Grab a hammer and break everything at Philly’s only ‘rage room’

When Nyerera Jordan was feeling behind in her studies at veterinary school she confided in her mom that she was so upset she could break something.

“I really wanted to find some way to break stuff, like I just needed something to let all this frustration and everything out,” said Jordan recalling a tough time in her life.

Her mother, Kea Tull, was at first surprised and a bit confused by the request, but after researching she saw that businesses existed called “rage rooms.” Five years ago, when they first began researching the subject, there wasn’t an option in Philly. Without a suitable outlet for Jordan, Tull figured they needed to turn these emotions into something constructive. Instead of hitting a wall (metaphorically and literally), they started a business in 2018 that would let others pay to have a cathartic experience.

Enter Rage Philly, the City of Brotherly Love’s only rage room, where people pay $30 to $100 to suit up in protective gear and unleash their rage on old furniture, dishware, and children’s toys using metal bats, crowbars, and sledgehammers — fitting for a city that seems to beat up hitchhiking robots, throw snowballs at Santa Claus, and has team mascots who allegedly punch teenagers.

That exhilarating spirit behind destroying household objects is what fuels Rage Philly. As “ragers” slap down their protective face shields, zip up into overalls, and grip their fingers around crowbars to break into an old computer monitor, Tull is in full performance mode. Her boisterous cheers clap through the speakers in the room along with the ragers’ personal hype soundtrack, encouraging people to continue even as they wear themselves out mere minutes after smashing everything in sight.

These small warehouse businesses have exploded across the globe since the Telegraph reported on Japanese rage rooms in 2008 — they can now can be found in places like the United States, Argentina, and Italy. As people look for public group activities beyond drinking in a bar, alternatives like ax throwing, Ping-Pong, escape rooms, and rage rooms are becoming all the rage (pun intended).

Enter Patrice Green and Reagen Price, two friends looking to vent the frustrations of work life, who ventured to Rage Philly’s Holmesburg warehouse in Northeast Philadelphia for a bit of catharsis.

“It’s a good place to allow folks to get out lots of things [built up], especially coming out of the pandemic,” said Green. “Also, we’re really excited to be able to support Black women entrepreneurs.”

Price remembers witnessing her first example of the “catharsis of breaking” during an episode of the ‘70s sitcom Good Times, when Esther Rolle’s character, Florida Evans, smashes the family punch bowl following the funeral of her husband.

“They were a working-class, poor family that didn’t have very many things,” said Price. “The fact that she was willing to let that nice pretty punch bowl go to let out the rage instead of holding it in was significant. Describing rage rooms for someone else, it’s like reenacting that moment.”

Luckily, customers at Rage Philly don’t need to bring their family heirlooms to smash. Instead, Tull and Jordan rely on donations from local residents and whatever odds and ends they can find — think old dining sets with plates, dishware like cups and glasses, or children’s toys like bicycles and plastic pianos. Rage Philly even offers group car-smashing sessions when they can get their hands on a two-door or four-door jalopy.

“Those kids’ toys are durable,” said Tull. “I joke with customers, ‘How is it that a 2-year-old can break these toys all the time, and you’re hitting it with a sledgehammer and it’s not even breaking?’ ”

Sourcing all the breakables can prove difficult, but finding a customer base of people ready to pelt walls with ceramic coffee mugs and let sledgehammer meet stereo is a bit easier due to the international appeal of the activity. Hung on either side of the entrance are U.S. and world maps with pins pointing to Italy, Poland, and even Dubai, noting the places from where Rage Philly customers have visited.

While hundreds visit Tull and Jordan’s business, both owners assert that rage rooms aren’t a replacement for true therapy. As rage rooms are usually marketed across the world as a place to vent emotions and release anger, the duo maintain they’re a fun activity to experience with friends, get some exercise, and possibly some relief from the chaos of everyday life.

“Rage rooms aren’t places where you’re going to sit down on the couch, talk about your feelings, and then be given a plate to throw — it’s not that,” said Jordan. “It can be a therapeutic experience, but we’re not licensed therapists.”

According to Benjamin Daniels, a licensed psychologist and clinical director at Equilibria Psychological and Consultation Services in Philadelphia, there may be some short-term feelings of catharsis when breaking something in anger. In the long-term, leaning into anger to cope when heavy emotions arise isn’t the healthiest.

“If you conceptualize rage rooms as exercise, it might be a healthy coping skill — think about how good you feel after you go for a run or a bike ride,” Daniels said. “But if you try to use rage as a coping skill outside of a rage room, you’re likely to have a negative impact on your life and the people around you.”

This is a key point that Daniels and the owners of Rage Philly emphasize: Don’t go to rage rooms to release intense emotions, often caused by trauma. Those kinds of emotional moments are better dealt with through exercise, mindfulness, and therapy. That said, Daniels also sees rage rooms as a place to have good, clean fun in the right mindset.

“For many people, rage rooms are just a fun activity. Not everything is pathological,” said Daniels. “Ax throwing and paintball are other activities I had in my mind where there’s some form of destruction happening, but it’s all in good fun.”

As Tull and Jordan continue to grow the business, they hope to expand hours and hire more employees. New activities like “splatter sessions,” where customers throw paint across large canvases for Jackson Pollock-esque artwork, help diversify their clientele.

Currently, the duo is looking to create partnerships with local waste and recycling centers to help source their rage material, even calling on Philly for donations of dining sets, furniture, computer monitors and accessories, children’s toys, and more. (Wanna donate? Send an email to rageroomphiladelphia@gmail.com.)

For those still on the fence about rage rooms, Green and Price say that it’s a refreshing way to have fun and give items on the way to the landfill another purpose — plus, with years of dealing with technology in the era of remote life, it’s nice to be able to smash the thing that gives folks headaches on the regular.

“Anybody working from home or dealing with technology, and you get the ‘blue screen of death?’ ” said Green. “You want to throw the computer out the window? Come to the rage room, break a computer.”