Conciertos en el Whiskey A Go-Go

The Doors at The Whisky


On May 23, 1966, the Doors began their legendary engagement as house band at the Whisky A Go-Go. During their tenure at the Whisky, the Doors open for such acts as Them, featuring Van Morrison, Buffalo Springfield, Love, The Chambers Brothers and Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band.

Exposed to a wide-ranging audience — hardened groupies to Iowa tourists —The Doors began to experiment daringly. Allegedly, the experiments often took the form of drug trips, and weekly tales of The Doors' freaked-out adventures flew: “Morrison was so stoned last night he fell off the stage again”; “Ray sniffed an amyl nitrate cap and played so long he had to be dragged away from the organ”; “They all arrived stoned and started improvising at random—I don't know what it was, but it was great!” According to one friend of the group, Morrison was so consistently high on acid during this period that he could eat sugar cubes like candy without visible effect. But, inexplicably, the music kept getting better.

A Not-So-Successful Night

The Doors played second billing to just about everybody at the Whisky. If the high points were nights with Love, Them, the Turtles, the Seeds, Captain Beefheart and others, there were nights which weren't so special ... One of these was the night they shared billing with the number one band in Mexico, the Locos. (“The Locos were a real low point in our careers,” recalls Manzarek. “They were terrible, the kids hated them, and we were caught in the cross fire.”) Fortunately, this was far from the rule during the Doors' installment at the Whisky.

Popular mythology has it that the Doors are repeatedly fired by proprietor Phil Tanzini. This story is not true, and is essentially an embellishment of the tension which existed between them. However, it is Phil who dismisses them in August on the night that Jim inserts the Oedipal section into The End.

The Doors' sets are comprised mainly of songs which will appear on their first two albums. Night after night they develop and refine their songs in front of a live audience. The End is gradually transformed from a rather transient love song of bittersweet departure into the ominous saga which evokes a descent into the dark night of the soul. In addition to their regular sets, they try out newer songs on the slower nights of Monday - Wednesday. Latin Bullshit #2 is an instrumental jazz piece roughly based on a Gil Evans composition. The instrumental serves as a filler, which they continue to play through the Ondine's gigs in New York. It later evolves into Away in India, featured in a medley often referred to as the People Get Ready Jam which they often performed in 1970. Their version of Summertime is a waltz instrumental loosely styled after John Coltrane's version of My Favorite Things. These two instrumentals often serve to open sets when Jim is late arriving at the club.

The Doors and Van Morrison's band Them at the Whisky A Go-Go



Copyright 2002 by Eye Magazine/Waiting-forthe-Sun.net
http://archives.waiting-forthe-sun.net/Pages/Venues/whisky.html

Whisky-A-Go-Go Show List 1971-1975
The Whisky A Go-Go, 8901 Sunset Blvd at Clark, West Hollywood, CA
The Whisky A-Go-Go became the principal hangout of Sunset Strip musicians and hipsters in the 1960s - and it was hip enough for Dustin Hoffman's character Benjamin to be seen running out of The Whisky in the 1967 film The Graduate. Johnny Rivers was the first sensation to come out of the club, soon after it opened (on January 11, 1964), and that is when the club initially started the whole ‘trend’ of having a mini-skirted girl dancing above the crowd in a cage. Somehow, the Whisky became the cool place for bands to play.
The Whisky always had two or three bands playing, but they were not always billed. Often the unbilled bands were simply local bands, but it being Hollywood and all, sometimes unbilled local groups acting as the house band went on to become hugely famous. Bands all apparently got union scale, regardless of their status. At times, the billed bands couldn’t make it, and another band was substituted. While this is common in nightclubs, what was uncommon about the Whisky was that the band substituting could be just as good or better, and possibly even better-known, than the band it was replacing. These listings are generally from advertisements, and at times they overlap or conflict with other performances by these groups. It was not uncommon for a group to be booked for a week at the Whisky and then to skip a night for a larger gig. It appears that the Whisky was open six or seven nights a week, with local groups playing when no one well known was billed.
I have included some notes about the specific line ups of each group at the time they played, and some interesting remarks about some of the lesser known groups, but I have not attempted to relay every fact about every group, particularly with respect to recordings. I have assumed that anyone interested in this sort of list does not need a primer on Janis Joplin or Led Zeppelin.
Thanks to everyone who contributed and commented on this list. Most especially, the detail and accuracy of this list would not be possible without the formidable contributions by Jerry Fuentes and Mark Skobac (and a shout out to John Einarson, David Biasotti, Nick Warburton, Brian Williams and of course Ross Hannan). This list represents the best of my knowledge at this time. All additions, corrections and insights gratefully received.
Corry Arnold
Chapel Hill, NC June 2009



