1986.04.05 - Whisky A Go Go, Los Angeles, USA

Date:
April 5, 1986.

Venue:
Whisky A Go Go.

Location:
Los Angeles, USA.

Setlist:
01. Out Ta Get Me
02. Welcome to the Jungle
03. Think About You
04. Move to the City
05. Rocket Queen
06. Nightrain
07. My Michelle
08. Don't Cry
09. Back Off Bitch
10. Anything Goes
11. Paradise City
12. Mama Kin
13. Heartbreak Hotel
14. Nice Boys
15. Jumpin' Jack Flash

Line-up:
Axl Rose (vocals), Izzy Stradlin (rhythm guitarist), Slash (lead guitarist), Duff McKagan (bass) and Steven Adler (drums).
A friend of the band played saxophone during Anything Goes.

Bootlegs:
Video filmed by Marc Canter (surfaced online in April 2024).

Quotes:
Duff: The icing on the cake came a week later, when Guns rechristened the Whisky a Go Go on April 5; the legendary Sunset Strip venue was being converted back into a club after serving as a band for a few years. The poster asked, WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU SAW A REAL ROCK N' ROLL BAND AT THE WHISKY A GO GO? And, since it was assume we'd be making a record soon and then be off to tour the world - or, as eventually was the case, one-horse towns in the Canadian rust belt - below that was written: THIS COULD BE YOUR LAST CHANCE. Reopening the Whisky was sweet. It meant that somehow, despite the fact that nobody gave us the time of day on the Strip during the year it took us to find an audience for our idiosyncratic sound and style, we now embodied L.A. rock and roll to the extent that this legendary venue wanted to associate itself with us to restake its claim on the city's musical landscape [Duff's autobiography, "It's So Easy", 2011, p. 114].

Next concert: 1986.01.05.
Previous concert: 1986.03.28 12AM.

This anecdote from Axl must be from the day of this gig, or just before:

I'm scared of thrashing an asshole and going to jail for it. For some reason I can walk into a room and someone will pick a fight. That's always happening with me. Like, I went into a store once to buy a stun gun. We were headlining the Whiskey and things were getting out of hand, so I figured, 'I'll buy stun guns. We won't have to break their jaw; we'll just zap 'em and carry them out.' So my brother and I walked into the store and I said, 'Excuse me, sir, can I see this stun gun, please?' Being very polite. And the guy goes, 'Listen, son, I don't need your bullshit!' And my brother says, 'Listen, he just got signed, he can buy 10 of these,' and the guy says, 'I don't care, I'll sell them to you but not to him.' [Musician, December 1988].

Here's a pre-show advertisement from BAM Magazine April 1986:

"The spirit of the New York Dolls must have moved westward, because so many bands in Los Angeles have picked up on their trashy, tacky, and tattered personas. While a lot of these glam-cum-metal seem to equate quality with how many bandannas they can wrap around their various body parts, Guns N' Roses haven't forgotten that nothing - not even the baddest put this side of David Johannsen - is a substitute for a killer hook. "Anything Goes" sounds like vintage 1974-styled Aerosmith through it is a bit histrionic in the vocal department. Sure, they can be as sexist as the next leather n' studs guy, as in "Back Off," but that sort of thing comes with the territory. After all, you don't even think about going to see a band like Guns N' Roses if you want your consciousness raised.

-CD"

The show was also mentioned in the band's fourth newsletter:

"And at long last, the Whiskey A Go Go reopens its doors as the major Hollywood rock n’ roll nightclub it once was, and ‘Guns N’ Roses’ was called in to christen this historic event as the first band to play there in almost five years! Opening the show will be Hollywood’s new band ‘Faster Pussycat’ at 9:00 and hot on the huge success in New York, ‘Angels in Vain’ at 10:00." [Guns N' Roses Newsletter No. 4, March 1986]

Soulmonster wrote:

I remember that first Whisky gig was the first night I ever wore a top hat. I went to this store that Taime Downe from Faster Pussycat used to work at, and I went in there and stole a top hat because I was looking for something to wear for the show. I got the top hat and I stole a concho belt, because I didn't have any money. I went back to the apartment that Axl and I were squatting at, because we were hiding from the cops. We were staying at [former manager] Vicky Hamilton's apartment, and I cut the belt, put it around the hat. We were playing the Whisky that night, and I remember that was the sort of premiere gig of the whole top hat thing. It got stolen, like, two days later at The Cathouse. I was passed out in a booth, and I woke up and my hat was gone.

Sirius XM Octane, August 20, 2018

And, judging from the newly surfaced footage, Slash did wear a top hat at this show. So that was, most likely, indeed the first time he wore a top hat (and not the later show at the Whisky in Aug. 1986 like Slash had said in Marc Canter's book).

Soulmonster wrote: