ron 

I can tell you it was a fun joint to be at , i remember my saturdays use to be we would go to dinner early then chill at a local bar before heading over to Max around 11:40pm, and stay there until 5:30 .then we all would head off to golden griddle for breakfast , those were truly good times, And i do have my MAX VIP pass as a souvenir..lol 

3:18 am on October 4, 2013 







victoria

Omg I loved this club! Hung out here for many years every weekend. Had a huge crush on Tek the bouncher. So many great times & great memories spent there. Used to love club RPM as well with dj Chris Sheppard!  

8:25 am on June 18, 2013 






Jason Paris 

Great piece! Klub Max and The Phoenix were actually my first two Toronto clubs, so this piece was yet another “memory lane” in a great series.
Nitpicking, but Peter Street was renamed Blue Jays Way on a request from Wayne Gretzky hiimself. He wanted his bar to have an address of 99 Blue Jays Way (instead of 99 Peter St). I’m sure the Blue Jays early-90s success played a role too, but it was acutally The Great One. 

11:40 am on July 6, 2012 







Jerome

This was my first regular club. I was madly in love with Caroline the downstairs bartender. 

4:44 pm on January 23, 2012 






iSkyscraper

Mars Bar was in the East Village, not the Meatpacking District. There was no Meatpacking District in fact in 1990. But whatever, the point was to bring some of the New York club vibe to Toronto. Fittingly, big night clubs then died off in New York shortly after 2000 and the last of them met the same fate in Toronto a few years later. 

1:06 pm on January 21, 2012 







johnAndrew
Mars Bar was a bar in the East Village, BUT Rudolf Piper’s Mars Club was on West Side Highway in the West Village. It was multi-leveled so when Nick talks about being influenced by Mars Club he is correct.
And Moby got his start as a NY DJ on the rooftop in a weekly event called Moby Decks. I know this because I did the photo of Rudolf and then girlfriend for the opening night invite.
Rudolf was the mastermind behind NY’s Danceteria and the Tunnel and Quick and Mars Club.
The Tunnel is where Michael Alig and the club kids started, in the basement (unlike the movie Party Monster that ignores Rudolf and talks about Peter Gatien and the basement of the Limelight…based on a true story but actually fiction).
It was Rudolf who jump-started the club kid scene in 1987 and Pete Gatien didn’t get involved with Alig until late 1990 when Alig’s Disco 2000 opened at Limelight.
It was Rudolf who underwrote Alig’s Project X magazine for the first three years and not Gatien. I know this because I was Chief Photographer for Project X for the same period.
http://johnsimone.ca/john-simones-new-york-period.php 

9:25 am on February 9, 2013 







DJ Michael X

Wow, again, great story Denise. I spun at Max for a long time as well, all 3 floors on different occasions, so it’s nice to read your story and remember the early days of Toronto’s ‘Club District’. I wonder what would have happened to the TO vibe if venues like this didn’t exist in the 90′s… Oops. I forgot. it would have ended up like TO 2012.
Thanks again Denise.
ps. I hope I can stir your creative juices and get a story about Freakshow or at least 318 Richmond St.
Classic Toronto club story. 

2:29 am on January 21, 2012 







Barbarella

I was just going to comment that I hadn’t seen Michael X’s name in this article!  
Personally, Michael was the reason I went to Klub Max. One of my top fave 90′s DJ’s. He’s also the reason I went to Go Go + Boom Boom Room [in addition to DJ Shannon + Bartender extraordinaire Deanna at Boom!]. 
Loving these old club stories, Denise. Awesome memories. Please keep ‘em coming! 

12:22 am on February 7, 2012 







P

I remember this club but by then I’d seen the best club in Nightclub land history and it was Go-Go’s. The white Room in the basement had some of the best NYC underground house DJs as guests and each of its 4 floors had its own vibe including rock in the black room. With Still Life across the street and RPM for Monday night Rock, this town was peaking for clubs..I could go on and on. I was in clubs 5 days a week and every club had its own genuinely different vibe..NOTHING like today where it’s one big homogenous blob of pop-goop. 

10:36 pm on January 20, 2012 






Bmorales 

Being 17 at the time, Klub Maxx was our Sunday night mass and our krew went religiously. Till this day, best damn club I’ve been to in Toronto. Some NYC, LA, & DC clubs come close but back then, it was genius with 3 floors of bumpn’ beats and fun peeps. Tricky was money on that quote (it was our Studio 54). We did wait in line because it was packed inside, not like these fools now who hold the line to make it look/feel busy, when its not. Thx for the memories – Back in the day, when i was young…. Bee 

10:22 pm on January 20, 2012 






Aliwanwan 

I loved Klub Max! It was probably the first club I had ever been to and it helped start my love for multi-level clubs. I was straddling between top-40, house and alternative so I was able to get some of my fix and their $3-4 Maximum Ice beer!! I do feel old but I also feel blessed to have gone clubbing before the Entertainment District became douchebag central. 

4:53 pm on January 20, 2012 







Bigg Moe Caesar

Wow, This article makes me feel old! I remember working at Maxx and then Baseline in those days. There will be no other like it, Clubs nowadays are too superficial!
Funny nomention of Wanda in the article! 

12:34 pm on January 19, 2012 






fattyp

I would take the bus, RT, subway and streetcar to get to Klub Max all the way from Malvern (east scarborough). I remember the small, green, business-card sized flyers for Deep Forest and spent many Sunday nights there over the few years the night ran.
Seeing those pics brought back a flood of memories. Anyone else there the night punks shot up the place after getting into an spat with Grant (the manager)? 

11:57 am on January 19, 2012 






Ken 

Ever had a song that for years would get stuck in your head but you could never remember the Title or Artist? Yeah Mike Dunn – Magic Feet. Even today that song will pop into my head and get stuck there. Thanks for finally putting a title to the madness!!
Incidentally I loved the 3 floors of Max, Friday Nights in the early 90′s I could go with any group of friends I wanted and have a great time. 

10:47 am on January 19, 2012