Page Places: The Whisky A Go Go

For this installment of Page Places, we're gonna keep it in L.A. and take a look at the Whisky A Go Go.

The Whisky A Go Go in the 1970's

The Whisky A Go Go is one of the most famous music nightclubs in the world. Located in the heart of the Sunset Strip, the Whisky was founded as a franchised chain of night clubs in 1958, with the first location opening up in Chicago in 1958. The Hollywood Whisky a Go Go opened up January of 1964. The club started off as a place where recorded music was played for people to dance to, live music was never originally intended to be played at the venue; Indeed the whole Go-Go dancing craze of the early 1960's was fostered at the Whisky.

Eventually the recorded music was faded out and live acts were brought in and with it's prime location in the heart of Hollywood, the Whisky drew a veritable who's who of talent in those halcyon year of the late 1960's and early 1970's. The Doors became a house band for the club for a while, until Jim Morrison's antics forced the owners to fire them. Pretty much every act around L.A. at the time did a stint at the Whisky A Go Go, from Free, to The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, and Frank Zappa, and for visiting acts, it was a prime place to showcase their talents for people who could recognize talent.

John Lennon, George Harrison, and Jayne Mansfield at the Whisky A Go Go in 1964

The club fell on hard times financially when the punk movement lost steam, and closed its doors in 1982, only to reopen four years later as a smaller establishment that was more bare bones, requiring its patrons to stand for performances. The Whisky experience a resurgence in the late 80's when L.A. became the scene for the emerging hair band craze. Bands like Poison, L.A. Guns, Motley Crue, and Guns and Roses, all began their rise to fame on the stage of the Whisky A Go Go. The club itself has been immortalized by some of the artists who took to its stage, including Love "Maybe the People Would Be the Times or Between Clark and Hilldale" (The venue was located between Clark and Hilldale Street), and Motley Crue, "Down at the Whisky".

Jimmy Page first played at the Whisky A Go Go with the Yardbirds for two night on August 28th and 29th in 1966 while Jeff Beck was still in the lineup, and again later the next month ; no recordings exist of these seminal shows, as the technology for casual observers to record concerts wasn't as widespread as it eventually became. Jimmy played the club again of course with his next group Led Zeppelin on their first tour of America playing for three separate nights in January 1969; the 2nd, 4th, and 5th. Recordings of the show on the 5th is known to exist in bootleg form, and there is rumor that more recordings exist of the other shows.

Here is the setlist from the final night of those shows:

As Long As I Have YouCan't Quit You
The Train Kept A Rollin'
Babe I'm Gonna Leave You
Dazed And Confused
Killing Floor
For Your Love

Ad for Led Zeppelin's stint at the Whisky

As for myself, I visited the Whisky in 2009 while I was in L.A. on leave before deploying to Iraq. I had been running around the town all day long with my step-dad showing him around, and after he crashed out, I slipped out and parked my car at a famous hotel, and cruised up and down the Sunset Strip. I got to the Whisky and paid my entrance fee, some band was playing at ear-crushing volume, but I really wasn't interested in the music that was playing, it was just awesome for me to be there, in the hallowed walls of the Whisky A Go Go. I walked up to the bar, and ordered a Jack and Coke, and asked if they sold any T-shirts or anything, they did and I bought one. I hung around for an hour or so, then slipped out to cruise a little further up the strip. I highly recommend checking it out, it really is a one of a kind place that all should see.

Plaque outside of the Whisky A Go Go

Side-note to this story: I saw Slash perform with Myles Kennedy in Seattle in 2010, and actually got him to sign my Whisky A Go Go shirt. I can't really wear it anymore, oh well, I guess I gotta go back and get a new one, haha.

My Whisky A Go Go Shirt, signed by Slash