'Retto Ruminations
By: Amy Sciarretto
Last updated April 29th , 2010

Last week, I headed off to cover the RATT record release party at the Key Club on Sunset in Los Angeles, California, one of my favorite places in the whole world. Mind you, I was headquartered at a hotel on Hammond and Sunset, two blocks from the Rainbow Bar and Grill and the venue. It was the site of the first kiss I shared with my ex. Seriously, we were locked at the lips for three hours in July 2007 at On the Rocks, at the back of the Rainbow, in front of the Rainbow, down the street from the Roxy and ultimately, ended up across the street on the corner of Hammond and Sunset, trying not to part ways, trying to hold off my ride back to my friend's house where I was crashing and trying to remain in that moment we were ensconced and happy in.

It was one of the best nights of my entire life, one scarred into my brain in a good way, one that I reflect upon often. We even ended up near a pole, on the incline of the hill, kissing until our lips were swollen and sore. While I need no geographical reminders of my feelings or of that evening, the memory was emboldened by my location. Memories that are still in the forefront of my mind were even more vivid than usual. And trust me, they are pretty fucking vivid as they live in my heart. I remember scribbling about the night's events and the location in my journal on the plane ride home that weekend and I remember reading the cover story of Rolling Stone, which was a piece on Guns N' Roses and their rise on the Sunset scene. It was ironic, sure, but it made me even more interested in that era and that location. I also remember thinking how I had been so intrigued by stories I had read in music magazines about those Sunset bands, wondering what life was like, wishing to have seen the bands I loved up close and in the flesh and how I had shared the very best make out session of my life on this storied stretch of West Hollywood Road.

But other memories were drudged up while I was crashing out in the area, even though they were not memories that I experienced firsthand. What am I talking about? How can memories be summoned forth from a place and a scene that I was too young to have witnessed up close! Let me explain!

The Sunset Strip in West Hollywood was the epicenter of the '80s glam rock and hair metal and rock scenes. Guns N' Roses were born there. RATT ruled the Strip. I used to read about all the goings on and wish that I was old enough to have been there for the ride. It was some of those memories that sent me on my mission to want to be behind the scenes, working as a journalist and a record label publicist! 

But back to my main point. There is a lot of history encapsulated there. The Rainbow is there. That's were all the rock stars in LA go to the hang out when they are home and off tour, and back then, it was the place to be and be seen. After a show. Before a show. During a show! Groupies littered (and perhaps still litter) the location and Lemmy from Motorhead has a permanent stool at the bar the Rainbow. He probably pays rent to the owner since he is there so often. You can't walk a block without running into someone you know or someone in a band, trying to make it in the city. Even though I was like 12 when the height of the debauchery was being committed here, the location gives off the aura of its history and its past. You walk past the Rainbow and you think that any given moment, some shit that needs to be chronicled in a book and/or a script happened there nightly, if not hourly. Does it make me wish I was born in a different era? Maybe. But not really, since reading these stories - there was no Internet then- made me want to pursue a career in the music business and all my experiences of this era are truly precious to and treasured by me.

Does it make me wish that it was still like that? Not at all, since too much sin often has disastrous, deadly and devastating results. Does it make me want to do research, to maybe interview bands, club owners, key players, the women of the era and write a book? Abso-fucking-lutely. I'd love to get my hands dirty and go elbows deep into digging up the dirt.

I admit that I cannot turn away from those VH1 series about Sunset bands and cannot drag myself away from the peripheral rockumentaries about the women and the groupies that dotted that landscape and time period. I want to know more, discover the lore and perhaps reveal some stories that are known and spoken about yet not so well-known by those who weren't there. 

But beyond all these ideas that are swirling around in my head and inspiring me, the thesis that I truly want to explore is why was this particular area so special? Why were these venues and why was this location the one you needed to conquer in order to truly make it in the '80s, when the melodic riffs were flowing, the hairspray was making huge holes in the ozone layer, the eyeliner served as a badge of honor and strength (not of courage and of shoegazing, like it is with a lot of the eyeliner-slathered rock bands of this modern day and era) and when records were flying off shelves, due to massive MTV video play, especially on the countdown show where you actually called in and requested videos to be played, and of course, commercial radio airplay? Why then? Why there? And is that a moment in time that can never be recaptured?

The music business has changed so much in the past two decades since the glam metal bands ruled Sunset and its various clubs, and while the times and the methods have changed, the need and the want for new music has not. This is a recurrent theme here each week. Rock music won't die and shouldn't die, but the way that it was promoted and the way that images were built and that bands were able to become dominant forces in pop culture has contracted, and there has to be a way for it to expand again. Where is the next Sunset Strip scene? Where are those bands that will play residency gigs at the same venue for a month's time until they've been seen by every local label A&R guy there is and thus eventually signed? 

Music's effects on pop culture can never be denied, but I fear that it is lessening with scenes like the Sunset Strip scene not having the same lore and mythos that they used to. Sure, there are still tons of shows played at these venues by bands that are worthy of being seen. But that vibe? That "you have to be there" scenario? That is an endangered species and it's up to the music industry folk making the big bucks to come up with a new plan.

More that the people who do this stuff for a living need to think about. More that I want to think about. ~ Amy Sciarretto

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