Garage Rockers vs Skinheads vs Hardcore Kids: Rose Tattoo at the Whisky

SHOWS

April 16, 2025

The Whisky ’25: Rose Tattoo’s First US Show Since ’83

When Rose Tattoo announced their first American show since 1983, not only could I not believe it, but I made sure to procure tickets almost immediately. This show would then get cancelled, only for the prospect of Rose Tattoo playing Los Angeles to dissolve and become a big question mark. Would the legendary Australian band ever play in America again? This is a pure rock and roll band that didn’t just go on to inspire Guns and Roses but numerous scenes throughout Los Angeles, from skinheads to hardcore kids to garage rockers. It would otherwise be impossible to see these three scenes merge into one audience. Even for a megaband like The Misfits, these groups don’t come together to mingle in such close quarters. So, when Rose Tattoo announced two new shows in LA years later and then finally hit the stage at Whisky-a-Go-Go on March 6th and 7th, all those scenes were present and pounding their fists for what must’ve been an awfully cold day in hell. The set ran the gamut of a slew of Rose Tattoos classics such as “Nice Boys” and “Rock and Roll Outlaw,” with ripping guitars and ripping vocals that are signature to Australian rock.

Rose Tattoo at The Whisky, Rose-Tattoo-live-in-LA — Rose Tattoo at The Whisky

All Good Sunset Strip Shows Start at The Rainbow

Before seeing the first of Rose Tattoo‘s two shows at the Whisky, I made sure to get nicely blitzed before the show where many other fans had chosen to drink before the show at the Rainbow merely up the block. It’s shows like these that connect Los Angeles with its roots, and the long dead Sunset strip scene, which is in dire need of a rock and roll resurrection. LA music heads from The Fly Traps, Cretin Hop, Section H8, Terror, Nails, and more were all present to rock out hard.

All these musicians gathered here based on hype, spreading the word organically on social media simply asking “Who’s rolling to Rose Tattoo–first US show since ’83”. The band got their visas most likely as part of their package for playing the Monsters of Rock cruise which featured a bevy of classic rock greats. I still feel like us in Los Angeles don’t realize how lucky we were to see this band, even though not every member was able to make it across the Atlantic (or Pacific). Rose Tattoo is a tough as they come, so one should expect the country would shutter at the idea of letting a wild pack of Aussies onto our soil.

LA Punks Love Australian Rock

Since this band, Australia has become one of the major creative forces in modern rock and roll with bands like King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Tame Impala, and Amyl and the Sniffers. This show, however, connected our modern tastes to the continents past, with songs about “sharpies” and “masturbation” like you could only hear at a classic rock and roll show.

Whether in punk rock or classic rock, Australia’s sound has always been synonymous with meat and potatoes rock. The best of the basics. If we extend this philosophy into psychedelic rock though, those potatoes may either be mashed or distilled into hard liquor.

Rose Tattoo’s legendary singer Angry Anderson was in full force, belting out the best rock and roll vocals I’ve heard in ages and giving the songs real rock credibility to boot. His stage banter transported the Whisky to a different time, when sharpies became a cultural phenomenon that swept Australian rock and roll, a story few LA punks truly know.

Song after song, everyone in the Whisky from men to women, old to young, were grooving and moshing with total abandon, remembering that no matter how edgy and hard there tastes may be now, the roots of the music they love all come from the sounds created by Rose Tattoo. The set climaxed with “Nice Boys”, providing a finishing statement for everyone to take with them through their rock and roll escapades moving forward–That Rock and Roll is a bad boy’s musical form. Nice boys have no place playing rock and roll with balls this big.