One of you old school LA players....

[VonBonfire]

Tell me a cool story or two about one of your teased hair guitar nights from the 80's and what bands you layed a can of whoopass on and stuff. I might as well ask about that since there ain't too many blues stories around here and I like gig tales in general. So, who of you was there rocking the hair and souped up hot pink guitars and stuff?

 

[VonBonfire]

Damn, figured at least one of you guys used to have one of these on your pedalboard out in LA:

 

[Floyd Eye]

I spent plenty of time on the strip and in Long Beach and LA in '85,'86 and '87. Got a lot of stories too. Not many I'm willing to share here though.

 

[sandman]

I’ve played a lot of guitar in LA…..Louisiana that is. Now I only have played at home but I wrote an acoustic song once and told every girl I dated that I wrote it for her. That led to some wild times when I was young
I matured and know that was wrong now.

 

[paulyc]

I’ve played a lot of guitar in LA…..Louisiana that is. Now I only have played at home but I wrote an acoustic song once and told every girl I dated that I wrote it for her. That led to some wild times when I was young
I matured and know that was wrong now.

If that’s wrong I don’t wanna be right

 

[VonBonfire]

I spent plenty of time on the strip and in Long Beach and LA in '85,'86 and '87. Got a lot of stories too. Not many I'm willing to share here though.

Well I'm not the sort of guy that demands clips or-else so only share what you feel comfortable with. You can always change the names of the people to protect identities. I've always wondered what that scene was like back then but documentaries are usually just hype machines instead of real stories.

 

[skoora]

West coast was awesome back then. West Coast of Australia that is. BMX, Beaches and women who couldn’t tell you were 16 because getting into bars was easy (no picture I.D. Just paper)!

 

[Floyd Eye]

Well I'm not the sort of guy that demands clips or-else so only share what you feel comfortable with. You can always change the names of the people to protect identities. I've always wondered what that scene was like back then but documentaries are usually just hype machines instead of real stories.

In this case they are probably accurate. I didn't see a lot of fights though. Not by St. Louis standards anyway. We thought most of those guys were soft and they thought we were insane.

First time I ever heard of slam dancing. Huge house party in Hollywood. A few pretty well known people in attendance. The rich kid who's parent's house it was, was related to a dude in Poison. Or maybe Cinderella. Anyway, I'm standing in a sunk down living room having a beer and listening to some music when a dude slams into me. Kinda didn't think too much of it for a second then he did it again. So I beat the hell out of him. Next thing you know me and my 3 buddies are trashing the place. I mean holes in ceiling and all the walls, dropping mother fuckers left and right. Someone later told us it was just some new form of dancing. The kid who's parent's owned the house and were out of town was nearly suicidal when we left. I almost felt bad. Almost. If I recall I went home with some chick I didn't know, took some ludes and passed out naked in her bed with her. Woke up with her dad standing over me. She was only 16, but in my defense I was only 18 and she looked my age. She definitely fucked like she was an adult. The mom got the dad out of the room and was sitting on the bed next to me while I was getting dressed telling me not to try to take the girl with me. I told her that thought never crossed my mind. Pops called me "Hero" on the way out the front door. It felt like he had been through this before.

 

[VonBonfire]

First time I ever heard of slam dancing. Huge house party in Hollywood. A few pretty well known people in attendance. The rich kid who's parent's house it was, was related to a dude in Poison. Or maybe Cinderella. Anyway, I'm standing in a sunk down living room having a beer and listening to some music when a dude slams into me. Kinda didn't think too much of it for a second then he did it again. So I beat the hell out of him. Next thing you know me and my 3 buddies are trashing the place. I mean holes in ceiling and all the walls, dropping mother fuckers left and right. Someone later told us it was just some new form of dancing.

I guess I never understood the whole slam dance-mosh pit thing. Seems like a good way to get busted up, and per your story, that's pretty much what happened.

Got any gig stories from that time period? Didn't know you had lived out on the coast in the mid 80's.

