Raise a Glass for Al's Bar--It's Last Call

Around 1:30 a.m. last Sunday morning, Toast Boyd took what may have been the last stage dive at Al's Bar. Boyd, the music booker for the seminal West Coast punk club, had jumped on stage to play bass with the Warlocks, a garage rock band whose bassist hadn't shown up. She didn't know the song, so she faked it, then departed the stage in classic Al's Bar style--with a flying leap.

"It's tragic that Al's is closing," Boyd said later. "It has always had more creative bands and a more creative atmosphere than any other place in Los Angeles."

With the sale of the American Hotel, which includes Al's Bar and three other ground-floor bus-inesses at the corner of Hewitt Street and Traction Avenue downtown, to Magnum Properties earlier this month, the future of the legendary dive is in question. Marc Kreisel, who has owned Al's since 1979, did not want to be interviewed for this story, but is hoping to reclaim the lease on the bar.

Most people involved with the club, however, think it's over for Al's Bar as we know it. If this is the case, Al's has ended its reign as both the West Coast's oldest punk club and the downtown artists' district's central meeting place.

More than just a haven for alternative music, Al's was also a neighborhood bar frequented by artists, musicians, writers and the odd policeman or downtown working stiff.

"It was like a town hall or a town square," said Scott Sterling, a former Al's Bar bartender. Now a music booker at the Silver Lake Lounge in Silver Lake, Sterling said he tries to emulate Al's Bar's dedication to the bands rather than the bucks.

Al's was a training ground to many hundreds of bands. Some, like Beck, Sonic Youth, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Fall, the Residents and the Misfits, went on to bigger fame. The Jesus Lizard is rumored to have a clause in its record label contract to the effect that no matter how successful the band becomes, it can always play shows at Al's (which could legally accommodate up to 185 people).

Local bands, such as 400 Blows, Tadpole and Blues Experiment, maintained a Southern California stardom thanks to Al's, and reinforced the venue's stature as a clubhouse for progressive musicians working largely outside of the rock mainstream.

"The people who hung out at Al's were the true artists of rock 'n' roll," said Tia Sprocket, drummer for the band Die Fast. She said she was not dismayed that the sound system was under par when her band played Al's recently. "People rocked out and destroyed the system every night. The whole place was like a moving train--it had a great soul, and you don't find that in clubs with perfect sound systems."