Club Reports: Shark Bar, Palm Tree Club, The Beacham, Elixir Bar

As you know by now if you follow Orlando Entertainment News articles, the upstairs at Pointe Orlando has been rebuilt and rebranded as nightclub district Live! at the Pointe. Children’s playground FAO Schwarz is long gone and this is now an adult playground. And it’s where we began our Friday night.

Venues within Live! at the Pointe include Country music haven PBR Cowboy Bar.

Sports & Social aka S&S is primarily a sports bar but they do have bands or DJ’s when there’s no sports showing.

Houndsmen Lounge is a dark, dimly lit venue for chit-chat with friends while a DJ plays EDM and Top 40 music.

Opa is the only original venue still here and it’s primarily a Greek restaurant with a DJ playing Greek tunes along with Top 40.

Blue Moon Bar is just that, an outdoor bar, which did not open last night with the area’s chilly temperatures.

Another new venue is Shark Bar and we spotted a crowd inside so we needed to investigate.

Here we found DJ Astylez (USA) in the booth.

The music was mostly EDM and Top 40 here too.

No one was really dancing during our visit but there was definitely a crowd.

Prior to opening Shark Bar was advertised as a venue for Retro music but we’ve not experienced that during our several visits.

And that brings us to the highlight of all the changes at Live! at the Pointe: Palm Tree Club. They opened the doors here during EDC weekend last month so this has been our first chance to check it out. But this sign, which is located downstairs at The Pointe, is just the entrance to the restaurant.

You need to go upstairs to find the dance club. If you’re already upstairs, simply walk past S&S.

Here you’ll find the entrance labeled simply as PTC. The venue is owned by DJ Kygo (N) and as downtown Orlando continues to run-off patrons and send them elsewhere, there’s been quite the buzz about Palm Tree Club as an alternative for fans of electronic dance music.

Upon entry, you encounter this bar at one end of the room. While it seems small, there is bartender service available from all four sides of it.

We had arrived relatively early but there was already a crowd on the dance floor.

The opener was DJ Sheen Boogie (USA). Please excuse the quality of these photos because PTC follows a strict “no cameras” policy but cell phones are allowed. So even though we were guests of Palm Tree Management in Miami, we had to abide by their rules. The music was all-EDM and House.

Party in VIP!

When we looked up we realized that while most of the venue had a roof over it, parts of it were open to the sky and one could make out the constellation Orion up there!

The windows are also permanently open which at times last night produced a chilly breeze. During summer that will be quite the plus.

As midnight approached, it got more and more crowded.

Palm Tree Club does not have a shiny disco ball. Instead, they have a shiny palm tree up there!

And then at 12:30AM, there he was, the headliner…..

DJ Frank Walker (CDN)

He would continue with a mostly EDM set.

We last saw Frank Walker back in 2019 when he played downtown at Celine.

Big crowd!

Upcoming shows include DJ duo Forester (USA) on January 17th, DJ Regard (RKS) on March 8th and DJ Sigala (GB) on April 25th. It’s likely additional dates will be added. Advance tickets here. Please note that The Pointe has a paid parking garage but purchase of food or drink at any venue gets your parking validated to free.

We next headed into downtown Orlando and The Beacham.

Arriving close to 1AM, we walked into this.

DJ Barclay Crenshaw (USA) was in the booth on stage.

But WTF! Don’t know what he played earlier but it was all Heavy Bass during our visit.

When we last saw him in 2022 at Ace Cafe, he played an amazing House set under his alter-ego DJ Claude VonStroke name.

He also teams-up on occasion to play Tech House with DJ Green Velvet (USA) under the “Get Real” DJ duo name as seen in this photo from several years back at EDC-Orlando.

It was late but still crowded.

It was mostly a younger crowd and we know they love Heavy Bass.

But it was not what we expected.

So we didn’t stick around much longer.

Instead we shifted over to Elixir Bar where you’ll find music from some of the world’s top DJ’s from North America, South America, Europe and even Africa.