History Of LA's Live Music Clubs Part #2. 1964-2023. Madame Wongs, Hong Kong Cafe, Masque, Raji's 

I may not live in Southern California anymore but watching your videos makes me feel like I never left. Thanks another awesome video.

This is awesome. You're the best at teaching Los Angeles music history.

This is fucking an incredible video... Praise! Praise! Praise!

As a former LA baby. LA definitely has nostalgia for me.

So here is the conclusion to our 30 Most Important LA Clubs Series. If you've got a story to share or would like to point out something we missed, by all means do!

Scream Club… either or both locations 🖤. Enjoyed both videos!

The 60's and 70's were an exciting time in Hollywood. Not so much now. Keep cranking them out Tim. Your videos are so good.

Tim, I met Linda Ronstadt, last year. It was a dream come true, for a life-long fan. She's a great person, as well as singer. She told me a lot of stories about her life touring, and about friends she hung with, back in the day! Stay cool!

As a LA native, I visited a fortnight ago and did my rendition of memory lane driving past clubs I frequented. Many you mention I didn't know about despite being under my nose. . Great stuff.

Your video editing skills are very good.

Oh yeah…and: McCabes Molly Malones Another idea: the old large venues for music in LA like the Shrine Exposition Hall (where Bill graham held his LA shows, the Shrine Auditorium, the Rose Palace (a huge Pasadena warehouse where rose parade floats were built - graham had to move here after too much trouble at the Shrine), the Palladium, maybe more to come Great videos. Thanks

SUPERB. THANK YOU.

I spent a lot of time at The Cathay, Raji's, and The Anti-Club. Fun watch!

Love this series on Hollywood clubs thank you. I didn't notice one or two clubs you didn't feature. First Club the Galaxy a few doors west of the Whiskey A Go-Go. I saw the band LOVE among other bands at the Galaxy, only there a few times. On the East End there was a Hullabaloo Club which turned into the Kaleidoscope for a short time and then became the Aquarius theater. Being a teenager at the time 66 through 70 I didn't go to bar bars very much. I did manage to see most all of the big names during that time at various different places. Funny you mention the Hyatt I rode up the elevator with Donovan one time at the Hyatt it was hilarious I was in shock. Again thanks for the Memories.

Thank you so very much for for taking some of us on a trip down memory lane!! And educating others with the rich musical history that is LA and Hollywood!! I though I got to see some bands back in the days, but damn amigo… you’ve seen some bands!!! Thank you again so very much. Made my night. Keep ‘em coming. Cheers!!!

Love your videos Tim: I was in a band that was searching for a new label after deciding not to renew with Bell records. We had to play the top 40 cover circuit to survive. Of course playing 5-6 nights a week we did not have the energy to work on our original music. We played at Big Daddy’s , The Basement in Marina Del Ray etc. Happening dance rock clubs in the 70’s. Jonathan Cain trio played the downstairs lounge and we played the upstairs room at Big Daddy’s. Celebrity hangout in those days. Thanks for the memories love it and your knowledge. BTW recorded at Wally Heiders bummed to see it is now a restaurant. ☹️😢

Coconut Teaser was one of, if not THE first club to do PAY TO PLAY , thats why they had so many crazy local bands, they allowed anyone to play, as long as they forked up the money - also, AL's BAR downtown art district was a legendary punk venue

Thanks Tim for another great video.👍🎶

Chinatown was cool, kind of "exotic" and unlikely, maybe a bit surreal. I was mainly a Hong Kong Cafe guy but I remember standing in the courtyard with a friend trying to decide between the two. One night I was in the Hong Kong Cafe and had to use the restroom. I believe there was not a restroom for patrons upstairs and I went down to the restaurant restroom. I was standing at the urinal when an angry looking Asian man in a leather jacket (think Bruce Li) came in and pushed the stall door open rather violently. He was looking for someone! Thankfully nobody was there because he would have had to get rid of the witness too. Wow, Club Lingerie...that one was locked deep inside my memory banks. I think I only went to one Starwood show, it must have been pretty close to the time it was accidentally lit on fire. Eddie Nash was a pretty dark figure. Thanks for the upbeat and stirring trip!

