A year after a four-alarm fire ripped through the building, the Tropical Isle at the corner of Toulouse and Bourbon is re-opening tonight with a renewed commitment to live music on Bourbon Street. Equipped with new state-of-the-art sound systems, both Tropical Isle and Tropical Isle Bayou Club (formerly Beach Club) will continue the tradition of live music seven nights a week.

“We are dedicated to live music, and not just tired cover bands,” co-owner Earl Bernhardt says. “We want to bring in more variety.”

The larger room in the main Tropical Isle now features a centered music stage, with the musicians on a raised stage behind the bartenders. To ensure that the out-of-reach musicians still get tipped and patrons can request songs, the owners installed a pneumatic delivery system like the ones used at banks.

The opening weekend features Amanda Shaw, Brent Burns, Vince Vance and the Valiants, and Brandon Giles, a pianist in the Jerry Lee Lewis mold. “We want to bring people from all over the Gulf Coast,” Bernhardt says.

Next door, in place of the old Tropical Isle Beach Club is the new Bayou Club, where the scene is decidedly more Louisianan. Complete with a fiber-optic ceiling that mimics a bayou night sky, the Bayou Club features Waylon Thibodeaux, Bruce Daigrepont, and The Can’t Hardly Playboys from Lafayette during its opening weekend.

Bernhardt admits that after the fire, which was caused by a careless, cigarette-smoking employee, he and co-owner Pam Fortner thought seriously about not rebuilding. “The building was in desperate need of updating and reinforcing,” he says. “The whole shell had to be rebuilt to get the building up to modern codes.”

Bernhardt and the owners used the incident to completely re-vamp the location, adding the new sound systems, better dining options, and more variety in music. “We wanted the new bar to be tastefully done, so we can shoot for a more mature crowd.”