How did I miss this show? (2 Viewers)

mjp

Founding member
How did I miss this? It must have been the most awe-inspiring four nights ever.

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Oh...I guess I missed it because I was 9 years old.

And lived 2000 miles away from the Whisky.

Damn.
 
That would have been a heavy set of shows, no doubt. Just today I picked up Black Sabbath's Greatest Hits, 1970-1978 for my wife. Some of those '70-'71 tunes really remind me of Zeppelin's first two albums.
 
I have a bootleg of the January 5th show... Zeppelin... not Alice. They were a great live band in their early days. I would have loved to have seen either act at such a tiny venue, but I was 11 and wouldn't go to my first rock concert until later in the year (Mountain, Zephyr w/Tommy Bolin and some long-forgotten band called Wolfgang) at the Santa Monica Civic.

Does the Whisky still let kids in with their "No Booze For Youse" hand stamp?
 
Most people wouldn't recognize the 1969 Alice Cooper. They were kind of an art noise band, with the emphasis on noise. I wouldn't have picked them to open for Led Zeppelin, but then the Whisky booker was probably on a nine day mescaline binge or something at the time. They should have flown the Stooges in from Detroit to open. They could promote their first album, perform their enchanting show and make everyone say "Led who?" on the way out the door. ;)

It's kind of mind boggling how much was going on in music back then. I mean, the Beatles were still (kind of) a band for christ's sake! But the hippies were being run out of town...all hell was breaking loose. Beautiful.
 
Alice Cooper played The Cheetah regularly around '68-69.

The Cheetah was a legendary club located on the Pacific Ocean Park pier in what used to be the Aragon Ballroom (here's a link with info on Venice, POP and, about half way down the page, The Cheetah). It was accessible from the Venice boardwalk and stayed open for years after POP closed. I remember my older sister telling me that she had gone there to see Kim Fowley one night and some groupie type jumped up on stage and gave Fowley a blow job in the middle of his act.

My sister was a bit of a groupie herself, and her stories about the music scene at that time were tantalizing to me at 10-12 years old. It was all just so groovy.

I had a Cheetah ashtray for many years but it mysteriously disappeared. I'm guessing that one of my "friends" pocketed it.

I miss POP in all of its dilapidated glory. It was a great place to sneak into to do bad things.
 
My first Single that I bought when I was fourteen : Black Dog - Led Zeppelin

Hey , Alice Cooper make a commerzial break in german TV at the time , I saw it for a few days selling Intel Inside for a radiomarket .
And the next busstation here got a big Poster from him on the wall .
Alice Cooper as a busdriver , selling products for a radiomarket ?

Welcome to my nightmare - let`s drive , Alice !
 
Alice Cooper played The Cheetah regularly around '68-69.

I miss POP in all of its dilapidated glory. It was a great place to sneak into to do bad things.
Alice Cooper at the Cheetah in 1967 (they were called the Nazz back then) -

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"Come and Dance" - to the Nazz? Ha. Good luck.

And just for fun, since it started as shows I somehow missed, Alice Cooper apparently (hard to tell sometimes with these hippie posters) fourth on the bill with the Stooges at the Fillmore in San Francisco, early 1970 -

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When I moved to Venice in the early 80's it was a ghetto. The canals were dry and dangerous, the pier was fenced off and there was a thick layer of scum covering the entire boardwalk (myself included, probably).

But the history of the area always fascinated me. I bought a photo history book off the author who used to ride around on his bike on the boardwalk talking to anyone who would listen and trying to sell his book.

That crumbly Venice of that era figures prominently in something I'm writing at the moment. Good times.

Posters in this thread courtesy of The Alice Cooper eChive. Stupid name, cool site.
 
did you see the doc "dogtown and z-boys"? had some great vintage footage from that era and area.
 
Alice Cooper at the Cheetah in 1967 (they were called the Nazz back then)

Wow. Great posters. Thanks.

When I moved to Venice in the early 80's it was a ghetto. The canals were dry and dangerous, the pier was fenced off and there was a thick layer of scum covering the entire boardwalk (myself included, probably).

That must have been when they were dredging the canals. If you think it was nasty then, you should have seen it in the early '70s. The canals were like a petri dish and walking through them was like an obstacle course, with sidewalks crumbling into the water and huge bushes that had overgrown what was left of the sidewalk and stuck out a few feet over the water. They did have the Canal Festivals back then, which were a lot of fun. We would take my friend's rowboat down and spend the day floating around, drinking and smoking pot and picking up pretty girls who wanted a ride.

Now the canals are full of rich people and expensive homes.

And when you say the pier (the Santa Monica pier, right?) was fenced off... I'm assuming that must have been after El Niño washed half of it away.

The scum on the boardwalk is still there, mostly in the form of tourists. When I was a teenager, the boardwalk was pretty much all closed up businesses and derelict hotels. A couple of little boho restaurants and headshops did alright, but beyond that it was mostly hippies, surfers, bikers, gangs and Hare Krishnas.

