Grand Central photo.
Audio By Carbonatix
A couple of weeks ago, when we bid farewell to Gramps, it brought a feeling that was far too familiar for those who have lived in Miami, as a favorite music venue was closing down. It’s probably true of any city that an establishment opens, builds some goodwill, and then goes out of business. So maybe it’s narcissistic to think it happens more often in South Florida than any other region. But just to make sure we’re not making mountains out of molehills, we decided to make a list of all the cool music venues we had to say goodbye to in the twenty-first century.
Cameo Theater
Every time I walk by the Cameo on South Beach’s Washington Avenue, I have to shake my head they stopped hosting shows. I was lucky enough to catch Radiohead’s first ever Miami show there, but over the decades they’ve hosted everyone from the Pixies and Jane’s Addiction to Portishead and Eminem. The intimate theater built in 1936 could seemingly still be put to use, but sits vacant.
Photo by Shawn Macomber
Electric Pickle
Apparently, it was only a decade that Electric Pickle survived at 2826 N. Miami Ave., but from 2009 to 2019, it seemed as permanent a part of the Miami night as the moon and a 4 am meal at Yambo’s. National and international dance-based acts like Little Dragon, Phantogram, and Nicholas Jaar played sets there. DJ Magazine and Rolling Stone both dubbed it one of the best dance clubs in Miami, in spite of or maybe because of its 300-person capacity.
Grand Central
After Poplife moved their hipster night from Coral Gables’ Mezza Fine Art to the Design District’s Picadilly Garden, they opened their own sprawling venue at 697 N. Miami Ave with a firm commitment to bringing the best of indie music to Miami. Off the top of my head, I remember seeing great shows by Ladytron, Of Montreal, and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club between 2010 and 2015, before Miami Worldcenter made way. If this is progress, build me a time machine.
IO Lounge and The Vagabond
Enough years have passed that it is hard to remember which hipster hangout came first to 30 NE 14th St., was it IO Lounge or The Vagabond? But unlike the chicken-or-the-egg question, the internet has a definitive answer for this. IO was from 2003 to 2007, hosting all kinds of shows that the kids would now call indie sleaze, like the Walkmen, Cat Power, and Brazilian Girls. The Vagabond came next, from 2008 to 2014, and was a bit more inclusive, with shows by Dick Dale, John Digweed, and King Khan.
The Vagabond photo
Magnum Lounge and The Anderson
From 2016 to 2024 the Anderson was a reliable hangout to hear some good music and have a drink before suddenly closing without any fanfare. The bar at 709 NE 79th St. took over the space from the beloved Magnum Lounge. For a while, the Anderson paid tribute to its history with a Thursday night Old School Magnum Night featuring piano man Dr. Wayne, but as the years passed, they found their own traditions before disappearing into the Miami night.
Miami Arena
I never had the good fortune of seeing a musical performance at the old Miami Arena, unless you want to count DJ Irie DJing during Miami Heat games. But the former home stadium of the Heat, Panthers, and Hurricanes basketball team also hosted hundreds of legendary shows from 1988 to 2005. Everyone from the Grateful Dead to N.W.A. to Ozzy Osbourne played here before its demolition in 2008 when they razed Miami music history and put up a parking lot.
Miami Orange Bowl
2008 was a rough year for Miami music venues, if not a great year for local demolition crews. The Orange Bowl was also torn down in 2008. Now there is Marlins stadium which has hosted a couple concerts like Beyonce and a Guns n Roses reunion, but the Orange Bowl had a much more intense concert schedule. The Rolling Stones played there as did Madonna, Van Halen and Bruce Springsteen at the top of their fame.
Tobacco Road
Generations of Miamians had the honor of hanging out at this dive. It stayed in business for over a century at 626 S. Miami Avenue from 1912 to 2014 before being sold for 12.5 million and demolished. Right down to the final night, which featured performances from Eric Garcia, the Hoovers, the Eclectics, the Hongs, Eric Vick, Jay Blues Band, and Afrobeta, it was a spot you could always count on for live music. My favorite story was in the late nineties a friend’s brother said he went in there on a random night when film director Quentin Tarantino was hanging out and all of a sudden Slash from Guns N’ Roses began playing a solo set. Sounds like bullshit, but Tobacco Road did have that vibe where anything could happen.
PS 14 , Bar, Railroad Blues and 28 Newsstand
We’d be remiss not to celebrate the many establishments that were next door to Vagabond and I/O. PS 14 was the first and probably the best-known of the business names for the slender bar with the grand outdoor space at 28 NE 14th St. On any given night, you could see the Jacuzzi Boys play or dance to indie rock tunes until its closing in 2009. Later it became known as just Bar, still later as Railroad Blues, for a while in 2016 it was a popup bar with a newsstand motif (carrying plenty of issues of New Times), before gentrification took over and a high rise condo stands in its stead.
White Room, Eve, and 1306
It seemed to be a theme at the early part of the century that when one business closed down at a cool nightlife space another would rise out of its ashes. White Room at 1306 N. Miami Ave. was a short walk down the street from I/O and PS 14, so if you went to one you usually ended up going to all. Kool Keith played one unforgettable night there, as did 2 Live Crew in 2009. My favorite White Room memory was when Otto von Schirach played a Phish afterparty there. All kinds of hippies wandered over to White Room from the American Airlines Arena, unprepared for the Miami madness that awaited them. The spot later morphed into Eve and from 2016-2021 as 1306 Miami.
1306 photo
