Floyd's nightclub will close to reopen as a Hard Rock Cafe

We've heard rumors about this for months now, and staffers at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino have known about it for weeks.

On Friday, it became official: The Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Tampa will replace Floyd's nightclub with a Hard Rock Cafe. The hotel promises the cafe will open by the end of the year.

The 17,500-square-foot, 350-seat restaurant will nearly double the space occupied by Floyd's, one of the area's top nightclubs (especially after hours, between 3 and 6 a.m.). Highlights include a gift shop (finally, you can own your own Hard Rock Cafe Tampa T-shirt!), an outdoor patio, an open-display "burger bar," touch-screen displays at each table and an elevated stage for regular performances.

In fact, this could be something of a flagship Hard Rock Cafe. According to the press release, "Hard Rock International plans to beta test new products and presentation equipment at the Tampa cafe before rolling it out to Hard Rock locations worldwide."

We'll be getting the hamburgers of tomorrow, today!

Nightclub fans will no doubt be disappointed, as Floyd's was one of the most consistently ritzy clubs in the area. Artists like DJ AM, will.i.am and Dirty Vegas performed there. During the Super Bowl in 2009, everyone from Paris Hilton to Adam Sandler to the cast of Gossip Girl partied there.

Bourbon Street closed

Shocking news Friday out of New Port Richey: Bourbon Street, the venerable metal/hard rock club that for years has served as the only reasonable concert venue in North Pinellas/West Pasco, has suddenly closed.

Owner Greg Serio blamed the economy, saying fire code upgrades and a sudden, unexpected reduction in capacity made the club impossible to keep open.

"The bigger shows were the ones that footed the bill," he told the Times. "You take away the bigger shows, pretty much what you've got is a neighborhood bar that's 10 times the size of anything else down here."

Understandably, Pinellas and Pasco metal fans must be devastated. But this is a loss for all Tampa Bay music fans. Among the artists who've played there: Fuel, Great White, Rick Derringer, Leon Russell, Hawthorne Heights, Stryper, PM Dawn, North Mississippi Allstars, Pat Travers and Juice Newton.

When Jannus Landing closed last fall, Bourbon Street stepped up to host some concerts that had to be moved, like Living Colour. Reggae legends Toots and the Maytals were there in May. Heck, at one point earlier this year, Snoop Dogg was booked to perform there.

"Every major city has one classic, legendary venue where local bands cut their teeth and where big rock bands hang out," said John "J-Rock" Staffieri, a Lakeland radio DJ whose Rock Solid Pressure show had hosted concerts there. "In Tampa Bay it was Bourbon Street."

Harpist coming to Ritz

We were shocked when we found out British dance act La Roux was coming to Ybor City. We rejoiced when we heard Vampire Weekend was coming to Jannus Live. But neither of those announcements floored us like this one.

Elfin harpist Joanna Newsom is coming to the Ritz Ybor on Nov. 16. Tickets will be $28.60. Newsom, for the unfamiliar, is the impossibly quirky, freak-folky 2010 version of Bjork or Tori Amos, a feathery, feminine faerie with a love-it-or-hate-it, achingly childlike voice and a penchant for unconventional classical pop.

Also, she dated actor/comedian Andy Samberg, because why not.

She's immensely talented and 100 percent unique, but let's just say she's unlikely to have a top 40 radio hit anytime soon. Score another win for Tampa Bay hipsters this fall!