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Listen to Looch: explore rock history at 'The Rainbow'

The Rainbow Room on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, Calif.
The Rainbow Room on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, Calif.Rainbow Room via Facebook

by Mary Lucia

December 16, 2020

The Rainbow is a documentary about the Rainbow Bar & Grill and the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles, but focusing on the Rainbow Room and the Whisky a Go Go, and the history of those clubs.

It's fascinating how every band — like the Doors, Led Zeppelin and others — played at this tiny, 200-person-capacity club. The Rainbow was a restaurant before it was a nightclub, and it still has the red booths, but they were giving bands a start, bands like Van Halen, who it's hard to even imagine playing in a little club setting.

The Rainbow was and is a family business, and interviews with the late owner Mario Maglieri are fascinating. Security in the place was lax, to say the least, but for years, Lemmy Kilmister made the bar his home, and nobody ever bothered him. Because people were cool like that.

The Rainbow is directed by Zak Knutson and it's available for streaming on Amazon Prime.

Official Trailer

The Rainbow - Amazon Prime

The Rainbow Bar & Grill, West Hollywood, Calif. - official site