The Roxy is 50: Here’s how the landmark Sunset Strip venue is celebrating

Fifty years ago, Neil Young and the Santa Monica Flyers walked on stage at a brand-new Sunset Strip nightclub and the Roxy Theatre was born.

On Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023 – 50 years to the day later – Young returns to the West Hollywood theater to celebrate the kind of anniversary few music clubs ever achieve.

In the half-century in between, the club co-founded by Lou Adler and the late Elmer Valentine, and still co-owned by Adler, now 89, with his son Nic Adler, has held a rare place in the history of pop culture and the dreams of artists and fans alike.

Between Young’s six shows over the Roxy’s first three nights and the end of 1973, the Roxy hosted multi-night runs by Cheech & Chong, Linda Ronstadt, Frank Zappa and Genesis.

And throughout the ’70s and ’80s it continued its role as the premiere small venue to play in Southern California, especially for newer artists poised on the precipice between unknown and famous.

In 1975, the Roxy booked significant shows by Billy Joel, Bob Marley & the Wailers, Bruce Springsteen, and Patti Smith. A year later, Jimmy Buffett played at least three different multi-night runs and the Ramones made their California debut. (A few years later, the Ramones filmed their concert scenes for “Rock ‘n’ Roll High School” at the Roxy.)

Many of those, and more that came later, were recorded and released as live albums, including Springsteen performances from 1975 and 1978, a 1976 Marley show, Zappa’s 1973 shows, and Young’s club-opening run.

The Young album, “Roxy: Tonight’s the Night Live,” includes not only the first music ever played on the Roxy stage, but in Young’s wry banter a nod to the building’s previous life as Largo, a swanky strip and burlesque club.

“First topless girl we get up here gets one of these boots,” he says at the outset, referencing the cowboy boots that along with hubcaps and fake palm trees decorated the stage that night. (At several points in the live record he also notes the famous stripper Candy Barr used to perform in the same room.)

Lou Adler, a film and record producer, also used the venue for theatrical productions from time to time. “The Rocky Horror Show” had its United States premiere at the Roxy on March 24, 1974 and played for nine months. (The next year, Adler produced “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” movie.)

Not all the years that followed were as successful or groundbreaking for the Roxy. The Sunset Strip scene waned in the ’90s and early aughts. But the name and the reputation never lost its appeal. Adele played the 500-capacity room on her debut U.S. tour in 2008.

In the last decade, acts that long ago moved up to arenas, such as Foo Fighters and Arcade Fire, occasionally booked special small shows there. When actor Keanu Reeves and his band Dogstar decided to get back together after two decades, the Roxy was where they played their first show in July.

So yes, there’s a lot of history inside the black-boxed walls of the Roxy, and there’s a lot of reasons, and ways, to celebrate its living legacy as the 50th anniversary arrives this week.

A Grammy Museum tribute

A new exhibit, “The Roxy: 50 Years on the Sunset Strip,” opens at the Grammy Museum in downtown Los Angeles on Sept. 18 and runs into early 2024.

The exhibit, which draws heavily on Lou Adler’s personal archives, includes photographs of famed performers on the Roxy stage, as well as pictures of celebrities partying at On The Rox, the private club Adler created above the Roxy that attracted such famous folks as Jack Nicholson, John Lennon, Keith Moon, and Bernie Taupin.

The white piano that stars like Elton John, Springsteen and Lennon once played will be on display, as well as artifacts from “The Rocky Horror Show,” and a short film on the Roxy will be screened.

Go to grammymuseum.org/event/50andstillrockin for all the details.

50th anniversary shows

Neil Young and Crazy Horse kick off a run of special 50th anniversary shows at the Roxy on Wednesday and Thursday, Sept. 20-21, and good luck to you trying to get one of roughly 1,000 tickets to those. The shows are sold-out benefits for The Bridge School and The Painted Turtle, organizations that help children with special needs that have long been supported by Young and Lou and Page Adler, respectively.

There are, however, other shows in the Roxy 50 series that might be easier, or at least not quite as impossible, to get into. They include:

Sept. 23: Wallows

Sept. 24: Stephen Marley recreating his late father Bob Marley’s 1976 album “Live at the Roxy,” with an early and a late show.

Oct. 4: Charlotte Adigéry & Bolis Pupul

Oct. 12: Metric, celebrating the 20th anniversary of “Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?”

Oct. 14: MAE, celebrating the 20th anniversary or “Destination Beautiful.”

Oct. 18: Rickie Lee Jones, playing an early and a late show.

Oct. 24: Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives

Oct. 27: STRFKR

Oct. 28: Nation of Language

Nov. 6: Unknown Mortal Orchestra

Nov. 30: Dillon Francis

For details on these shows and other 50th anniversary shows go to Theroxyturns50.com.

Sunset &  Vinyl Market