Clubbing with James Tran

Blue Butterfly Arthouse Crowd - 1AM

Another weekend, another birthday. Tonight it’s Arthouse, so here we go!

Blue Butterfly @ Arthouse
Assessment Time: 01:00AM – 2:30AM
Opening Hours: 10:30PM – 03:00AM
Lockout: None
Website: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=23591850198
Address: 275 Pitt St, Sydney
Dress Code / Door Policy: Smart Casual. Everyone is dressed well. Guys collared shirts. some t-shirts. Girls are almost all in dresses. I spotted a short lesbian with jeans.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $25 standard entry. $20 on guestlist
Guestlist: See group and follow events to find guestlist details
Occurence: Once a month or so. 
Inside: Within the arthouse only the main room is open for clubbing. You walk into a hall-like room. Half is occupied by stools, chairs, and the other half a wooden dancefloor for about 100 people. Bar on the right to serve all patrons. 
Cloak Room: None
Music: Mostly RnB tonight.
Crowd: Mostly Asian. Some Aussies and Euros.
Entertainment: An MC was here. 
Atmosphere: Good, considering it was past peak time.
Walkthrough:

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We spent a good 2 hours at Pavillion dancing then it reached around 12:30, where everybody typically leaves. It was time to find another club, but we just ended up walking around half of the Sydney CBD area checking out the typical clubs…. so here we go!

11 Quick Club reviews as seen from outside the club aka Window Shopping – 19th December 2009. (Northern Sydney CBD)

Saturdays @ Star Bar on George St
- Packed. However we had overdosed lately on Star Bar and its amusing crowd of non-english speaking tourists. It was a no go tonight, no matter how tempting it was to go inside there.

PS. I no longer write reviews when I visit star bar, as I visit this place too much.

Saturdays @ Arthouse on Pitt St (1am)
- Tonight was not an ‘Asian’ night (Fame), but it was a white-crowd event. House music was playing outside, and there was no line outside – it looked pretty shit inside from the outside. There was a cover charge.

Saturdays @ The Vault on Pitt St
- We walked by this bar and heard RNB music playing! Whoa, we have to try it out. We walk up to the entrance and there is a smallish dance floor with about 15 people dancing on it – it was almost dead, but better than Pavillion. However the bouncer refused us entry on the excuse of ‘a private function’. We were 4 guys so it was understandable, but the private function excuse didn’t seem congruent, as there was no second person to confirm a guestlist. Whatever, it was dead.

Saturdays @ Coolabar
- Music is pumping out, tape and escalators are in operation to the bar upstairs. There are two people outside. It was on! We know Coolabar is a shithole, but we want to wow the crowd inside, if there was one.

We run up but the two people inside tell us we can’t go inside, as the place is closed. What!?! You wonder why some places are even open at all if they are closing at 1.30am on a Saturday night.

Bamboo @ Martin Place Bar
- The line is shorter than usual, but there *is* a line, which is better than the other places so far. Entirely asian, and RNB playing outside, it is tempting to go inside, but all four of us were not big fans of paying $25 to go inside. People inside had santa hats on. We could see Jason the resident Korean bum dancer hogging the podium from the outside.

Security came up and spoke with us. We had a short fun chat and perved on some girls walking by, you know, typical man stuff. Security was called to kick out a drunk person. Moments later he is walking out with a drunk girl and 3 of her girlfriends supporting her. haha, it is not classy at all to see a drunk girl, let me tell you that. Security tells the girls it is all ok, and wraps his arms around the two girls beside him. LOL omg he is hitting on drunk girls outside of thd club – I want to be a bouncer now!!! haha, what a sneaky sleaze.

Funky Buddha @ Verandah Bar on Castlereagh St (Martin Place)
Here they recently opened the trance room again (after a 3 or 4 year absence). Cover is $20, crowd is asian, music is RNB and trance.

We ask some girls who left Funky Buddah if it was any good.
“Average” was the reply. It was in other words, shit. There was, though, a line outside, so it must be somewhat ok.

I do want to check it out as it’s been a while, and I have to see how the Trance room looks now.

Saturdays @ Red Room Hotel Chambers on Castlereagh St (Martin Place)
We were able to peek inside from the entrance – and even though it looked crowded, it didn’t seem like a fun atmosphere. Music was old school RNB, with a cover charge of $20 and an asian crowd.

