.
Sunset and Clark spotted this four foot tall heavy metal midget affixed to a utility box on Sunset and Horn, across from the old Tower Records Sunset location.
We give major props to the guerilla artist, Huge, not only for the bizarre yet badass idea to morph two timeless pop culture icons, KISS‘ Ace Frehley and Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me’s Mini-Me, but also for showcasing one of the coolest rock artifacts ever: the Gibson Flying V!
SLASH AND MYLES KENNEDY & THE CONSPIRATORS SET FOR THREE-NIGHT L.A. TOUR AT ICONIC ROCK CLUBS, SEPT. 23, 25 & 26
Legendary GN’R alum and Sunset Strip rock refugee Slash is heading back to West Hollywood and Rock Row in September to shred at three of the city’s most iconic rock clubs: Troubadour, Roxy and The Whisky A Go Go. The three-night mini-tour will have Slash reuniting with his SSMF 2010 guest artist, occasional studio collaborator and frequent touring mate, Myles Kennedy and his band Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators.
The band will first head over to Santa Monica Boulevard and Doheny and hit up the iconic Troubadour on September 23 for a headlining gig before cruising up to Sunset on September 25 to rock the Roxy. The party continues on September 26, when Slash and Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators take center stage at the world-famous Whisky A Go Go.
Get tickets and additional details here. See you at the shows!
BEEN A LONG TIME SINCE YOU ROCK & ROLLED? GET SET TO SHOUT AT THE DEVIL & DANCE THE NIGHT AWAY ONCE AGAIN!
Not enough metal in your summer? Bummed about the closing of Rock Row landmark Hollywood SoundCheck? Disappointed by the lack of classic metal bands in the SSMF 2014 lineup? Don’t fret. A good mix of hard rockin’ fan bands is coming to a stage near you to save your end-of-summer partying.
On September 12, a hard rocking trio of cover bands paying homage to three of the biggest rock groups in history–Van Halen, Bon Jovi and Motley Crue–will set their amps to 11 and rattle the roof of House of Blues Anaheim. Giving L.A. rock fans a good reason to make the commute over to The O.C. is Atomic Punks, the L.A. Music Awards-winning tribute band whose spot-on covers of early VH tracks has made fans out of metal aficionados like Bret Michaels and Howard Stern; Crue-worshipping rockers Motley Inc.; and Wanted, which will attempt to rock a million–or a couple hundred–faces with scorchin’ renditions of Bon Jovi’s runaway hits. Get tickets and additional details here.
The next night, on September 13, head over to House of Blues Sunset for a trip back to the awesome ’80s with Brit band The Molly Ringwalds. The costumed cover rockers’ roster of retro rock and pop classics generally includes tunes by Sunset Strip icons like Guns N’ Roses, The Go-Gos, Motley Crue and Poison. Timeless tracks by Eighties metal monsters like Twisted Sister and Whitesnake also often wind their way into The Molly Ringwalds’ set list. And considering that these cover rockers are from Sheffield, England, you can expect to hear some anthemic hits from the group’s hometown heroes, Def Leppard.
Wanna get rocked? The Whisky A Go Go is the spot to head to on September 16, when fellow Def Leppard lovers Pyromania takes center stage as headliners of the return of AXS TV’s concert show The World’s Greatest Tribute Bands. Get more details and free tickets here.
Stroll the Sunset Strip east the following week and hit up House of Blues Sunset for a night of good times, rad times when Led Zeppelin 2 cranks up its amps on September 25. Winding down its national tour through America, the Chicago-based band sticks so close to Zeppelin’s repertoire that you can expect to get a contact high just by watching. It’s also why Metallica guitar legend Kirk Hammet has publicly declared, “These guys sound fucking exactly like Led Zeppelin!”
ROBERT TRUJILLO TO REUNITE WITH MASS MENTAL AUG. 26
Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo is keeping good on a promise made earlier this summer and is heading back to the Sunset Strip to rock the Whisky A Go Go with a reunited Mass Mental on August 26.
The all-ages show will feature Trujillo once again jamming with his funky, pre-Metallica, art-rock bandmates: vocalist Benji Webbe, bassist Armand Sabal-Lecco and drummer Ken Schalk.
