I suppose the best way to launch a blog about working in the live music and club scene is to start where I began, at the infamous The Comfort Zone. Of all the venues I took part in, people are always most interested about this one as they have heard rumours about it and/or had a sketchy party Sunday there back in the day, or experienced awesome live music there.

It truly was a dirty dive of a cavernous basement space. Not a space to experience with the lights on. As it was a basement it held onto the music so that you could actually feel the bass end and your body would vibrate from the speaker stacks. They did have a solid sound system there and bands and DJs would end up sounding much better then they and the audience expected.

I booked and promoted The Comfort Zone for almost two years around 20 years ago. The reason I got into the job is that the adjoining club The Silver Dollar had a booker there I knew, Gary Kendall. He asked me out of the blue one day if I wanted to book the club and learn the business from him as I was already helping to promote The Silver Dollar as a Blues club.

I was frustrated and bored in my job at that time, so I said sure why not? I had no clue what I was walking into but I certainly made the best of it and worked on some amazing events. Gary taught me how to book a club and bring acts in from all over Canada and the U.S. There really is no other way to learn this stuff other than from someone who has done it before. 

Most people don’t know that The Comfort Zone and Silver Dollar were/are a family business. David Yarmus and his brothers (including Cosmic Steve and Terry) and wife Elsa all were involved. I respect for Dave and his family for keeping both clubs going for so long and even starting a new Comfort Zone on Queen Street. It is not an easy or glamorous job running a club. 

People talk about all the drugs there (and yes, they were there on the Sunday’s for sure) but any DJ club will have a drug presence to it. These are not houses of worship; they are houses of dancing, debauchery and hedonism. Staff at The Comfort Zone used to vie for the Monday shift so they could find (and keep) all the discarded money and drugs discarded on the floor. Sometimes people were crashed on the couch in my office passed out from whatever drug they took too much of. Sometimes stuff was happening beyond my comfort zone.

When I was there, the club did have a biker gang involved somehow but I didn’t know the details and didn’t want to. My biggest involvement with them was booking an act for their Christmas party at the club (it takes some convincing to get an artist to perform for a biker gang). 

The Comfort Zone is best known for its Sunday all day/all night after-rave which helped create the club in 1996. Before that the Sunday’s were known as The Buzz (some of its promoters started the legendary Industry dance club). The Sunday’s have been ground zero for the Toronto underground DJ scene in styles from progressive house to techno, drum & bass and jungle. I am including a link to stories about the history of this scene here for your interest. 

So while the Sunday was well known, less known was The Comfort Zone was operating from 4 to 6 days a week with live and DJ events for over a decade and I was there when some of the best of it was happening. The club was booking a lot of jam bands at the time (Grateful Dead/Phish inspired acts) and I was able to expand that into hip-hop, jazz, electronica, spoken word, ska, funk and whoever would take a chance on the space. I felt like I created a supportive space for  artists of all visions during the time I was there and that I benefited the club by bringing in my other clients like the Toronto Downtown Jazz Festival and an internet radio company. 

Two event series I am fond of remembering are that I helped Dwayne Morgan launch his When Sisters Speak and When Brothers Speak annual events. They are still happening and the vitality and talent of the spoken word performers at these events was and still is mind blowing to me. 

The other series was ill-A-MENTAL. These hip-hop concerts are still talked about in Toronto as some of the best of the best. I helped promote them and they were produced by the amazing REMG crew, who I later worked with for a while later publicizing other concerts for them.

From the first concert featuring the first Toronto appearance of Slum Village with Jay Dee to Bahamadia, DJ Craze, the Rock Steady Crew and later concerts with Phife Dawg (Tribe Called Quest) and Fat Lip (The Pharcyde) – these were intimate opportunities to see hip-hop legends you will get again in Toronto. I can still visualize seeing everyone shout every word and the rhythmic smacking of people hitting the metal air vents that ran along the roof of the club.

Here are some other acts that I remember at The Comfort Zone. It still amazes me that some of these artists ended up performing there and the concerts turned out to be so good!

Groove Collective

Soulive

Bernie Worrell (P-Funk) and the Woo Warriors

Laurel Aitken

Burning Spear

Lee “Scratch” Perry

Mad Professor

Derek Trucks

Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe

Charlie Hunter

Gov’t Mule

Sharon 

Merl Saunders and One Step Beyond

Michael Ray & the Cosmic Krewe

Dirty Dozen Brass Band

New York Ska-Jazz Ensemble

Richie Havens

Kardinal Offishall

The New Deal

Pocket Dwellers 

Fat Cats 

Caution Jam