Shows 1966

May 9, 1966 The Doors (audition)
The Doors, then playing other, lesser clubs in Hollywood, have a successful audition and by June they become the “house” band for the next few months, playing every night regardless of whether other acts are booked.

May 23-27, 1966 Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band, Buffalo Springfield, The Doors
Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band were from the High Desert area around Lancaster, and were known as the heaviest blues band in Southern California.

May 28-June 1, 1966 Love, Buffalo Springfield, The Doors
The Van Morrison list has Them starting a residency on May 30, with Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band opening, sometimes with Frank Zappa sitting in with Them and The Magic Band. Them had June 1, 1966 (Wednesday) off, so Love perhaps headlined that date.

In general, local bands (famous or not) often played somewhat different dates than were advertised, depending on other commitments. The Whisky was a hang-out, and at this period people under 21 were still allowed in, and in any case the club only played Union scale wages, so a major act could skip a night of a bill with little consequence, as long as they stayed in the good graces of owner Elmer Valentine.

June 2-18, 1966 Them, The Doors
Strange as it may seem today, Van Morrison’s moody but dynamic performances as the lead singer of Them were a significant influence on Jim Morrison’s Lizard King persona as lead singer of the Doors.

Buffalo Springfield and The Association were probably second billed in the subsequent weeks, along with The Leaves and The Grass Roots. During this month, Them, The Doors, Buffalo Springfield are all regular performers almost every night, although the other groups named appear as well. On the last day, Them and The Doors play together for the last set, including a 25 minute In The Midnight Hour and a 20-minute Gloria.

Typically the Whisky booked 3 groups at this time, although they did not always advertise all of them. Every band performed at least two sets. On Saturdays and Sundays, all groups typically played a 4:00 pm all ages show, allowing in under 18-patrons.

June 22-July 10, 1966 Gene Clark and The Group, The Locos, The Doors
Gene Clark had left The Byrds in March 1966 due to his fear of flying. This was a rare performance by Gene and his band The Group, featuring Bill Rinehart (ex-Leaves) on lead guitar, Chip Douglas (ex-Modern Folk Quartet, soon-to-be Monkees producer) on bass and drummer Joel Larson (ex-the ‘original’ Bay Area Grass Roots).

July 16-23, 1966 The Turtles, First Review, The Doors
The Turtles, from nearby Westchester, are now dismissed as a trivial pop band (with lead singers Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan colluding with Frank Zappa to trivialize their history), but in fact the group were first-class musicians who played excellent contemporary folk-rock. Irrelevant Trivia: Ross’s daughters (Jessica and Elinor) had goldfish when they were children. The fish were called Mark and Howard after Volman and Kaylan. They eventually escaped (the fish not the children) to be replaced by Gomez and Lurch.

July 27, 1966 Johnny Rivers, Chambers Brothers, The Doors
The Chambers Brothers had been part of the Los Angeles folk scene at the Ash Grove, but the multi-talented group had since moved to Cambridge, MA and had remade themselves as a sort of psychedelic soul outfit. The initial single of Time Has Come Today was recorded around this time, although the longer, more famous version was not recorded until 1967.

