Whisky a Go Go

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Whisky a Go Go

Infused with the neon energy of the Sunset Strip, the Whisky a Go Go stands as Los Angeles's (L.A.) richest repository of rock 'n' roll history. With the affluence of Beverly Hills and Malibu to its west, the fantasy of Hollywood to its east, West Hollywood's gay and lesbian influence directly south, and "the hills," home to the world's rich and famous, above it, the Whisky finds itself at the heart of a city in which anything can happen—and often does. As its decades at the corner of Clark Drive and the famed Sunset Boulevard have proven, the Whisky's roster of rock performers chronicles the evolution of L.A.'s highly influential music industry and its impact on popularculture at large.

Older than neighboring rock 'n' roll haunts such as the Roxy and the Rainbow, the Whisky emerged onto L.A.'s music scene in January of 1964. Owners Elmer Valentine and Mario Maglieri transformed an old, three-story bank building into a Parisian-inspired discotheque complete with female DJs (Disc Jockeys) dancing in cages suspended above the stage. Hence, the term go-go girl was born.

The Whisky quickly became a breeding ground for the most influential musical talent of the mid-to-late 1960s. Opening night featured Johnny Rivers, whose blues-inspired pop album titled Johnny Rivers at the Whisky a Go Go took him to the top of the charts. Johnny Carson, Rita Hayworth, Lana Turner, and Steve McQueen were just a few of the personalities who turned out to revel in Rivers's performance.

As the turbulent socio-political energy of the late 1960s gained momentum, so too did the influence of the Whisky. Bands such as The Doors and Buffalo Springfield brought revolutionary sounds to the music world, and attracted the likes of John Belushi and Charles Manson to the venue. Guitar legend Jimi Hendrix dropped in on several occasions to jam with the Whisky's house bands, and rock's raspy leading lady, Janis Joplin, downed her last bottle of Southern Comfort at the Whisky before her death in 1970.

While the Whisky name is associated with some of the most significant performers of every rock era since the club's opening, it is the explosive decadence of the late 1960s that has most decisively defined the Whisky's place in the popular imagination. In his vivid film evocation of the period, The Doors (1991), Oliver Stone used simulated live footage of one of The Doors' early performances on the Whisky stage to recreate the spirit of that era's radical, drug-fueled excess. The film, and other similar representations of the 1960s, affirm the Whisky's status as a potent emblem of the rebellious energy of a particular moment in music and pop culture history.

Despite its indisputable "hot spot" status during the 1960s, the Whisky's popularity waned in the early 1970s as a softer, more folk-inspired sound penetrated live music in Los Angeles. The Whisky nearly burned to the ground in 1971, and the club was forced to close for several months before re-opening as a discotheque. With the buzz of its formative decade behind it, the club's producers sought out more economical performance ideas for the space, and operating a dance club appeared to be a cheaper, less troublesome, alternative to the live music format. The venue also hosted minor theatrical performances such as The Rocky Horror Picture Show during this period, but no attempt to transform the Whisky attracted the kind of talent or intensity that the club had cultivated during the 1960s.

The rebirth of the Whisky as a rock club occurred in the late 1970s, when the embers of a punk scene in L.A. began to smolder. The influence of punk bands from both London (the Sex Pistols, the Damned) and New York (Patti Smith, the Ramones) inspired L.A. groups like the Runaways and the Quick to bring a brash, do-it-yourself approach to music and to the Whisky. Kim Fowley, son of actor Douglas Fowley, hosted a "New Wave Rock 'N' Roll Weekend" at the Whisky in 1977 and introduced the likes of the Germs and the Weirdos to the Sunset Strip scene. Shortly thereafter, the legendary Elvis Costello played his first L.A. gig at the club.

By the early 1980s, rock once again ruled the L.A. music scene—and the Whisky—although this time in a much less lucrative fashion. No longer did the Whisky pay its bands for an evening's performance. Rather, upon reopening as a live venue—around the time that music mogul Lou Adler bought into the club—the musical acts themselves paid the Whisky for the opportunity to perform on its coveted stage. This new "pay to play" approach not only demonstrated how valuable the Whisky's reputation had become to up-and-coming talent, but also confirmed the fact that the music business itself was changing. The tremendous popularity of rock music yielded a surplus of bands, which shifted the market in favor of clubs and promoters. Groups had to compete for stage space and ultimately finance (or hope that a record company would pay for) their own publicity.

Against this new economic backdrop, a number of hard rock and metal bands—including mega-stars Van Halen, Guns N'Roses, and Metallica—rose to prominence in the 1980s. While these glam bad boys went on to fill tens of thousands of seats in arenas all over the world, they could all point to the Whisky's stage as the site of some of their earliest live performances.

In the early 1990s, the Whisky hosted a number of Seattle-based musicians who would later be dubbed "the godfathers of grunge." Bands such as Soundgarden, Nirvana, Mudhoney, The Melvins, and 7 Year Bitch brought their guitar-laden, punk-loyal sound to Los Angeles in a very large, very loud way. Grunge maintained an anti-aesthetic which scoffed at the glam-rock past of the 1980s, and seemed, if only briefly, to speak to the fears of a generation of teenagers ravaged by divorce and a distinctly postmodern sort of uncertainty. Throughout this time, the Whisky continued to act as a touchstone for local and indie bands and as a familiar haunt for the occasional celebrity rocker. Though the club's influence as a ground zero for cutting edge trends in the music industry—and youth culture in general—has diminished considerably since its heyday, the Whisky remains an important L.A. landmark and offers a revealing window into some of the most crucial figures and movement's of rock's relatively brief history.

—Jennifer Murray