Life After House of Blues SIN

DJ nights at House of Blues are now a thing of the past and the big question out there is whether any other club is going to step-up to try to capture that now-homeless but free-spending audience. First of all, let's not forget that there were actually two DJ nights at HOB, not just Sunday nights.  The other was Wednesday nights when a more open-format DJ night took place featuring DJ Rincon.  CityWalk and The Groove have already stepped-up and you can now find DJ Rincon spinning on Wednesdays there!  I hope to check this out soon.

Of course most of the discussion surrounds Sundays.  A venue often mentioned in that discussion is B.B. Kings at Pointe Orlando. It has potential as it too is in the Attractions corridor.  In this June, 2012 file photo, the Blog caught House of Blues DJ's Magic Mike and Jimmy Joslin at B.B. Kings as the club attempted their own Service Industry Night.  There was actually a nice little crowd out during my visit but of course they couldn't compete with HOB and this folded after about a month.  But with HOB now shuttered on Sunday nights, who knows?  One negative though is their parking garage is not free.  Low paid CM's don't want to pay to park.

Back at CityWalk, we've heard that Hard Rock Live is part of the discussion for Sunday nights. Some say it's too big for this and indeed, it is considerably larger than HOB.  But closing the upstairs and filling the dance floor below next to the stage makes this a good choice, in our opinion. The biggest negative we see with HRL is the long distance from CityWalk's garage.

Perhaps the best choice for a replacement for HOB SIN is The Groove.  It's small enough that it can become crowded much easier than HRL and it's much closer to the garage. That garage is also free to Floridians after 6PM (except during HHN) and to all after 10PM.  Recent enhancements to lighting and sound have also been made.  We don't see any negatives to The Groove if they wanted to try to build something on Sundays.  Of course the biggest obstacle to any replacement venue is that they're not on Disney property.  This means no free TranStar bus service from cast residences to the clubs like they had to Downtown Disney. But that's an issue any venue will have to contend with.
 

 The Groove too tried to compete on Sunday nights with an EDM night as we see in this March, 2013 file photo of DJ John Campisano.  But all prior attempts by any clubs are irrelevant now since the competition has folded and gone away.  So who is going to do this?