Moulin Rouge fail
It was all set out – a 21st birthday at Moulin Rouge. I waited in line for 30 minutes (it was massively long, and the bouncer cut off half the line because it was intruding on other premises). It was $15 on a guestlist she didn’t double check. It was pretty busy, but I wasn’t feeling it – I couldn’t find the girl. My phone rings… She’s changed venues!! NO WAY. The promoters had failed to submit her guestlist, and she didn’t want people lining up. A big fail, as the guestlist only served as a discount entry and not for a faster entry into the club. I was in Moulin Rouge for a grand total of .. 3 minutes @ $5 / minute. I could have called a phone sex line at that rate! One of the attendees offered to try to get us into Bungalow 8 as he had a guestlist going on as a backup. Good choice, since it was all the way on the other side of the city.

Bungalow 8/Cargo Bar fail
Big fail getting in. Two of the girls were dressed up goth like (without the make up), and one of the guys was just wearing a t-shirt. Bungalow 8 refused us entry, and so did Cargo, based on this.

Decision
The two girls were keen to go to Trash, their regular haunt. By this point, nobody cared anymore where we went, we were sick of walking around bring rejected, so off we went to the Agincourt Hotel…

I knew I was in for something different overhearing a girl give directions on the phone:

“Look for huge ‘TRASH’ banner. It’s got a picture of a skull, with burning flames underneath it”…

Agincourt Hotel
Address: Corner of Harris Street and Broadway
Website: http://www.agincourthotel.com.au
Inside: 3 Levels I was told, but only the bottom two levels were open tonight. On entering is a bar area, its quite small this total area – the music from upstairs eminates towards down here. Walk up the stairs and there is another bar, and a medium sized dancefloor eating up about 60% of space.

Click here to view the embedded video.

About Trash Saturdays (assessment time midnight)
Occurence: Every Saturday
Website: http://www.trashsaturdays.com, http://www.clubblink.net
Entry Fee/Cover Charge: $12 . $10 if you’re a member.
Door Policy / Dress Code: Anybody was welcome. Hallowed. Anything allowed, except chains and spikes.
Crowd: Mixed. Mostly aussies, euros and a handful of asians. Ages varied from 18 to late 20s.
Music:
I walk in to expect heavy metal playing, when I instead, hear RNB!! Like WTF! Tonight only the first two floors were open, and there was only one DJ, playing tracks from all different genres. It was mostly alternative rock, but the songs that you know. Songs like “chop suey” by SOAD, or “Rollin’” by Limp Bizkit. Just some good heavy rock. I was awaiting the heavy metal but it never came up. Later on the website I find out that the heavy metal nights were only on Fridays. Officially the types of music being played are “Punk, Rock, Indie, Emo, Heavy, Hardcore, Party Tunes”.
Song Requests: You could sms to request a song here! A big electronic banner above the DJ set scrolls the number. My friend requests the song “I’m On A Boat” by The Lonely Island. It never gets played. What a waste of an SMS! A complete list of types of songs can be found on the website.
Atmosphere - Pretty good, vibrant. Despite first appearances, people were all pretty friendly.

Timeline
The heavy metal girls don’t get what they want.
These two were really keen on blink tonight. They said ‘heavy metal’ would be on tonight. Unluckily for them (and lucky for the rest of us) metal was only on Fridays. They must have been caught surprised when the RNB started to play. After about 30 minutes of this mix of rnb, pop, and occasional heavy rock (no metal) they left to go hom
e. Can’t blame them for turning up on the wrong night. They were very friendly thoughout the night – which totally destroyed my perceived view of people who dressed up as such- they’re normal people like you and me, but covered in tattoos and wrapped in dark clothing. No emo-ness at all (I think any set of people would be offended to be compared to being an emo.) Perhaps these were the type that liked to party too.

Friends leave soon after as well:
Despite the rnb and pop”Party Tunes”, there were still the heavy rock songs which didn’t go down well with the birthday girl and company. One of the guys wanted to go home asap. They left at 1.30am, and I had to make a decision to join them back at the hotel or keep dancing. I decide to stay. ‘Ohhhh James’ you think ‘.. why not go back to the hotel?? are you crazy?? a possible free shag!’. True, but I was enjoying being a dance-whore in here.

Dancing Headbanging Style:
It helps if you have an afro. Helps if you know the words. Heres a short video. I think they’re playing one of the Rage Against the Machine songs “Killing in the name of”:

Click here to view the embedded video.

The gay dancer:
He wasn’t gay, but he danced very gay, with a masculine force to it. A fairy on steroids. I.e an awesome version of me. So here are tips from the gay dancer to me that I share with you:
- “I wish I was really gay so I could pick up more chicks”
- “Dance gay. It’s magic”
- “The girls love it”
- etc

The girls did love it. He showed me by going up to two girls and pulling off some whack fairy-gay movies, chest out in the air and all. They loved it and can’t stop laughing. Then he picks the hotter one up with some close intense salsa moves. (NOTE TO SELF: LEARN SALSA) while her friends laughs hysterically. I tell her that ‘we could do better than them!’ and grab her hand, but she literally SCREAMS out in fear in reaction after. Then she took 4 or 5 steps back and consoles in a fellow dancer about how some guy tried to ask her to dance with him. It looked like she could have cried. Now tell me, what on earth did I do? haha, just a grabbed her arm, that’s all. It probably came off real creepy. Anyway, I have never ever seriously scared a girl so much before. It was quite funny but sad at the same time.

