The beat goes on at live music clubs in South Florida. Here are some for you to visit
Though music clubs have come and gone through the years in South Florida, musicians always had a place to play. Today, not many of those places are left.
Live music clubs like Little Havana’s Bar Nancy that feature Miami-based performers are still going. And Broward’s Revolution Live and Culture Room could have you feeling the 1990s never ended.
Where the clubs are
Here are a handful of clubs and lounges where you can still enjoy live music in Miami-Dade, Broward and the Keys.
Note: This list is not comprehensive, and does not include the major music venues that host concerts like our sports arenas and stadiums, performing arts centers or mid-sized venues like The Fillmore Miami Beach (which is closed for a year due to construction of adjacent hotel) or Hard Rock Live near Hollywood.
Miami-Dade
▪ Ball & Chain, 1513 SW Eighth St., Little Havana. The bar and lounge features daily performances from the Ball & Chain Trio from noon to 6 p.m. and the Miguel Cruz Quartet from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
▪ Bar Nancy, 2007 SW Eighth St., Little Havana. Nautical-themed bar features regular live rock, singer-songwriter, Latin, pop music nights. Guitarist Nil Lara recently performed here and the Birdman Presents open mic nights series continues. Rising locals like Sweet Lizzy Project play here. “If I was going to have Mary Karlzen do a band show, that’s where I would have her play,” Y&T Music founder Rich Ulloa said.
▪ The Betsy South Beach, 1440 Ocean Dr., Miami Beach. Live jazz, nine times weekly. Regulars include Brian Murphy, founder of the Miami Jazz Cooperative, pianist Tal Cohen, who has played with Terence Blanchard and Greg Osby, Latin jazz musician Edgar Pantoja, and Miami jazz favorite Jim Gasior.
▪ Center for Subtropical Affairs, 7145 NW First Ct., Miami. This Little River neighborhood venue is an ecological learning center, but its botanical garden outdoor space is often transformed into a performing space for string quartets and singer-songwriters.
▪ Gramps, 176 NW 24th St., Wynwood. Funky restaurant-bar also features live rock and pop music acts.
▪ Lagniappe, 3425 NE Second Ave., Miami. Live music nightly, includes jazz, rock, funk, Afro-Cuban and blues. Among the coming shows: Miles Lennox Trio on July 6, and Brazilian singer Liz Rosa on July 10.
▪ Luna Star Cafe, 775 NE 125th St., North Miami. Tuesdays are open jam nights. Mary Karlzen, a regular at many of Miami’s music clubs in the 1990s, has since moved to Milwaukee. But in May, she headlined a homecoming concert here with in-demand session guitarist, producer Fernando Perdomo, a Miami Beach Senior High grad. In addition to locals, folk singer Bob Lind, who had a hit with “Elusive Butterfly” in 1966, has a show booked for July 16.
▪ The North Beach Bandshell, 7275 Collins Ave., Miami Beach. This open-air site is a popular arts and culture hub, with live music performances including coming shows by Monsieur Periné’s Volverte a Ver Tour on Aug. 13, and Hippo Campus on Oct. 25.
▪ The UU Congregation at Unitarian Universalist, 7701 SW 76th St. (Ira Sullivan Way). Hosts MJC Mondays, a Miami Jazz Coop weekly event, jazz concerts in a cabaret setting. Late jazz artist Ira Sullivan, and his musical accompanist Stuart King, played here for decades.
POLL: What was your favorite live music club in Miami?
Broward
▪ Culture Room, 3045 N. Federal Hwy., Fort Lauderdale. Veteran rock club hosts name acts. Candlebox, Stryper and Toad the Wet Sprocket were recent shows. Built to Spill (Sept. 11), Melvins (Oct. 12) and The Toadies’ 25th Anniversary Rubberneck Tour (Oct. 28) are on the books.
▪ Revolution, 100 SW Third Ave., Fort Lauderdale. Before they were famous, acts including Lady Gaga, The Weeknd and Paramore played the Revolution Stage. And if Washington Square was still here, ’70s punk band the Dead Kennedys would be playing there. But it’s not. So the current incarnation of Dead Kennedys were booked at Revolution for a June concert. Chvrches and Canadian indie rock band Fanclubwallet recently performed here, too.
