pproximately 2,700 years ago, it can be estimated with a high degree of certainty that a 16-year-old Tequesta boy held his bone flute as he stood outside the freshly built Miami Circle, overlooking the place where the sweet waterway that would one day be known as the Miami River flowed into the crystal-blue salt water of what would one day be known as Biscayne Bay. Turning to his friend sitting beside a gourd xylophone, he said, “Man, this place is so OVER – there’s no scene here. If we want to make it, we gotta head north and get outta this town!” The Circle, naturally, was there listening, and ever since, those words have repeated endlessly, circling Miami.
Generation after generation, South Floridian hipsters (or whatever they called themselves back then) simply ignored the existence of whatever was here before: local bands like KC and the Sunshine Band, Blowfly, NRBQ, Celia Cruz, 2 Live Crew, Cool & Dre, The Mavericks, Nuclear Valdez, Quit, Miami Sound Machine, Rick Ross, Iron & Wine, “the other Grant” Livingston, Jacuzzi Boys, and Pitbull … residencies by Sinatra, Elvis, Wilson Pickett, Barry Gibb, Prince Buster, Julio Iglesias, Iggy Pop, Lenny Kravitz, Shakira, Lake Ruth, and Pharrell Williams … regular gigs down 95 by Floridians like Ray Charles, Gram Parsons, Don Felder, Jaco Pastorius, Marilyn Manson, Kitty Pryde, The Postmarks, Bob Lind, and yeah, sure, Tom Petty (but also Debbie Harry of Blondie, Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, Sam Fogarino of Interpol, and Jim Morrison of The Doors).…
If the breadth of styles gives you whiplash, that’s sort of the point. The eternal miracle and eternal curse of Miami’s music scene is that there’s too much of it happening in too many ways to focus on, so it becomes invisible. At least, to anyone who’s not paying close attention … which is why Miami’s music venues are always so precious, and always struggling to survive. The Miami Circle may not actually have been the original venue, but whatever it was, people gathered there, and even after being forgotten for two millennia, it came back. And now a still-remembered music venue no less mystical, underground, and apparently lost to the ages has also refused to stay buried. Somehow, as of September 2025, Churchill’s is back, too.
(Courtesy Churchill’s Instagram)
Churchill’s, the iconic Miami pub founded in 1979, recently reopened
And at the same time, another of those endangered species seemingly faces an equally eternal rest. Gramps, the club that made Wynwood Wynwood, doesn’t have quite the roots Churchill’s boasts. But the rock stage inside Pizza Tropical has still got an impressive 13 years of unforgettable shows under its belt, and has announced its curtain call for January 2026.
NEVER, NEVER, NEVER GIVE UP
Churchill’s has always been a slightly surreal place: a British pub dropped by UFOs into the middle of what may be the least British neighborhood of Miami. It first came to Earth in the year of Our Lord nineteen-hundred and seventy-nine.
A submariner named Carter was campaigning against a B-movie actor for the presidency of the United States. Gas prices had shockingly risen over a dollar per gallon, and filling stations gave you a choice between leaded, which we all knew caused brain damage, and unleaded, which didn’t but sometimes made engines make an inefficient knocking sound (this was a difficult choice). You could buy booze at 18. A British band called The Clash was launching its first American tour. And a British cruise-ship worker and former music promoter named Dave Daniels opened the doors on a tiny pub meant to serve as a casual slice of home for local expats – on NW 54th Street near Overtown and Liberty City.
The next year, Reagan was elected, Liberty City and Overtown were rocked by riots, and Daniels moved Sir Winston Churchill's Pub to its current location on Second Avenue. The clientele was more “barfly” than “band kids.” The neighborhood was still widely known as Lemon City – the first appearance of the name “Little Haiti” was only two years earlier – and local punk rockers and other noisy undesirables turned up their guitars at a place called Flynn’s. But in 1983, in the traditional Miami style, Flynn’s shut its doors and the couple-hundred fans of a couple-dozen bands needed a place. Daniels shrugged and said, “Sure … just, no stage diving.” At the time, there wasn’t really much of a stage. What there was was a crowd loyally devoted to the Harmonic Presence of the Almighty Decibel.