August 1-4, 1966 Johnny Rivers, Chambers Brothers, The Doors

August 7-9, 1966 Johnny Rivers, Chambers Brothers, The Doors

August 10, 1966 The Doors
Elektra’s Jac Holzman sees The Doors this night. It’s not clear who else was on the bill, but Jerry Fuentes thinks it was Love.

August 11-21, 1966 Love, The Doors
On August 21, The Doors are fired one night when Morrison misses the first show entirely (not for the first time) and although the band drags him back from his hotel he is not really in a state to perform. His obscene rant on The End causes club owner Elmer Valentine to fire the band, who by this time has already signed with Elektra.

Shows 1967

May 16-21, 1967 The Doors, The Byrds
Two of the most famous bands to graduate from the Whisky herald the return of rock to the club. According to Chris Hjort’s chronology, due to an illness to Jim McGuinn, the Byrds do not play on the first night (May 16), and possibly not the next night either.

http://www.chickenonaunicycle.com/Whisky-A-Go-Go%20History.htm

Toasting 25 Years at the WHISKY
L.A. Times - March 13,1989

OWNERS RECALL GLORY DAYS OF FAMOUS CLUB

Before there was a rock 'n' roll heaven, the Whisky-A-Go-Go had a hell of a band. There were times during the psychedelic '60s on Sunset Boulevard when Whisky owners Elmer Valentine and Mario Maglieri had Jim Morrison and the Doors as a house band and headliners like Janis Joplin; and Jimi Hendrix was just a nice quiet guy who dropped by to jam.

Inspired by discotheques he had seen in Paris, that featured go-go girls dancing in cages, Valentine opened the Whisky in the winter of 1964 in an old three-story bank at 8901 Sunset at the corner of Clark Street.

The young Southern rocker Johnny Rivers was the opening act and recorded the historic album "Johnny Rivers Live at the Whisky-A-Go-Go" a record whose enthusiastic audience of 150 or so Whisky patrons had to troop dutifully over to a recording studio two weeks later to redub and enhance their own "live" crowd sounds.

Today, 25 years later, unknown groups such as Funhouse, Black Cherry, Rock Dolls and Skin Tight Skin are paying promoters to get them on-stage at the Whisky on its "No Bozo Monday" showcase evenings and other nights of the week in the hope that they'll become the next Van Halen or Guns N' Roses or X or Ratt, who were all launched in recent years by the club.

Meanwhile, Mario Maglieri, a tough ex-Chicago cop with a soft heart for hard rockers, is observing the Whisky's 25th anniversary year by recuperating from his second coronary.

"It's the pressure from the kids," Maglieri chuckles gruffly about his recent heart attack. "But me retire? Are you serious? I love doing what I'm doing. I love the kids. I love all the young people. I talk to them everyday. They hug you like they really mean it. They're just good kids."

Maglieri and Valentine - together with record producer Lou Adler, who produced the Rivers album and who joined them as a partner in the mid-'70s - own the Whisky, along with the Roxy and the Rainbow rock clubs. But Maglieri is still fond of the Whisky.

He remembers Janis Joplin as a "raunchy broad. But she was a good kid. She meant well. Three days before she died, we sat in a booth and she asked for a Southern Comfort. She had this raspy voice and she was stoned and drunk. The girl brought over a glass of Southern Comfort and Janis said, "I wanted a (expletive deleted) bottle of Southern Comfort."

"She was a broad that broad, but she was a great girl. I loved her." Maglieri says, laughing.

Jim Morrison , the boozing Byronic lyrisist and leather Lizard King leader of the Doors, was "just a mixed-up kid, but a good kid. I kicked his ass off-stage (when) he screwed around. He would never show up on time. But he was a good kid. He meant well. I tried to straighten him out. I saved his ass so many times."

Guitarist Jimi Henrix never played the Whisky as an act, Maglieri said, but he would show up unexpectedly to jam with performers such as Paul Butterfield. Maglieri's head still rings with the music of Buffalo Springfield, Humble Pie, Three Dog Night, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, the Beach Boys and Chicago, which also put in a long stint as a Whisky house band.

Rock 'n' roll will never die, but by 1971, Jim and Janis and Jimi had succumbed to drugs and drink before they were 30, and the Whisky had closed down for a few months following a $100,000 fire caused, Maglieri says, by a careless smoker.

In the '70s and '80s the Whisky opened and closed a couple of times, first as a records-only disco, then again as a club for live bands. Now, instead of paying for big acts, the Whisky leases to rock promoters who charge new bands for the chance to play and gain exposure, a practice Maglieri dislikes but sees as necessary.

Occasionally a big name such as Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones will hold a private party at the Whisky to inaugurate a new album, but most of the Whisky's glory days, for the time being at least, are behind it.

Still, Valentine, Maglieri and the old Whisky-A-Go-Go remain legendary among L.A. musicians. Len Fagan, entertainment director for the rival Coconut Teaszer club and a longtime L.A. drummer, will never forget his first night at the Whisky during its early French disco-nouveau days when the Doors were still playing a cubbyhole next door called Sneaky Pete's. Fagan, then 17 and making $10 a night at a small club down the block, was standing outside the Whisky one rainy, cold night, straining to hear Moby Grape or Janis or somebody perforning inside. Suddenly, 20 feet away, he heard Maglieri's voice bellow, "Hey, you! What's the matter? Ain't you got any money? "No." Fagan answered, scared to death. "Then get inside." Maglieri ordered.

"It was just a beautiful thing" recalls Fagan, who eventually drummed for a Whisky house band. "Mario did all the announcing himself. He'd introduce you with, 'And now, ladies and gentlemen, four bums you've been waiting for.' But the beautiful thing was that he did it lovingly, and the next time on stage he'd say, 'Give an especially nice welcome to four great guys who have got a great future in front of them.' He was just a wonderful man."

The avuncular Maglieri counseled Whisky musicians on marriage or drug abuse, and sat them down for a proper meal when they dragged in after days on the road.

Iron Butterfly, Led Zeppelin, Cream, Traffic, Arthur Lee and Love, the Young Rascals \ and other major bands got a boost from the Whisky, Fagan says, while celebrities like Steve McQueen would dance the night away. "Anybody who got a shot at being the house band there was instantly put in the limelight back then. The Whisky was the must-stay place."

The Whisky, Ciro's (now the Comedy Store) and the Trip (now the Playboy Building) - and maybe Bill Gazzari's - were the big showcases in those fabulously freaky days of Andy Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitability and the Velvet Underground, when Elvis the King himself would drive up and down the Strip tossing out $100 bills and Frank Zappa's groupie GTO's - Girls Together Outrageously - were making the club scene.

"I learned such a lot from Mario and Elmer," says Fagan, "not only how to treat artists, but how to run a club."

The Whisky today is managed by Mario Maglieri's second cousin Louie "the Lip" Maglieri. There is a big portrait of Jim Morrison behind the bar. Enshrined up on the third floor is an old off-its-hinges bathroom door that the Whisky's light man, a 30 year old guy named Relaxin' Jackson, swears on a stack of Holy Bibles is the bathroom door from the Door's old recording studio.

"Jim Morrison took a shower behind that door," Relaxin' Jackson swears solemnly.

The waitresses dress in early Madonna Tough Pop-art black toreador pants and zippered decolletage. The main room is basic black, as are most of the clothes and leather jackets on the kids who pour into the Whisky to hear groups such as Lickety Split, Screamin' Mimi, Faith No More, Breakfast w/Amy and God Sent Humans.

And if a group called Toad and the Wet Sprockets - four young rockers dressed in plaid shirts like Larry, Darryl and Darryl of the "Newhart" TV show - have to apologize that they don't know the middle part of their encore number - hey, it's okay. Like Mario says, they're good kids. They mean well.

http://www.whiskyagogo.com/articles/890313.html