‘Cosmic Bowling’ Strikes Teenage Gold With Loud Music, Fake Fog and No Rules

The clock has long ago struck midnight on a summer Friday as Kyle Swanson and a cluster of friends sip sodas and swap jokes to the beat of pulsating music.

Then, abruptly, Swanson shatters the familiar teenage tableau. He picks up a 10-pound ball, swings it back and through in expert pendulum form, and rolls a resounding strike.

This is unmistakably a bowling alley--without a single pair of plaid pants to be found. This is Cosmic Bowling night at Matador Bowl in Northridge.

“It’s not about score,” says Swanson, who is unwilling to ditch his sunglasses despite Matador’s dim lighting and banks of fake fog. “It’s about the music and everything else. . . . Once we tried this, we decided we’d never bowl normal again. At normal bowling, they get mad if you go crazy.”

Brunswick Recreation Centers, which runs Matador, started Cosmic nearly two years ago to jump-start a sport stalled by chronic stodginess. Competing chains and independents have followed with their own versions with names like Xtreme or Nitro as the entire industry attempts to update its sagging lite-beer image.

Even many purists believe that the Cosmic concept--adaptable to country, Disney or big-band music--can revive the most staid of sports .

“The impact has been positive,” said Don MacBrayne, training manager for Brunswick’s Western region. “It’s got people into bowling centers who would not be caught dead in bowling centers.”

The elements of Cosmic--not to be confused with its hipper cousin Ultra Cosmic, which adds video screens to the mix--have been around for decades: loud music, disco lights, fluorescent decor. But they didn’t merge with the centuries-old sport until 1995 in Chicago.

Of the nearly two dozen bowling centers in greater Los Angeles, only a couple have experimented with it. Active West Inc., the largest Southern California chain, has introduced Nitro Bowling only at its Pasadena location.

Bowling attracts two disparate audiences. The traditionalists, who cherish the sport as a bedrock of postwar values, and the new wave, which takes kitschy delight in it.

Late weekend nights are likely to remain Cosmic’s domain. Revelers in the wee hours Saturday at Matador could have cared less about bowling etiquette or terminology. Technique went out the window. Balls nearly disappeared into the dense artificial mist.

“You can do such amazing stuff!” exclaimed Swanson.