Clubbing with James Tran

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.

We just finished an all you can eat pizza.. and feeling really really lethargic we decide to head to some clubs… we were thinking of St James.. but that was overdone latey – and Roof bar / Skygardens shut its doors on Saturday (presumably forever). Coolabar: We got in and there were 3 mature ladies dancing on their own. Besides their 4 friends on the side not dancing, there were no other girls in the club. We bought a drink each and sat down then skulked about the start of a crap night… we see an old couple walk by outside, look inside and immediately walk out again. I didnt even jiggle my butt in there. Cheers Got here about 11.30. and it was fairly busy, but only one or two people dancing on the floor. I do a bit of a dance, and people were looking. The scary thing about Cheers is that there are people literally bordering the dancefloor staring at you drinks in their hand – you have no breathing room, and its really intimidating. I still have yet to brave dancing here alone. Eventually it got really packed. Stripper man dance move We’re dancing and we hear screams. A random guy behind us is grinding against a random girl. She’s screaming but keeps going, as she secretly likes it. Everyone just stares at him. You can actually hear him say “yeah thats right, that’s all i want, a little dance”, like a pedophile – I couldnt stop laughing.. it was crazy awesome. He then pulls up his shirt to show off his flat tummy.. poor girl nearly fainted and her friends pulled her away. Everyone gave him props. After this the pizza was getting to us.. we left for… Shark Bar / Hotel Two shit clubs so far, it would be fun to make it 3 in a row. We got in, and there was already a group of guys taking all the girls. They had already established a circle and were doing crazy shit. Needless to say, we ran out of energy after about 5 or 6 songs. There was nobody in here worth even looking at. We left and called it a night at 1.30am. Pathetic, and easily the worst night out clubbing this year. Should have gone to Side bar to finish it off.