1986.12.23 - The Cathouse, Los Angeles, USA

The Cathouse

You might know Riki Rachtman from his stint as host of the famed Headbangers Ball on MTV. Before that, he'd prepped for the role by immersing himself in the L.A. rock scene.

Among his venues was the (now defunct) Cathouse, a club that cropped up on Tuesday nights in a disco by the corner of La Cienega and San Vicente. As Rachtman explained to LA Weekly, it only turned up on Tuesdays because the weekends were "amateur nights"; only the most zealous (and professional?) of partiers would show their faces in the middle of the week. Furthermore, a no-cameras policy, as well as an optional membership card that offered you a lower cover fee, provided an extra barrier against the poseurs.

The Cathouse would indeed develop a reputation for being the most no holds barred of L.A. parties. The promise of next-level hedonism would draw out nascent celebrities like Robert Downey Jr. and Johnny Depp, as well as established names like Robert Plant (sidenote: Christina Applegate was said to have worked coat-check on occasion).

As for the club's ties with GnR, the band was hanging out there before Appetite had even materialized. The band threw a release party for their 1986 EP, Live Like a Suicide, and played an acoustic set as part of the festivities. Slash would drop in during the recording of Appetite, and is said to have walked through a plate glass window one night while lost in a haze. Also, Rose had pushed for Rachtman to land the gig on Headbangers Ball. " [Axl] was a really, really big part of me getting the job. So people that hated me on the show, blame him!" Rachtman told LA Weekly.

While very few pictures exist of the club (thanks to the no-cameras policy), the party would be immortalized in the music videos for both "It's So Easy" (it was filmed at the club) and "Paradise City" (where Rose dons a t-shirt advertising the Cathouse).

Riki Rachtman wrote:[The Cathouse] just got bigger and bigger, and I said 'I just want it to stay a rock & roll dance club'. Everybody was like 'Hey, when are you gonna have a band play?' The reason I didn't wanna have a band play The Cathouse is if I had a band play, let's say I had Motörhead, it'd be like 'Dude, Motörhead's playing The Cathouse!' then the next Tuesday comes along and it's 'You wanna go to the Cathouse', 'Who's playing?', 'I don't know if anybody's playing', 'Forget it, we'll go next week' and I didn't want it to be a live venue. [...] I kept that rule about no bands playing for a long time [...] [Then] Axl or Steven said to me 'Hey, we're coming out with this EP called 'Live?!★@ Like a Suicide', can we do a record release party at The Cathouse?' and I was like 'Yeah, okay' [...] and he's like 'Can we just play acoustic?' and I'm like 'Yeah okay, you're gonna do this Christmas party and we're gonna let you play acoustic', it's the first time anyone has ever played The Cathouse. The very first night we had bands play, it was Guns N' Roses, L.A. Guns, Faster Pussycat, and Jetboy; all playing acoustic and it was absolutely incredible, and that really put Cathouse on the map.

Shackler wrote:Riki Rachtman spoke about this gig during a livestream on Facebook celebrating The Cathouse's 35th anniversary, September 23, 2021.

Riki Rachtman wrote:[The Cathouse] just got bigger and bigger, and I said 'I just want it to stay a rock & roll dance club'. Everybody was like 'Hey, when are you gonna have a band play?' The reason I didn't wanna have a band play The Cathouse is if I had a band play, let's say I had Motörhead, it'd be like 'Dude, Motörhead's playing The Cathouse!' then the next Tuesday comes along and it's 'You wanna go to the Cathouse', 'Who's playing?', 'I don't know if anybody's playing', 'Forget it, we'll go next week' and I didn't want it to be a live venue. [...] I kept that rule about no bands playing for a long time [...] [Then] Axl or Steven said to me 'Hey, we're coming out with this EP called 'Live?!★@ Like a Suicide', can we do a record release party at The Cathouse?' and I was like 'Yeah, okay' [...] and he's like 'Can we just play acoustic?' and I'm like 'Yeah okay, you're gonna do this Christmas party and we're gonna let you play acoustic', it's the first time anyone has ever played The Cathouse. The very first night we had bands play, it was Guns N' Roses, L.A. Guns, Faster Pussycat, and Jetboy; all playing acoustic and it was absolutely incredible, and that really put Cathouse on the map.