Making the historic heavy metal experience even more cool is the addition of guest vocalist Whitfield Crane of Ugly Kid Joe.
The L.A. show is a warm-up gig for Mass Mental’s September 6 slot at Germany’s Warwick Open Day music fest.
Get tickets for the Whisky show here.
VIPER ROOM FINALLY REACHES DRINKING AGE
Landmark Sunset Strip rock club The Viper Room celebrates its 21st anniversary this month as one of the city’s best venues for live shows. To mark the milestone, from August 11 to 16, The Viper Room, at 8852 Sunset Boulevard, is hosting a week of special shows featuring an electric and eclectic mix of music, including an all-star salute to classic rock. Check out the details here.
Great acoustics, fantastic sight lines from anywhere in the club, comfy vibe and an always awesome roster of diverse rock-oriented artists has kept Viper Room one of Sunset and Clark’s favorite hot spots on the Strip since we first stepped foot in the club not too long after it first opened its doors. Here’s some of our favorite Viper Room moments from the first 21 years…
FAVORITE SHOW BY A LOCAL ACT:
After randomly stumbling upon Warner Drive one night during a multi-band bill a few years ago, the Hollywood rockers immediately became–and remain–our favorite local band. And we made that decision before the band was done with its first song.
FAVORITE SHOW BY A NATIONAL ACT:
Bryan “Big B” Mahoney in 2012. The hip-hoppin’ white trash renegade rocked the Viper Room hardcore with nothing but a mic, a kick-ass three-piece band and an arsenal of redneck party anthems. The set still has us baffled as to why B isn’t bigger than Kid Rock yet.
BEST VIPER ROOM MOMENT:
Checking out a multi-band bill in the mid-Nineties and watching singer-songwriter Brian Grillo (right), frontman of legendary, in-your-face, Silver Lake-launched homocore band Extra Fancy, literally drop his mic mid-show and jump off the Viper Room stage before a packed crowd to chase a heckling homophobe right out of the club!
FAVORITE ROCK STAR SIGHTING:
The time we turned and noticed that the guy standing next to us at the back of the club nodding his head to the music at a random show was one of our all-time favorite artists, Red Hot Chili Peppers frontman Anthony Kiedis.
COOLEST VIPER ROOM SHOW EVER:
In what was probably the hardest rockin’ show since Guns N’ Roses used to rock Sunset, Viper Room regulars the Lonely Drunks Club Band celebrated the 25th anniversary of Appetite for Destruction in 2012 by inviting the vocalists for some of L.A.’s best bands, including Brando’s Island and GN’R tribute band Hollywood Roses, to front the mic on a track-by-track cover set paying homage to the hits-packed metal classic. Axl would approve.
MOST INDELIBLE IMPRESSION:
In addition to bringing in some of our favorite national acts and introducing us to great local bands like Warner Drive and Lonely Drunks Club Band, The Viper Room has also helped to hype some very cool visual artists whose original work has adorned the club’s exterior over the years, including our faves David Flores and Becca.
MOST SURREAL ROCK MOMENT:
If we weren’t there to witness it, we wouldn’t have believed it when then-newly signed Atlantic artists Never the Bride performed a record release show for the British band’s 1995 self-titled major label debut that included a powerful cover of “Going to California” that was indisputably on par with Led Zeppelin‘s untouchable original.
KISS SCORES PRIME SPOT ON ROCK ROW TO HYPE NEW TV SHOW
Rock legends Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley tower over the Sunset Strip’s Rock Row in a hot new billboard hyping the founding KISS members’ latest project: the premiere of the AMC reality TV show 4th and Loud, which goes behind the scenes of the L.A. KISS arena football team.
The billboard, which features Simmons and Stanley sans their iconic makeup, sits above Aahs! at Sunset and San Vicente and overlooks the Whisky A Go-Go.
It’s great to see KISS in the WeHo ‘hood again following the unveiling of the band’s billboard for John Varvatos that lit up La Cienega earlier this year.
