Thunderdome

This ain’t yo mama’s dance party.
Thunderdome: The bastard child of a frat party, a rave, and a hipster basement shindig with laser lights. You know you wanna.
This is how a night out should be– dance beats, good people, drinks a-​plenty, sweaty bodies, no dress code… Which inevitably leads to the morning after– sore legs, mild headache, wet clothes, solid memories of good times. Check.
Drop it like it’s hot, it’s f — ing THUNDERDOME! Get ready to bump, jump, sweat, grind, shake, groove, rock.

This place/​thing was awesome. It’s not a place I guess, but rather an event, and one that happens only periodically.
Cambridge + nightlife = pegasi and tooth fairies, right?
But no. Cambridge + nightlife = Thunderdome. Which means, it’s about the music, but there’s booty shaking as everyone points out in the other reviews. A group of people actually dragged me out on the dance floor because I was leaning on a pole. How unsnobby.

Every time I have gone to Thunderdome I leave so soaked in sweat that I have to hang my clothes up to dry when I get home and wake up with legs that feel like jello. I also usually wake up with sore cheeks from smiling so damn much. This is not an exaggeration.
Nothing is more fun than a room full of people dancing to loud, awesome music. Totally worth any cover you pay at the door, trekking to Cambridge, and going to work on Saturday morning feeling like you scraped yourself off the bottom of somebody’s limited edition sneaker.

EPICCCCC
Ultimate dance party in the area, without the sleazy feel of your typical Boston club (think hipsters, not BU/​Northeastern bros). Great DJs, great dancing, great sweaty fun.
By all means check this party out. Get there earlier than later, the line gets big.

Even though this place reminded me a LOT of a high school dance — it didn’t matter. I kind of liked high school dances. I went to see DJ Assault with friends — and man, did it get crazy.
It became a humid sweaty room of dancing dancing dancing — CRAZYtime. Amazing.
The weather was frigid, but Thunderdome was hoppin’ — I walked to the T without my coat. I was seriously dripping with sweat! I also liked the fact that everyone dancing was just having a good time. I like good times!
Ah. Dirty dancing.

BOOO: Getting ridonkulously lost multiple times
YAAAY: Getting there
BOOO: The wait for drinks
YAAAY: The drinks were fantastically cheap
BOOO: Today’s hangover
YAAAY:Having a kickass time with getting my dance on

Alright I’ve sobered up after my first Thunderdome experience. I must admit that although finding the American Legion on memorial drive was a bit of a disaster, Thunderdome was pretty entertaining. Drinks are extremely cheap (impossibly so for boston standards) and served by a range of mustached older american legionnaires (who seemed to become progressively drunker themselves as the night wore on.) The line was occasionally long enough to drive me crazy.
People finally started dancing around 11:30 or 12, and until then there was a lot of standing around. At least here I could afford to get drunk enough to entertain myself with or without dancing!

I don;t know… partying it up in Elk’s lounge reminds me a little too much of Junior High school basement parties. Except the sweet free Bushmill tickets they hand you and middle aged bartenders who have a really hard time narrowing down a Bud bottle from the two ice coolers. He also looks for a bottle opener each time… twist off dude… TWIST OFF.
Anyways. I get the whole «let’s dance our asses off like never before because no one is watching to judge in this dingy dark place» mentality but it’s still mad dirty in there. Bathroom didn’t have lights. had to use cellphone to aim. Piss+stale beer smell over sidewalk furniture. Also once. projectors and speakers went out in the first room within the five minutes I was there… power outage. I did not like how they squeezed and combined everyone into one room when it hit around 12am so they could start taking pictures like the place was packed. Tricksters.
It’s still nice to have around though. Nothing like it. Lots of same faces as Hearthrob. Thunderdome might have a bit more out of their mind alien rascals. Whatever that means. The stars for the beats and wooden floors when you first walk in… the floor feels like it’s going to crash so it gives you a bit of thrill before going downstairs.

Three days later…
I can’t believe I downed whiskey (I’m not a whiskey girl)
My roommate is still saying «we partied like rockstars»
I’m still dehydrated
I’d do it again in a heartbeat
The only set backs, as everyone else said, the slow as molasses bartenders and the heat, the heat, the heat, the heat. I got there early and initially, believe it or not, it was cool and breezy with the fans, but due to intense girating and arm waving, the place became a sauna and once I stood outside to be cooled by the most perfect night air, I couldn’t go back in, I just couldn’t.
ps thanks for providing water and whiskey, I think we all needed it

Holy wow for Thunderdome!
Friday night was my first encounter with Thunderdome, Central Square’s semi monthly sweat-​your-​pants-​off-​athon. Like Ligaya said, you tell people you’re going to go jazzercize off about 20lbs in an Elks Club basement and people start to look at you funny. This event was somehow sponsored by Vitamin Water, which they provided an ample supply of. We of course decided that it would probably run out in no time, and took the liberty of hiding some bottles of Smart Water in the ceiling panels… we never remembered to retrieve them at the end of the night.
2 rooms full of shiny, hot scenesters all grooving to the likes of some DJ’s who’s names have escaped me. Both rooms were equipped with a simple bar, mostly comprised of gin, scotch, and whiskey, only the finest of old man liquors. We were also privledged to have RSVP’ed to the event and be admitted to the «Free Bushmills» hour. Keep in mind, I am not particularly fond of whiskey but… it was free, so why not. I had also come prepared with a flask of my preferred poison, Stoli Vanilla which, while hidden in the masses of the crowded dance floor, I proceeded to pour into the $ 2 cans of warm Pepsi that I began to buy from the bar.
Practically everyone was dancing, no sour pusses, and plenty of room outside for cooling off/​smoking when one was between cocktails. I only give Thunderdome 4 stars as at one point it took me about 10 mins to order a drink from a bartender that was severely hard of hearing and not aware of the term «mixer».
Thunderdome was supposed to last from 10pm-​2am, but as I later found out, the Police showed up at some point around 1? And we had to leave. I was outside during all of this, so I’m not entirely sure of the reasoning. And we were off to the Enormous Room…

