West EndMarketplace

Dallas, Texas. A Saturday night in the 1990s. The fudge shop, the escalators, the TILT arcade, the hologram shop and more.

As featured on D Magazine's FrontBurner

The history

On a phone? Take it off silent to hear the sound.

Rebuilt from the real floor plan, old directories and footage (read the West End's history). Where the records run out, it's built from memory, so a shop or two may be in the wrong spot. Remember how it really was? and help get it right.

Built by Alchema Interactive. We design websites, too.

Have a moment of your own you'd love to walk back into? I rebuild those, too.

Have real photos from the West End back then?

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Van Halen, Dec. 4, 1991

A free afternoon show in the street outside the West End Marketplace.

At the band's 1988 Monsters of Rock stop at the Cotton Bowl, Sammy Hagar lost his voice. He promised Dallas the band would come back and make it up to them. This was that show.

The street was blocked off for it, and the crowd filled it. Police estimated 25,000 people; the promoters said 50,000. The band played for about an hour, mostly songs from their new album, For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge.

Film of the show passed around for years as fuzzy copies of copies. In 2024 the band released it in HD with an expanded edition of that album. Here are two songs from it:

The set list

Poundcake
Judgement Day
There's Only One Way to Rock
Runaround
Why Can't This Be Love
Panama
Apolitical Blues
Finish What Ya Started
I Can't Drive 55
Best of Both Worlds
Top of the World

From coverage of the 2024 release: Ultimate Classic Rock, Loudwire, the Dallas Morning News and the album's track list.

Store directory

Every store known to have been here between 1986 and 2006, by floor. The floors come from directories and listings; where each store sat on its floor is our best guess.

TILT game list

Every cabinet known to have stood down here. The ones marked came later turned up after this tape was shot.

Guestbook

Thanks for stopping by! Say hi, tell us where you're visiting from, or share a memory of the West End. If you went there, your stories and real photos help make this rebuild more accurate. Every note is read before it goes up in the gallery.

Built by Alchema Interactive. We design websites, too.

Have a moment of your own you'd love to walk back into? I rebuild those, too.

West EndMarketplace

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