Night Moves: Where Visiting Myrtle Beach Golfers Can Cut Loose

By Ian Guerin

As much as Myrtle Beach is marketed to tourists up and down the East Coast, one segment of South Carolina’s high-volume destination isn’t among the television and print ads.

The Atlantic Ocean provides good, clean fun, and the Grand Strand golf mecca gives those coming to swing the clubs plenty of options. But for others looking to avoid feeling like they’ve gone on a chaperoned school trip after jaunts to the beach or links, the nightlife in and around Myrtle Beach is as beefed up as ever.

For the sake of potential embarrassment, we’ll leave the gentlemen’s club options out of this report. Instead, here’s a list of places where you can go to loosen your ambitions without having to spend hours in the confessional upon returning home.

CELEBRITY SQUARE, MYRTLE BEACH

Arguably the area’s busiest hot spot, the choices at Broadway at the Beach’s Celebrity Square are as diverse as they come.

There’s the dueling piano bar, Crocodile Rocks; two frozen drink joints in Wet Willie’s and Fat Tuesday; and a trio of dance clubs (Club Boca, Revolutions and Malibu’s Surf Bar), among others.

And then there’s Broadway Louie’s.

The multi-purpose venue morphs from sports bar to karaoke kingdom at the flip of a few switches. In terms of the latter, think of your normal singing joint on human growth hormone.

The best part of Celebrity Square is the ability to bounce from bar to bar. If one doesn’t fit your tastes, the next one is only steps away.

After the evening wraps up, there’s no better cab availability in town.

DEAD DOG SALOON, MURRELLS INLET (pictured)

The true testament to the popularity of Dead Dog came in 2012.

A fire early that year demolished an estimated 90 percent of the structure. Less than three months later, it had been bulldozed, rebuilt and re-opened.

What stands now is a cleaner, newer version of what was already a must-visit venue along the Murrells Inlet Marshwalk. There are musical acts almost every night of the week, a pair of accommodating bars, ample table seating and, of course, the views of Inlet and neighboring boat docks.

While it’s frequently typecast as a biker bar, anyone who’s been there knows different.

BOATHOUSE WATERWAY BAR & GRILL, MYRTLE BEACH

Once a fairly quiet neighborhood bar, Boathouse has completely turned that classification on its head the last seven or eight years.

Located off U.S. 501 just outside city limits, it has used its spacious yard to its advantage. It installed sand volleyball courts and a large secondary outdoor bar. Then the real fun began.

Ownership launched its Backyard Summer Concert Series, which takes place each Sunday from April through August every year. Local, regional and even national acts – some of which inspired portions of music videos to be filmed there – included the likes of Fuel, Skid Row, Coolio and Jerryfest, the annual tribute to former Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia.

Regardless of which flavor of band is on the waterway stage, the crowds are almost always entertainment of their own.

Ian Guerin is a DJ and freelance writer living in Myrtle Beach, S.C. His golf game ebbs and flows like the Atlantic, and he once did the worm after breaking 90 at a top-100 course. You can follow him on Twitter @iguerin.