In terms of events and local creativity, this was a very good year for music and nightlife in Orlando. Big names came to town, the local scene is in fine form across genre, EDC was bigger than ever and some cool new spots opened up. But there are some serious clouds on the horizon beyond Jan. 20. A number of beloved local spots shuttered, and the continuing clampdown on downtown nightlife will have ripple effects impacting the city at large. (And that’s setting aside larger discussions of living wages for musicians and entertainment workers.) Here are a few notable developments, bad and good this year.
W: The S.P.O.T. ascendant
This newish venue on Colonial is DIY in all the best ways; the folks who run it weren’t seeing enough of what they loved on Orlando stages, so they made their own stage. It’s become a haven for young and feral metal, hardcore, punk and noise. Frills are few, but those would just be distractions from the young, next-wave energy being screamed into your ear from every direction.
W (a tie!): Pylon and Rolling Stones play the City Beautiful
Legends visited our city twice this year in very different venues. Athens’ Pylon Reenactment Society, led by OG Pylon frontwoman Vanessa Briscoe Hay, made their long-awaited return to Orlando for the first time in years — as a packed house at Will’s Pub attested. PRS showed off all the vintage Pylon (peers to REM) hits that are still ahead of their time. Hay’s snarls, screams and yelps were commanding and fully untouched by time; she’s the South’s Siouxsie for sure. And the Rolling Stones brought “only” rock & roll to Camping World Stadium — and Orlando liked it. The iconic British rock band reintroduced themselves to Florida fans, roaring through a set of 17 of their best-known songs — including “Start Me Up,” “Gimme Shelter” and “Paint It Black” — plus an encore of “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” Mick Jagger even got a dig in at DeSantis. No sympathy for the devil there.
W: Stiletto’s night at the museum
For a punk band made up of angry and passionate queer and trans folks to play a black-tie gala at a museum without toning it down one li’l bit … that’s a good thing. So it was that Stiletto played the opening party for punk retrospective Torn Apart at Orlando Museum of Art back in September. The band got loud and ferocious in the museum’s atrium with a dressed-to-the-nines crowd surrounding them. Was there some pogo and pit action? Yes.
W: Aoife O’Donovan releases powerful new album All My Friends
Folk musician Aoife O’Donovan released singular new album All My Friends, a meditation on women’s rights and the fluid nature of female empowerment, at a time when those rights are under siege across much of the country — and very definitely in Florida. The critically lauded new work, per O’Donovan, was influenced by her life in Orlando. “There’s something about the vibe here in Orlando, and Central Florida in general, that I found when we moved here full-time, even though we’d been coming here part-time for many years before, that I find very conducive to a creative lifestyle,” she told OW. O’Donovan celebrated the album’s release with — what else? — an in-store at Park Ave CDs.
W: Virginity takes New York
Central Florida band Virginity followed up on their well-received 2021 album, POPMORTEM, with this year’s Bad Jazz, a jackpot for those who like their melodies as big as their guitars. Bad Jazz was released on limited-edition colored vinyl through Orlando’s Smartpunk Records, with a special pressing by august tastemaker label Rough Trade, for which the band flew up to New York City for a performance at Rough Trade’s flagship store at Rockefeller Center. Not too shabby for some rockers from our neck of the woods.
W: Quicksand opens
Heather LaVine, proprietress of Golden Hour Wine in Baldwin Park, brought the funk to Mills 50 late this year with her new wine bar. The owner of Orlando’s best natural wine shop opened Quicksand, a bar focusing exclusively on natural wine, along with a small menu of Eurocentric wine bar fare (think olives, cheeses, charcuterie and tinned fish). Confines are chill and cozy, and the people are definitely showing up at what LaVine envisioned as a “community gathering space” in the neighborhood.
L: Downtown crackdown
The doomsday clock on downtown Orlando nightlife as we know it seems to be at two minutes ’til midnight. From liquor-sale curfews to laws passed barring new nightclubs, from opening up Orange Avenue to traffic on weekends to bar closures, the bars and clubs downtown can’t catch a break. To say nothing of LiveNation’s announcement of plans to build a concert venue on the edge of downtown, a mere stone’s throw from the Beacham, the Social, the Dr. Phillips Center and the Abbey. Hmmm …
L: Castle Smoke burns out
The unassuming Casselberry smoke shop that doubled as a DIY venue briefly became a gathering point for the next generation of Orlando underground stars — ravers, hardcore kids, goths, drag performers, pop singers, DJs and experimental music outsiders. Overseen and curated majestically by Haize and Bunnii, the all-ages spot gave a stage to a dazzling array of young and queer creativity for an all-too-brief time before closing its doors due to the usual economic factors impacting both small businesses and residents.
L: The music stops at East West Records
Venerable Orlando vinyl emporium East West Records sadly closed their doors in 2024 after decades in business. The local record-selling institution, a gateway to rebellion for generations of Orlando teens, closed over the summer after several weekends of big-time sales. East West Records was opened in 1971 by original owners Hanna and Roman Skrobko — who sold up in 2018 — and the shop has been stalwartly slinging tunes ever since. “Thank you for the music, the memories, and the magic,” said current East West owner Bobby Serros in a farewell message. ICYMI: Smartpunk’s Record Shop near UCF quietly closed their doors in the fall with little fanfare or forewarning.
L: Taylor Swift skips Orlando
Dashing the hopes of the City Beautiful’s Swifties, Taylor Swift’s “Eras” tour snubbed Orlando, touching down in Tampa and the Miami area instead. We got the Stones, Charli XCX and P!nk, sure, but it still stings a bit for Orlando’s pop masses. Light-rail provider Brightline took a break from busting union organizing and menacing pedestrians, though, to run a party train from Orlando to Miami with DJs and sing-alongs promised. We salute the hardy employees who endured that.
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This article appears in Dec 25-31, 2024.