{"id":34069,"date":"2026-03-01T15:24:46","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T20:24:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.orlandoentertainmentnews.com\/?p=34069"},"modified":"2026-03-03T19:27:42","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T00:27:42","slug":"club-report-the-castle-tampa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.orlandoentertainmentnews.com\/?p=34069","title":{"rendered":"Club Report: The Castle (Tampa)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
When you’re in Tampa and turn the corner and see this imposing building, you know you’ve arrived to…..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
The Castle<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
There are two entrances, both with equally lengthy lines. The one we used takes you directly into The Dungeon which is on the club’s ground floor.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
It has its own large bar.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
And it’s own music from resident DJ Jason Barco (USA). The music, mostly Industrial.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Like any good dungeon, there are several jail cells to hang out in or perhaps get locked in.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
And for the really naughty, this rack.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
If you come in the front entrance you’re greeted by this smaller bar nearby.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Follow the pathway to their outdoor patio where another DJ is playing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
This guy is a legend: DJ Sean (USA).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
From the Blog <\/em>archives, this photo of DJ Sean taken here in 2010.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Dancing under the stars.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
The music outside a mix of Industrial and New Wave.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Crazy out on the patio!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
We next headed back inside to the main room which is located upstairs on the 2nd floor. Packed!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Another legend in the main room perch, DJ Tom Gold (USA).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
The music up here, mostly Industrial and Dark Wave.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
DJ view. The main room DJ is not really “featured” at The Castle<\/em>. The booth is high up and there’s just a small opening between the booth and dance floor. So the DJ is barely seen, old skool style. But he is definitely heard!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
The lasers were flying.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Much of the music Industrial, many of the songs with vocals and many of the vocals in German. You know you’re getting some great Industrial when the vocals are in German!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
The Castle<\/em> on Thursday nights used to have an event called “Pop’n Wave Night” where video screens and monitors around the main room played up-and-coming Pop and New Wave acts. People danced to the music but otherwise did not pay much attention to the videos. But one night in 2008 we were there when they played this song called “Just Dance<\/a>” by an artist pretty much no one had ever heard of by the name of Lady Gaga (USA). The club froze as everyone watched the video, somehow sensing this artist was going to be big.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
The Castle<\/em> has multiple shiny disco balls so you know they’re legit.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Lots of exposed brickwork makes you feel like you’re inside a medieval castle.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
The bar in the main room is huge with numerous bartenders so getting a drink is rarely an issue.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
They have these three dance platforms surrounding the main dance floor but no one seems to use them anymore.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Back in the day they had Go Go girls dancing on them. You know you can never go wrong with Go Go girls, but apparently not anymore.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
In one corner of the main room they have this paddling chamber. Not really sure what naughty things these two did to get their butts paddled but we’re confident they deserved it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
The Castle<\/em> is located in Tampa’s Ybor City nightlife district. A good time was had by all.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34086,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1899],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-club-reports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.orlandoentertainmentnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/DSCN2615-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1920&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7OlZE-8Rv","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orlandoentertainmentnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orlandoentertainmentnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orlandoentertainmentnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orlandoentertainmentnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orlandoentertainmentnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34069"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.orlandoentertainmentnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34107,"href":"https:\/\/www.orlandoentertainmentnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34069\/revisions\/34107"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orlandoentertainmentnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orlandoentertainmentnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orlandoentertainmentnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orlandoentertainmentnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}