Miami is inseparable from her
nightlife and clubs. But she's also a gold-digging, glamor-drunk whore.
Ninety percent of the establishments around town (especially in South
Beach) cater to people with a truly masochistic approach to nightlife,
and it's all because of that inane Miamian need to feel VIP.
They love
the kind of ostentatious, exclusionary club where you have to dress like
a Prada ad, wait two hours in line outside the velvet ropes, fighting
for the guestlist Nazi's attention, only to get inside so you can wait
another hour at the bar to pay for a $20 drink as you listen to
god-awful Top 40 bullshit.
Here are Crossfade's picks for Miami clubs that don't suck.
1. The Electric Pickle
Since opening its doors two years ago,
this small Wynwood club has become a major mecca for underground EDM
fans both local and international. That has a lot to do with the
consistent quality of bookings -- sometimes several stellar
international DJ bookings a week from the likes of Carl Craig and Greg
Wilson to Wolf + Lamb and Jamie Jones. (Not to mention a whole slew of
lineups during WMC and Miami Music Week.) But it also has everything to do
with the establishment's cool-as-shit attitude toward its patrons,
providing an intimate, come-as-you-are unpretentious vibe where anyone
can feel at home.
2. The Vagabond
With its colorful cast of regulars (performance artists and flamboyant
hipsters alike), the Vagabond is Miami's closest equivalent to what the
downtown NYC scene must have been like in the late '70s and early '80s.
Accordingly, the club also offers nonstop quality bookings, from live acts
like Junior Boys and Glass Candy to star DJs like Louie Vega and Vagabond co-owner John Digweed.
3. Eve
The downtown Miami space formerly known as White Room has been an
active purveyor of electronic music for the last several years. And as
Eve, the place is definitely continuing the trend. The emphasis is on
dubstep, bass, and underground hip-hop, which is fine with us.
Especially considering how few outlets Miami has for these styles of music.
4. Grand Central
With its monolithic warehouse-like space, high-end soundsystem, and seizure-inducing light show, Grand Central is the closest thing to a "megaclub" on this list. But
what makes it akin to Crossfade's other clubs that don't suck is the fact that it caters to downtown Miami patrons' appetite for quality undeground music and an
unpretentious door policy. Besides killer DJ bookings including
Josh Wink and Tiefschwarz, Grand Central is also one of the
few venues of its size to book Latin artists like Bomba Estereo and Los
Amigos Invisibles.
5. Treehouse
This is the latest addition to Miami's shortlist of reedeming nightlife
establishments. Plus, it's our only pick that's located
on South Beach. Treehouse hasn't been open long, but it's already become a major favorite with local EDM fans, thanks to several killer lineups over the last year,
including stellar WMC and Miami Music Week headliners like Goldie,
Danny Howels, and Steve Bug.
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