The Sloths Return to the Sunset Strip, 60 Years Later, and This Time It’s Personal
variety.comPat Saperstein Deputy Editor “Last chance before we start dropping dead?” read the Facebook post from the fan page for a Whisky a Go Go show by the Sloths.
A little dark, but that’s not surprising for the 1960s L.A. garage band that reunited four decades after its Sunset Strip heyday and then called its album “Back From the Grave.” The Sloths played the Whisky Sunday night, opening for Love With Johnny Echols, and it was the perfect homecoming for the band that got its start on the same stage nearly 60 years ago. “This is going to be really fucking strange!” vocalist Tom McLoughlin announced as the band started a compact set of 1960s classics.
Seeing the Sloths play live in a club was a long time coming for this writer. I had last seen the Sloths perform in approximately 1965, a bunch of teenage boys dragging their electric guitars and drums into my family’s guesthouse, where they banged out “Satisfaction” over and over again, but also rehearsed original songs like their single “Makin’ Love.” At 5 years old, I didn’t really know what that meant, but I loved hanging out with the cool teenage rockers and riding down the Strip in my mom’s convertible as she gave them a lift to the legendary Teen-Age Fair in Hollywood.
Influenced by the raw, bluesy rock of the time, they played on bills with Love, the Doors and the Seeds, making an impression on the L.A.
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