L.A. street artists add refreshing vibrancy to Sunset Strip with homage to rock icons and Hollywood legends.
LACMA may have been on lockdown as we wait out the crazy corona crisis, but local guerrilla artists have been busy keeping the urban landscape interesting with original works of art that have been dotting the Sunset Strip lately.
Alec Monopoly leaves his artful touch in the 90210
Rock icons like KISS, Star Wars heroine Princess Leia, sports great Mike Tyson, and legendary rock and roll club Whisky A Go-Go are just a few of the fascinating subjects that inspired some of the stellar street art that we’ve come across recently in WeHo.
Artists turn L.A. streets into an urban art gallery any music fan would love.
In 2020, the Sunset Boulevard scene–from Rock Row to Dodger Stadium–has dramatically changed as a result of the pandemic and the nation’s turbulent political climate. And the changes extend beyond just the physical sense of seeing the famous, once-glamorous and vibrant landscape covered in bland blonde plywood and political graffiti.
The biggest impact is the deafening silencing of the world-class live rock and roll music that always seemed to be a ubiquitous part of the Sunset Strip. Regardless of when you visited Sunset’s Rock Row, there was always an exciting rock and roll energy and spontaneous soundtrack permeating the legendary thoroughfare and creating an intrinsic connection with visitors.
Until this year, there was always music in the night air, whether it was the power chords of superstars likeLita Ford or local faves like Budderside emanating from the Whisky A Go Go, or the rockin’ retro sounds of Missing Persons or L.A. rockers Warner Drive (pictured below) shaking the foundation of the Viper Room.
However, while the temporary closure of the Whisky, Viper Room and Roxy is tough on everyone, there is some good news.
LED ZEPPELIN LEGEND ROBERT PLANT TO ROCK HOLLYWOOD HILLS, JUNE 2
Been a long time since you rock and rolled?
Robert Plant is returning to L.A. to grace the gorgeous Hollywood Hills summer skyline with his golden pipes when he headlines the GreekTheatre on June 2.
This time around, the Led Zeppelin legend is bringing along his new band, the Sensational Space Shifters, pictured right at L.A.’s Shrine Theatre in 2013. The iconic singer-songwriter and his band will be focusing on music from their 2014 album, Lullaby and… the Ceaseless Roar.
Get ticket information and more details on the Greek show here.
Check out and the Sensational Space Shifters in the short film Returning to the Borders, below.
WARNER DRIVE TO HEADLINE CITY OF ANGELS RECORD RELEASE SHOW AT SUNSET STRIP’S VIPER ROOM NOV. 8
As far as Hollywood buzz bands go, they don’t get much better than Warner Drive. The hard rocking fivesome has been tirelessly shaking up the Sunset Strip for a couple years now before recently taking some time off the club scene to record new material.
Local fans will get a live taste of the new stuff when Warner Drive hits up the Viper Room on November 8 for a headlining gig at the iconic rock club. The band’s return to the Sunset Strip is to celebrate the long awaited release of WD’s new album, City of Angels.
As expected, the band does not disappoint with City of Angels, which includes 10 solid tracks featuring WD’s newer club staples and brand spankin’ new material.
City of Angels, which officially dropped September 9, kicks off with “Rising From the Fallen,” a full-throttle, Sabbathy hard rock anthem that Disturbed would have killed to have recorded. We think the late, great Dio would give this track two devil’s horns up.
The album starts off very strong and never lets up, seguing to the title track, “City of Angels,” which is the coolest L.A. anthem to surface from a Sunset Strip-launched band since Motley Crue‘s “Saints of Los Angeles.”
“Radio Love Song” echoes with ’80s-metal-style harmonies and is the most radio-ready and badass sing-along track since WD’s signature jam “The Scarecrow.” Likewise, the band’s new single “Boys N’ Girls” is another killer original rock song that would have fit comfortably on any early Skidrow or Dokken album.
Also on the new release, frontman Jonny Law and crew — guitarists Candice Levinson and Ryan Harris, bassist Elvis James and drummer Jonny U — switch gears from party rock to get political and bust some strings on the catchy, hard-rocking “West Memphis Three.”
“King of Swing” is standard Warner Drive: mercilessly melodic chorus, scorching guitars and a solid rhythm section that kicks this tune into overdrive and should blow the roof off of the Viper Room on November 8.
Also, considering that WD has already immortalized Viper Room in one of its best songs, expect Warner Drive to deliver a particularly scorching version of “Viper Room.”
Viper Room is located in the heart of the Strip at 8852 West Sunset Boulevard. The show starts at 10:30 p.m. Tickets are $10, or $15 with a copy of City of Angels. Lose Control and Kicking Harold are also on the bill. Get ticket details here.
The Gibson Guitar Town urban art installation has added a new rock-star tribute to its cool collection of giant guitars that dot the Sunset Strip.
On-again, off-again, on-againFleetwood Mac hit-maker and solo superstar Stevie Nicks is the newest legend to be immortalized with a huge guitar installation featuring a colorful mosaic portrait of the prolific singer-songwriter. The artwork is on display in front of Mel’s Diner.