The other asian guy.. where did I see him before?
There was another asian dude who looked familiar but I had no idea. We occasionally had a little dance when we bumped into each other on the floor but we didn’t really talk.

blues brothers - familiar asian on the left

Then today I look through some old photos, and I spotted this one… and THERE HE WAS!!  ON THE LEFT WITH THE CORONA! HE NINJA-ED MY PHOTO!

Me in my borat outfit at Havana last year for Halloween. The more important person is on the left - I saw him !! I think.

I was in yet another wig tonight, so I dont think he recognized me.. or did he? Well whoever you are, you and your white buddy looked pretty cool with the suit and Ray-bans. Or I could be completely wrong, and have gotten you confused with an asian who looks exactly like you. lol

More people
Met a girl celebrating her 19th. A good dancer. Met lots of crazy guys. Talked to a guy with his dreadlocks. It’s funny taking off the wig and seeing people getting a shocked reaction!

I made the cloak room girl wait to go home
It was almost 4am. I walked by the cloak room. The girl in there yells at me to grab my bag. I have the last bag in there and she had closed 15 minutes earlier. So nice of her to wait. I got my bag, and she hurriedly went home. I feel bad about making her wait, but how was I to know the room was closed?

People make out here too
Lots of them. I don’t think a girl would leave unless without a number or a kiss. Because of this there was still a good ratio of men to women at closing time. Or perhaps the atmosphere was just that good.  [edit june 24th - saw the gallery - half of them are of people pashing each other]

Coda
Left at closing time 4.15am. The final song they played was Tupac Shakur’s “changes” – I still couldn’t believe the songs they were playing here. The regulars must be hating saturdays here. I liked the music choice – I don’t often get to hear rock. However I would guess this would not a place to go for the person who doesn’t like rock. Worth checking out once – you’ll either love it or hate it.

Old Dance Warrior James

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.

Live Art Space - Oxford Art Factory (image oxfordartfactory.com)

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.

Art After Dark Bar - Oxford Art Factory - This is where we hung out (image oxfordartfactory.com)

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.

Timeline

Not much dance room
Because of the TINY amount of room and the way in which the room was designed, our group of 8 people basically took up the middle section of the floor area. This meant every person walking in and out to the toilets or the bar had to go through our circle or around us. So basically the entire time our circle would be interrupted and I was, at least, constantly shuffling back and forth, with people hitting into us and spilling some beer onto each of us. Also because of the room, there weren’t many other large circles.. usually a max of 4 people would be per circle. Also I couldn’t pull off any crazy antic dance moves!! It was really cramped, but not shoulder to shoulder, I had about 20cm of room around me.

Boobs! (So your loyalty to this blog has paid off)
The screen in this room was playing some movie from the 80′s (You could tell by the hairstyles – it could have been the 70s). When we got in, there was a zoom in of a woman’s boobs, and someone was fondling them, just to test out to see how bouncy they were. A minute later, a couple are having a cigarette on the sofa, while the woman, still topless,  starts dancing behind them!!  It was the most bizarre film clip, but she was a pretty good dancer with her arm movements. Her boobs stayed bouncy throughout the dance routine.

I look up a few moments later and I see a naked man lying on bed, his bum crack towards the camera. gross. Back to dancing. Look up again after another few minutes, and there’s a young man and her partner – and guess what she’s doing – SHE’S TYING A CLOTH AROUND HIS DICK LIKE A BOWTIE!! What the hell! What kinda stuff is this??? He then stands up , with this cloth dangling from his dick, and he stands behind the bedpost. That was all. So bizarre!

It wasn’t surprising that there were couples making out everywhere in the room.

I wore casual. I am rewarded with solo dancing.
We mostly stayed within our circle through the night. A friend dances around with his bald head and basically gets all the attention! Damn. I had nothing. No wig, no hat, just my shirt, jeans and dodgy sneakers – I was very casual and  quite content just dancing it out on my own. Everyone else was dressed their own style. Crazy hairdos, different fashion styles.. half the crowd wearing hats – it would have been quite difficult to attract attention. Only later in the night near closing time, the music became..  I don’t know.. I wasn’t too into it anymore and wanted to just dance it out in the other room.

Coda
We all get kicked out of the Live Art room around 4am. Music was still going in the Art After Dark Bar but nobody was dancing. We were all buggered and left, quite happy with this  place. I liked this place and would recommend it if you like all sorts of music, don’t mind crowded packed small  bars, and mingling it up with the artsy types. You know who you are.