Clubbing with James Tran » Bungalow 8

Fridays @ Bungalow 8: 8th January 2010

James — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 12:25:48 +0000

Was here for a friend’s farewell.. so here we go!

Fridays @ Bungalow 8

Assessment Time: 10.30pm-12.15am

Address: 3 Lime St Sydney

Dress Code / Door Policy: You must look sharp, nice dress shoes, pants and collared shirt are a minimum and should be enough to get in. No large groups of men. Avoid jeans and casual shoes such as chucks. I barely got in with black runners tonight, only because the rest of my outfit was pretty snazzy, I was alone in line and I was sober.

Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Free

Guestlist: None, so if you get ‘guestlisted’, you’re deemed not good enough for the club based on your appearance

Inside: One large bar, with small dance area and DJ inside. Outside courtyard area surrounds the perimeter of the bar. Pretty ‘spacy’ outside.

Cloak Room: None

Music: Mix of old school house and modern house. It’s not too hard, and pretty casual but good to dance to. Oh a very esoteric description there, but it was pretty generic safe music to play for a crowd like this.

Crowd: Older (and better behaved) crowd – people in their 20′s, 30s. Mostly white.

Entertainment: No extra entertainment besides the DJ

Atmosphere: Strict dress code makes the place look good. Atmosphere was pretty much lets drink and dance, and enjoy the water views of Darling Harbour.

Timeline

I feel so young
Wasn’t here for long. Just lots of dance. It’s me with farewell girl and her girlfriends. They think i’m uber cute, but they’re in their 30′s, and they’re all spoken for. SHAME! I hate being so … young sometimes. hahaha

Braces!

Ever since I got braces last year, its so fun bumping into other people who also have braces. It’s like we have this.. connection. So in our group was another dude with braces!! So great, so here’s a photo:

: My braces buddy – Bungalow 8 Sydney

I have just (as I am writing this) decided to make an album of all the people I meet who have braces. It’ll be fun!!!

Arrivederci

As all older people do, we get tired before midnight, and we rush catch the last train home

Recommendation

If you would like a place to dance as well as have a chance to have a drink and converse outside, this is a safe choice, especially if you are not a fan of the constantly loud clubs with 18 year olds getting smashed. 8/10

Saturday @ Bungalow 8 , Brooklyn Hotel

James — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 12:53:33 +0000

Bungalow 8

Music: house with DJ and separate drummer.
Crowd: People in their 20s. Smart Casual.
Cover: None
Atmosphere: Crowded, Friendly
Attire: Casuals not allowed. Smart casual. Hats allowed.

Review
Got in around 11pm and soon started to dance. The small floor space was packed, but only noticed something – it was well lit – you could see everyone’s. This perhaps made it less of a typical club.

Music was similar to Cargo where they have a bongo player – here they had a drummer, but it was more jazzy.

Hat blues Tonight decided to wear my white hat. As expected, random drunk people were stealing it all the time.

Cockblock gets angry at me
A drunk girl puts my hat on a second girl. Lets call her Drunko. Drunko starts dancing with her new found hat. Two girls next to me say “I think you have to dance with her to get your hat back” – oh the things I do. So I walked up and smiled at her, and danced for a few seconds. Then her cockblock of a girlfriend comes up and takes her away and gives me a death stare that could boil water, and says “She’s not interested”. They walk away with my hat. I follow her and Drunko. Drunko is still playing with my hat. Drunko’s friend turns and tells me yet again in a more pissed off and angry voice.

“NO, She’s not interested, OK???”. “I’m just getting my hat” , as I finally get it back.
She looks at me and realises, but can’t admit to a quick apology. She was right though - I was going to crack onto Drunko if she wasn’t there.

I’m not tall enough
Met another girl who stole my hat, lets call her Peru. Peru and I get along. Peru and I dance, Puru and i swap number. Peru and I hold hands. Peru and I dance more. However, Peru is taller than me, and Peru sees another man taller than her and can’t keep her eyes off him. It was totally obvious. Game over.

Coda
My friends had left so I call trusty Claire togo somewhere else..

I was inside Cargo for a bit waiting for Claire. Packed as usual, I couldn’t find a nice spot for myself to dance. It’s still a nice place to go to.

Met Claire outside and we wait for her friends. It takes 30 minutes, so during this time I forced her to dance on the pier walkway while the music blares out of Cargo bar. Amused passersby take photos, and drunk guys come up and dance with us and crack onto Claire.

Embarrasingly a client of mine from Work walked on by, and we recognized each other. She hurried along laughing – she probably thinks now I’m a dancing lunatic who pops pills.

