Five Miami Clubs That Don't Suck

The Electric Pickle

​Miami is inseparable from her nightlife and clubs. But she's also a gold-digging, glamor-drunk whore. Ninety percent of the establishments around town (especially in South Beach) cater to people with a truly masochistic approach to nightlife, and it's all because of that inane Miamian need to feel VIP.

They love the kind of ostentatious, exclusionary club where you have to dress like a Prada ad, wait two hours in line outside the velvet ropes, fighting for the guestlist Nazi's attention, only to get inside so you can wait another hour at the bar to pay for a $20 drink as you listen to god-awful Top 40 bullshit.

Here are Crossfade's picks for Miami clubs that don't suck.       



1. The Electric Pickle
Since opening its doors two years ago, this small Wynwood club has become a major mecca for underground EDM fans both local and international. That has a lot to do with the consistent quality of bookings -- sometimes several stellar international DJ bookings a week from the likes of Carl Craig and Greg Wilson to Wolf + Lamb and Jamie Jones. (Not to mention a whole slew of lineups during WMC and Miami Music Week.) But it also has everything to do with the establishment's cool-as-shit attitude toward its patrons, providing an intimate, come-as-you-are unpretentious vibe where anyone can feel at home.



2. The Vagabond
With its colorful cast of regulars (performance artists and flamboyant hipsters alike), the Vagabond is Miami's closest equivalent to what the downtown NYC scene must have been like in the late '70s and early '80s. Accordingly, the club also offers nonstop quality bookings, from live acts like Junior Boys and Glass Candy to star DJs like Louie Vega and Vagabond co-owner John Digweed.



3. Eve
The downtown Miami space formerly known as White Room has been an active purveyor of electronic music for the last several years. And as Eve, the place is definitely continuing the trend. The emphasis is on dubstep, bass, and underground hip-hop, which is fine with us. Especially considering how few outlets Miami has for these styles of music.



4. Grand Central
With its monolithic warehouse-like space, high-end soundsystem, and seizure-inducing light show, Grand Central is the closest thing to a "megaclub" on this list. But what makes it akin to Crossfade's other clubs that don't suck is the fact that it caters to downtown Miami patrons' appetite for quality undeground music and an unpretentious door policy. Besides killer DJ bookings including Josh Wink and Tiefschwarz, Grand Central is also one of the few venues of its size to book Latin artists like Bomba Estereo and Los Amigos Invisibles.



5. Treehouse
This is the latest addition to Miami's shortlist of reedeming nightlife establishments. Plus, it's our only pick that's located on South Beach. Treehouse hasn't been open long, but it's already become a major favorite with local EDM fans, thanks to several killer lineups over the last year, including stellar WMC and Miami Music Week headliners like Goldie, Danny Howels, and Steve Bug.

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