NJ Music & Nightlife Venues We Still Talk About
Ask anyone who grew up going out in North Jersey in the 80s and 90s and they'll have a list. Not a list of restaurants or malls, a list of rooms. The club where they saw a band before anyone knew the name. The bar where they met their best friend. The place that closed years ago but still comes up every time old friends get together.
We've made shirts for seven of them. Here's where they came from.
Loop Lounge, Passaic Park (1985–2016)
Bruce Ciccone opened the Loop Lounge at 373 Broadway in 1985 with a bar up front and a dance floor in back, built around DJs at a time when that wasn't the standard club format. Nine Inch Nails, Faith No More, and a pre-fame My Chemical Romance all played there. Ciccone sold the club in 2007, but it ran for almost another decade before closing in 2016. He still hosts "Infinite Loop" reunion nights.
Studio 1, Newark (1980s–1999)
At 88-90 Verona Avenue, Studio 1 ran two floors: a main stage downstairs and a quieter hangout space above it. Warrant played there in 1989, Warrior Soul in 1993, Type O Negative in 1995. The last show was October 16, 1999, with Sister Machine Gun and Hanzel Und Gretyl. The building later became Tequila Joe's.
Aldo's Hideaway, Lyndhurst (1970s–early 2000s)
749 Marin Avenue was a new wave and alternative bar known for The Stranglers, Joan Jett, and the Psychedelic Furs coming through the speakers. The Stranglers actually played there in 1980. A fire in the early 2000s ended the club's run.
Hunka Bunka, Sayreville (1987–2003)
The building started life as the Jernee Mill Inn in the 1960s before Bernie Bailey rebranded it the Hunka Bunka Ballroom in 1987. Rock, punk, ska, and dance nights drew crowds from across Middlesex County, and local legend has it that a young Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora crossed paths there before forming their band. It reopened as Starland Ballroom in late 2003.
Birch Hill Entertainment Complex, Old Bridge (1950s–2003)
Before it was a concert venue, Birch Hill was a swim club and picnic ground off Route 9. It shifted toward live music in the 1970s, and under owner Art Stock it became one of the state's go-to rooms for rock and metal, hosting Joan Jett, Eddie Money, Cinderella, Korn, Marilyn Manson, the Goo Goo Dolls, and System of a Down. It closed in 2003. A housing development sits there now.
Capitol Theatre, Passaic (1921–1989)
The Capitol opened at Monroe and Central in 1921 as a vaudeville house, then became a movie theater by the 1950s. Promoter John Scher turned it into a rock venue in the 1960s, and it held roughly 3,200 people for shows by The Who, Bruce Springsteen, and the Grateful Dead. It closed in 1989 and was demolished in 1991.
Casey O'Tooles, Wayne
Casey O'Tooles sat on Hamburg Turnpike, close enough to William Paterson College that it became a regular stop for students and locals alike: Wednesday martini nights, Thursday ladies' nights, Saturday dance parties. For a lot of William Paterson alumni, it's tied directly to their college years.
That's seven rooms, seven towns, and probably a few hundred nights nobody quite remembers all the details of. If one of these was your spot, or you're just curious what else we've dug up, the full NJ Music & Nightlife collection has all seven shirts in one place.