Brooklyn hotel
I convinced Claire we should go to Brooklyn. It was the only other free place nearby which played RNB.
Music: RNB in the front, House in the back.
Crowd: Mixed. Casual.
Cover: None
Atmosphere: Friendly
Dress: Casual, No hats.

We dance a bit in the RNB. Claire blindly hit the other girls as usual. They didn’t look too happy. Other girls loved her dancing nd we all do a bit of a dance.

We went out back and one of my favoruite songs “This is where the party’s at” by Tonite Only starts to play. I jump out from inside and start to dance. I didn’t realise I jumped right into a dance circle! I am surrounded by about 10 people and everyone immediately starts pumping their legs off. Loving it. The circle was just a bunch of different people, and someone would always jump in and dance. It was unusally friendly – might have been because it was outdoors in the back, and we could see everything. It was really fun. Even Claire, who doesnt like House music that much, got caught up in the spirit.

We dance more in the RNB room and get to know some our new dance buddies. They’re asian, but they’re from France. How bizarre. Swapped details and they were very eager to hang out once more another night.

Left around 4am due to pure exhaustion. Nice place to meet people.

Fridays @ Bungalow 8, Privilege Bar

James — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 13:00:13 +0000

A friend’s farewell at Bungalow 8, then we follow on to her friend’s choice of Privilege..

Bungalow 8 – thumbs up
Was only here for about an hour. Basically danced around a bit in the small but very fun dance area. Everyone was in the mood, and the music was pretty good too. I can’t remember, I think it was house-like and upbeat.

People(mostly caucasian) were so friendly here. If the dance floor were a bit bigger it could rival Cargo.

Privilege – thumbs down
So one of the friends wanted to meet a friend at Privilege, so against our inner instincts we went. Josh made a smart choice and didn’t go in.

We paid $20 and when we got in, we were greeted with a scene, and dispersement of crowd reserved only for Pavillion Hotel at 2am. It was basically, an utter crap venue.

People weren’t as friendly. Nobody reciprocated to my barging into their circles and dancing like a lunatic. Music was blaring loud. DJ Isreal was playing. Unlucky he got a bad crowd.

Lesson: Always listen to your gut. Or just dont visit Privilege at midnight on a Friday night.

The end.

Bungalow Nights (Saturdays) @ Bungalow 8

James — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 13:38:50 +0000

A night out for a friends birthday for drinks at Bungalow 8… and by sheer luck there happened to be a weekly night for dancing.

About Bungalow 8
Location: King St Wharf, Darling Harbour
Website: www.bungalow8sydney.com
Inside: It’s a bar/ restaurant… some floor is cleared inside for dancing on Saturdays with DJ’s

About Bungalow Nights
Music: Commercial House, from 2 years ago and earlier
Crowd: Mature, White
Dress Code: Smart Casual, but I did spot someone dressed pretty casual with just a t-shirt.
Cover Charge / Entry Fee: Nil
Occurence: Every Saturday
Website: www.bungalow8sydney.com
Atmosphere: Crowded but fun

Timeline

Intoxication
When I go clubbing, I don’t like to consume alcohol at all. It really hampers the dance moves. However I had about 3 glasses of wine (I’m a cadbury) and after feeling quite tipsy.. I was asked to come join the dancing frenzy … I tried my best to dance but just ended up with the occasional hand movements and body swaying.. but somehow it still looked okay. I guess I’m harsh on myself.

Music
The DJ was playing house.. I think there were bongos as well similar to Cargo, but I can’t remember. I knew all the words to all the songs.. because they were mostly tunes I heard from old Ministry of Sound CD’s from 1 or 2 years ago. Interesting that the DJ didnt play the modern commercial house songs… it did bring up happy feelings of nostalgia. Karen didnt know the songs, so couldn’t sing along. Neither did the other girls .. they were all off their chops.

A strange way to get rid of the hiccups
Celia had drank too fast and got the hiccups. She asked me to hold her ears. I held them. She then said I wasnt holding her ears hard enough, and that I should pull her ears out. Well, she seemed to know what she was talking about, so I pulled them out. Then she bent over to my waist height … then drank some more beer from her bottle….

How on earth is bending over in front of someone’s crotch with him grabbing your ears then taking a gulp of beer supposed to fix your hiccups?

Needless to say that didn’t work, and bouncers asked her to leave. Luckily she switched to a glass of water and promised to only drink water the rest of the night.

Coda
We left shortly after, since all of the girls were trashed, except birthday girls cousin. It was 1.30, and the small floor was still packed with people. The music makes a nice component of a night out dancing.

I’ve also realised after tonight that I really miss House music clubs.. it’s been quite a while since I’ve been.