 

[Floyd Eye]

I guess I never understood the whole slam dance-mosh pit thing. Seems like a good way to get busted up, and per your story, that's pretty much what happened.

Got any gig stories from that time period? Didn't know you had lived out on the coast in the mid 80's.

No gig stories really. Did a few house parties. At the time I was very anti 80s hair metal shit. Still am really. I was doing Sabbath, Rush and Yes covers.

Sat in a song or two on bass at a beach party with a later to be big band. I saw them play many beach parties. Lots of stories about that, but those I definitely ain't getting too far into.

 

[romanianreaper]

I don't have any stories myself but I got to meet someone from that era and was a great experience. When I was in the military, me and my buddies used to watch "Decline of Civilization II" in the dorm constantly and my band even used to do the Born to Be Wild version that Lizzy Borden played in the documentary.

One band we loved was Seduce. They just seemed to be the coolest ones in the movie. Fast forward 30 something years and I recognize the guitarist David Black is demoing for Friedman. So I nerd out and take my Decline DVD up to Sweetwater. I go up to him and tell him I've seen the documentary and recognized him and thought Seduce was awesome. He was shocked as shit and seemed almost emotional and appreciative when I asked him to sign my DVD. Super cool guy and was a great moment for me.

 

[VonBonfire]

I don't have any stories myself but I got to meet someone from that era and was a great experience. When I was in the military, me and my buddies used to watch "Decline of Civilization II" in the dorm constantly and my band even used to do the Born to Be Wild version that Lizzy Borden played in the documentary.

One band we loved was Seduce. They just seemed to be the coolest ones in the movie. Fast forward 30 something years and I recognize the guitarist David Black is demoing for Friedman. So I nerd out and take my Decline DVD up to Sweetwater. I go up to him and tell him I've seen the documentary and recognized him and thought Seduce was awesome. He was shocked as shit and seemed almost emotional and appreciative when I asked him to sign my DVD. Super cool guy and was a great moment for me.

View attachment 401390

I think we had this conversation once before. Most of the "artists" in that documentary were garbage but yeah, the Seduce and Megadeth portions were awesome. That's cool he was so appreciative of you bringing it up. Guy was a smoking player, I'm guessing he still rips. Great band.

 

[MetalHeart]

I don't have any stories myself but I got to meet someone from that era and was a great experience. When I was in the military, me and my buddies used to watch "Decline of Civilization II" in the dorm constantly and my band even used to do the Born to Be Wild version that Lizzy Borden played in the documentary.

One band we loved was Seduce. They just seemed to be the coolest ones in the movie. Fast forward 30 something years and I recognize the guitarist David Black is demoing for Friedman. So I nerd out and take my Decline DVD up to Sweetwater. I go up to him and tell him I've seen the documentary and recognized him and thought Seduce was awesome. He was shocked as shit and seemed almost emotional and appreciative when I asked him to sign my DVD. Super cool guy and was a great moment for me.

View attachment 401390

Nice ,Dig the tune YOU CAN RUN BUT YOU CANT HIDE by Armored Saint

 

[dstroud]

I got one for you, my cover band was playing a premier rock club in Indianapolis and Warrant was in town at Deer Creek amphitheater - this was prolly 1990 so they were at the peak of their career. Jani Lane announces at their concert he’s going to the club where my band was playing. Well it was packed anyway, but after their concert it got insane at the club - the whole club spilled into and filled the whole parking lot. Jani gets up and sings Tush by zz top witn my band. It was late and we finish the night - and this is where the story starts lol A drunk bouncer was showing Jani a gun - it goes off, the bullet goes through a bathroom where our sound man was on the toilet - it grazes his neck - and the bullet continues into the band dressing room, which is full of people, bounced off a water heater and goes into the case of my Les Paul and gets lodged in the horn - the guitar case was resting on our bassists leg - preventing the bullet from hitting him. The bar owner paid me what I had paid for the guitar. As for the sound man, he asked for a free case of beer and then went to Church. True story, I still have that Les Paul with a bullet wound lol

