The Red Bull sponsored Wasted Space Music Festival was a free concert on June 28th, provided to the public as part of the first annual three day Sunset Strip Music Festival. The purpose of the weekend event, planned by the Sunset Strip Business Association, was to promote awareness of the historical significance of the Strip, culminating with an exclusive panel discussion by Larry King at the London West Hollywood Hotel with the “Godfathers of the Strip,” Lou Adler, Mario Maglieri, and Elmer Valentine.
What should have been a real block party was business as usual on the strip with bands playing at various clubs with the cache of being on the Sunset Strip Music Festival bill. I suspect permits for a real festival could not be secured for this first go round. As it was, Red Bull blocked off a small open parking lot across from The Red Rock Bar to host their concert which ran from 1 to 9 p.m. The event featured Camp Freddie as the headliner and a meet and greet with the band Louis XIV.
You would suspect with free samples of Red Bull mixed drinks being served all day there would have been a high energy crowd. There was one spectator who caught the attention of Indie 103.1 FM, as he took to tribal style dancing with a found feather behind his ear, climbing and jumping out of the trees as the lead singer for the band Pop Noir left the stage during an instrumental section to join in the pow wow.
“This is not Los Angeles,” asserted a fan of Camp Charlie hailing from Long Island. He pointed out the police car parked in front of the gate surrounding the parking lot with the West Hollywood logo saying, “See this is West Hollywood. This is an independent city. The LAPD can’t touch this place.” This was a significant reflection considering the history of the unincorporated Sunset Strip going as far back as the prohibition era. This of course culminated with the riots of the ‘60s commemorated by the Buffalo Springfield song, “For What It’s Worth.”
Red Bull was recording the Wasted Space event for a part of an audio documentary for their program Inside Out to be released on their web site in the fall featuring interviews with David Lee Roth, Slash and more. I am sure this will involve plenty of anecdotes, but how about a refresher course while you wait?
The usual history of the strip involves generalizations by the public involving River Phoenix and of course Jim Morrison… And rightly so, considering last year’s book signing event for “The Doors by The Doors” featuring a reuniting of the remaining members. It was truly a surreal sight when legions of fans wrapped around The Whiskey decades later to pay homage.
The Whisky-A-Go-Go itself has more history than just the bands that played there. The club was actually something of a franchise chain of discothèques made popular in the early 60s with the rise of the Go-Go 
dance craze. We forever associate this club with The Doors and yet they actually got their start in a club called The London Fog which no longer exists, but was featured in Oliver Stone’s film “The Doors” using The Viper Room as the shooting location.
I have enjoyed The Doors cover of Van Morrison’s “Gloria” many a time but never realized this didn’t just happen coincidentally. Van’s band Them had a two-week residency at The Whisky with The Doors as the opening act back in 1966. And another interesting music factoid is that Jimi Hendrix discovered Chicago Transit Authority (now Chicago) at The Whisky and brought them on tour in 1968.
There are lesser known facts about The Strip that are just as historically significant. The Rainbow Bar which is now a staple hangout for heavy metal and glam rockers, was originally owned by Vincent Minelli when he was still married to Judy Garland, thus the name Rainbow Bar and the upstairs, “Over The Rainbow Bar.” This was also the club where Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe had their first date!
Also of interest is that the movie “Rocky Horror Picture Show” made its original theatrical debut at the club we know as The Roxy, which was formerly called “The Largo.” Other interesting story is how Cantor’s got into the L.A. music scene when Frank Zappa hit the deli for a snack to beat the crowds after clubbin on The Strip only to play a show there.
Also worthy of mention is the Strip was host to several live recorded albums by artists like Frank Zappa, Otis Redding, Warren Zevon, The Germs, Bob Marley, X, Tupac Shakur, Social Distortion and Pennywise.
Red Bull decided for their event they would try to spotlight newer bands as most of the three day event featured more established bands. Also in attendance for the day’s event was Matt Sorum, drummer for Guns N Roses, Camp Charlie and Velvet Revolver. The Strip in the ‘80s was known for “Behind The Music” style stories from bands like Guns N Roses playing at Gazzarri’s which is now The Key Club.
For some reason most of the acts for the Wasted Space event were kept to half hour acoustic sets. The lead singer of Golden State quipped, “They really should make an acoustic guitar hero,” as competing for the sonic space were two Guitar Hero video game booths set up at the back of the parking lot directly facing the stage. Pop Noir managed to sneak in a Korg keyboard and a melodica and were really the highlight of the entire day with their spot on cover of The Rolling Stones’ “Painted Black.” Other bands included The Lieutenants, and The Dreaming who felt a bit displaced from the night club scene joked, “Daylight, no beer and a violin player.”
For more on the upcoming Red Bull documentary and information on their other educational audio programs from the Red Bull Music Academy go to www.rbmaradio.com
