Club Reports: Neon Beach, Monkey Bar, The Patio, Barbarella

This is the south portico of First Baptist Church in downtown Orlando and it’s where we began our search for last night’s “That’s So 90’s” Pub Crawl. We had parked nearby and saw people pouring out of the building and down those stairs so I asked one well-dressed couple, “Is this the 90’s Pub Crawl?” “No,” I was told, they had been at a wedding.
My attention was diverted in the direction of the nearby Dr. Phillips Center For The Performing Arts, where another stream of patrons had begun pouring out. I got the attention of another couple and also asked, “Is this the 90’s Pub Crawl?” “No”, they laughed, they had been to a show. So our search continued.
I knew Neon Beach was on the list of locations the Pub Crawl was visiting so we went there next.
DJ Justin Taylor (USA) was in the booth playing 90’s so we knew we were getting closer.
But the club was generally empty and were told we had just missed the crawl.
The bar still had a few patrons.
Photo of what it had looked like just minutes earlier. PHOTO CREDIT: Shaun Kerr
So on with the search. I heard the Pub Crawl may be headed over to Wall Street Plaza so we went over there and specifically to Monkey Bar. In the vast Top 40 wasteland that is WSP, Monkey Bar is a hidden island oasis of House and Techno.
Here we found DJ Elias R (USA) in the corner booth playing House music. He had played at EDC-Orlando in 2021.
But the Pub Crawl had not arrived here yet and there was just a few people coming and going.
We were advised to go over to The Patio, where there’s “Always A Party”.
And finally success! We had found the 90’s Pub Crawl!
With DJ Parry (USA) playing mostly 90’s Hip Hop hits, music from back when Hip Hop was good.
Plenty of crop tops, double denim and grunge to fit the 90’s theme and which I think is also currently back in style again anyway.
We heard songs like “Scrubs”, “Party Up (Up In Here)”, and “It Wasn’t Me” but also some Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera.
There’s a St. Patrick’s Day Pub Crawl coming up on Friday, March 17th so check out the details here. For one nominal price you get to crawl around multiple bars with hundreds of new friends and drinks are included.
Way overdue for a visit to Barbarella 2.0, so that was our final stop. The metal warehouse building says “Clearone Badminton” on the outside but on Saturday nights there’s a dance club inside!
We walked into this! The dance floor was packed and the fog was thick!
We went to the booth to take a picture of resident DJ Indie John (USA) but instead found DJ Icey (USA) leading the charge!
The music at Barbarella is 80’s New Wave and Alternative.
The clientele always a mixture of everyone!
Icey was doing an impromptu hour set because Indie John was unfortunately feeling under the weather.
Taking over around 12:30AM, DJ Rob Bates (USA) continued the theme.
Dance floor stayed busy because everybody loves the 80’s!
Spotted by the bar: DJ Slay (USA)
Spotted in VIP: DJ Slay, Blog-favorite CJ and Emily.
Spotted on the dance floor: Farah and Christa
The music selections are always a fun adventure when DJ Rob is playing.
A good time was had by all.