Spoke is a University of Massachusetts Amherst student treasure. One of the three college bars in town, Spoke offers the trifecta of a good college bar: space to dance, cheap drinks and a classic bar feel complete with a wall of fake IDs. The business’s reputation for attracting young partiers has outgrown the Valley; in 2022, the multimedia outlet Barstool Sports listed it as the 16th best college bar in the country.

I’ve squeezed onto enough rowdy buses bound for tailgates and stepped on enough mini plastic liquor bottles to know that UMass students love a spirited party. All that being said, I graduated a year ago from UMass and I’ve never stepped foot in Spoke. If the stories of vomit-covered dance floors and atmosphere reminiscent of a packed frat house didn’t deter me, the long line stretching through half the parking lot definitely did. Every time I saw a text reading “Come to Spoke!” my desire for a drink never beat the dread of that line.

However, this year the current owner of Spoke, Chad O’Rourke, bought a property at 1-11 Pray St. and renovated it into Spoke Live. The new nightclub, which opened in February, comes with a 3,000-square-foot concrete dance floor and a maximum occupancy of 587 people, much larger than the dance floor at Spoke. Despite the two buildings stretching the same 5,000 square feet, double the space meant half the line, the dance floor in the new building takes up 3,000 feet, much larger than the dance floor next door.

Spoke Live’s spacious offerings circumvent the long wait times and crowded rooms of it’s parent business.

So I threw on a trendy outfit and a “fracket” — a jacket one doesn’t mind losing at a party — and set out to see what Spoke Live has to offer.

I was excited to finally get a taste of the famed Spoke’s new expansion. Surprisingly, it seemed I was the only one.

Spoke Live hits all the technicalities of a nightclub: it has a DJ booth, a menu offering plentiful mixed drinks and there is ample space to dance. But it appeared, at least on the night I was there, that patrons regarded the new space as an afterthought; a place to go after going out. In terms of popularity, Spoke Live sags in comparison to its counterpart across the parking lot.

I arrived fashionably late at around 8:30 p.m. to an empty room with a couple people sitting at one of the 12 tables along the edges. There were 10 televisions playing sports games. The DJ was playing a mix of hits dating back from 2008 to today’s chart toppers. The overhead lights were on.

What kind of nightclub keeps overhead lights on?

Spoke Live’s drinks are simple, with a wide variety of beers, spiked sodas and simple mixed drinks. The bartender poured my margarita from a pre-mixed bottle, then topped it with seltzer. It was sour and sweet and unmemorable, but customers of Spoke Live aren’t cocktail connoisseurs. The under-25 crowd around me mostly drank $3 beers and sipped on vodka sodas, interested more in the social aspect of drinking than the drinks themselves.

With no one on the dance floor or at the bar, I ventured to the next obvious place to pick up gossip: the girls bathroom. I grabbed the attention of friends fixing clothes in the mirror. UMass students Meredith McKenzie, Carlee Acord and Abby Heath agreed that while Spoke Live is open from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m., it doesn’t get busy until the last three hours of operation, after most people have already hit another bar.

Nearly every person I talked to regarded Spoke Live as “overflow.” When the line for Spoke is down the street and the bouncer lets everyone know that he’s letting one person in when one person leaves, people cross the parking lot to Spoke Live.

“We came from the Spoke line because the bouncer said ‘it’s one in one out. It’s gonna be three-hour wait,’” Cecilia Rose said. “I feel bad that still not a lot of people choose here and they still wait over here.”

Rose arrived with her friends Annie Hatziioannou and Angela Laenen, who had visited Spoke Live twice already: once during its opening and once during Blarney (the UMass student celebration of St. Patrick’s Day). All three women said their experience was fun but that the atmosphere “feels like waiting around vibes.”

Back in the bathroom, McKenzie, Acord and Heath echoed these sentiments. “We are still kind of attached to regular Spoke,” Heath said. She predicted that in a couple years, once the upper classes graduate and a new generation of students arrive, Spoke Live could grow in popularity. But for now, the cult following of Spoke has its grip.

“When I’m in here, I kind of do miss … Spoke because it’s hard to have a conversation in here,” Liam Hopkins yelled over the 2009 hit “Right Round” by Flo Rida.

This loyalty didn’t escape notice from Spoke staff. Owner Chad O’Rourke said that the reception to Spoke Live was less enthusiastic than he expected.

“It’s tough because we opened in the middle of the semester, which isn’t the best decision in the world. Timing is everything,” O’Rouke said. “Students are loyal to where they want to go and we have this great loyal support from the senior class where [Spoke] was their space, that was where they wanted to be.”

After Spoke Live’s initial opening, O’Rourke quickly realized that students wanted a sports bar. As a result of feedback, the club has begun evolving into a sports bar and O’Rourke said he planned to add more UMass decor over the summer.

Emilee Klein can be reached at eklein@gazettenet.com.