What Studio 54 was to disco and CBGB was to punk, Cathouse was to glam-metal, and ultimately metal in general when it went mainstream.

Thirty years later, the club founded by Riki Rachtman (who scored the gig hosting MTV’s Headbangers Ball out of the party) and Taime Downe (lead singer of Faster Pussycat) marks the anniversary of its audaciousness with “Cathouse Live” at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre. Not sure why they aren’t doing this thing in Hollywood, where the scene was born, but we do know that many L.A. folk will be pulling out their old conch belts and spandex and making the trek to see the likes of Extreme, Cinderella’s Tom Keifer, Sebastian Bach, Dokken, L.A. Guns, Faster Pussycat, Ratt’s Stephen Pearcy and Gilby Clarke. It’s a nostalgia show of epic proportions, deserving of the most dramatic devil-horns fist-pump a 40-something can muster.

Hot insider tip: If you don’t want to make the trek to O.C., check out St. Felix’s pre-party debauchery in Hollywood on Aug. 13. They’ll be re-creating the old Cathouse club with glittery decor, sexy go-go dancers, DJ Will from KNAC and rock royalty getting into trouble like it’s 1986 all over again.

IRVINE MEADOWS AMPHITHEATRE
8808 Irvine Center Drive, Irvine | Sat., Aug. 15, 2 p.m.-midnight | $16.25-$430.92 | cathouselive.com

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