 

[Floyd Eye]

I got one for you, my cover band was playing a premier rock club in Indianapolis and Warrant was in town at Deer Creek amphitheater - this was prolly 1990 so they were at the peak of their career. Jani Lane announces at their concert he’s going to the club where my band was playing. Well it was packed anyway, but after their concert it got insane at the club - the whole club spilled into and filled the whole parking lot. Jani gets up and sings Tush by zz top witn my band. It was late and we finish the night - and this is where the story starts lol A drunk bouncer was showing Jani a gun - it goes off, the bullet goes through a bathroom where our sound man was on the toilet - it grazes his neck - and the bullet continues into the band dressing room, which is full of people, bounced off a water heater and goes into the case of my Les Paul and gets lodged in the horn - the guitar case was resting on our bassists leg - preventing the bullet from hitting him. The bar owner paid me what I had paid for the guitar. As for the sound man, he asked for a free case of beer and then went to Church. True story, I still have that Les Paul with a bullet wound lol

Is that amphitheater by any chance like out in a cornfield or something ? Reason I ask is because I drove out there for the X-Fest years ago, primarily to see Alice In Chains and the amphitheater was nearly identical to one we have here which was then called the Verizon Amphitheater. And I remember it being out in the middle of nowhere. I was shocked at all the young, tattooed and pierced kids at that show. I mean it was like ALL of them.

My niece so badly wanted to go with us but we didn’t have room for her in the car. While we were gone she died of a heroin overdose.

 

[mentoneman]

in 1986-87 my college apartment was known as the metal den.

if we weren’t throwing ragers and i mean ragers —gakked out chicks crashing through sliding glass doors to get in, “vodka melon” pool parties which devolved into bore a tunnel through the watermelon, jam 3 bottles into one end and gulp while people punch the melon and yell, chicks in bikinis splash and snakes swim around in the pool, tvs and burning furniture off the 3rd floor balcony, pulling amps into the courtyard at 1 am after concerts and cranking dokken and vh licks, skateboarding through 10 foot walls of fire or on the ramp in our living room:

we were hitting the Sunset strip or going to the big concerts.

 

[dstroud]

Is that amphitheater by any chance like out in a cornfield or something ? Reason I ask is because I drove out there for the X-Fest years ago, primarily to see Alice In Chains and the amphitheater was nearly identical to one we have here which was then called the Verizon Amphitheater. And I remember it being out in the middle of nowhere. I was shocked at all the young, tattooed and pierced kids at that show. I mean it was like ALL of them.

My niece so badly wanted to go with us but we didn’t have room for her in the car. While we were gone she died of a heroin overdose.

yup that’s it, Verizon Amphitheater now, was for a while. dang sorry about your niece

 

[mentoneman]

Nice ,Dig the tune YOU CAN RUN BUT YOU CANT HIDE by Armored Saint

jeff duncan the gtr player from
AS came to our metal den. my friend Mark was their singer, but i wasn’t there the night they stopped by.

 

[Fusionbear]

I spent plenty of time on the strip and in Long Beach and LA in '85,'86 and '87. Got a lot of stories too. Not many I'm willing to share here though.

Lol, same here. What happened on the strip, stays there.... My time there was from 1982 to 1991. It really was as wild as people claim...

Here is what I looked like back then....

Now, hanging with a high school band bud getting ready to play a gig...

March 1, 2025:

The years have taken their toll...

 

[Kordoba]

I’ve played a lot of guitar in LA…..Louisiana that is. Now I only have played at home but I wrote an acoustic song once and told every girl I dated that I wrote it for her. That led to some wild times when I was young
I matured and know that was wrong now.

I dated a young lady in the early 90s that said her boyfriend wrote a song about her and played it over the phone on acoustic with vocals. When she read me the lyrics, it was I Saw Red by Warrant. She then contacted her ex, and he said Warrant stole it from him.