Tank Nightclub (Bridge lane)
OneLove moved to the Bourbon about a month ago, and we did not know if there was any event, so we took a punt and walked here. It was, unfortunately, closed. (At the time writing, Onelove @ the Bourbon has also shut its doors)… I think I might start a new event here! ha.

20/20 @ Brooklyn Hotel (George St Circular Quay)
Ever since Privilege closed for renovations a few weeks ago, promoters Hypnotize moved their Saturday event to Brooklyn and joined with Urban Agent to help out. The result is that my favourite place to go for free drunk girls and $17 Vodka Red Bulls has turned into a cover charged event full of not so drunk people. I yearn for the former glory days of seediness.

I peek inside the main rnb room and it is pretty packed. I go around the back and look down in the outdoor courtyard area where they are playing house/trance. Back in the no-cover charge days, the place usually had 5-10 people dancing max, while the others sit and watch. Now with the help of the promoters, the entire back area as PACKED. Jesus fucking christ I could not believe what I was seeing – Brooklyn Hotel actually packed out! I could not see any concrete, it was just a sea of people standing up, dancing and cheering. It looked pretty awesome. The bartenders must be having a hard time adjusting to actually having to work non-stop.

However my friends, still don’t want to go inside. They are pretty adamant about not going inside here, considering the crappy times they had the last few times. haha.

Also, regular patrons here (i.e. the islanders) were lining up to get in, not knowing that they need to pay entry. There were some outside, thinking of other places to go. So the crowd inside was a mix of islanders, asians and aussies. Cover charge I am guessing is $20. Based on what I saw, it looks good.

Sienna @ Establishment on George St
We are just walking by. They’re playing house music, though I had thought Sienna was an RNB event. The crowd is dominantly Euro, and cover charge is $20. I do need to check this place out too. It looked pretty busy from what we could see

Saturdays @ Ivy on George St
Loud, and looking quite busy. We can’t see inside from the street but we can hear people cheering from the inside. Sounds like fun. Am definitely going to spend a night here one day next year.

Saturdays @ Bar 333 on George St (2am)
Bottom level was closed and upstairs looked pretty dead.

Arrivederci
By this time we have given up, and we have managed to end up back where we started – standing outside Star Bar. I was dying to do any form of dance, but friends were puffed out from walking up and down the CBD for 2 hours. Fair enough, but I wish they were keen for a dance!! So we called it a night.

Recommendation
If I had to pick a club tonight, it would be 20/20 @ Brooklyn Hotel.

Related:

• Shanghai Nights (Grand Opening) @ Brooklyn Hotel: Friday 26th February 2010
• Fame @ Arthouse : Saturday 7th November 2009
• Bamboo @ Martin Place Bar (27th June 2009)
• Saturdays @ Star Bar (16th may 2009)
• Bamboo @ Martin Place Bar: Saturday 17th July 2010

I’m here for a second birthday tonight (the 1st birthday earlier was at E11even nightclub) and I’ve been itching to check this place out, so here we go!

In the crowd at Arthouse

Fame @ Arthouse Hotel

Assessment Time: 1am – 4am
Website: http://www.urbanagent.com.au
Address: 275 Pitt St (Next to Hilton Hotel)
Dress Code: Casual. My pirate shirt was ok. I snuck the hat in separately then put it on after I got inside.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $20 or $25
Guestlist: Send to aj@urbanagent.com.au, for $5 off before 11:30. Free before 10:30, but fat chance that you will be the lucky 6 or 7 people to get in.
Inside: Promoted as House and RnB, but only one room was open tonight, the RnB room. False advertising by the promoters!!! FALSE! Girls at the cashier  claimed that the owners of Arthouse would not allow the house room to be open tonight.
Bar: One bar. Wait time around 5 minutes when we got in.
DJ: Typical RnB DJs playing tonight.
Music: RnB. No house/electro.
Crowd: Dominantly Asian. Young.
Entertainment: MC to keep the crowd going.
Atmosphere: Pretty busy, with just enough space to dance.

Fame @ Arthouse - 1am

Video:
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Related:

• 11 Quick Club Reviews on a Saturday Night in Sydney CBD – 19th December 2009
• Shanghai Nights @ Brooklyn Hotel: Friday 26th March 2010
• Shanghai Nights (Grand Opening) @ Brooklyn Hotel: Friday 26th February 2010
• Homemade Saturdays @ Home Nightclub – 9th September 2009
• Saturdays @ Star Bar (16th may 2009)

Preface:
My friend C has asked me to join her at Arthouse. Sure thing, so here we go!