In the 60s I cleaned the floors at Shellys Man Hole in the mornings. At night we went out, Ben Frank's and Pioneer Chicken, tail of the Pup were places we ate. Fell down the stairs at Pandora's Box going to the bathroom. Remember hitting the floor and looking up at the one bare lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. Damn those Ludes...Hung in the Valley a lot, your vids take me back..

I got a feeling you’re doing this in a single take. Damn. 👏

Your videos never disappoint. Love the background music and vibe. You're still very cool. Thank you✌🏽💚

Cool shit as always Tim 👍

Great Videos and even better locations! looking forward to seeing where you go next and now how I have new places to go to! 👍🏻

Very cool

This is very cool. I was there. You did a great thing making this. You made my day 🔥

Great video!!! I had forgot that Rodney Bingenheimer had a band and a club. I had seen the photo you showed of Rodney and there in the middle was Peter Tork with Davy Jones and Micky Dolenz. I was one of those tweens who got hooked on music from the Monkees shows and music. I have continued to attend shows with the last one, the Micky & Mike Show in 2019. I did not attend their final tour and now I wish I had, since Mike Nesmith passed. When you go through the history of Hollywood bands, Hollywood clubs, there is very frequently a Monkee conection, especially with Micky Dolenz. Would you ever do a video on the Monkees? Micky was Alice Cooper's neighbor, friend and founding member of the Hollywood Vampires, he was part of the group of friends that was part of John Lennon's lost weekend and from I what I have heard, he through some of the best parties in Laurel Canyon. Stephen Stills tried out for the Monkees and they liked his vibe but didn't think he would film well and producers asked him if he had any friends, so Stills sent Peter Tork to audition. Peter was friends with not only Stephen Stills, but David Crosby too. The Byrds and Buffalo Springfield would hang out at Peter's place and Stills, lived with him for awhile. Mike of course gigged at the Troubador prior to the Monkees and hosted a hootnany night weekly in 1965, I think. I would love to see where these guys hung out and if there are filming sites, if the recording studios are there. I know, in a lot of circles, these guys are still considered un-cool, but they did have talent and Micky has one of the best voices from that era. Just because they didn't play any instruments and used the Wrecking Crew on their first two albums, doesn't mean they couldn't play, it was because they weren't allowed to.

Thank you for this!

Can’t get enough

Yea baby... New video Mucho MEOW and as always, ROCK ON 🎧

Love love a spot of rock nostalgia. Looking to when I can come to LA and complete some of your LA/rock hikes👍🏽

Super cool😎Thank you

In 1966-67 the teen dance club "It's Boss" was where I saw the Bobby Fuller Four and Arthur Lee and Love. The Palladium and Kaleidoscope sound familiar, I don't recall which venue I saw The Seeds. Went to a "Freak Out" with the Mothers of Invention at the Shrine Hall in Sept 1966 and again Dec 1968. Saw a number of great shows at the Shrine back in the day. I've been to the Roxy, Troubadour, Whisky... after my psychopath brother-in-law held a loaded gun in my face I fled LA and continued my rockNroll life in NoCal. This video reminded me of what I left behind. Thanks.

Excellent

Hi Tim! Another great video! So awesome to hear of the history of so many buildings I have seen and passed by for so many years! You do awesome with sharing history with us! You're the music man! You know all the spots! Thanks for sharing!

Once again, a great tour and history lesson...! Well done Sir...! I learn from you every time I watch.

Fantastic Tim! I'm exactly like you..I just wish they would restore and keep these iconic venues...they have done the same at all the amazing venues in Australia that being a musician I played at...I've also noticed too the music is really coming back in the youth!

I find this so interesting Tim. Keep up this great work of rock and roll history. I really enjoyed this video

thanks for sharing this Tim , I appreciate your videos very much & I look forward to seeing more in the future , Cheers Tim ✌️🇺🇲 🎸 🇨🇦✌️

Excellent Tim!

The Hong Kong Cafe was also known as the Hong Kong Low, site of many great Rock En Español shows in the early nineties. Thanks for this cool video!

I always look forward to your videos! They are all absolutely fantastic! I love history like this. You do a great job narrating and are an enjoyable host :)

Hong Kong Cafe..1980 …played there a few times. The Starwood what Aden of iniquity …wonderful!. Coconut Teaser…yup.

Great episode. Camera work was remarkable. Thanks.

Always entertaining and informative, more please ATB !

Another really good video.

