Best Four Hours of Hearing Loss That Was Totally Worth It

Pre-INC at Uncle Lou's

Monday, Feb. 5, 2018

It's just the nature of the game that you never know what you're going to get at an INC (International Noise Conference, to the uninitiated) show. But it sure is a benefit to local avant-garde heads that Orlando is a site of one of the official pre-INC events in FL, a way station for musicians traveling south. This year's event was the best one we've seen in years. To a packed house at Lou's, locals like Bacon Grease and Crustgirls and Trotsky's Watercooler went toe-to-toe with world-class troublemakers like Gyna Bootleg, Bob Hatt, Dog Hospice and W00dy. The only losers were the assembled eardrums. Oh well.

Best of Orlando: Music and Nightlife: The best in local bars, clubs, bands, DJs and more

Best Bar: Will's Pub

1. Will's Pub, willspub.org

2. The Guesthouse

3. Mathers Social Gathering, mathersorlando.com

Best Bar Patio: World of Beer Lake Eola

1. World of Beer Lake Eola, worldofbeer.com

2. The Hammered Lamb, thehammeredlamb.com

3. Eden Bar, enzian.org

Best Bar Rescue: The Copper Rocket

The Copper Rocket

thecopperrocket.com

Ah, the Copper Rocket. The Maitland pub has gone through plenty of ups and downs with its different owners over the years, but the most recent owner, Selman Markovic, was really something special. And after the episode of Spike TV's Bar Rescue featuring the Rocket finally aired this spring – about a year after filming – everyone got to see exactly how special. As loudmouth host Jon Taffer pointed out several times throughout the episode, Markovic had problems taking responsibility for any of the problems at his bar, from poor service to health code violations to mistreatment of employees. To no one's surprise, the Copper Rocket was sold shortly after the filming of the episode, and since then, new owners AKT Enterprises have put a ton of work into rescuing the bar from Markovic's reputation.