Preface: Chinese Whispers @ Arthouse
The longest guestlist line on planet earth

The guestlist line outside arthouse. ha.

Video:

We had been in the guestlist line for about 30 minutes at the time I took this video. Meanwhile, the normal line ($5 extra) was a measly 20 people deep.After 10 more minutes of waiting, me and the guys left. C stayed in line to get in 30 minutes later, for a total of 1 hour waiting. She said she had an awesome time there, and that it was pretty packed. Of course it was packed, look how many asians there were in line!

Coda: Ditching the line for another club
So where did we go? We went onto Bligh Bar… I honestly wasn’t keen to come to Bligh Bar, but it was a friend of a friend who was organising it. When I met the friend of a friend, I recognized him! He was the same promoter for the Fridays @ Bar Europa (I think I gave it an ok review….) Here we go!

Klassic Nights @ Bligh Bar
Assessment Time: 12:30am – 1:30am
Address:  2a Bligh St, Sydney
Website: http://www.klassicnights.com
Dress Code: Casual ok. I wore a fedora hat, jeans, collared shirt, dress shoes.
Entry Fee/ Cover Charge: I think we paid $15
Inside: One main room, sectioned off by a hinese pretzel looking wall. Bar occupies an entire corner of floorspace. Tables and chairs everywhere else.
Crowd: Asian, young to mid 20s.
Music: Modern RNB

Atmosphere: Felt a little empty, could have been better. Actually it was shithouse. Think of Pavillion Hotel on a bad night. People sitting around the floor. At peak time, all 20 or so of us were dancing on the small floor.  There wasn’t much promotion that I noticed for this event, but the dance floor was small enough to have a vibe going. The last time I was here, urban agent held a Friday Night here back in December 2008 – they did a pretty ok job (I didn’t write an entry for it but I was dressed in a Santa Suit, feeding people chocolate). Tonight was worse. However we had paid our entry, and so we just danced it off. The only benefit of a dead club though, was that there was no waiting at the bar – Hooray!

Walk-in video:

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Related:

• 11 Quick Club Reviews on a Saturday Night in Sydney CBD – 19th December 2009
• Fame @ Arthouse : Saturday 7th November 2009
• Klassic Nights @ Bligh Bar – 10th October 2009
• Saturdays @ Star Bar (16th may 2009)
• Funky (Buddha) @ Sanctuary Hotel: Saturday 26th June 2010

Followed T and her girlfriend to Arthouse to meet up with more friends. Entered around 2am.

About Arthouse
Location: Pitt St opposite Hungry Jacks/ Pure Platinum
Inside: Main room with main DJs, and a secondary room of similar size but darker atmosphere  playing breaks.

About Together
Music: House
Crowd: Caucasian, Pretty.
Dress Code: Casual
Cover Charge / Entry Fee: Gia mentioned she paid $30 before midnight. We paid $25 at 2am. $20 prepaid on the Paul Strange presents website
Occurrence: Weekly Saturdays
Website: http://www.paulstrangepresents.com/
Atmosphere: (2am) Pretty much a dancing mood in main room, but it was not too packed. Most people were outside in the back having a chit chat. Secondary room was pretty dead at this time.

Timeline

Lining up troubles
That’s us in the guestlist line. We were told to line up here. Then we were told to line up in the other line, as we were not on the guestlist. After about 30 minutes we got to the front, and we were told we didn’t have pink armwrists, so we had to line up back on the guestlist line!!! What a JOKE.

After lining up again in the guestlist line, the guy recognized us and apologises, then lets us in.

More Kissing
We met T and her ex’s Brazilian friends, and they were friendly. Half the time was spent playing tonsil hockey with T, while the others cheer and whistle on loudly as we pash. (I’m still shaking my head as I write this.) I secretly wanted Gia, but she had already found a pashing partner. By this time my hormones have overriden any sense of logical rationing. My heart says no, but the prostate says yes.

Music
Brilliant, I had no complaints. House was done very well

Coda
Leave around 5am, very very tired… I didn’t really get a chance to criticize this place, though I would advise on getting prepaid tickets.

Related:

• 11 Quick Club Reviews on a Saturday Night in Sydney CBD – 19th December 2009
• Fame @ Arthouse : Saturday 7th November 2009
• Pajama Party @ Docks Hotel (26th June 2009)
• Saturdays @ Coogee Bay Hotel: 3rd July 2010
• Saturdays @ Hugo’s Lounge: Saturday 2nd July 2010