Clubbing with James Tran

A new promoter has taken over Havana for two weeks only. Last week was packed out, and tonight was week two. I somehow got stuck at Haymarket Hotel, but eventually worked my way to Havana, albeit late at 2:30am, so here we go!

Katsuyaku Girls @ Havana Club de Luxe

Assessment Time: 2:30am – 4:00am
Website: http://www.havanaclub.com.au
Address: 169 Oxford St, Darlinghurst, Sydney
Dress Code / Door Policy: Casual ok. I was wearing a top hat, collared shirt, jeans and dress shoes, which had no complaints upon entry. Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $25 full price after midnight. They’ve upped it and it hurts my wallet.
Guestlist: Check facebook page.
Inside: One main danceflor for about 200 or so people. Both sides are lounge and booth areas. DJ at the front, and a bar on each other side – Enough to keep one happy
Cloak Room: $4 Bar: Didn’t drink tonight Music: At point of arrival (2.30am) it was some rnb, hip hop and house all mixed up.
Crowd: Asian with a few euros and islanders as well. It’s a little mixed.
Entertainment: Two dancing poles. Earlier in the night the Katsujuku girls were dancing the poles to the amazement of the crowd. There is also an MC tonight to keep the night going.
Atmosphere: Enough people and barely enough women to keep wanting to dance. I was surprised at the number of people left at this time.

Video
(I caught it during the house segment. Look at the crowd go!)

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Sensation @ Etihad Stadium Melbourne: 31st December 2009 Assessment Time: 10pm – 5am Website: http://www.sensation.com Address: Etihad Stadium, Melbourne Dress Code: You have to wear white, pants, top, skirt, everything. Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $149 (from memory) Inside: This years theme is the Ocean of White. One central area where the DJ spins around. The theme of tonight was the Ocean – Two platforms extend out to either side of the stadium, to hold where ten or so water geysers are installed. Huge octopus hang from above. There is also a trance room and a VIP dance room. Never got into the trance room. The line was massively long and the room was PACKED and probably hot and smelly – just as I like it. Sadly never got to check it out, it really looked good. VIP room was pretty clean in comparison as there was not as many people as the trance room, but was pretty good, because here you would have enough room to dance around in! It was pretty loungey here. Cloak Room: None Bar: $10 cans of Smirnoff blacks DJs: Caz James, Roger Sanchez, Sebastian Ingrosslo in the main stage. There Music: House in the main arena, and trance, funky house in the other rooms. Compared to last year, the music tonight was much better and ‘tolerable’ I suppose. Megamix was awesome and did not disappoint and well basically it was pretty pretty good. Crowd: People of all types were here. Entertainment: The whole setup was a show – dancers on the water, fireworks, laser lights, bouncing balls.. it was pretty decent Atmosphere: Very white. We had room to dance. The event didn’t sell out but it didn’t get squashy packed, regardless it was still a crapload of people here tonight. The atmosphere is buzzing before and  during the opening, then we dance. Buzz goes up again around new years midnight, then slowly dissipates as people head home, leaving the hardcores behind until the end. Opening to Sensation Melbourne video (continue reading…)

Desperately looking for a club to hit for Christmas Eve, and a lot of clubs are not open.. except for Flow, who are holding a once off Thursday event… nice – so here we go! Flow Fridays @ World Square Pub (WSP): Thursday 24th December 2009 Assessment Time: 11:30 – 3:30am Website: http://www.flowfridays.com.au Address: 680 George St Sydney (Formerly Equilibrium) Dress Code: Casual / Smart Casual. Girls wore dresses, and most guys wore nice shoes with collared shirts. Door Policy: Tight on the female/male ratio. Bring girls with you if you are a guy wanting to get in. Many a man hath been rejected from Flow for being alone or by grouping with his fellow man. This in turn helps with atmosphere Guestlist: See website Cover Charge / Entry Fee: $10 tonight for all patrons. Only for tonight, as there was less patronage on Christmas Eve/ Thursdays. Inside: The Flow event is only held upstairs. It’s a small room for 200 or so people. Cloak Room: None Bar: $5 Gin and Tonics DJ: Typical Asian RnB DJs on rotation Music: RnB Crowd: Entirely Asian. Entertainment: Not even an MC tonight, so it was just the DJ holding the show together. Atmosphere: Very dead in the beginning – usually its packed on Fridays, but it *is* christmas eve. Around midnight it still isn’t packed, but it is getting busy. At around 1am the place is definitely very packed now, which was pretty good. (continue reading…)

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.