These L.A. parties may be defunct today, but damn were they a good time.
Their spirit lives on in the promoters, DJs and partygoers who remember them fondly.
Here they are in no particular order.
CLUB MAKEUP Held one Saturday a month at El Rey Theater
From 1999 to 2002, there was always a line around the block for Club Makeup. It was a raunchier,
glam rock version of old-school disco parties, and the midnight rock show had a life of its own.
“Club Makeup was amazing,” recalls Willam. “It was everything. I remember Momma stacking my
arms with her costumes and boxes, high enough that they couldn’t see my face and card me.
“Sometimes you got paid, sometimes you didn’t, but it was the pool that I learned to swim in: singing
backup for Dee Dee Ramone on ‘I Wanna Be Sedated’ for his last show on a Saturday night (he was
discovered dead Monday morning after OD'ing); singing with Adam Lambert
and Alexis Arquette and Linda Perry and so many other cool people made me realize
I didn’t have to become a lip-synching clone. I could do drag any way I wanted.”