Ahhhhh the good 'ol days in LA. I hit a few of these in the '80's. Thanks for the ride!

Great videos. ... thanks!

This is a great video!! 👍👍 But you should of mentioned The Olympic Auditorium located in downtown L.A. , it had some great punk shows in the early 80s. Also the Anti Club in East Hollywood. ⭐

Great videos Tim, some of us were blessed to live in the LA area growing up in the 60's, 70's and 80's and experienced the great music developed and performed. I'm glad I survived to have those memories just like you. Thanks for sharing!!!

This was great - thanks for not being afraid to show the grittier elements of LA Tim! The street-walking attitudes 00:35 and homelessness 07:52 are interesting to see, but we love your presentation and enthusiasm for the subject.

Another great set, Tim. And the backing tunes! Dude, you're killing me 🤘😀. Thanks for doing what you do mano.

Man, I dig your videos. Keep up the good work. I live in Southern California and I hope some days you’ll start doing some personal tours.

Tim, once again an AWESOME video by someone who clearly was in this scene at the time. I miss it and I really appreciate your work to document this great music culture era in L.A.

Thank you for all your knowledge and sharing...

Played in several bands back in the day, great to see some of the old sights again! Thank you

That was a blast down memory lane!

Great video Tim ! ! ! As much as Im not a punk rock fan you made this trip very interesting. I didnt know that the Troubador was an older club than The Whiskey or Filmore West? Anyways keep them coming. Thanks man.

These are really cool videos. Thanks for the history lesson!

Dude awesome channel 👍👍

I owned and operated a private nightclub in Tucson for 9 years so seeing this video is really cool and teaches me about the many amazing clubs I never knew about. Thanks for sharing this video 🔥🤘🏽😎

Don't know how I missed this, but it was outstanding, thank you.

Another fantastic walk back in time! It’s mind blowing to see how gentrified the area near Boardners is now. I never set foot in that then dive bar but know a lot of former alcoholics that did 😂

My band The Rich was rehearsing in the basement of The Masque in 1978 and then we performed there also several times.

Raji’s wasn’t torn down to make way for condos, the building was condemned after irreparable damage from the Northridge earthquake.

Thanks for the memories. Heres a few more as well...Madame Wongs West, The Music Machine, 14Below, The Joint, The Mint, Gazzarris, The Central, Al's Bar (lol)...... I remrmber playing a gig at Al's Bar then this skinny blonde kid comes on after us. Just him and a boombox. I'm thinking wtf is this?!? 30 years later that skinny kid is an international superstar and I'm still flipping burgers ( lol)....The kids name was Beck smh....

Dude. That UFO show at The Starwood in 1976 was my first gig after landing in L.A. four days earlier! My band (Rockin' Horse) opened. After our set was over, I made the mistake of opening the backstage door in order to get something out of our truck. The next thing I knew, Eddie Nash was screaming at me and trying to push me down the stairs. I would have been way more scared if I'd known who he really was!

We saw a lot of bands at the Starwood. Incredible iconic club!!!

Apparently it was at Club Lingerie that Stevie Salas first spotted a young, and very green Taylor Hawkins playing with an 'average band.' Not long after that Stevie took Taylor under his wing in Sass Jordan's band. I'm enjoying your vlogs!

Tim, great tour of some legendary clubs! You're hitting clubs I performed at in the early '80s with The Bings. We played our first gig at The Troubadour the same week Ratt played their's. Madame Wong's East was a trip. I watched George Wong threaten the drummer of another band on the bill with a butcher's knife for gushing, "Boy, I LOVE Japanese food!" George waved the knife at him and yelled, "Japanese?? I'm CHINESE! I could kill you!" That poor kid is probably still running.

actually "broke" into the masque in 2005 just to check out the walls - this was before the fencing, there was only a chain across the back metal door to the stairs then and was easy to squeeze in....it was when it was being used as a storage space for FULL MOON, ANCHOR BAY DVDs, but you could still see the graffiti behind the shelves

Your story and your sticking to it, from a country song. 👍 Nashville, your next stop ?

It's cool to see some of the places Ive performed are still there. The Troub was special. But sad to see so many "used-to-be" cool spots evolve to a new form of basic-ness. I still have a dream of raising Club Lingerie from the dead. And I'm surprised you didn't mention what used to be The Gig down on Melrose.

