Comments on: Then & Now: Boom Boom Room https://thenandnowtoronto.com/2014/09/then-now-boom-boom-room/ Influential Toronto nightclubs from the 1970s through 2000s. The stories of Then & Now explore both Toronto after dark and the ways in which social spaces tend to foreshadow gentrification trends. Tue, 13 May 2025 20:01:29 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=3.9.40 By: Arne Gutmann https://thenandnowtoronto.com/2014/09/then-now-boom-boom-room/#comment-257158 Mon, 11 Dec 2023 21:51:07 +0000 http://thenandnowtoronto.com/?p=916#comment-257158 It was actually called, Industrial Traffic!
Now I remember.
Mostly industrial or heavy dance traxs.

]]> By: Arne Gutmann https://thenandnowtoronto.com/2014/09/then-now-boom-boom-room/#comment-257156 Mon, 11 Dec 2023 21:49:51 +0000 http://thenandnowtoronto.com/?p=916#comment-257156 Great article Denise.
My name is Arne, I was the Thursday night dj for some time there. I believe Art and I called it Electronic Intersection or something like that.
I spun for only a short time there under the name, DJ Jett Stream.
Shortly after that stint Art had big planes for me and they made the alternative floor for me at the Bop!
After my stint at the Bop I spun at GoGo and Whiskey Saigon as their house dj for years.
All the while playing many other clubs in Toronto!
Such wonderful times!

]]> By: REMEMBERING SOUL: WEBSTER HALL | https://thenandnowtoronto.com/2014/09/then-now-boom-boom-room/#comment-246513 Sun, 09 Jul 2023 17:39:05 +0000 http://thenandnowtoronto.com/?p=916#comment-246513 […] as one of the world’s best night clubs. After purchasing it in 1990, Canadian brothers Lon, Steve, Doug and Peter Ballinger took more than two years to painstakingly renovate and re-purpose the massive space into the […]

]]> By: Neville Ross https://thenandnowtoronto.com/2014/09/then-now-boom-boom-room/#comment-227942 Sat, 10 Sep 2022 15:21:19 +0000 http://thenandnowtoronto.com/?p=916#comment-227942 Somebody commenting on an article about the closing of Pages Bookstore (also a Queen West institution) featured at the original (and much better) BlogTO website said it best; Queen Street West whored itself out for a lot of corporate chain stores (the real reason-IMHO-why venues like this one no longer exist.)

]]> By: David https://thenandnowtoronto.com/2014/09/then-now-boom-boom-room/#comment-98470 Fri, 26 Jun 2020 21:29:38 +0000 http://thenandnowtoronto.com/?p=916#comment-98470 Amazing story here we are 2020 im from Australia 56 yeah old ex stage lighting guy for 26 yrs touring Australia with bands and tight now I am staying in the hotel on the top floor near the corner actually we have 2 windows looking into Palmerston Queen. My girl is 36 and our cat is 16 yrs old…If any of you old staff or anyone who was connected with this amazing club I would love to say hi. Thanks for this story and I wish I was here in Tornto at the time..I feel privileged to be staying in this hotel as I never knew the history of this place until another resident who is my age and a music producer told me about it s fee days ago whole smoking a joint in Palmerston and looking at the old sign…Thanks again

]]> By: Michael Sweenie https://thenandnowtoronto.com/2014/09/then-now-boom-boom-room/#comment-8292 Fri, 29 Jan 2016 20:02:38 +0000 http://thenandnowtoronto.com/?p=916#comment-8292 Hey ! Love the Article – The Bizarre Decor I did for the Volcano Room was inspired by Tiki Bars i saw as a child in California as well as The Ports of Call in Toronto where my Uncle sang – It was at one of your Dyke Nights that I stood on the metal staircase and said to myself that one day i will own this place and 8-9 years later i did – We lasted 2 years until Queen Street was torn up in both directions for streetcar track replacements and we closed it down – it was a Blast while it lasted !

]]> By: Ron Oliver https://thenandnowtoronto.com/2014/09/then-now-boom-boom-room/#comment-2606 Sun, 17 May 2015 16:12:09 +0000 http://thenandnowtoronto.com/?p=916#comment-2606 Denise, what a marvelous article, and such a great flashback! Thanks for this! I lived not far from the Boom during the late 80′s and it was just as fabulous as you describe.

in 1991, i filmed several scenes of a thriller called “Liar’s Edge” for New Line Cinema there and my then-boyfriend worked in the background as a Cage dancer, complete with leather jockstrap. We shot every square inch of that club, so for those who would like to see a bit of history, it’s probably on iTunes.

