Rainbow Bar & Grill 54th Anniversary
- Bleeding Priest
- 4 hours ago
- 4 min read
Rainbow Bar and Grill
Los Angeles, CA
April 19, 2026
I know our site covers Bay Area shows but this event I went to in LA was just too over the top to not cover here.
The event I speak of is Rainbow Bar and Grill’s Anniversary Party. I believe they were celebrating its 54th year of business.
The Bay Area Thrash scene in the 80’s was a fertile ground for LA hate. It was the norm for East Bay Thrashers to dub bands from LA as “fags” or “posers”. I never subscribed to that train of thought. I found the LA scene fascinating and larger than life. And musically speaking I loved what was coming out of SoCal with bands like W.A.S.P., Motley Crue and Ratt. And later with G n’ R, L.A. Guns and most notably Faster Pussycat. I mean, why can’t someone like both, Thrash and Glam? It’s just more great music to enjoy.
In any case since the early/mid 90’s I’ve been a regular patron of The Rainbow Bar and Grill. It’s the Mecca of Rock n’ Roll AND Metal. I’ve been there more times than I can count and had a great time EVERY time. How could you not love a place where you can enjoy an AWESOME slice of pizza, look at priceless artifacts from R n’ R history and have a cocktail all set to the tune of Obituary, Sabbath, Slayer and Fastway? Again, never had a lousy time there.
So for this celebration the live entertainment was provided by L.A. Guns, Pentagram and Armored Saint. It’s pretty rare when there’s three bands playing together from polar opposite sides of the Metal spectrum that I absolutely love. There were a few opening bands including a Corey Feldman fronted Alien Ant Farm that I just had to miss.
Needless to say the place was fucking PACKED!! I mean ridiculously PACKED!! The bands played in the back parking lot behind The Rainbow and The Roxy. Armored Saint started things off. After a delayed start time and a couple of false starts the Saint were up and running and sounded great. They played a fairly standard set with one major exception, they played “Human Vulture” from the Raising Fear album. I’ve never heard that tune live and it absolutely “delivered”. I wish they would do more tracks from that album.
They also debuted a new track titled “Close To The Bone” which carries on from what they’ve been doing for the last…well… 8 albums. You see, that’s the beauty of Armored Saint, they stick to what they do best and have one of the most consistent run of albums in Metal/Rock history. The new tune was an up-tempo rocker that was an ideal set opener.
According to Setlist.fm they played “After Me, The Flood” from arguably their best release Revelation. I call bullshit. I watched their entire set from the sound booth and don’t remember hearing that one. Like I stated earlier they started like 20 minutes late so I’m guessing that song had to be cut for time purposes. Unless I completely zoned out for 4 and a half minutes and missed it which is doubtful being that I was fairly sober for their set.
The Saint proved why they are still a highly regarded and respected band. They kicked major ass. Just one thing, Phil, enough with the knee thrusts .
Up next were the notorious Pentagram. As history dictates you can never be too sure what kind of performance you’re gonna get from these dudes but Liebling and crew were in top form. They had the best sound of the day without question. The setlist was one classic Pentagram song after another. Bobby Liebling is a joy to watch. He does something that kind of died with the 70’s unfortunately…he BOOGIES!
The band he has now is quite possibly the best version of Pentagram ever. Drummer Henry Vasquez is one helluva powerhouse skinsman. He really drives those songs and propels this version of the band from good to GREAT! He also throws in a touch of flash which is always fun to watch. The dude has the Peter Criss solo album tattooed on his stomach so he knows a little about putting on a show. I loved every second of their set with highlights being “The Ghoul” and “Review Your Choices”.
After Pentagram I had the dilemma of sticking around the back lot waiting for L.A. Guns to come on or get a table inside and enjoy a Rainbow Special pizza pie. The pizza won. I mean, have you had their pizza? It’s outta sight. Sorry L.A. Guns, the pizza won….the pizza will always win.
Speaking of pizza, while bumbling around Hollywood I came across this pizza shop. I didn’t eat there but had to take a picture of the front door. I don’t know if a place called Lucifer’s Pizza would fly in The Bay.
–Bleeding Priest