👍👍👍

Pandora s box is in the first episode of dragnet67.

Great job 👏. Didn’t all of Eddy Nash clubs burn down? What a coincidence. I bet he claimed bad luck

If I had a time machine, I would go back to see Van Halen at The Starwood 🤘!!

I only made it to Coconut Teasers in '89

Okay I could have sworn I saw The Police at Wong's East and now you confirmed they played there.

I remember the Starwood well

Cool Baby Cool💀

Hey Tim, do you know anything about where Marvin Gaye lived in Hancock Park is all I know from Wikipedia. See if you can do a story on him. 👍 would be cool if you could find the house.

I seen the B-52's at Madom Wongs in 78'

The Rich picked Ester Wong. We performed Wongs East, and then later a lot at Wongs West.

Was the Palladium, the famous Hollywood Palladium?

Warlord/Deliver Us/1983/William J Tsamis❤‍🔥Magnolia & Lankershim/North Hollywood💀RIP

What about Blackie’s on La Brea, The ON Klub on Sunset or the Brave Dog in DTLA???

I worked at a Guitar Center here in Queens, New York. A co-worker of mine was from Kansas City, Missouri. He told me how his band packed up their van in the eighties from KC and headed out to LA for the big time. They were a hair band. They looked and sounded exactly like Poison. I cringed when he showed me photos but he had a beautiful pink strat with a rosewood neck, so at least that was cool. Anyway, they were told the now famous story of how you walk up and down the strip passing out flyers. Him and his band were excited as all hell to do so until about ten minutes into it. They found themselves in a sea of dudes from other hair bands who looked exactly like them, also passing out flyers. He suddenly realized the absurdity of the whole thing and he felt like an idiot. His band were big shots back in Missouri but are nothing in LA. Every band looked and sounded exactly alike. How do you stand out in a scene when every band is indistinguishable from one another? It was truly ridiculous. Then grunge hit and it was back to KC. James Brown had a joke about trying to make it in Los Angeles. He said, "You go out on a Greyhound and you come back on a stray dog".

Accurate.

Hey Tim, Goldfingers? Sounds like you missed what it was just before it became Goldfingers. It was Hell's Gate, and yes that was its real name. A long narrow bar with a small room to watch bands behind it, and an outside for smokers. It had the worst bathrooms in Hollywood. Ladies would trash their bathroom and leave the menstrual leavings, poop and piss overflowing onto the floor, and then take over the men's bathroom, with feral females ferociously defending their friends from men. Its bands were mostly local punk, with additional weird acts like the Cacophony Society's band Imperial Butt Wizards putting on a show with so many smoke bombs you couldn't breathe. Prior to Hell's Gate's punk glory the place was a seedy disco named Max's. In addition you barely mentioned Cafe NELA, the last hangout for punks in their 50s and 60s. Other than the omissions, good tour. -ShitEd, ex-Flipside Fanzine.

My Was 666 like hahahaha lol ... Thanks Man .. I'm from Brasil - Rio de Janeiro. :D Fantastic to know about this places, like a dream hahah. Very cool and similar Rio de Janeiro :D parallel world, but here there is no Rock, yes Samba and Funk Eletronicos :O))) I ♥LA man ... My dream go there. Land Where Hair Metal and Glam Rock Were Born as They Are. Thx 4 share. 🙏 Is there still that scene from Hard there?

Fascinating pair of videos. I was never into punk, though. The character has clearly been ripped out of the area, although pockets of coolness still survive.

Tim, Heading to LA next week for my second rock n roll history visit. I waited too long and now the Troubadour shows are sold out. Can you go in and get a drink at the front bar without a ticket to the show in the back?

Davy Jones in the first picture of the Starwood??? On the left front.

Where did they film the music video Fall to Pieces by Velvet Revolver?

Harvelle’s Santa Monica Sweetwater redondo Baked potato That Hollywood alley where Love played Babe and Ricky’s blues club

No mention of The Scene, North Hollywood where Jimi Hendrix played?

I lived through all that & thought it was all boring as hell! Besides RODNEYS & The Starwood!!! The Whiskey was cool in the 70s

"And now dare I say it is safe to walk here." Jeez, doesn't look too safe now. How bad was it? lol

Eddie Nash liked to take out a big fire insurance policy and then torch his own place. He did the same to Odyssey.