The remains of the Sunset Strip from 1988 surfaced last week at the Ritz for a small rock show that triggered a thousand mystical viewpoints of the ever-evolving South First Area in downtown San Jose.
From the perspective of an old wise man 2600 years ago, nothing is really born and nothing really dies. When all the conditions are sufficient for something to manifest—a cloud, a flame, or a flower, for instance—then it will happen. Once the conditions are no longer sufficient, the cloud, the flame or the flower will transform into something else. Rock bands, music scenes and buildings can be understood in the same fashion. This is exactly why the presence of L.A. Guns at The Ritz was a totally fun, albeit small party.
L.A. Guns were among the legendary glam-metal bands of the ’80s Hollywood scene. This columnist saw them open up for AC/DC in 1991, but that’s not the point. The gig at the Ritz harkened back to a mere 25 years ago, when the band last appeared on this block of San Jose.
In 2001, when L.A. Guns last played at Cactus Club—directly across the street from the building now called The Ritz—the group rolled up in a tour bus that reportedly once belonged to the late stock-car champ Dale Earnhardt. Unfortunately, the Roscoe P. Coltranes of the San Jose Police Department ticketed the tour bus for parking too long in the loading zone. Before the gig, the band was also spotted down the street buying clothes at the thrift store, which is now the San Jose Museums of Quilts & Textiles.
“San Jose has such a notorious reputation for meager attendance at shows that sell out elsewhere that it’s generally not worth mentioning, but in this case it seems relevant,” wrote Metro music columnist Sarah Quelland of that LA Guns gig 25 years ago. “When ‘The Ballad of Jayne’ hit the airwaves [in 1989], and the video reintroduced top hats as a fashion accessory—a front-row ticket to an L.A. Guns show would have been in high demand. On Friday, however, a front-row view was pretty much guaranteed to anyone who wanted it.”
Such was also the case at the Ritz last week. The crowd was not huge, but the band was having enough fun to make it work. Guitarist Tracii Guns, who was actually the original axeman for Guns N’ Roses before anything got started, even did a few solos. It was like L.A. Guns playing in our living room. Unlike other folks from that era, the band was not taking itself too seriously.
The guys looked comfortable in their own skin. They were not pretending to be any bigger than they were. They were simply an old Sunset Strip bar band, down with still playing in bars, putting out records, touring and just having a go at it. When they broke out “The Ballad of Jayne,” one person even held up a cigarette lighter, provoking a great reaction from vocalist Phil Lewis. Was it tongue in cheek? I don’t know. It doesn’t matter, really.
“I was encouraged to see a band like L.A. Guns still touring,” wrote Quelland after the Cactus Club gig 25 years ago. “Bands today would do well to take a few lessons from experienced vets who’ve survived the rock & roll fairy tale and are still standing.”
For this columnist, there was no way to separate that night 25 years ago from the current moment. The past expanded like a rubber band and snapped back into the present. Over and over again.
And speaking of people still standing, the current Smash Mouth lineup will play a free show this Friday, May 15, at the new club down the block, the Pete Be Center, formerly Earl Scheib’s Auto Painting 40 years ago. Late Smash Mouth frontman Steve Harwell would be ecstatic to see his old band in a building that used to be Earl Scheib’s, right down the block from Cactus.
The spirit of Steve Harwell will be present because nothing ever dies. Not people, not bands, not music scenes, not buildings. They all just transform into something else.
Smash Mouth: Friday, May 15, 9pm, Pete Be Center.
