The Monterey Club

Meh. I was brought here on Halloween night, which was probably the wrong night to be there. I can make the best of my time and have fun even in the worst places as long as I have some friends with me, so I had a good time, but I wouldn't exactly hold the Monterey Club responsible for that.

There was virtually no crowd. On a night out, I like a party. The handful of people there set a pretty bad ambiance. Some of my laughs were had making fun of them. This dude that I referred to as Thor was yelling a lot (sometimes at nothing, sometimes at the TV, and sometimes at the bartenders). His rapport with the bar staff was good, so I assume he's a regular. He eventually took his shirt off for some reason. Hey, I'm not judging Thor. I'm happy for him. Watching him isn't my idea of a night out, but at least he's having fun.

A dude with a Halloween movie mask on was pretending to stalk people. There's always one or two of those anywhere. I played along. All in good fun.

There was this chick that was being a bitch all night. What an attention whore. She was being hella noisy with attitude, and then went apeshit on the Halloween masked dude because he tapped her wrist with his fake rubber knife. She flipped the fuck out about how she has a child, and a man, and he can't touch her. He took off his mask and gave a genuine apology. That wasn't enough for her though, because she kept yelling obscenities, grabbed his wrist to force him onto the floor and then went all sadistic and dominant on the guy, going between scolding and stroking his face creepily, then forced him to beg her for forgiveness. It may not seem like it in my explanation, but trust me, she took it WAY too far, and made the scene really uncomfortable for more than just a few people at the bar.

I saw her fucking around with the mic on stage later. Turned out she was the lead singer for the local band that was on! Christ, how can they even GET gigs with her like that? The point is I would have expected some of the venue staff to interject in her little domination session, it went on for about five whole minutes. You usually want to get a scene like that OUTSIDE your bar, not doing any damage to the scene.

Then again, that leads me back to the problem that there wasn't quite much of a scene at this place at all. There was no crowd, the few people that were there were lame or fucking nuts, the band sucked, and their vocalist was seriously unprofessional.

On the PLUS SIDE, I hear that festivals and big music events at this place transform it from a shitty bar into a pimpin' party, sometimes taking up the whole block.

Some other pluses that I imagine, though had nothing to do with this experience:
-connected to a tattoo parlor. Alcohol makes the pain go away.
-Pool Table. Just one, but it's up for grabs.
-Motorcycle or car shop behind it or something. Fixing engines and beer goes together just as well as tattoos and beer.
-apparently there's a back patio area or something, but I didn't see it, the weather sucked.

Oh, and the final reason why it's dropped to one star: Why the fuck is PBR like $4? It's PBR!

This is a great venue; free pool, cheap drinks, consistently great bands, awesome staff, and a tattoo parlour right next door? It doesn't get much better than that. Their big events are not to be missed, either.

I noticed a lot of people complained in their reviews that parking is tight--if that's really a problem for you, then you don't know shit about the local music scene down here. At least their parking lot is safe, and free of bums that make ominous observations about how dangerous it would be to leave your car unattended without paying them to "watch it" for you.

I visit Florida a few times year and this is just about the only place I consider going to for a drink. Friendly, tasteful, and unique.

I can't speak for the negative reviews here, but I found that the vibe you bring with you is the same one that greets you at the door.