Some of the first, fast, loud performances were by Frank “Rat Bastard” Falestra’s band Myrin & the 2 Wotz, and Charlie Pickett’s band The Eggs. The bangers-and-mash chaps might have sneered at the feedback-and-crash kids, but they both kept business booming. Rat Bastard took over Thursday nights, and bands like the Holy Terrors and Kreamy ‘Lectric Santa, punks like Morbid Opera, but also folkies like Matthew Sabatella and the Rambling String Band, UM jazz guys, they all did shows, then came back and did more.
It might not have been immensely profitable, and it certainly wasn’t pretty – one of Churchill’s marks of distinction is the pride the place always took in the filthiness of its restrooms. But like the Everglades itself, this was a fertile wetland that generated rich muck for generations of growth. The words “total dump” have often been uttered about the place, but – and this is key, this is the central fact of what makes a scene a “scene” – always with affection. Freedom is messy. Creativity is incompatible with schedules, earnings reports, and focus-testing for targeted demographics. Like alligators and iguanas, if it finds enough food, it just grows.
THE WILD SHALL WILD REMAIN
(Courtesy Gramps Instagram)
Gramps, the popular Wynwood bar, will close in January.
In 2014, at the age of 73, Daniels sold his pub in the hopes it would lumber on. Six years later, the pandemic shut its doors in what seemed like a permanent goodbye – following similarly venerable venues like the Cameo, Stephen Talkhouse, and Tobacco Road into the darkness.
Over in Wynwood, Gramps kept a stage – no, two stages – open through the worst of the COVID-19 years (so far, knock on wood). It had become a mainstay, hosting everything from local DJs to up-and-coming headbangers, poetry slams, and touring indie bands. The same year Daniels handed Churchill’s reins over, Gramps had held the first Nerd Nite Miami, adding science mini-lectures to the lineup. The same messy “if you wanna do it for a crowd, do it here” philosophy that animated Churchill’s was alive here.
The neighborhood around Gramps started out as industrial warehouses, razor wire, and graffiti. As the artists’ studios in Miami Beach got supplanted by Banana Republic, apothecary cocktail bars, and mock-deco parking garages, those creators started moving over this way; the “graffiti” got redefined as “street art,” sandwich shops with zine racks popped up between the equipment rental and body shops, and a pizza place with a soundboard and a couple of stages seemed like it grew out of the neighborhood almost organically. Now, of course, Wynwood has appeared on cable shows and in limo tours. Street art has given way to galleries, and galleries have given way to carefully staged happenings. The circle is repeating.
(Courtesy John Maus Instagram)
Singer John Maus will play Gramps on Oct. 12
In a goodbye letter posted on instagram, Gramps owner Adam insists rising rents weren’t the problem, just that “the time to leave Wynwood has come” with the last words “You shoulda come here more!” Fans, however, posted messages like “Why should I ever set foot in Wynwood again?” and “Wynwood is Bayside now.” Of course, before it was a mall, Bayside was a kind of gritty fishing-fleet marina; who knows what Bayside or Wynwood will be 20 years from now.
There’s also this: Gramps’ long goodbye came with an invitation for any band, drag act, or performance artist who’d ever been there to come back for one last show. And with doors not closing until January 2026, that’s plenty of time for new memories to be made, new concepts to get tried out, and new ideas to take root. And if Churchill’s can come back, anything’s possible. Maybe there’s hope for the Miami scene after all … again.
GETTING THERE
(Courtesy Oddisee Instagram)
Singer Oddisee will perform at Gramps on Oct. 24
Gramps: Wynwood
176 NW 24th St
Miami, FL 33127
855-732-8992
Churchill’s Pub: Little Haiti
Pub. 5501 NE Second Ave.
Miami, FL 33137
305-757-1807