This Weekend In Techno Town

FRIDAY JUL 6
Miami's DJ Lex Lara (BED, SET, C-Level) is in town Friday night at Suite B Lounge for what he describes as a night of sexy Tribal House music. DJ Mad House will also be performing. Radio4by4.com will be simulcasting. ($5, Free before 11pm) 

SATURDAY JUL 7
The Bay Area gets a special treat on Saturday night as DJ Baby Anne brings her "Bad Baby" CD tour to Tampa at the Amphitheatre in Ybor City!  Saturday night resident DJ DOCO opens. The best music is at The Amp and.....a revolving dance floor!
($10, Ladies Free if you post on Facebook Event page here.)  

SUNDAY JUL 8
Spend Sunday at the beach and hear great live DJ-driven music while you do it!  DJ's Jennifer Marley (Davie's Angels, Party95.com)  and Chris Craze (Floyd's & HRC-Tampa, Party95.com) are just two of the too many to list that will be spinning at Paradise Beach Park in Indialantic near Melbourne.  Family event; all ages. Simulcast on Party95.com.  And the price is right! (FREE)

MONDAY JUL 9
Walking the line between Hip Hop and EDM, DJ Irie (Miami Heat, Carnival Cruise Lines) will be performing Monday night at Tier Night Club in Orlando. Article about Irie.  (Price N/A)

HAVE  A GREAT WEEKEND!!

EDM @ MK

This just in....Save Pleasure Island Blog roving reporter Thommy out at Magic Kingdom earlier tonight reports that because of huge crowds in the park for the 4th of July celebrations, Disney had to open a backstage area for guests to be able to bypass the completely clogged Main Street USA.  He said this is not unusual on crowded days but what is unusual.....

They had a DJ booth and DJ installed!  DJ Elliot was playing Top 40/Dance to the passersby.  And if you look closely at the upper photo, they even had bleachers installed in case you wanted to stick around!  

Club Report: AAHZ Unity

When people who were here last night look back on 2012, this is the EDM event they're going to remember!  AAHZ Unity at The Beacham!

It was like four quarters of American football with DJ Dave Cannalte (left) from Mannequins spinning in the 1st Quarter!

DJ Chris Fortier cranking it out in the 2nd Quarter!

Guest DJ duo Dynamix II doing the 3rd Quarter.

And while a thoroughly packed house looked on.....

.....main man DJ Kimball Collins in the 4th Quarter.

This had to have been the largest crowd of all the AAHZ Reunion events.  It was full when I arrived and it only got more crazy as it got later.

Spotted:  Marybeth (NLP DJ's)

Spotted:  The elusive DJ Icey just back from a performance in China!

Spotted:  DJ Baby Anne just back from a music festival in Spain!

Spotted: DJ Indie John visiting with The Rollins Girls!

Spotted: DJ John Debo.  He opens for Dada Life on July 12th at Roxy!

Spotted: DJ Andy Hughes.

Spotted: DJ Vitamin C of The Silly Grape in Maitland, a great after-work place to chill!

Spotted: Two more legends, DJ The Reverend & DJ AK1200!

Spotted: DJ Matrix in the foreground. Even as it got later, the crowd never thinned out.

Mannequins!

Mannequins!

Dana (Stella Luca)

The Reverend with Baby Anne and Dave Cannalte!

Kimball returns to residency at QBar in Bangkok shortly.

Mannequins!

Mannequins!

Unfortunately there won't be another AAHZ event this November :-(

But definitely last night, a good time was had by all!

Wizards of AAHZ Tonight!

In the musical history of Techno Town, nothing stands out like AAHZ Night at The Beacham Theater in downtown Orlando.  Beginning in 1988, AAHZ was on the leading edge of the House music movement that was sweeping dance clubs around the world.  Tonight, return to AAHZ as original DJ's Kimball Collins, Dave Cannalte and Chris Fortier recreate the music of that era in their original home, The Beacham. More than 1,000 are expected but tickets are available at the door.
Approximate schedule:
9PM - MIDNIGHT     Chris Fortier & Dave Cannalte
MIDNIGHT - 1AM   Special Guest DJ duo Dynamix II
1AM -3AM    Kimball Collins

PI Update: No Fireworks at Pleasure Island

In case you were wondering, there will be no fireworks for Independence Day at Pleasure Island / Downtown Disney in 2012. 

Not that you would have expected any.

PI Update: Balloon Removed

No time was wasted!  The Characters In Flight tethered balloon has been deflated and shipped back to Aerophile's headquarters in France following the failure of a similar balloon at Ocean Park theme park in Hong Kong last Thursday.

