Partygoers Glam It Up at Opening of Make-Up
Last week’s grand opening of Make-Up, a new monthly glam club at the El Rey Theatre, was a glittering success. People were caught wandering around the glamorous old nightclub with big, dopey grins on their faces. Finally, they had their own Studio 54.
The club, which will continue on the first Saturday of each month, was gussied up with a universe backdrop, an electric lightning bolt (which hung precariously close to the drum kit) and go-go dancers painted silver from head to toe.
The audience members, dressed very “Velvet Goldmine”-like, included such celebs as Gus Van Zant, photographer Greg Gorman, Faster Pussycat’s Taime Down and members of Pretty Boy Floyd and Bang Tango. Christopher Ciccone turned out to watch Make-Up’s house band, a super group composed of various members of local rock and glam bands, do contemporary renditions of such seminal numbers as T-Rex’s “20th Century Boy,” which was sung by Alexis Arquette. The singer doffed an orange Bowie-esque wig filled with glitter at the end of the song.
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Torment, the evening’s hostess (as performed by Psychotica’s Pat Briggs), dressed in diamond studs, a blue Mayan headdress and little else, sang a KISS song. The evening’s special guest, Kembra, from the Voluptuous Horror Karen Black, who was flown in for the event, sang Bowie’s “All the Young Dudes” while flitting across the stage in red fabric wings and flesh-colored body paint. Mistress Formica sang Hole’s “Celebrity Skin,” while famed drag diva Vida DeVille camped it up with Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’.”
Of course, such a star-studded performance could only be topped by a true Queen--and you guessed it, the finale came when all band members on hand sang Freddy Mercury’s “We Are the Champions.”
Promoters Joseph Brooks, Jason Lavitt and Briggs knocked themselves out, and the show came across like a KISS show at the Great Western Forum, only better because it wasn’t at the Forum and it wasn’t KISS. Perhaps, the newly engaged scene queens, Marilyn Manson and Rose McGowan, might want to consider Make-Up for their reception. Now, that would be a bash.