Thursday, November 22, 2012

Big Al's Gashouse, 4335 El Camino Real, Palo Alto, CA

Big Al's Gashouse was a pizza-and-beer joint, affiliated with similarly named places in North Beach and around the Bay Area (there really was a "Big Al"). Big Al's was another pizza place, like The Tangent or Magoo's, but at least it was connected to the City, if not really part of it.
The exact date of the Warlocks gig (or gigs) is unknown, but McNally and Jackson (in The Illustrated Trip) place it in August 1965.
Big Al's Gashouse burned down in January 1966. It was eventually replaced by a suburban hipster bar called The Trip, which opened in November 1966, but by that time the Warlocks were very far past that road.(1)

Ashtray:
http://s286.beta.photobucket.com/user/THEMISTERSMILEY/media/ASHTRAYS%20-%20California%20SF%20Bay%20Area/DSCF0360.jpg.html

8/65 Warlocks

1.)^Arnold, Corry, Lost Live Dead, 2009-09-06, North To San Francisco, http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2009/09/north-to-san-francisco-warlocks-in.html

3 comments:

  1. I remember Big Al's - they had a raised platform on one side of the room painted black. At one end of it when not having live musical acts, they'd show old Laurel and Hardy or W.C. Fields films.

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  2. I was one of four pizza cooks @ Big Al's Gashouse in BELMATEO//SAN MATEO not palo alto. I served pizzas to jerry and his gang during my later highschool years 1963--1964, when they were the WARLOX.. Am still kicking myself for never gotten a pix of them all on stage @ that venue. Or recording them on my shitty AKAI tape recorder. Weir always stated to me "we don't get off a good "Mid Night Hour" then it was a bad night". Other songs Sittin' on top of the World, red rooster, not fade away. My sincere thanks to Billy for leaving his old Slingerland set up on stage, overnight..so I could play them when I was waiting for my pizza ovens to heat up!!!. I became a very good drummer from that moment on...steve multon

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  3. I played piano at Big Al's in Palo Alto in the 1960's with lots of other musicians. Quite a place. Bob Fingers Bell

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