I’ll see YOU in the Thunderdome, biotch.
My first Thunderdome experience was a little surreal at first, and can best be described in one sentence which I told Ligaya:
«It feels like I was just walking past & randomly decided to crash a raging house party» (i meant to add… full of hyper hipster monkeys)
When our group of Unilocalers rolled up in there around 10:15 (15 minutes after start-​time) to get our free Bushmills drink on – I suddenly felt I was transported back to all the Virginia basement parties I used to frequent. When we arrived, the place was nearly empty, but fortunately the organizer hooked me and my friends up with 3 free drink tickets each for the free-​Bushmills madness. I think that’s MORE than fair. $ 7 for 3 FREE diet + bushmills all served up by the slowest bartenders ever who can’t hear you yelling of the crowd of oh – 12 people? Drinks served in urine-​cup-​sized-​plastics? Priceless.
At first, most of the people didn’t dance at all, but watched the last inning of the red sox game with unreal amounts of interest. Daniel even noted he LEFT the game to come to the Thunderdome, but hey, this is Boston & fun doesn’t really begin until the Sox are done playing. So the dance floor was pretty barren as Chloe, Ligya, Katie, Kabir, Elizabeth, Daniel, Russ & I began to get our pre-​dance drink on – the floor wasn’t empty for long though.
Around 11:30pm, the party people start to flood in and started dancing. It looked like an american apparel-​junkie, hipster-​jazzercise dance party complete with Zombie-​Dance-​Skanks & Smart Water Ad Madness & two rooms of booty-​shaking mashups which no matter-how-hard-you-try-you-can’t-fucking-stop-moving.
The major flaw was that it was freaking HOT. Whatever you do, don’t go outside – as soon as you do – you fear that underground dancing fortress and the sweat pouring from places you didn’t know could sweat. Find a fucking fan and dance in front of it if you want to live.

You’ll never make it to Tomorrow-​morrow Land if you don’t go through Thunderdome first.

What a great first impression… as I head in I was given a few drink tickets. Ok, cool — what are these all about.
Me: Bartender give me one of these *waves ticket idiotically*
Him: Just for this. *points at a bottle of Bushmills*
Me: *shrug* Cool.
Now maybe he liked me, or maybe he really didn’t like me — but either way I got a triple shot of room temperature whiskey in a small dixie cup. GULP GULP GULP GAG ANOTHER PLEASE.
I tried to get through all 4 tickets in the hour allotted but starting weeping gently from the pain, and thought better of it…
As for thunderdome? SIIIICK. Beats were very beefy, and if they stopped I just slid over to the other room to hear the other dj spinning. LOTS of no shame dancing, myself included. Crowd had a good vibe, can’t wait for the next one.
Oh hey to that girl that groped me on the dancefloor — totally inappropriate. Call me.

The Awesome House Party versus The Great Nightclub… who wins… a tough decision.
But…
What if there was a nightclub that strived to recreate the best possible house party of your life? With all the right people, all the bad but-​oh-​so-​good drink selection, all the best music and all the best attitude.
Well… now there is. And it has a mounted Elk’s head as a bonus.

Burly, painfully slow bartenders
Enough wood paneling to make your grandmother moist
And a shit-​ton of ass shaking

Things you won’t find at Thunderdome: Tina Turner.
Things you will find at Thunderdome: People having a fucking great time.

Bringing peeps to the monthly Thunderdome party:
Me: Hey, where you going? We’re here. (Confusion) At the the Massosoit lodge right there. In the basement.
Friend: Massawhat, wtf is that? Basement? Are you serious?
Me: Yeah, dude. It’s grimy like that. (Dubious)
After seeing the elk head on the wall and shelling out the $ 5 cover, they stop complaining because
the heeeat and beats. –. – . – . – .
eMANating from the dungeon
below
the stairwell
up
have crept framed by [adorable hipsters] and
.s.e.d.u.c.e.d.
their mortal instinct to be part of some (we)thing under
ground
and decidedly fucking — awesome –.
The place is grungy, sweltering and pushed to critical mass with gyrating bodies. I guess the hip-​hoppers passed the booty shaking torch to the emo turned electro headz. There’s no way you’re going to get a drink quickly, not even elbows out. The dearth of ‘bartenders’ make the mobs of yellers all the more intimidating for the ones there. It’s okay though, because while you’re waiting there’ll be a girl in metallic leggings pumping a pole at the front of one of the huge rooms, rocking to some British disco funk and some other chick on a platform on the second dancefoor in pink thigh highs, turquoise garters and a purple fucking tutu, circling her hips to Ginuwine’s My Pony. And you aren’t gonna say jack, because your mouth will be in a permasmile. Why? Because no matter how much of a hater you are, you can’t deny the beautiful spectacle of masses uniting and letting loose.

WO Floors,
SEVEN DJ’s,
TWO Live Acts
UTTER CRAZE
WHERE IS IT?
— Elks Lodge Central Square
— Cheap Beer
— Huge Dancefloor
— NO CLUB BULLSHIT
— GET BUCK!
Two Floors?
THIS IS GOING TO BE THE PARTY OF THEY YEAR BOSTON!
AND IT’S GOING TO SELL THE FUCK OUT SO RSVP TO list[at]mistaker[dot]net for special bonuses.