Remembering the Scream

To many of those with rock in their veins, L.A. in the 80’s is like what Paris in the 20’s is to literature buffs. The sleaze and debauchery is well documented, be it in the pages of Motley Crue’s memoirs or the grooves of a well-worn copy of “Appetite For Destruction.” To many, the Sunset Strip always  looked to be ground zero of L.A. rock. And a look at the bands that have come out of L.A. dating from the Doors and Love through Van Halen, Motley Crue, and beyond always makes it look that way.

But in the mid 80’s, even as several Hollywood bands began their rise to prominence,  the Strip may have been the face of the Hollywood rock scene, but the heart and soul of it was more than likely the Scream and a few other rag tag clubs that are mostly now just memories.

The Scream began in fall 1985 as a dance club on Monday nights at the Seven Seas Nightclub across from the famed Chinese Theater on Hollywood Blvd. (the site of Seven Seas is now part of the backstage area of the theater “Jimmy Kimmel Live” tapes at nightly). It drew the crowd of people who were most often coined as goth or punkers but also didn’t mind admitting their love for the AC/DC, Kiss, and Cheap Trick records they grew up with and the old 70’s glam styled music they often were first turned onto through listening to Rodney Bingenheimer’s radio show. After afew months of packed Mondays, the promoters Michael Stewart, Bruce Pedrew, and booker Dayle Gloria decided to unleash the club as a huge Friday night that wouldfeature both a dance club and a live band room. This first Friday night featured Jane’s Addiction as headliners at a beat-up downtown theater where the club lasted just one week. Even if a move was necessary, some people witnessed a changing of the guard from what had been the bigger Friday night gathering at the time (70’s glam disco themed TVC15) when the DJ/promoter of the competing club was spottedoutside the Scream when his car broke down as he was eyeing his competition.

The second Friday night the club moved downtown to the basement of the Embassy Hotel. From the summer of ‘86 through the spring of ‘87 I and many others spent amillion late night hours at this cavern of rock and debauchery. The club area is impossible to describe and do justice with the cavernous alleys, stair, and hallways leading to different rooms (The footage where the Red Hot Chili Peppers play in the background in “Less Than Zero” was shot at the club at this time period). There was always a video room playing odd music videos or clips from “Evil Dead 2” or the Space Shuttle exploding while AC/DC's “Shoot To Thrill” blasted on the PA. there was a dance room that played anything and everything. And there was the downstairs band room where the odd mix of bands that could seem like a strange combo on paper always seemed to work. The band room was a large rectangle shaped basement with a stage that was only about 8 inches high. When a bigger band played there it was impossible to see them play and hot as hell in the room, but it was often the best show you could see the band do, since a band has to react to several hundred people at almost eye level, egging you on. The set-up usually involved 3 bands playing in slots starting at midnight, 1AM, and the headliners on at 2 AM. This took some balls to attempt since the law shuts down California bars at 2AM. But with a pocket flask... who would let that stop most from a good time!

During those months, The Scream built a reputation for it’s booking great bills. As the clubs on Sunset started charging opening acts for slots and great bands now had shitty bands from Orange County as their opening acts, many L.A. fans appreciated that more. It wasn’t odd to see a bill that featured San Francisco glam-punk-metal band Jetboy appear with old school L.A. junkie punks the MauMaus. Plus because of the diversity of entertainment inside the club, you could always guarantee yourself a good time. If it was making out with some Valley goth girl in a corner while a bad Christian Death droned on or watching as someone inevitably fell on the hole in the 11th stair on the way down from the upstairs video room, it was always a good time.

The club grew and drew the oddities from every scene. You’d see glammed model type girls dancing to the Lime Spiders' “Slave Girl” in one corner and mohawked punks sneaking drinks from a pint of Wild Turkey in the other. You’d see Andy Warhol upstairs in the dance room snapping pictures while the members of Sigue Sigue Sputnik were downstairs trying to scam free drinks while New York Doll Arthur Kane milled about with members of L.A. Guns. One show I’ll always remember there was Guns ‘N Roses, starting their set at close to 3 AM (not the last time they’d do that in their careers, is it?) to a sparse crowd of about a hundred people. As I stood 2 feet from the front of the stage, Slash suddenly became annoyed and started yelling “you people suck” and waving his hands on the side of his head, giving us the raspberry. I guess it was one of the few gigs in their career where they were met with such apathy.

