Los Angeles Club Kids: Where Are They Now?

Categories: Clubland

topimagegggge.jpg
Courtesy of Travis Pates
On the West Coast, the club kids popped up around 1991, the local counterparts of the New York City Party Monster types, attending the types of underground raves your parents explicitly forbade. It wasn't all about drugs, but there were certainly plenty: ketamine, acid, cocaine, ecstasy, and more, sometimes washed down with beer or liquor.

They took great creative pride in developing their looks, which sprung from gothic and industrial styles but began to feature candy-colored fashions. They developed a cache and were hired by various party promoters as "entertainment," twerking it on dance floors across L.A. As the rave scene began to peter out in 2003 -- largely due to police crackdowns -- the kids moved on with their lives and grew up. Many sought to bring the spirit and creativity of their club days with them, and many succeeded.

We recently caught up with five of the best-known Los Angeles club kids, who reminisced and brought us up to speed with their lives.

Travis1.jpg
Courtesy of Travis Pates
Travisty
Name: Travis Pates, aka Travisty
Age: 35

Back then: Originally from Jacksonville, Florida, Travisty dropped a bunch of acid and rode a bus to California, where he took on a robotic style. Frequenting underground clubs like The Romper Room in full make-up, he met Kris K-os (below) and several other club kids on the Leeza Gibbons Show. It was, of course, an episode on the new "club kids craze." Back then it took months for him to build his costumes for parties, he says.

Present: Travisty is now Travis Alan Pates, a makeup artist. He has worked on Jane Lynch, Larry David, and other celebrities, and currently works on the CW show Hart of Dixie.

Wildest memory: After a party in Las Vegas 2002, he was carrying flame-throwing equipment -- for a show -- when a woman screamed "He has a bomb!" Someone threw a bottle at him, and a group of guys started beating him. So he took off his 14-inch platform shoes, covered in nails. "It was a fabulous weapon," he says. Long story short: He walked away OK.

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29 comments
AGarcia01
AGarcia01 like.author.displayName 1 Like

I remember Rocky. Whatever happened to Stacy Hollywood? There was also "The something Twins", and I remember a guy called Jim Star or something... crazy times.

ewwwyuk
ewwwyuk

@AGarcia01  Wonder Twins? 


JayCelay
JayCelay

I was Skittles during Tekno club days in dtla..everyweekend for 3 years..and every good rave for 2 more.:) that was 2000-05 - now I go to rock shows and concerts, but as far as raves..insomniac nocturnal events are only ones i go to just to see where the scene is going..definitly not as good as underground days..coachella closet thing to rave for me these days..:)

MissConceptionLA
MissConceptionLA like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 2 Like

Umm @ Happycow_moo Rockie DIVA Racoon is part of the first generation... published in Project X Magazine and toured all over the united states with the wonder twins.. sugertwist kids and more so as accurate as you are that some Like myself are second and third generation.. Rockie is my Club Mother and the person who helped launch me, As a member of the House of fierce Ruling divas, maybe you should do a little more investigating into a shop of memerobilia and realize.... The mother still rules the west coast and Still holds her title of Queen of West Coast Nightlife! Xo Miss Conception

Puggsie69
Puggsie69 like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 2 Like

@happycow_m00  Please be kind. You tend to name drop alot and the names you mention all know who i am. If you speak of dj's and promoters. Get your facts straight befor you state your opinion. I began in 1989 back in the underground scene in L.A. I happen to be 42 years of age. I got my schooling direct from the big apple. I brought it back to L.A. where i schooled different generations of kidz. There should not be any argument. I didnt state my age in the article as a joke. Geeez lighten up. I dnt see why i need to justify my life to you. As for boo boo he came years after me but became legendary! The correct name is "Boom Boom" As for steve Loria he is one of my besties. We are not claiming to be original club kidz. I am beyond that tile. Personality is more suited. Please dnt begin your drama. Its about positivity and good vibes. If YOU REALY KNEW you'd keep quite. Thanks for reading . Stay tuned this story is not over. Perhaps when the full story is released you'll come to understand. :) Dnt be mad. Remember love & light.

noanokia2000
noanokia2000 like.author.displayName 1 Like

Happycow why do you have to take your anger out on others? Get some help and deal with your anger issues dude! Give some respect where respect is due!

