Key Club: The Five Most Iconic Shows in Its History

By Megan Friend Mon., Mar. 11 2013 at 4:15 AM

We broke some sad news last week: the Key Club will close its doors this Friday. Since opening in 1967 as Gazzarri's, it has been a staple of the Sunset Strip for decades, under various names and ownership. The venue has seen many popular styles of music come and go, but has, Zelig-like, been at the center of many. Here, then, are five of the most iconic shows in its history.

See also: Key Club to Close This Month

Gustavo Turner

Prince at the Forum in 2011

5. Prince
July 25th, 1998
After the glyph hysteria had died down, Prince got back in the swing of things and began putting out scores of unreleased music. This performance was particularly memorable; following structural damage from the earthquake and a change in ownership, the venue had only recently opened as the Key Club, and seemingly every celebrity in town came out, including Halle Berry, Gwen Stefani, Gavin Rossdale, Perry Farrell, and even Tony Curtis.

4. Mos Def
January 28th, 2010
The club again went through a rough patch in the late aughts, closing for a time before reopening with Mos Def's show in early 2010. Having released his critically slobbered-over work The Ecstatic the summer before, Mos helped make the venue a destination for hip-hop stars from across the spectrum.

3. Shark Island feat. Axl Rose and Tracii Guns
April 26th, 1986
Axl Rose and Tracii Guns played at Gazzarri's with local hard rockers Shark Island in 1986 before Guns N' Roses had released their first album, exhibiting much of the energy and showmanship that G N' R would become famous for. "Axl really liked the theatrics of [Shark Island frontman] Richard Black, so we went down to see them play," Tracii Guns tells us now. "Next thing you know we were onstage jammin'...We were skinny kids then, good memories." Check out their cover of Led Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll" above, and, uh, the hair.

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Key Club

9039 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA

Category: Music

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captainfalcon

Perry Farrell was there? Is that before or after he bought his $2500 coffee maker. What...don't you all have a $2500 coffee maker? Oh...sorry....I thought you did. Poor Etty Farrell didn't want to get out of bed because of her $2500 dollar coffee maker, the Jura Impressa Z5 . At least she said so in her twitter post: https://twitter.com/EttyLauFarrell/status/313724072116772864/photo/1

Pasqual Gutierrez

Saw Kendrick Lamar there in Feb. 2011, before he had the buzz he has now. He brought out the entire Black Hippy to perform wit him, plus Big Sean and J. Cole. Dom Kennedy was there too, almost every up and coming LA hip-hop artist was there. At the end, Dr. Dre came out (nobody had seen him in years) and he was super buff and everybody was like WTF and he told the audience that Kendrick was going to be the voice of the new West Coast. That was one of the greatest shows I've ever seen in my life. Got video of it too, shit was crazy.

Jinifer Roos

Totally agree with Lora. As someone who was lucky enough to go to Gazzarri's many times before it closed, I can tell you that it was a COMPLETELY different club than the Key Club. Also, Billboard Live was in between them, so if you're going to lump them all together (which you should really just not do, makes no sense at all) you may as well include Billboard Live and whatever grocery store was there in the 1940's. C'mon LA Weekly!

Richard Sanchez

oh wait the Christian Death show back in 1999 when i met my first girlfriend.

Richard Sanchez

the first Danzig & Doyle show ever!! the Adicts show last year was good too. other then that playing on stage there.

Gene Johung

the Wiz kids

Lora Hawkins

Really? Including Gazzaris shows? My Husband worked for Shark Island, there were more than 5 "iconic" shows at Bill's club. You cant compare the two or even combine them. 2 completely separate clubs! Lazy ass list in this readers opinion.