The Los Angeles Times du lieu suivant : Los Angeles, California • 385

At the Central (8852 Sunset 855-9183), the Tuesday night ticket price is as about as economical as they come: SI. But often the talent onstage is hardly what one would label unknown. Over the last few months, such artists as Jeff Baxter, Al Keeper, Bobby Weir, Albert Collins, the Chambers Brothers, Joe Cocker, John Mayall, Stray Cat Brian Selzer and Les Dudek have all dropped by on Tuesdays for what has become a Sunset Strip tradition: Keith's Jam Night at the Central. "It's kind of like a Christmas stocking," says Keith Robertson, who has been managing the Tuesday n'ght shows for the last 3V4 years. "You know that there's good stuff in there but you don't really know what Ycu have to wait until it happens.

I try to make it comfortable for musicians so that they're not put in the spotlight the minute they walk in the door." The low-key atmosphere on Tuesdays has made the 150-capacity club a favorite watering hole for music-industry insiders, not Just musicians but also roadies, managers, bookers and record-label personnel. "It's kind of a social affair," Robertson notes. "It's the only thing like it in town for the industry, so when some visiting musician comes to he usually comes in to see if there are any bands looking for players." It's not just in the last few years that the Central has become an entertainment landmark. The venue is one of the longest continuous live-music clubs on the Sunset Strip, pulling in a clientele that ranged from gangsters (when it was the Melody Room in the 1950s) to jazz hounds (when it was All That Jazz in 1980). Despite the recent demise of the Whisky just up the Strip, neither Robertson nor the Central's main booker, Richard Stuart, seems worried about the viability of the club.

"Like Gazzarri's, we never really booked the same sort of music as the Whisky," Stuart says. "Mostly we've gone for danceable music. Billy and the Beaters, Chuck E. Weiss and Del and the Sensations all have been strong acts for us." While he has avoided theme nights in the past, Stuart says he is starting to branch out from the predominantly flavor of the past, looking to rockabilly and reggae acts for variety. Beginning in April, the Central will take a page out of the Roxy'i book and begin offering a play titled "Backstage Pass" on Sundays.

fee 0 Snf If fin i f. fcAi. 1 77k Ad JJot C7itZi Peppers, from left, are Flea, Anthony Kiedis, Jade Sherman and Cliff Martinez. "We're keeping our noses to the funk stone," Kiedis says. For those who can appreciate such things as a high-speed funk version of Hank Williams' "Why Don't You Love Me Like You Used To Do," a visit to the Lingerie Saturday is suggested.

The Chili Peppers are teamed up with the Electric War Babies (Parliament without George Clinton). CLUBLAND: For years, Tuesday night has been the bane of local club bookers. It's considered almost a write-off for any venue that bothers to stay open, a night to try out unknown talent for bargain-basement cover fees. of new," Kiedis says. "There aren't too many four-piece bands with power rapping.

It's mayhem funk, bone-crunching mayhem The majority of the funk you hear on the radio these days is so synthesized, computerized and overproduced that it's ridiculous," Flea adds with fervor. "I hate rhythm machines! I hate computers making music instead of people." The artists which they rate most highly on the soul scale range from Miles Davis and Ornette Coleman to Stevie Wonder, the Germs and Jimi Hendrix. Flea even has a large tattoo of Hendrix on his bicep. Like Hendrix, the Red Hot Chili Peppers have gained a reputation for putting on wild, over-the-top performances that frequently startle audiences and sometimes result in damage to equipment particularly mike stands. In fact, the Pomona mooning incident was actually pretty tame for the Peppers.

At one show, they painted their bodies blue. At another, they came out dressed only in strategically placed socks. Says Flea "We do (that sort of thing) because it's fun, not because it's a gimmick. It's Just a real human sort of thing to do. Getting wild when we play the human pinball effect Just builds up a more intense feeling." That intensity is what Flea feels is lacking in most local bands, few of whom, he says, are in the business Just for the music.

There's very little that is new or fresh in LA. today," he notes. "I don't think that most bands are in it for the right reason for playing. A lot of groups out now are Just in it for the money or the image. But we're just in it for the sake of playing.

We are the hardest working band in this business we call show." cIapital iimmiHB 'vA' ttm fe it I ooowoLOvt nOKCHtrnu fwfrTUr mmmm MIIICMAlt HUT flMNM worn rn 1 TO 0 MARILYN SCOTT Turn to the Travel Section for great toemc mhSmtt destinations and ways to get there. tio? Every Sunday In tM, i4-0 THH TltflS. SHILtV FLINT SYLVIA DON KEKXAW MON. FEB. 13TH MON.

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