Beating the cover at nightclubs starts to lose appeal once you're done with college.
It requires aplomb to remain aloof to the cash-strapped teens, indentured students and overeager drinkers while you're all standing in line a half hour early to save the price of a Happy Meal.
You're a loser, basically.
But at The Castle, Ybor City's gothic nightlife standby, there is honor among skeeze.
Of the regulars — hipsters, harlots, misfits, spazzes, punks, goths and rawkers — no one's going to disparage you for being broke.
On Thursdays' Pop & Wave night, the cover ($3 for 21 and up, $5 for 18 to 20) is free before 10:30 p.m., and The Castle's lenient no-charge-for-re-entry policy allows patrons to zip in early, hang out for a few songs, split and then come back around midnight when the place is a packed, smoky den of people carousing, preening, leering, spazzing, bouncing, slouching and rawking.
Presumably the club makes its money on the $2 drink specials: Bass drafts, Das Komet B-52s and Smirnoff orange twists.
A gigantic, L-shaped bar overlooks the upstairs dance floor, offering unobstructed views of those roiling beneath kaleidoscopic stage lighting. Ceiling-mounted projectors cast music videos for the DJ's selections on three big screens. And it's loud.
The bartenders can read lips.
To have a conversation without screaming in someone's ear, you have to go downstairs, where there's a lounge adjacent to the foyer and a small courtyard.
The DJs play mostly old wave and new wave until 2 a.m., and then switch to more current dance pop. It's unusual if you stay a whole night and don't hear Depeche Mode, New Order, Cure, Prince, Madonna, Dee Lite, The Faint, Interpol, White Stripes, Missy, 50 Cent and Outkast. Yes, the set lists are really that predictable.
The only drawback to a night out in Ybor City is the area's abundance of criminal activity — theft, assault, drunk driving, etc. So stick with friends, be alert and trust your instincts.
The Castle is located at 2004 N. 16th St., Ybor City (813-247-7547).