OK, so the illustrated “Gold Dust Woman” kinda looks like Dina Lohan, but it’s the thought that counts. And it’s great to see Stevie getting her props on Sunset!
The Sunset Strip is showcasing a very cool and colorful new addition to Rock Row with a fresh urban art mural that would make Keith Haring and Radiohead artist Stanley Donwood proud.
The huge painting popped up earlier this week next to the WhiskyA Go Go, on a wooden fence that covers the former location of rock and roll diner Duke’s, which has been demolished to make room for an expansion to the Strip’s newest hot spot Rock & Reilly’s Irish Pub.
We can’t wait to hang out at a more comfy R&R’s! But if waiting means that this cool mural sticks around longer, we’re down with that!
SEEING BON JOVI FOR FREE AS THEY ROCK THEIR BIGGEST HITS ON A COOL RAINY NIGHT IN HOLLYWOOD? PRICELESS, FOR SURE!
Rock stalwarts Bon Jovi gave an AMAZING show in the rain last night at Paramount Studios in Hollywood, where the band played for a few hundred diehard fans lucky enough to get free tickets through MasterCard’s Priceless campaign. Saturday night’s downpour failed to dampen spirits at the outdoor gig beneath Paramount’s famous water tower.
JBJ and the band opened with “Nowhere Highway,” setting a course straight to their biggest hits and proceeded to rock a million — or a few hundred — faces for about an hour and half. The band hit the mark on every track from “Living On a Prayer” and “You Give Love a Bad Name” to “It’s My Life,” “Two Story Town” and “Who Says you Can’t Go Home” before closing with “Bad Medicine.”
The non-stop drizzle seemed to increase the excitement, providing a spectacular visual, and with all the fevered audience-participation singing and hands to the sky as the rain poured down, it kind of felt like a rockin’ religious revival. Just how we like it!
MasterCard offers fans a chance to check out Bon Jovi’s Paramount show for free until December 31. Get details here.
VIPER ROOM CELEBRATES 25 YEARS OF APPETITE FOR DESTRUCTION
If you’re a fan of the original Guns N’ Roses — you know from the Appetite for Destruction/Sunset strip days, when they were awesome — then there is nowhere else to be tonight, July 20, than the Viper Room! The iconic club is hosting a multi-band lineup to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Appetite! Yep, it’s been 25 years since Axl and the guys launched their superstar career from the Sunset Strip.
Tonight’s Viper Room lineup includes Inside the Black, Coma, Brando’s Island and, performing Appetite in its entirety, the Lonely Drunks Club Band. Plus, there will be special surprise guests. We’re crossing our skull-ringed fingers that at least one of those guests is either Axl, Slash, Duff, Izzy or Steven! (OK, hell, we’d even be happy to see Matt and/or Dizzy. But please, no lame GN’R newbies!)
Guns N’ Roses’ full-length studio album debut actually dropped on July 21, 1987, but with the Lonely Drunks Club Band likely rocking past the midnight hour, it’s all good!
Doors open at 7:30 p.m. and cover is a cheap-o $15 at the door. Tonight is gonna rock for sure.
And if you’re an L.A.-based diehard GN’R fan but don’t plan on being at the Viper Room tonight, well, you’re crazy, hey, hey. You know you’re crazy, oh my! You’re f**kin’ crazy, oh child. You know you’re crazy Ay,ay,ay,ay,ay,ay,ah,ah,ah,oooh, yeah!
Here’s famous green dude Yoda sporting some cool Isaac Hayes-like shades and Dr. Dre Beats headphones while hanging out on the Sunset Strip. We spotted the slick street art on the pavement on Music Row, near the Guitar Center and Sam Ash.
Bulldozers have been coming uncomfortably close to the huge white skeletal remains of the historic Hollywood rock club Tropicana in the past few weeks. The defunct legendary ’80s club infamously hosted female mud wrestling, championed the local metal scene before the Rolling Stone cover stories and is justifiably immortalized in Motley Crue‘s classic track “Girls, Girls, Girls.” The Tropicana is where Vince Neil said he “lost my heart” The band even posed at the club with some of the wrestlers for the 1987 album’s inside sleeve (below).
Fortunately, the current crop of bulldozers rumbling next to the club’s former location on Western near Fountain are flattening the adjacent empty lot. The old Tropicana haunt looks safe for now, but there’s no word on what’s in store for the future of the empty former heavy metal hot spot.
We spotted this rockin’ tribute to masked musical marauders Paul, Ringo, John and George on La Brea near Santa Monica Blvd. in Hollywood. We think the Brit icons would approve.
If you’re cruising Bonnie Brae in L.A. and the Red Hot Chili Peppers song “Slow Cheetah” suddenly pops into your head, there’s a good reason. In the track from the Hollywood band’s 2006 release Stadium Arcadium, frontman Anthony Kiedis references the notorious street — located near Downtown Los Angeles — where he used to cop heroin, as revealed in his 2004 autobiography Scar Tissue.
“Any other day and I might play a funeral march for Bonnie Brae,” he sings on the ominous track, brilliantly capturing the essence of the shady area.
The Sunset Strip is showcasing a very cool and colorful new addition to Rock Row with a fresh urban art mural that would make 
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