Key West
▪ The Green Parrot, 601 Whitehead St., Key West. This Florida institution is a beacon for live music featuring local musicians and out-of-towners, too. Lance Taylor and the Accidentals and Andy Westcott Band are among the regulars this summer.
▪ Sloppy Joe’s, 201 Duval St., Key West. Ernest Hemingway was a regular here, about 40 years before Jimmy Buffett put “Margaritaville” on the map. Sloppy Joe’s has been around since 1937. There’s live music daily and the venue was recently the setting for the Key West Songwriters Festival. Brian Roberts, John LaMere and Flyte Band are among the regulars this summer.
READ MORE: Are you looking for live music in Key West? Here’s a guide to the hot spots
That was then
Before hits like “Soul Man” and “Hold On, I’m Comin’ ” elevated R&B duo Sam & Dave into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, young Miami native Sam Moore and his musical partner Dave Prater got their start out of a small Liberty City club, the King of Hearts in 1961.
As icons including the Bee Gees, Gloria and Emilio Estefan, Julio and Enrique Iglesias, Pitbull and KC & the Sunshine Band based their careers out of Miami — either because of birth or where they were raised or adopting the town from elsewhere — the clubs helped give other aspiring musicians training grounds.
The Mavericks. Mary Karlzen. Raul Midón. Those are just a few to name from a more recent, and last big wave, of homegrown talent that relied on our little stages to get to national recognition.
These stages or ones like them at venues like churches and even house concerts didn’t all disappear. But the availability and popularity of them certainly cooled at the start of the 21st century.
This is now
“I think it would be very hard, if not impossible, for another Sam and Dave-type act to grow and find success the way we were able to,” Sam Moore, 86, told the Miami Herald from the Coral Gables home he now shares with wife Joyce.
Moore, who is an artist in residence at Florida International University, and his wife, Joyce, provide master classes and educational sessions for FIU and partnered with Little Kids Rock to cover the cost of music education at Phillis Wheatley Elementary School, Moore’s alma mater.
“The music scene and club scene have evolved and are so different today. That’s sad because I believe there are still very talented people out there but there’s no place anymore for true performance artistry to be developed and grow. It’s all, ‘stand here,’ ‘move there,’ ‘go to this other X on the floor’ production — not spontaneous feel,” Moore said.
“The public’s attitudes and expectations have changed along with it all. To my ears a lot of it is not good, not in tune, tells no stories, has no structure or hooks, so it’s hard to do what not only myself and Dave did, but what the Jackie Wilsons and the Sam Cookes and Otis Reddings did, and could do. It’s a song and on a recording. The real test is on a stage,” Moore said.
Woody Graber, a music publicist who has been heavily involved in South Florida’s live music scene since the 1980s, would agree that the stage is the real test — and also notes the talent is out there. But they gotta play live.
“It’s a DJ-driven movement rather than live music, but we still have good live bands out there,” Graber said. “And then Revolution came along in Fort Lauderdale and that sort of added to the live music feel again.”
Indeed, Revolution, best known as Revolution Live and booked by Live Nation, has been pounding the live beat since 2004. The venue, which was named Best Rock Club by the Miami New Times in its “Best of Miami” issue in 2018, has hosted concerts by name acts like Lady Gaga when she was in a real-life career build not wholly unlike her Oscar-nominated “A Star Is Born” character. Also, John Legend, Sum 41, Rancid, the Pixies and, most recently, Glasgow electronic pop band Chvrches.
For those whose tastes swing more toward jazz, Brian Schriner, dean of FIU College of Communication, Architecture + The Arts, has some encouraging thoughts.
“Today’s jazz live music scene is starting to thrive again. Although some live music scenes have closed, and we cannot compare the iconic ‘Old Broadway’ days of Miami, places like Neme, Ball & Chain, Lagniappe are wonderful places to hone your craft as a musician and have up-and-coming local musicians perform,” he said.
Schriner also touted The Betsy Hotel on South Beach for its “artistic ambiance that helps foster creativity” and sophistication.
“I feel that music, like art and fashion are somewhat cyclical,” Schriner said. “History repeats itself and we refer to the greats, and in music icons such as Sam Moore, will remain in our creative spirit musically for generations to come. There will always be challenges, in bottom lines and newer and fresher sounds. However, these are places that have excited me about the future of Miami as a music town.”
