Clubbing with James Tran

Friday RNB Special @ Home Nightclub A small mention on the radio of an RNB night on Friday at Home Nightclub. The last time I went to a RNB event at Home bar, it went off! Sounds good, so I dragged my friends along. Here we go! Assessment Time: 10:30pm – 12:30pm Address: Cockle Bay Wharf Door Policy / Dress Code: Casual ok Cover Charge / Entry Fee: $20. $10 on guestlist. Guestlist: Unknown, but one was available Inside: Only the main room was open for tonight’s one-off RNB special. Main floor could hold a few hundred people. Bar: $12 Yagerbombs Music: RNB. Typical RNB tunes playing. Regulars to sublime trance event only had the upstairs rooms tonight. Crowd: There was nobody here, but the crowd that was here, was Mixed. Indian, Asian, Black, Aussie, Euro. Our group represented the only asians. Atmosphere: Dead. Timeline Home nightclub – an empty shell There was no line for our RNB event. Bad sign, but it was early. We walked into the main floor and this is what we saw: (continue reading…)

Leadup An hour to kill – a mini 4-club dance spree: Tonight I wore just jeans, a shirt and sneakers.. Pontoon - Crowd was half indian, half everyone else. Free entry. Casual door policy. RnB. Good venue for an RnB fix. Left after 30 minutes – another asian dancing guy was taking the girls. He was out there, just dancing with any girl he saw, and was doing quite well. I wondered where my energy was tonight. Pavillion – Two girls in the front, 4 on the side, and indian guys for the rest of the people on here. DJ was playing west coast rap. My favourite anthems were being played (Dr Dre,  Snoop Dogg, etc). A crazy indian was dance-cracking onto the two girls in the front. He was out there, just shaking his body loose. I wondered where my energy was tonight. I think I get intimidated by other good dancers in a desolate setting. Shark Bar/Hotel – I walked in and there was nobody on the floor. I was about to leave, but they started to play “Push it” by Salt N Pepa. I love this song so I *had* to get up there. So I jumped up and did a little boogie to the song, to the amusement of everybody staring at the elevated dancefloor in the middle. Everyone who looked at me I looked back, and they would stare away. A group of people at the very back took a photo of me and waved hi. The song ended and I ran off. Spectrum – My usual friends had gone home, so I met up with the French backpackers for some dance. We checked out Spectrum first. Free entry. House. We went upstairs and it was *dead* as. A handful of people dancing, a handful of people sitting down, a small room, and that was it. I don’t think this was meant to be a place for clubbing. Reminded me like an oxford st version of Manning Bar at USYD. I can’t imagine that place being a place for clubbing. We left quite quickly. We then stumbled upon Oxford Art Factory and settled in.. After Work Art Fridays @ The Oxford Art Factory (Art After Dark) (29th May 2009) Note: This review is primarily for the ‘Art After Dark’ Room’, and not the ‘Live Art Space’ where a cover charge applied. About Oxford Art Factory (assessment time 1.30am) Address: 38-46 Oxford St, Darlinghurst The Bar: Jugs of beers and cocktails offered for a reasonable price. Website: http://www.oxfordartfactory.com Inside: Walking downstairs, there are two rooms: Live Art Space: Carpeted area with central wooden dancefloor, with DJ up on stage. At the back is an elevated area where more lounges exist. It was mostly dancefloor space.

Art After Dark: (where we were) A further flight of stairs down takes you to this room. It’s pretty small, holding about 100 people max. A bar as well here. The room has a high ceiling length, and a big TV on one end of the wall. It’s been painted white, which is different. Tonight there were only lounges along the wall, and not sticking out as in the picture.

About After Work Art Fridays: (assessment time 1.30am) Entry Fee/Cover Charge: Free for the Art After Dark Bar, $15 for the DJ in the Live Art Space Room tonight. After 3am it was free for all. Crowd / Dress Code: Artsy types. People in their 20’s and 30’s. Lots of hats around. Anything goes. Atmosphere: I was expecting not many people to be here, so guess how surprised I was when I saw the whole room packed! Well, it was 1.30am, and it was a small area, but usually at an average to bad venue, 1.30am is when people start going home. So overall it was a good sign. Music: Art After Dark Bar – Earlier in the evening there were live bands playing, but we missed that. So when we arrived, the band area was cleared and there was a DJ playing a mix of music across pop, rnb, retro and rock. Basically a bit of everything, and each upcoming song would be of a different genre. Somehow though the crowd was fully right into every song being played. Live Art Space – DJ Sega (USA) was the main act playing tonight, (Indie). I didn’t get to check him out. Later another DJ was playing around 3am, with some dubstep beats, and another artist came up for some raps where I could practise some krumpin on the very open dance floor. The crowd here were all the hardcore types left, so everybody was into it. (continue reading…)