OLD TOWER RECORDS SUNSET LOCATION IS ‘FLIPPED’ AGAIN
WeHo has gotten yet another facelift! Innovative start-up Flipagram is bringing some youthful, edgy ambiance back to the old Tower Records Sunset location as the newest proprietor of the famous property in the heart of West Hollywood.
After Tower toppled in 2006, the shell of Tower Records Sunset at the corner of Sunset and Horn had it famous yellow and red exterior painted over numerous times in various shades as it housed a few different businesses of varying success.
Live on Sunset clothing store settled into the warehouse-size building for a few years before calling it quits in 2013. The site then became a random parking lot for a few months before a Halloween costumes pop-up shop rented the space last fall.
Flipagram set up shop on Sunset in June after launching online late last year. The good news is that the company seems to have a lot more in common with the former record retailer than other businesses that were housed at the old Tower location. Music-focused Flipagram lets users synch their choice of hit songs to their cell photos to create “short video stories” via the free app. It’s kind of like Instagram but with an added dose of cool courtesy of some Motley Crue or Def Leppard. And what could be better than sharing your photographs synched to “Photograph”?!?
HOUSE OF BLUES CELEBRATES 20 YEARS OF ROCKIN’ SUNSET
We raise a toast today to House of Blues Sunset, which is celebrating 20 years of kicking ass on the world-famous Sunset Strip by bringing in some of the greatest rock shows around during its first two decades of decadence.
Aerosmith helped House of Blues Sunset kick open its doors with a show by the hit-making hard rockers 20 years ago today, April 22. Since then, the local hot spot in the heart of WeHo has hosted a rockin’ roster of local and international music artists. Further adding to its street cred, House of Blues Sunset is also the official host to the Sunset Strip Music Festival‘s annual pre-event kick-off party honoring SSMF’s honorees.
Some of our favorite shows over the past two decades include Pat Benatar, Foo Fighters, 311, The Doors, L.A. rock legends X, Tenacious D, Jars of Clay, Goo Goo Dolls, Social Distortion, Steel Panther, local faves Warner Drive (right) and cheering on Motley Crue at the band’s 2011 SSMF event, to name just a few of the superstar artists that have lured us back to Sunset and Olive again and again.
To celebrate the milestone, House of Blues Sunset is offering a 20 percent discount at the hot spot’s restaurant and store.
BULLETBOYS TO ROCK RAINBOW’S PARKING LOT, APRIL 13
One of L.A.’s hardest rocking Sunset Strip bands of the late ’80s/early ’90s, BulletBoys is heading back to Rock Row on April 13 to shake the amps at iconic hot spot Rainbow Bar & Grill‘s Party in the Parking Lot.
Mark Torein is still fronting the mic for the local metal monsters that hit the mainstream with a bang in 1988 courtesy of BulletBoys’ badass, guitar-heavy scorcher “Smooth up in Ya,” from the band’s self-titled debut. The timeless track rocks just as hard today and is sure to be a highlight of Rainbow’s free event, which also includes sets by Hollywood-launched hard rock hit-makers Great White, Sunset Strip legend Tracii Guns (pictured right), Metal Blade stalwarts Bitch and more metal monsters that will turn back the clock to the awesome Eighties and keep the hard rock hits echoing throughout the heart of Rock Row all day and night on Sunday.
Rainbow is located at 9015 Sunset Boulevard. Party in the Parking Lot is free and kicks off at 2 p.m. in the back parking lot behind the Rainbow and Roxy. See you at the show!
KIX IS GONNA KICK OUT THE CLASSICS AT WHISKY’S NEW YEAR’S EVE BASH, DEC. 31!
Get ready to get your fuse blown with some hard-rockin’ classic metal when the world-famous Whisky A Go-Go brings Kix to the Sunset Strip for a special New Year’s Eve show on December 31.
The Maryland-launched metal monsters that scored a number of unforgettable hard rock classics disbanded in the mid-’90s for nearly a decade before reuniting and resurfacing in 2012 with the concert album Live in Baltimore. More recently, Kix was one of the last bands to ever play the now defunct Sunset Strip landmark Key Club when they headlined a show last March.
