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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DCMs @ Havana A birthday for a friend. She has chosen Havana, so here we go! Assessment Time: 22:45- 1:30am Website: http://www.havanaclub.com.au Address: 169 Oxford St, Darlinghurst, Sydney Dress Code: Casual OK. Hats OK. Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $25. $20 on guestlist (?) Guestlist: see website. No problems getting in Inside: One central dance floor, three bars. Private room in the corner, and lounges everywhere. Cloak Room: Yes Music: ‘Scouse’ House and Trance. It was actually pretty good tonight, as the DJ has a big group of songs to choose from. Of course, he chose some of the popular house songs as well as mixing it up with a bit of progressive trance. It was pretty good i would say. Crowd: Dominantly Euro, some Aussies. Entertainment: Dancers on the podiums. No MC’s tonight, but dancing chicks are good enough for me. Atmosphere: Good vibe. Not as packed as the Chocolate City RNB nights, but still busy nonetheless. A good vibe in general. Video: 360 View from the dancefloor (continue reading…)

Friend has suggested a night out to Havana. So I’ve sent in a guestlist and invited everyone.. here we go! Chocolate City / Candy Paint @ Havana Assessment Time: 11:30pm – 4:00am Opening Times: 10:30pm – 4:30am Website: http://www.myspace.com/chocolatecitysydney Address: 169 Oxford St Sydney Dress Code: Casual ok. I had a t-shirt and jeans. Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $15 on guestlist. $20 otherwise Guestlist: See website for link. I send mine to candypaint.fridays@gmail.com Inside: Setup hasn’t changed. One central dance floor, three bars. Private room and lounges everywhere. Cloak Room: Yes. Music: RnB Crowd: Mostly Asian Entertainment: Podium dancers, fancy lights, MC Atmosphere: Pretty busy and packed on the dancefloor, and surrounding areas. Video: (continue reading…)

Two friends wanted to go Havana tonight, so I sent in a guestlist. Organisers even gave me a free booth! woohoo! So off we went! Candy paint / Chocolate City When: Every Friday Night Entry / Cover charge: $25 general entry. Guestlist is free before 10:30 (chance of getting in before then is unlikely), $15 before midnight. Attire: Casual accepted, including all hats. Music: RNB Crowd: Asian Timeline Jason re-appears Got in and the first thing I saw was Jason, the Korean bum dancer from the Bamboo events. He was up on the podium doing his thing. I later say hi to him but he doesn’t recognize me, as usual – he probably has hundreds of fans saying hi to him randomly. The last time we met clubbing, I was in a fully fledged santa suit. Tonight I was just plain James. I think he was wearing his favourite green striped polo shirt. He must be sponsored by the polo green striped division. My booth gets stolen The organisers – so nice of them, reserved me one of the lounge booths at the club. So, what a surprise that when we got into Havana, when there was no longer one for me. All the other lounges had “reserved for Anna” “reserved for Ben”, etc etc… and there was two booths which had their “reserved for” signs pulled down. One of them was mine!!! GRRRR which one stole my booth!!?? I didn’t really want to start a confrontation, so I let it go. This was definitely karma getting back at me for what we did earlier this year – we pulled down the “reserved for Susan” sign then stole her booth. Music/Dancing The 4 of us chose a orner near the DJ and danced our socks off. The place was packed to the rafters – It was the first time this year that Havana was completely packed on the dance floor. We were literally stuck in our corner and didn’t have the freedom to move anywhere – so we were really restricted to limited dancing moves such as  swaying, and “raising your hands in the air”, which happened quite often. Music was typically RNB, and I had no complaints. Most of the DJ’s mixed it up well, chopping out the boring bits. Otherwise quite a good atmosphere if you love your music and your asians Claire tries to hook me up She intoduced me to a Chinese girl she met last week.. from Bamboo. She was cute. Not bad at all. I said hi, and that was that. Later Claire tells me she tried to get us two to hook up. It didn’t help that I had a scream mask on when we were formally introduced: (continue reading…)

“I dont care, whereever you want” I say. “Just tell us where you want to go and we’ll go” she says We were debating whether to go to Tank or Havana. “I dont really mind, either one is good” “No, just pick one already James!” “OK” I say confidently, “..let’s go to Tank!”. It was closer, the car was parked nearby, and it’s been a while. “NO! We’re going to Havana!” she replies…  women. About Havana Location: Oxford St, next to Stonewall Website: http://www.havanaclub.com.au Inside: Dancefloor – DJ at the front, lounges on either side with 4 bars. Enough to not wait long at all. About Candy Paint Music: RNB Crowd: Asian Dress Code: Casual Allowed. Hats allowed Cover Charge / Entry Fee: $15 guestlist. Otherwise $20. Occurrence: Every Friday Atmosphere: Lively Timeline Got in, and it was still deadish ! Usually the floor would be packed, but it wasnt at all. Borrowing a reserved area – for the entire night There was a reserved area for someone’s birthday. Nobody was sitting there, so we just sat down. Nobody came to claim it back. Why reserve a whole lounge area when you are not going to turn up? Dancing with Claire with observers I can never get sick of dancing with Claire. She came at around 1am and we just danced it off – it always feels weird being outdanced by a girl, but its so much fun having people stare at you. I had two guys just stare at our footwork. My footwork wasn’t too good, but they still looked amazed at it. Perhaps they were 18. Oh the days when I couldn’t dance so well.. Atmosphere The MC always keeps things lively. Somehow there was a glitch around midnight which was a bummer, but soon forgotten. Music was good in general in terms of RNB. Coda One of the girls got really really trashed so we had to leave. Still a good place to go ! However this year so far, the crowds haven’t been as large as they used to be.