Why Sunday Nights Are Like The Sunset Strip In The 80s Here In The South Bay
By Kevin Wilkerson, PubClub.com Hermosa Beach Lifestyle Blogger
As Mitch Perry ripped riffs on the guitar and a skinny Mick Jagger-looking guy who sounded like Robert Plant spilled out high-pitched lyrics into the microphone, I stood still at the Standing Room.
It was a Sunday afternoon turning into a Sunday evening in Hermosa Beach, CA, yet I felt as if I had been transported to the Sunset Strip back in the 1980s in the heyday of heavy metal rock. I was at the Roxy, the Troubadour, the Whiskey A-Go-Go.
When the song ended, I snapped to and, after checking my surroundings, realized I was back in Hermosa.
Perry – who was lead guitarist for Ratt and Quiet Riot, played on the MTV mega-hit “Knocking On Heaven’s Door” while with Heaven and was one of the most sought-after studio musicians of the era – plays the Standing Room every Sunday. His assembled band, which is really like a jam session for heavy metal musicians, is there from 4-8 p.m. There is no cover charge.
What there is, is entertainment. And lots of it.
With his long hair reaching down to the strings and his hands moving so fast they appear as a blur, Perry launches into a guitar tirade of sorts that, with the others on stage, threatens to bust out the walls of the bar and deposit them all over the sidewalk along Hermosa Ave.
Rotating singers, drummers and other musicians, the show powers on for four hours. And sometimes slightly beyond, at least for a song or two.
I will warn you that it’s loud. These sounds are more fit for those old Sunset Strip bars than the small confines of Standing Room. Which is why it’s so easy to picture yourself in those places when heavy metal dominated the Los Angeles music scene.
And if you want to see Perry actually on the Sunset Strip, he’s part of the Whiskey A-Go-Go’s weekly Tuesday night Ultimate Jam.
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