During the Embassy days, touring British bands like Lords of the New Church and Flesh For Lulu took the stage, as did L.A. bands like Faster Pussycat, the Pandoras, X, Red Hot Chili Peppers, L.A. Guns, Candy, and many others. Itwas during this period that Jane’s Addiction were, in some ways, coined as the “House band,” playing there probably more than any other band. Business was good enough that the Scream became open both Friday and Saturday and more often than not, always packed the place. Curiosity seekers also started showing up and it was often fun to see them told the club was “members only” as they were charged 20 bucks to get in as regulars like me were charged 5 bucks right in front of them. A final night at the Embassy featured a closing set by... of course, Jane’s Addiction.

In the spring of 1987, the Embassy was sold and turned into a USC dorm. I often wonder if some of those freshmen over the past 15 years have any idea of the debauchery that went on in their basement. The club moved it’s weekend location down the the Park View Plaza Hotel. The upstairs ballroom there, with it’s full concert size stage, would be the Scream’s home for the next 2 years.  They kept with the same formula of dance, band, and video rooms, but the large space upstairs allowed them new freedom to book larger acts.  Less that 3 months after moving to the Park View, the Cult played the final show of their “Electric” tour as a surprise gig at the Scream. Booking agents loved that they could put their bands on the big stage there for an L.A. showcase, and major label acts played important gigs there. Over the next 2 years, bands as varied as Kix, Ministry, Iggy Pop, LA Guns, Soul Asylum, Faster Pussycat, Death Angel, Revolting Cocks, Balaam & the Angel, TSOL, Redd Kross, Lords of the New Church, Soundgarden, and others played their major L.A. shows in the ballroom. Bands like the Sugarcubes and Finland’s Smack made their L.A. debut gigs there. Countless bands probably first were sighted by record labels on the stage, and Guns ‘N Roses used the building to film the live footage for their “Welcome To The Jungle” video. Again, diverse booking often made for fun gigs. It may look odd on paper, but the bill I saw of Jane’s Addiction and Junkyard in early 1988 was a fun show to watch and some credit it with being the gig that solidified Junkyard’s contract with Geffen.  Geffen also issued a Scream compilation album that featured many bands that played the club and cover art by Mad Marc Rude, who was famous for his artwork for the Misfits and Tex & the Horseheads, and was often the stage manager for the Scream.

At that point, while it looked like the Scream was on top, it seemed to nosedive quickly after. Numerous bands associated with the club signed with major labels and were all suddenly devoted to major label schedules with recording and touring, leaving a void in good bands the club could book. It was scaled back to one night a week downtown and a smaller night at the Probe in Hollywood. It seemed like overnight the signed bands were out attempting to do something while the unsigned bands fell apart. Meanwhile the record companies stopped looking at the Scream for bands and started signing the Warrant-like bands out of Gazzarri’s on Sunset. By the end of ‘89, the
Scream itself was history.

Looking back, it’s amazing that they even had the run they did and had the bands they did. No one’s been able to do a club that size (aside from a rave) on a weekly basis in L.A. since. The Cathouse was about the only club from that era that lasted longer, and even though I loved the Cathouse, since they didn’t have bands regularly, the
club wasn’t as much of a challenge to run and book as Scream. Although things finally picked up again in the past couple years after a mostly desolate 90’s in L.A., nothing will ever recapture that era. Not that people don’t try. Taime Downe’s Pretty Ugly Club is now in it’s fourth year, and always has been great with booking cool bands but on a smaller scale. Dayle Gloria herself tried to re-launch Scream a couple years back on a smaller scale. She might have been on her way to success, since one of the first shows was another unannounced set by the Cult, but a fire in the building the club ran in killed momentum before it could get going any further.

Maybe sometime soon, there’ll be a huge rock Babylon of a club again, in L.A. or elsewhere. Until then, I guess I’ll just drink my whiskey in small places and continue to tell those young girls that the SkyBar and all those other places in Hollywood with lines around the block aren’t cool!

-Trashy Anderson