Now, with their return to the Sunset Strip with the Whisky’s December 31 show, frontman Steve Whiteman and the band are ready to start rockin’ like Dokken with powerhouse hits like “Blow My Fuse,” “Cold Blood” and the most awesome heavy metal power ballad next to “Home Sweet Home”: the badass anti-suicide song “Don’t Close Your Eyes.”
Foxy Florida-based hard rockers Siren is opening the New year’s Eve show, and the band’s Zeppelin/Maiden-inspired grooves are also worth checking out. Whisky A Go-Go is located in the heart of Rock Row at 8901 Sunset Blvd. at Clark St., the crossroads where American rock n’ roll history was launched! Can’t wait to get Kix-ed in the cabeza with some hard-rocking authentic old-school metal on December 31!
SUNSET STRIP’S GUITAR TOWN SALUTES STEVIE NICKS
The Gibson Guitar Town urban art installation has added a new rock-star tribute to its cool collection of giant guitars that dot the Sunset Strip.
On-again, off-again, on-again Fleetwood Mac hit-maker and solo superstar Stevie Nicks is the newest legend to be immortalized with a huge guitar installation featuring a colorful mosaic portrait of the prolific singer-songwriter. The artwork is on display in front of Mel’s Diner.
OK, so the illustrated “Gold Dust Woman” kinda looks like Dina Lohan, but it’s the thought that counts. And it’s great to see Stevie getting her props on Sunset!
WARNER DRIVE TAKES OVER VIPER ROOM
Sunset Strip rock refugees Warner Drive are returning to the Viper Room in February and March with four shows that are sure to officially rock the roof off the joint.
Awhile back, when Sunset and Clark first stumbled — and we do mean stumbled, following drinks at Rainbow — upon Warner Drive at Viper Room and witnessed, through bloodshot eyes, the band crank up its signature jam, “All by Myself,” it took us all of 10 seconds into the addictive rocker to proclaim them the best Sunset Strip band since Guns N’ Roses.
Now, as Warner Drive — JonnyLaw, Candice Levinson, Ryan Harris, Jonny Udell and Elvis James — are steering their way back to the comfy confines of the band’s unofficial Sunset Strip home base, it’s hard to believe that these arena-worthy mofos haven’t yet headlined Staples considering that the VR shows are celebrating these local legends’ 10-year anniversary.
Warner Drive, however, is working on its follow-up to the band’s fantastic full-length sophomore release of original songs, 2011’sK-Go!, and considering that the band debuted a dynamite new tune, “King of Swing,” at a recentHouse of Blues show (right), you can likely expect to hear some more cool new tunes!
The band’s Jan. 30 warm up show at the Viper Room in anticipation of WD’s month-long Wednesday night residency sold out quickly. Get tickets and more deets about WD’s Feb. 6 to March 1 takeover of Viper Room here. Plus, advance tickets are only $10, but a still-cheap $12 at the door. (But trust us, there likely won’t be any left!)
Rock out to “Viper Room'” Warner Drive’s sonic salute to the iconic Sunset Strip club, from the band’s debut, Loaded, below. See you at the shows!
ALEC MONOPOLY IS STUCK ON SUNSET
Judging from this groovy graphic we spotted on the back of a stop sign near Sunset and Doheny, it looks like mysterious L.A. urban artist Alec Monopoly has the perfect solution for safely crossing the Sunset Strip: jump! We’ve gotten a kick out of stumbling across Alec’s cool street art, including his Jack Nicholson portraits, for a while now. And it’s good to see that the art world is now starting to embrace the New York transplant’s work in a big way, including at Miami’s recent high-profile and weirdly named shin dig Art Basel.
SUNSET’S COOL NEW NEIGHBOR
The Sunset Strip is showcasing a very cool and colorful new addition to Rock Row with a fresh urban art mural that would make Keith Haring and Radiohead artist Stanley Donwood proud.
The huge painting popped up earlier this week next to the Whisky A Go Go, on a wooden fence that covers the former location of rock and roll diner Duke’s, which has been demolished to make room for an expansion to the Strip’s newest hot spot Rock & Reilly’s Irish Pub.
We can’t wait to hang out at a more comfy R&R’s! But if waiting means that this cool mural sticks around longer, we’re down with that!
SUNSETandCLARK.blog 