Thursday, January 2, 2014

CW Update: Groove Tales

Rumor and mystery coming from The Groove this past week at Universal CityWalk so let's get you updated! 

1) The website Screamscape published a rumor that The Groove would be closing down in mid to late 2014 "for a possible new CityWalk project". No other details came with that rumor.  I've not been out to CityWalk since that was published to inquire but I make these observations.  First of all, Screamscape is a rumor aggregator so they'll publish anything credible given to them, even if it's speculation. That's fine; they've repeated things the Blog has published.  Second of all, they recently published the rumor that the new Mexican restaurant Antojitos was actually going to be Jekyll & Hyde Club which turned out to be false.  Nonetheless, this new rumor about The Groove could have validity.  During the past year CityWalk has invested good money into TG with new lighting, sound, lasers, etc.  Unlike Disney, at Universal one hand does know what the other hand is doing and they would not have invested that if there were plans to shutter it.  But that does not preclude it being closed and renovated into a new club.  The Groove's "old theater" theming has been there since its inception and a modernization could be what's coming!  And that would be an awesome development!

2)  For years the DJ contract at The Groove has been held by DJ AJ's company with all DJ's there and at most other CityWalk locations working through his contract.  Sources tell Save Pleasure Island Blog that AJ has lost the contract for The Groove, at least for the next three months, and instead entertainment at TG will be provided exclusively by Electromagic. (EM)  This is something that had already been building.  Most Saturday nights had already been taken over by EM and you'll recall the great EDM DJ's they had there last summer such as DJ Mondo.  I think Fridays with DJ ET are part of that trend as well.  So now EM will run all nights there so look for a lot of new DJ's to be appearing.  EM is owned by Jim Robinson of Promo Only fame so hopefully this means we'll be hearing a lot more EDM there.  By the way, DJ Mondo writes The Blog to say he'll be appearing in The Groove on Saturday, January 18th and then monthly. Mannequins fans , The Groove is where you need to be that night!

3) Lastly, sources tell The Blog that a DJ booth is going into Antojitos, the new Mexican restaurant that has taken over the old Latin Quarter space.  DJ Leony and his Latin nights will be moving in there from their temporary home in Red Coconut Club once that is finished. And that would be a great development!                                                 


7 comments:

  1. I wouldn't read too much into the EM thing in the Groove. You may not be aware of all of the facts.

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  2. it is a mess. No one there knows whats going on day to day. They spent $$$$ fixing the tower outside latin quarter only to tear it out 2 months later.....they still cant figure it out..LMAOROTF

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  3. The biggest mistake Disney made at PI was tearing out the turnstiles. But the second biggest mistake they made was allowing the clubs to grow stagnant. Hopefully Universal is actively trying to avoid this.

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  4. The EM thing might just be AJ being suspended for 3 months following an "incident" with 1 of his dj's.

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  5. Anon at 11:34am, you are correct. I do not know all the facts.

    Anon at 12:15pm, regarding LQ, the story I was told was that the owner of the LQ name gave CityWalk very short orders to quit using the name. So it seems plausible that they fixed the tower not knowing at that time that they'd have to retheme everything. On the other hand, they seemed to very quickly have plans in place to convert the place from LQ to Don Quixote's/Antojitos and get the construction started. Amazingly fast.

    71Jason, you are very correct. PI clubs did become stale. Nightclubbers are very fickle and clubs must be kept updated to remain relevant. We've fortunately seen a lot of additions to The Groove this year and CityWalk is poised to soon spend more $$ there.

    Anon at 12:47pm, I don't have specifics but yes, allegedly something did happen.

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  6. Annon at 12:15, I heard from multiple sources that the management was unhappy with a few CityWalk projects (including the deck additions), so they went back to the drawing board to try to shake things up before the swarm of another Potter land opening. I assume that LQ's tower (and LQ itself) got swept up in that shuffle.

    That said, I'll miss LQ (and the ladies' night there), but the new place seems to be a restaurant first and a club second. Probably makes more sense for Universal in the long run to operate it like that. That's what I figured would happen with PI all those years ago, however...

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  7. I note that LQ too was a restaurant first, club second.

    Thanks for the info.

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