]]> By: JOHN ROBERT HECTOR https://thenandnowtoronto.com/2014/09/then-now-boom-boom-room/#comment-361 Mon, 09 Feb 2015 20:56:20 +0000 http://thenandnowtoronto.com/?p=916#comment-361 Oh my god i know everyone in all these pictures from the boom boom room and this was long before everyone had a dumbsmartphone ! Thank you very very very much ! I worked there one summer as an promoter trying to stand in the shadow of one Steven Wong LOts of LOVE LOL ! ITs me mr homo modus operendi aka THEE HECTOR (4:20) from Bar One for aeons until we all vanished into thin air lol !

]]> By: Sarah Wayne https://thenandnowtoronto.com/2014/09/then-now-boom-boom-room/#comment-16 Fri, 12 Dec 2014 17:40:24 +0000 http://thenandnowtoronto.com/?p=916#comment-16 All comments in the string below have been republished from their original appearance on The Grid website. We’re including the readers’ comments as they add to these Then & Now stories. We look forward to reading new comments here as well.

Lola

Hee! What a great article. I was the first female cage dancer on boys night. I remember basically undressing them in the cage. I only got paid in free drinks, but it was so fun. Cept when I ripped my elbow open on the metal back wall of the cage. Hospital and stitches. Still have the scar! And when I smashed my head into an angled speaker and all but knocked myself out. Hehe. good times! 

8:36 pm on February 13, 2013 






tess 

Wow what a blast from the past! Great story. I used to dance in that cage!!
Also worked at the Bop. Man the good ol days. 

10:55 am on February 11, 2013 







Lon Ballinger

dear Denise thank you for the article it was a lot of fun to read and very accurate as well.We loved our experience in Toronto and we thank you all for being a part of our lives.We are still together here in N.Y.C. And we have a great place.You are all very welcome to come and visit us .We have many great Canadian friends who often drop by to see us.Our children are a large part of our business and we still enjoy what we are doing please take care and good luck with everything you guys are involved with .Sincerely Lon Ballinger 

1:12 am on February 9, 2012 







tess 

Hey Lon,
Spoke to Doug a few years back when I had a TV thing in NY but never got a chance to come by. Sounds like you guys are still going strong.
tess 

10:57 am on February 11, 2013 







Barbarella

LOVE those pix of Shannon, Deanna + Michael X!
Great article, awesome memories!  

12:24 am on February 7, 2012 







Die J! Mars 

Great article Denise! My beginning as a dj literally started by standing in the rain for 5 hours in front of Sundays to promote my Tuesday gig at the Kat Klub. As a
Club-Goer, I never had more fun than hanging there for Michaey X’s night. I would drink Dos Equiis underage at La Hacienda (coming with freak friends from Scarborough) and then sneak into Boom Boom Room. Funny enough, I worked for Steve Ballinger at his new Downtime club in NYC a few years ago and told him and he said “damn, you snuck into my club?!”. Ha! Cool pic of Dan! Anyone ever see him again?
Barbarella! Looked for you for a while. Email me! 

6:16 pm on March 1, 2012 







Chad Gendron

My wife and I met there on a Dyke Nite in the summer of ’92. I used to do the videos for the Boom. Twenty years! Gotta go, my kids just broke a lamp! 

6:06 pm on February 2, 2012 






Steve O Skolney

I worked there as a bartender when it was still owned by the Ballingers , I moved over next to bartend at THE LIZARD LOUNGE. BOOM BOOM ROOM really was a one of a kind place. 

10:28 am on February 2, 2012 







Andrew P 

Wednesday nights at the Boom Boom Room. Miss the days. 

8:31 am on February 2, 2012 






Deborah 

The Boom was the best club ever! We used to drive in from Kitchener every Sunday to dance in the cage. It’s the place I first heard NIN, began to shed the “good girl” country bumpkiin image and begin to discover who I was. Out of all the Toronto clubs of the time I used to go to, the Boom is the only one I think of often and miss dearly. I think that I’ve compared every club I’ve been to since to the Boom, and none ever quite matched it. Fond memories indeed! 

5:04 am on February 2, 2012







Tana 

And-Bio Rhythm!!:) 

11:05 pm on February 1, 2012 







Tana

Oh man, this series is like -the BEST! Thanks for the memories. This period was indeed a time of social revolution-the RADDEST, in my opinion. Please please please get around to The Copa, and the raddest of the rad -Club Domino…!
Thanks again! 

9:30 pm on February 1, 2012 







Diodeus 

Sweet memories, thank you Denise. I spent some of the best hearing-loss generating nights there. 

9:15 pm on February 1, 2012 







Ryan

Amazing!! 

5:40 pm on February 1, 2012 







jinx 

brilliant loved the read!! brings back a ton of memories and funny thing is – now i know james real last name – lmfao after all these years – only knew him as st bass 

4:28 pm on February 1, 2012 







shona fraser

i know my coming out process mainly happened because of, and on Dyke Night. it was the energy of the mostly female crowd that brought me all the way down from Richmond Hill in the very early nineties. You nailed it on the head when you said “it was like Cheers .. ” 
Excellent article! 

4:56 pm on February 1, 2012 











]]>