Melissa Lane

A Google search for Boom Boom Room will turn up as many results for the renowned Chicago house night as it will for John Lee Hooker's legendary jazz and blues club in San Francisco. Fittingly, they are both considered bona fide institutions of their genres. This week, our Boom Boom Room turns fifteen, making it the longest-running weekly in the country, possibly the world.

In 1992, one very gay promoter by the name Hi-Fi Bangalore was asked by the general manager of the now-defunct Red Dog to start a Monday night there. In the then-just-starting-to-gentrify area of Wicker Park, thus began the night that would launch untold number of careers, become a staple in Chicago's precarious house scene and garner recognition the world over.

The weekly's slogan now proudly claims that "The heart of house is beating strong." And the figures bear it out: a thousand fans stream through the door on an average night, 1,500 on peak nights.

While BBR can defend its reputation based on sheer numbers (both in years and weekly attendees), stalwarts explain the cultural phenomenon as a testament to the power of Chicago house. Arman Razavi, one of the co-promoters, says: "Many groups of us who have been in the scene are proud of what we do on a personal level. I mean, I believe in what I do, I love what I do, I love the house genre, I love the people who listen to it... there's a message in that music that, to me, other genres don't deliver."

When pushed to answer what that message is, he pauses for a minute and rewinds before answering: "Because it was created in the late seventies/early eighties by gay and black artists, it's mostly about love, about acceptance, and about equality."

DJ Lego remembers doing guest spots at the underground weekly less than a year after it opened. He explains that it was a small, mostly gay crowd back then, ranging from thirty to seventy-five people. But every single one of them would be dancing, as he says "just going off to the music, feelin' it and doing their thing. I'd never really seen anything like it."

Shortly thereafter happenstance landed him a residency, and the then-20-year-old Lego started coaxing his friends to come in. "It was tough, `cause they were homophobic, but when they got a taste of that music, it was like, they were cured! I mean you had your run-ins from time to time, but you just say no, thank you, I'm straight, and then you're dancing again. To this very day they are still going there." And to this day, the night's crowd remains an eclectic mix of gay and straight.

But where the night had an open-arms policy of welcoming people, it conducted a merciless court on the music. Lego recalls how Hi-Fi would castigate the DJs: "I don't like what you're playing--get off!" Sometimes he would pull every last DJ off, simply saying "No, no, no, no! Deeper, can't you play deeper?!" Lego continues, "Keoki was there. He played two records. They pulled him off. Hi-Fi said `This is not that vibe. This is not what this night is about. I'm sorry. Good night.' " Lego laughs, "He didn't care who you were. He did not care."

A few years after Boom Boom Room started, Hi-Fi took off for New York, leaving the night to run itself on autopilot until the equally flamboyant Byrd Bardot took over. As the years came and went, so did a whole parade of aspiring house artists. Among many, singers Donna Blakely and Dajae would test material there before releasing it. Dajae performed her seminal house songs "Brighter Days" and "You Got Me Up" for the first time at BBR. The way Lego puts it, "If you were gonna be anybody in the house-music industry, you had to perform at the BBR first. It was like The Apollo of house music. And if these people weren't feelin' you, they would let you know."

In 2003, when Red Dog closed its doors, Boom Boom Room went homeless. But it took less than a year to resurrect the night at Green Dolphin Street, which is owned and managed by the same people as the old Red Dog. Co-partners Arman Razavi of Music 101 and Joey Swanson of Chicago's Q101-Sonic Boom reopened the night in May of 2004.

Razavi is now planning the first official Boom Boom Room CD and a subsequent tour. But he is not looking to gut the night by flying out one of the DJs and slapping the BBR name on it. "We want people to experience the night the way it goes down in Chicago. House represents Chicago and people here are finally starting to own that and take pride in it. The music speaks to people here, they get it. We want other people to feel that, too."

The 15th Anniversary Party features Byron Stingily singing live, DJs Frankie Feliciano, Stacy Kidd, Lego, Michael Serafini, JustJoey, Uncle Milty and guest host Byrd Bardot at Green Dolphin Street, 2200 North Ashland, (773)395-0066 on March 20 from 9:30pm-4am. Hosted bar 9:30-10:30pm. $5 cover without RSVP to music-101.com.

(2006-03-14)

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