Clubs on the world’s most famous sandbar open and close with irritating frequency. Take Billboard Live, for example, a 25,000 square-foot, state-of-the-art, custom-built, three-story nightclub/lounge that had the unfortunate distinction of opening three days before 9/11 in 2001. The subsequent freeze on travel and leisure took its toll, and the club went through several schizophrenic incarnations in the ensuing years, before nearly collapsing beneath a heap of mismanagement and neglect. And yet if there’s one symbol Miami Beach holds dear, it’s the phoenix rising from the ashes—and on Friday night of Winter Party Festival, the father and son production team, Hilton and Myron Wolman, together with DJs Rosabel, put together a rousing, sold-out event called Rising Tide that recalled the glory days of South Beach parties.

For starters, the club, now called Dolce, looked as glamorous as if it had emerged from a complete body makeover. There were ice sculptures, and a waterfall, and flowers, and monogrammed pillows—and on all three packed mezzanines, boys dancing along the railings and atop the leather banquettes. DJs Abel and Ralphi Rosario were rolling with a ferocious intensity, while Kyle Garner manned the lasers, and Guy Smith created light spectacles and kaleidoscopic video projections—and if you gazed upward at the rows of boys crowding the balconies, it was hard not to see a Miami Beach facsimile of the Colosseum.

Wolman has been in the entertainment business for years—and together with his son on Friday night at Dolce, he recreated the sybaritic glamour of some of South Beach’s most legendary clubs such as Paragon (where Abel became so well-loved) and Salvation (where Saturday nights in South Beach became de rigueur). Using a stable of fabulous South Beach celebrities, including ChynaGirl and Kitty Meow (stars of the groundbreaking Bacardi ad from 2000), DJ/performer Power Infiniti, door god Michael Stanley, and superstar Flavio Nisti, the party was punctuated with performances that amped the energy skyward. Recording star, singer-songwriter Erika Jayne took the stage with a corps of six pulchritudinous specimens in outfits that evoked Alexander McQueen’s work for Gaga and who danced with as much tightness and control as a Gaga battalion. These boys could dance! And singing (or lip-synching—does it matter? At a party like this?) a seamless medley of her hits “Sex Shooter” and “Rollercoaster,” Jayne exhibited a sex kitten personality derived from personas as varied as Ann-Margret, Joey Heatherton, as well as Britney and Kylie.

This party was cooking! So much so that the multitude of Tweets and texts must’ve alerted the Miami Beach Fire Department, who contended the party had exceeded its more than1,500-person capacity.

Woe to those waiting outside, for inside it was boiling—with antics and shenanigans from such sexy scene-stealers as Holly Goheavy, and DJ wunderkinds Dave&Gerardo, producer Ric Sena and Abel, and producer/concierge duo, Omar and Bene, and Score owners Luis and Billy, and Erinn Stacey, and Mel Wolman, and Dale Stine, and a sea of sinfully hot boys and girls partying to a 16,000 watt sound system that rocked with the thunderous beats from Rosabel that didn’t quit until sunrise.

As the lyrics from “Sex Shooter” put it, “Come on, kiss the gun. Guaranteed for fun.” No question about it: Rising Tide @ Dolce was sex-shooting fun.