James Recinos
James Recinos like.author.displayName 1 Like

I remember the kid from home alone who played that club kid who chopped up some other club kid. Can't remember the name of the movie, but the guy is in prison now.

Liliana Vasquez-Duran
Liliana Vasquez-Duran

Not the orginal....if they are still Ali e and survived the hallucinogens and speed they be 40+

happycow_m00
happycow_m00

Sorry but these are not original club kids this could be argue 2nd or even 3rd generation. Original club kids are into their 40 and older. Think about it the average age is 35 and one is 29. One was born in 1983 really! Raves began happening around 1991 how could someone who was 8 at the time be attending? As an old time raver these kids where still in Elementary school when the scene first hit L.A and would I have not been partying so Damn hard I would remember the original bunch..at last the drugs ha!!! These kids love em learned it all from us....

MMullinsCollegian
MMullinsCollegian

@happycow_m00 Of course, there are more than just these club kids, and yes- this article is focusing on really notable ones on the West Coast primarily. 

Club kids can be traced back into the mid-eighties, at that point they had no real name. Club kids  form into clicks, and the oldest of them in this article, Rockie Raccoon formed a group, adopting these club kids along the way. There are many club kids, too many to do bios on all of them. These ones wanted to be a part of this article, so here they are. 


happycow_m00
happycow_m00

@mmullins.LAWeekly @happycow_m00 well then the article shouldn't use the term orginal....it would be more appropriate to call them Millennium Club Kids as the Club Kids it associates them with where from the late 80's. Lots of misinformation in this article.

InfamousBoomBoom
InfamousBoomBoom like.author.displayName 1 Like

@happycow_m00 Hi Darling....   Thanks for the Praise but I started my Club Kid life in 94!     I Raved and went to Goth Clubs back in 89-93!  

MMullinsCollegian
MMullinsCollegian

@happycow_m00 I'm pretty sure that you mean Boom Boom, who was actually in the scene about 5 years after Rockie Raccoon. Boom Boom is yet another part of Rockie's legendary "coven" of club kids.

happycow_m00
happycow_m00

I don't know where he is now but all sorts of early promoters knew him. Even DJs like Marcus Wyatt could probably recall him nobody was doing it like him in those early days. He was really the very first here in L.A everyone else came later.

happycow_m00
happycow_m00

@mmullins.LAWeekly the first club kid in Los Angeles that my brain can go e credit too was this overweight kid that went by the nick name BooBoo. He was the first that I ever remember seeing. He used to show up all painted in crazy outfits during the very early days of the scene here in L.A. I remember him as a lizard and a dragon. I saw him in a pyramid like cage once sitting inside like a futuristic Jabba in a pyramid once. If anyone was the Original it was the Kat right there and I am talking about .1991

MMullinsCollegian
MMullinsCollegian

@happycow_m00  Once again, these are the ones that came forward when I put out the word. They are definitely REAL club kids and part of the original group of them on the west coast. Thanks for reading. I consider any club kid in the 80s and 90s part of the original generation, because a generation is 20-22 years in most cases. Thanks for reading. I was there too.

happycow_m00
happycow_m00

If the writer wanted too really research the original L.A club kids he should have look up the Sweedish Eagle or Steve Loria since these catz can probably best give you names.  

happycow_m00
happycow_m00

Well I am merely saying is that according to this article these kids took the style from the NYC Club Kids and brought it too L.A which is impossible given their ages. I am not disputing that they didn't rave but they surely are not the ones that should be given the credit on a newspaper. The NYC club kids which the movie Monster ball is based on were on the scene in the late 80's early 90's these people couldn't even get into too a PG-13 film at the time. I am merely pointing out the writer was lazy in his or her research.

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