Too Much Love Kicks Off Monthly Rock 'n' Roll Celebration at the Anderson

Miami is a city overrun with DJs, clubs, and the expensive cocktails that come with the territory.

With the revolving door of bar openings and closings that has accompanied Miami's development boom, it's been difficult to find a dive bar that feels like home — the kind you frequent weekly, where the bartender begins making your drink as soon as you walk in the door.

For fans of rock 'n' roll, the task is even trickier, because Miami has long been a club-kids' playground. While iconic venues such as Churchill's Pub continue to resist the forces of change and offer a venue for Miami's bands to get their skills ready for primetime, a straight-up rock 'n' roll dive bar has been seriously lacking in the city for the past few years.

That's precisely what Too Much Love magazine, in collaboration with Poplife and the Anderson Bar, aim to change with their new monthly event — one where Miami's favorite bands will spin sets of their favorite rock songs. This month, the celebration doubles as an afterparty for Kurt Vile's long-awaited show at the North Beach Bandshell.

Lauren Palma of Bleeth will be one of three artists DJing at the inaugural night. She remembers a time when downtown clubs the District and Soho played shoegaze and metal tracks, and she hopes to bring that back during her set. "The people who are DJing, all of us are in very different bands. I think it's really cool to get people from very different backgrounds to come together and play whatever music they want. It's going to be different and not the same usual stuff that you hear in Miami."

Tony "Smurphio" Laurencio of Afrobeta is well known in Miami for his work on the electronic-music scene, but he's excited to go back to his roots for his rock set at the Anderson. "I'm a '70s baby, so I listened to rock 'n' roll before techno even existed. That was a big part of my musical upbringing." Laurencio's set will be split into decades, with a heavy emphasis on '70s rock royalty — Zeppelin, the Stones, the Who.

Danny Kokomo of Jacuzzi Boys will keep his set spontaneous, but he offers some hints about what to expect. "I kind of go with the flow whenever I'm DJing. I'll probably play some Alice Cooper, some '70s hard-rock stuff that you can still party to. Bang your head, have a drink, pump your fist."

Kurt Vile Afterparty
10 p.m. Thursday, February 2, at the Anderson, 709 NE 79th St., Miami; 305-757-3368; theandersonmiami.com. Admission is free.