Taste of Vintage Whisky at Celebration

They put the a Go Go back in the Whisky on Saturday.

Literally.

Kicking off the first night of a weeklong celebration of the landmark Sunset Strip club’s 35th anniversary, Johnny Rivers was on stage playing “Memphis” and other hits with two go-go dancers shimmying on stage and a third in a cage on a platform off the balcony--just as it was when Rivers opened the place in 1964.

Following Rivers was more Whisky history: Nancy Sinatra, the Grass Roots and Doors members Robby Krieger and John Densmore, returning to the site where the band made its name and added to the Whisky legend.

Sure, the dancers Saturday didn’t really know many of the vintage moves, and the cage was a bit of a makeshift affair. But this is ‘99, not ‘64, and the best you could hope for was just the flavor of an era when a club really could be the center of the pop universe, as the Whisky was in the swingin’ ‘60s.

Those days are a Gone Gone.

“It’s very different today,” said club co-founder and owner Mario Maglieri, whose upcoming 75th birthday was also celebrated with the event.

“There’s not a club in the world that could book top acts 365 days a year today, with people lining up around the block every night,” he said, standing outside under the Whisky marquee. “Now there are clubs all over the place. But the Whisky still has a name.”

That name, actually, as well as the caged-dancer idea, was borrowed from a Paris night spot that Maglieri’s partner Elmer Valentine (who was absent Saturday) had seen on a 1963 vacation. But this is the place that is still, all these years later, world renowned--not just for the ‘60s, but for its key status during the ‘70s punk explosion and the ‘80s metal days.

“Any country you go to, people ask about the Sunset Strip, and they all know the Whisky,” said scene patron Rodney Bingenheimer, who reminisced about the first show he saw there (the Doors) and recalled emceeing such events as an appearance by Led Zeppelin, with Alice Cooper opening.

The sights and sounds Saturday provided a good backdrop for memories. Most of the invited crowd had ties to the club and to Maglieri, whose entire family was on hand along with such representatives of the music world as Dwight Yoakam and Chicago’s Bobby Lamb.

Sitting in his dressing room after his solid set of swamp-tinged rock and soul, Rivers spoke of the star-packed audiences he drew during a yearlong residency after he had been lured to the Whisky from rival club Gazzarri’s.

“I remember the Beatles coming, and the Stones, and Bob Dylan playing pool upstairs,” he said. “And I didn’t recognize half the celebrities. People’d say, ‘That was Gina Lollabrigida dancing out there and Steve McQueen.’ Today, if kids want to see a band, they just go to see a band. The club doesn’t mean as much.”

Doors guitarist Krieger remembered the famed night when the band’s Jim Morrison first performed the still-shocking Oedipal passage of “The End,” and spoke of seeing Jimi Hendrix--”the only time I remember everyone, including myself, standing on the tables just to see what he was doing.”

Maglieri’s son Michael, who now runs the club as well as the family’s other Strip holdings, the Roxy club and the Rainbow restaurant and bar, estimated he’s seen 1,500 to 2,000 acts at the club since he started as a busboy when he was 16.

“It’s the same club it was,” he said. “And the bands that play here today, some will be remembered 20 years from now. No one thought the Doors would be anything when they were first playing here. I heard them play ‘Light My Fire’ so many times I was sick of it.”

He got to hear it one more time Saturday, as Krieger and drummer Densmore anchored a band that also included Krieger’s guitarist son Waylon, as well as bassist Berry Oakley, son of the late Allman Brothers bassist of the same name.

Sinatra, with a band including L.A. legends Hal Blaine on drums and Don Randi on keyboards, offered an odd set of ‘60s nuggets, from Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” to, of course, her signature “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’.”

Surprisingly strong was the final set by the Grass Roots, who in addition to performing their own hits, including “Midnight Confession,” were joined by two members of the Raiders for a few of that band’s classics, including “Kicks.” As the evening drew on, Mario Maglieri kept a big smile on his face.

“I still like it,” he said, looking around the club. “Still like the young people that show up.”

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The Whisky’s 35th anniversary celebration continues through Saturday at 8901 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood. $35. Performers include the Miracles tonight, Country Joe McDonald on Tuesday, Canned Heat on Thursday and Roger McGuinn on Friday. (323) 652-4202.