Who wouldn’t want a Hair Metal Pizza Experience?

I grew up in an area of New Jersey where pizza parlors were very common. They all had pretty decent pizza, but not one offered the Hair Metal Pizza Experience of Pony Express Pizza. This pizzeria existed in Redwood City, CA and according to some info I found online, “It was a place where garage bands made their break. …local bands playing there did also, as did those passing through.”

Having a pizza place for bands is interesting. Not something that would have happened in my hometown, but if it had, I am sure a lot of memories would have been formed there. NJ was a great state for hair metal and pizza, so I am a little sad that we were not the epicenter of Hair Metal Pizza.

A few videos of Pony Express can be found online, but I want to start by posting this commercial. It contains everything you would need to entice an impressionable hair metal/pizza fan in the door. High-pitched screeching voices, driving guitar riffs, slamming drums, and of course pizza. It is an odd juxtaposition. My favorite part is the woman who is rocking out while a mysterious hand shoves a slice of pizza in her face. If I have learned one thing in my many years on this planet, it is that people love to be hand-fed pizza.

Watch this amazing commercial for Pony Express Pizza

This is meant to entice you. To bring you in the door. But what did a real music experience at Pony Express look like? Oddly enough, I have not been able to find any videos featuring hair metal bands. Could this be an example of false advertising? I have seen a bunch of mentions of bands that have played there, and some of those appear to be hair metalish. Maybe they just forgot to bring the family video camera to their shows.

Oh well. Here is some footage of a very non-hair metal band playing a show there back in 1988.