They are keeping an Attendant on duty at CIF so there is an intent to keep passersby informed.  They wouldn't do that if they were closing for good but he told me that they don't know yet when the ride will reopen.
Update: According to Jason Garcia at the Orlando Sentinel, the balloon was scheduled to be replaced this November anyway so the ride will not reopen until they can get that balloon here.  Article.

Good news across the street from Pleasure Island.  Gas has finally dropped below $3/gallon!  The two other Hess stations on Disney property are also at $2.99.9/gallon and several stations along SR 535 (Kissimmee-Vineland Road) just over the border in Osceola County are at $2.95.9/gallon.

PI Update: Let The Memories Begin

Photos from this past Friday's visit to beautiful Pleasure Island!  Nothing new of course.

Over at Celebration Plaza, Andre Caram Band members include lead singer Drey-C (left) and DJ Andrew Michael.  The band will be performing on the 4th of July at the Waterside Stage at slightly later times, 8pm, 9pm and 10pm, with the DJ sets in-between. EDM at Downtown Disney!!

The Mannequins lobby was looking ready for business.  Open the doors already!!!!

8TRAX looking ready too. Remember when the line to get in would snake its way up the stairs all the way to near Adventurers Club?

Disney's horticultural professionals can make any design they want!

Spotted:  Bartender Amy (8TRAX) working at Laffers Cantina outside Comedy Warehouse.  She's one of the few faces still around the Island from back in the day and is always in a great mood! Be sure to look for her on your visit to Pleasure Island.

Blog Mission Statement and Disclaimer

As we begin the second half of 2012, it's time for my twice-annual Blog Mission Statement and Disclaimer:
The original goal of the Save Pleasure Island Blog was to rally support to reverse the decision to close Pleasure Island. There were Save Pleasure Island and Save The Adventurers Club petitions and letter/e-mail campaigns. Unfortunately, all that fell on deaf Mouse ears.

The current mission is to keep you informed about what is happening with the clubs on our beloved Island. Factual information is provided when available but most of what is printed on here is rumor-based. Please understand that rumors by their very nature are very unreliable. Even if a rumor was true, it's possible that things change and it never becomes true. Thus, readers should consider the information on this Blog to be fiction and opinion and not rely on any of it in any way. Do you have any inside information? Please email me at: king bob of the north at gmail dot com.

With PI closing so many people kept asking me where I would be hanging out. Thus, this Blog also evolved into reporting on nightclub alternatives playing EDM as well as DJ concerts. Only the Save Pleasure Island Blog covers the clubs, the clubbers and the DJ's.  In conjunction with Federal Trade Commission Rule 16 CFR Part 255, all opinions are my own and I accept no consideration for any endorsements made.

Permanent club listings in a format based on the PI clubs can also be viewed at sister Blog www.orlandoclublist.blogspot.com. Thanks for tuning in!

Breaking News: DTD Balloon Ride On Hold

The Characters In Flight tethered balloon ride at Downtown Disney West Side has at least temporarily ceased operations following an incident this past Thursday at a theme park in Hong Kong.  There, a similar operation apparently had a mishap in which the balloon sprang a leak and quickly lost altitude, injuring 4 passengers on board and another on the ground.  Operations in Florida have been indefinitely suspended. In fact, CIF is supposedly no longer even listed on the WDW website!

We have this story from Hong Kong's daily newspaper, The Standard.

You may recall that at the time PI clubs were being shuttered, CIF was touted by Disney officials as one of the bold and new additions to DTD although it was not on the Island and was coming anyway regardless of the clubs.

Club Reports: Bauern-Stube, Vixen Bar

I normally don't cover restaurants on the SPI Blog but I have to mention this great German restaurant discovered yesterday on South Orange Avenue in Edgewood.  Full of German kitsch in every nook, the food was really, really good.  And other than EPCOT-Germany at Disney World and Willowtree Cafe in Sanford, the Orlando area just does not have a lot of German restaurants!  Ein Wiener Schnitzel bitte!

Sorry for the poor cell phone photo of the accordion player.  But where else will you hear traditional Bavarian tunes mixed in with classics like "O Mein Papa" and "Spanish Eyes"!

Over to Vixen Bar in downtown Orlando.

Nationally-famous Ill DJ Chris B was in the house!

These three ladies occupied the small dance floor for much of the night. The place would get kind of empty at times and then moments later you could hardly move in the place!

Mannequins was represented.

Chris was taking turns with DJ Fixx, both putting out Breakbeats.  And a good time was had by all!