I hardly think anyone refers to country dance clubs as “dance halls”anymore, but in case anyone was wondering where some of the fun places are, I thought I would give a list of some of my favorite places to go two-stepping.
- Midnight Rodeo – Okay, okay I know I mentioned this in my last post, but this place is my absolute favorite place to go country dancing. Thursdays here are college night and those are the nights that I usually go. To be more accurate I pretty much go to Midnight Rodeo 3 out of 4 Thursdays of the month. I also abbreviate the name of the place to just “Midnight” when I talk to people about it. I will usually ask someone “Hey, are you going to Midnight tonight?” and they usually know
what I am referring to. If you get there before 10 there is way more room to dance, but there is less people to dance with. It all depends on what you would rather enjoy. The entire night consists of some slow songs, a waltz song thrown in, then faster tempo songs, then 3 or 4 top 40 hits and then the cycle continues until 2 am. There are also pool tables for those who are dragged along and do not really want to dance. The live bands that play on Thursdays sometimes ruin the fun, but the bands on Friday are pretty awesome. - Dallas Nightclub – Betcha did not think to throw that in there. I have only been on Wednesdays, but there is so much room to dance. This is considering that not a lot of people go to Dallas Nightclub as much as Midnight Rodeo. People usually have classes on Thursday so that may be a reason. They also play a lot more older hits and classic country than the newer country. They hardly play any waltz songs which disappoints me. However, they also throw in some top 40 hits like they do at Midnight. I also abbreviate the name of this place to just “Dallas”. I do not go as often as Midnight, but if there is a large group of friends that go then sure why not. One of my friends actually teaches country dance lessons on Saturdays in case anyone wanted to brush up on their skills.
- Rebels Honky Tonk (Rowdy’s) – So this place I have only been to a few times, but I enjoy it when I go with a group of friends. Yes, the floor is smaller than Midnight Rodeo, but there is a mechanical bull. I have not ridden it, but some of my guy friends have. The music they play is almost the same variety as Dallas Nightclub. There is something interesting about the “Footloose” line dance. They dance it different at Rebels than Midnight Rodeo. The song came and I got on the dance floor, but it looked as if I was doing it wrong. Technically there are no right or wrong versions of “Footloose”, some people just prefer to do it different ways than others. One of the downsides about Rebels is that most nights it is only 21 and over.
- Cowboys – The best thing about this country dance spot is that the dance floor is huge. College night is on Wednesdays because I mean no one would want it to conflict with Midnight Rodeo’s college night (especially me). I have only been a couple times, but from my experiences there are a few reasons why it is not my first or second choice. Yes, there is a huge dance floor. When the top 40 songs start to play, you either stay on the dance floor the whole time, or you watch from afar. That floor fills up super quickly. No way in, no way out. And you are actually allowed to take your drink on the dance floor (Midnight Rodeo strictly prohibits such a thing) for a good reason. Towards the end of the night there are so many bottles on the floor along with the substance that came from the bottles. I would suggest going on a Friday when they have live bands play because there are some pretty good ones that play there.
Of course there are others such as the Broken Spoke (more of an older crowd), Wild West (in cedar park), and Gruene Hall (in Gruene, TX). Those are a few places that I have not been to yet, but I do plan on going to very soon. I have been to Billy Bob’s in Arlington which was pretty cool. Country dance halls are some of my favorite places to go. I just love country music and dancing. I usually go dancing once a week because if not, my heart becomes sad.
Have any places you think I missed? Comment about them!
When I first came to Texas many people asked me if I have ever been to Coachella, a music festival similar to ACL held in Palm Desert, which is about 2 hours from my house. I never have been to Coachella but every year in high school I went to Stagecoach, which was basically the same thing except all country music. When I say basically the same thing I mean its put on by the same company, held at the same venue, and its always one weekend after Coachella. I’m really surprised more people don’t know about Stagecoach here, I guess Coachella just gets more advertising.
The last year I went to Stagecoach was my senior year and it was by far the best year. I got to see Darius Rucker, Lady Antebellum, Toby Keith, Zac Brown Band, and Dierks Bentley. My favorites were Darius and Dierks by far though; they were having so much fun on stage it was contagious for anyone else watching. Darius kept encouraging the crowd to line dance with him, which in hindsight was not the best idea because I was standing in a mosh pit of people trying to dance so everyone was getting pushed around. Despite the blistering heat throughout the day, my friends and I went right as the gates opened at noon, and stayed until they closed after the last performer that night.