Main Street leading from Venice into Santa Monica and Abbott Kinney (which was West Washington in those days) was also mostly boarded-up businesses and empty whitewashed store fronts. Now both streets are trendy shopping/restaurant areas.

But the history of the area always fascinated me. I bought a photo history book off the author who used to ride around on his bike on the boardwalk talking to anyone who would listen and trying to sell his book.

Photos of the boardwalk in the '20s and '30s sure make it look like the place was jumpin'. Wall-to-wall people filling every inch of the boardwalk and the sand. It's hard to understand how the area went into such a decline in the '60s. During that time you could rent an apartment, literally steps from the beach, for about the same price as an apartment in Watts. Since it was considered a slum, no one really wanted to live there.

did you see the doc "dogtown and z-boys"? had some great vintage footage from that era and area.

When I saw this it was a real blast-from-the-past for me. Stacy Peralta and I were friends all through school (we're the same age and lived on the same street, a block apart). I wasn't into skateboarding and surfing but Jeff Ho's store was a party spot and everyone knew everyone around there. There were a lot of familiar faces in that film and several people that I knew at the time make appearances. It also has some fantastic surf footage from among the pilings under the POP pier.
 
very cool, chronic! interesting stuff. friends with stacy peralta, huh? wow. i've been skateboarding going on, let's see, 24 years, and powell peralta was a big part of my youth.
great stories, all, on the venice scene...
 
Is this the Todd Rundgren Nazz or the Alice Cooper Nazz on these bills??
The Alice Cooper Nazz. They changed their name to avoid confusion.

And when you say the pier (the Santa Monica pier, right?) was fenced off... I'm assuming that must have been after El Niño washed half of it away.
No, the old Venice pier at the end of Washington. I think it's concrete now, but I remember it being rotting wood, falling into the ocean. Maybe I'm confusing it with Santa Monica and it's always been concrete. But you could easily get around the fence that was supposed to be closing it off. The Santa Monica pier wasn't in much better shape at the time. The only thing on it was the carousel, and that was all boarded up. But yeah, it was half gone, so it must have been post El Niño. But it wasn't closed off.

I was new to the area - new to the state - and like you, I could never understand how they let such prime spots rot like that. It was good for me, because I could afford to live there, but it was kind of a shithole. Later I moved to East Venice, on Olive, but it just wasn't the same. Too close to the Marina people. Not you MDR, those other Marina people...you know who I'm talking about. ;)

It's hard to understand how the area went into such a decline in the '60s. During that time you could rent an apartment, literally steps from the beach, for about the same price as an apartment in Watts.
I had an apartment on Westminster, about 100 feet from the boardwalk and the rent was $400, split between three of us. So those prices were low for a long time. Fante lived in the building across the street, briefly, back in the mid 30's according to Cooper's bio.

Dogtown was a great movie. Another one to see is Rising Son, about Christian Hosoi. I was living down in Venice when they were pioneering that street skating shit. You can see how crappy Venice Beach was in the footage of them skating up the sides of the tagged up, boarded up pavilion.

But I can't even go to Venice anymore. There's nothing left there of the old vibe. That's probably good, but it just feels like another wealthy suburb to me now. You might as well be in Burbank.
 
And yes Digney amazing link!!
Is there a documentary on the Whiskey and the legacy? If not there is a opportunity
And just to confuse things
May 9-12, 1968 The Nazz, Red Beans and Rice

Although The Nazz was an early name for the Alice Cooper, they had changed their name by April. This was the Philadelphia Nazz, featuring Todd Rundgren on lead guitar. Their first album had just come out on SGC Records.

Imagine being a fan of one then seeing the other?!
 
When two bands have the same name at the same time it's usually "first to record keeps the name." Which turned out to be a stroke of luck for the Cooper group. I don't think "Killer, by The Nazz," would have had quite the same impact. ;)
 
I grew up on McLaughlin Ave. in the Fifties (born 1953) in Mar Vista which as I recall intersected Washington Blvd and what was the other street...Barrington Field was there where I played little league baseball. I walked to school at Grandview Elementary. I went to Venice Beach alot as a kid and I remember Pacific Ocean Park (known as P.O.P) which I assume has disappeared? Chronic, I think you said you were from this area, right? MJP's and your postings are really pulling the old chains of memory...
 
I had an apartment on Westminster, about 100 feet from the boardwalk and the rent was $400, split between three of us. So those prices were low for a long time. Fante lived in the building across the street, briefly, back in the mid 30's according to Cooper's bio.
I just read that Marilyn Monroe's mother lived in the same building I did (26 Westminster) back in 1916/17, when it was a "private hotel."

In order to celebrate that utterly pointless news, here is a picture of Marilyn reading Ulysses...

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Just noticed that the headliners in the first poster here were the Watts 103rd St. Rhythm Band:

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A group led by Charles Wright, the uncle of NWA's Eazy-E. NWA sampled their record Express Yourself, which you might have heard in this thread.

Alice Cooper opened for them? Yes. It all fits together because of the end-of-the-world thing. 2012.
 

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