Club Reports: Simons Nightclub, Spannk, Sharab Lounge (Gainesville)

This is the Florida-Georgia football weekend and with the big game taking place in Jacksonville, a lot of people are out-of-town.  So Gainesville holds Fest, a weekend with numerous downtown clubs bringing in Rock music bands.  Gainesville does have a successful Rock history of acts making it big; Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers, Sister Hazel, Less Than Jake & For Squirrels all having originated here.

But I was told all the EDM clubs are closed during Fest, including the venue I really wanted to check out, Simons!  A club that dominated Florida's House scene back in the 90's, DJ's such as Deep Dish, Carl Cox, Felix da Housecat, Richie Hawtin, Icey, Josh Wink, Sasha & Digweed have all played here. And they've reopened, but unfortunately not last night!

Another club known for EDM and also closed was Spannk.  Their locally famous "Neon Liger" Saturday nights with DJ Vi stays packed for Electro and Nu Disco.  The club recently brought in DJ Icey to play and you can see on the window that Revolvr is coming.

But Sharab Lounge, another downtown venue, was at least open!

DJ Sketch was in the downstairs bar area spinning House!   No dance floor here though. 

There were some trick-or-treaters though out on the town!

Moving upstairs found DJ JD spinning an awesome 90's Dance set which then moved into a number of songs that were popular at Mannequins during it's final year.    

It got pretty crowded up here! 

And a good time was had by all!