Audio By Carbonatix
Last week my editor suggested I write about South Beach clubs that have a similar vibe or crowd to Miami hot spots like I/O and Slak Lounge. She argued that I would be “doing my readers a service.”
So let’s see … are there any cool clubs in SoBe unprotected by the velvet rope? Well, there’s Lounge 16 (423 16th St.), which hosts Spider-Pussy on Tuesdays, Konkrete Jungle on Wednesdays, and Electro-A-Go-Go on Fridays. Spider Pussy, incidentally, is currently in the midst of a month-long series featuring special guest DJs like Egg Foo Young, Plot, and Re-Issue; the final DJ, local producer Induce, will be spinning there July 29.
Then there’s Trueschool Tuesdays at the Marlin Hotel (1200 Collins Ave.), a hip-hop, funk, and R&B night led by DJ Smallz. DJs Nova and Ivee recently started Sidejack Wednesdays at Jade (1766 Bay Rd.), a nightly forum for techno, house, electro, and, in their words, “other hybrids.” DJ Le Spam and his Spam Allstars host a weekly party at Jazid (1342 Washington Ave.) every Wednesday. Finally, Speakeasy Sundays features experimental hip-hop and IDM stars Los Four Amigos at Automatic Slim’s (1216 Washington Ave.).
This doesn’t include the parties I haven’t been to like Reminisce, a drum and bass and breaks party held on Thursdays at Union Lounge (637 Washington Ave.); and the hip-hop-themed Chocolate Sundays party with Induce, Plot, and Tosh at Purdy Lounge (1811 Purdy Ln.). Incidentally, making this list led me to check out the first SoBe party I ever went to, Paid Attention at the Marlin Hotel, last week. On my first visit in early December, the place was jumping with breakers, DJs, and drunken slacker socialites. But this time the scene was far more modest: five to ten people lounging around on the hotel patio, chatting away as hip-hop music piped from the speakers. Inside, there were perhaps another five people scattered across the room, not including the two bartenders.
When I walked up to the second floor to give dap to Induce, who was manning the tables with another unnamed DJ that night, he told me that it was the party’s last night. “Yeah, we’re shutting it down,” he said before cuing up a track from his Cuticle Scrapes scratch record. “Nobody’s coming anymore.” As he dropped various platters onto the tables, friends — club promoter Tomas Ceddia and Merck owner Gabe Koch, among many others — chatted away amiably. The scene looked like a low-key wake.
Induce ended up turning off the music early since the Marlin’s lobby was practically empty. So we sat down for an hour while one of the bartenders played a downtempo CD as he cleaned the room. Induce talked about a lot of things, from his upcoming single for the British-based Skam label to digging for Eighties vinyl at Osiel Store in Miami Beach. Paid Attention never came up, but its demise still weighed on my mind. It was the only place where I could hear new underground joints by Mos Def and Cody Chesnutt; more important it reminded me of the places I used to go to in San Francisco.
One could convincingly argue that Counterflow Recordings, which sponsored the weekly event, didn’t do enough to promote the party. But I think that it was just the latest victim in a brutal endgame where crowds frequent trendy new spots when they first open, only to abandon them weeks later to a slow, protracted death. Most promoters don’t have the money or the tenacity of a Poplife, Aquabooty, or Revolver (all of whom, it should be mentioned, usually have side rooms with hip-hop music at their parties) to hang around for a year or more and grow into a dependable, established club with a dedicated following.
I would suggest that Miami learn to appreciate its “cool” clubs a little better, but that would be presumptuous of me. After all the same phenomenon occurs everywhere, no matter which city you live in. Then again, maybe it was time for the eight-month-old party to fade quietly into the night; with luck Paid Attention will now live on in the memories of those who made a temporary home there, if only for a few alcoholic hours.
