Live Band
I Love Uni White Party @ Home Nightclub: Friday 12th March 2010
by James on Mar.12, 2010, under Home, House, Live Band, RnB, Trance, Uni Events
I Love Uni White Party - Home Nightclub
I’ve been asked to check this University event out. A combined effort of all the universities, targeted for students who had just had their first O-Week. Well, considering my own O-week was about 8 years ago, I was wondering whether I should go. Then.. on the promo poster were the magic words: “WHITE PARTY”. Can anybody say GANDALF DA WHITE IS BACK??!! Got my dancing partner C to come along and so off we set our dancing merry feet – here we go!
I Love Uni White Party @ Home Nightclub
Assessment Time: 11:00pm – 3:00am
Opening Hours: 9:30pm – late (4-5am?)
Website: http://www.homesydney.com.au
Address: Cockle bay wharf, Darling Harbour, Sydney
Dress Code / Door Policy: White attire only. However people who were not wearing white were still allowed in, despite warnings that people were not going to be allowed in.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $15 presold tickets (sold out). $25 at the door. The girl at the counter liked my outfit and I asked for a discount for having such an ‘awesome’ outfit. She lowered my entry fee to $20. Score!
Guestlist: none
Inside: The White Party event was for the main arena room to hold 500 or so people. All the other rooms were closed. Later after midnight, the other trance / house / rock band rooms were opened up for the general public.
Cloak Room: Did not utilise cloak room today.
Bar: Didn’t drink tonight
DJ: Unknown.
Music: RnB initially in the main room. After around midnight, a change of DJ’s and an opening of doors to the public for sublime ensure the RnB was killed, and house and trance/ house took over for the rest of the night. It was strange because at one point in the night, a singer came out and sang some house songs, it was so bloody bizarre – how could people dance to this?? The small room upstairs was also used for a local rock band gig. I have never seen it done like this – what has happened to Sublime?? I was disappointed in one’s choice of music selection to dance to after the rnb stopped.
Crowd: Lots of asians for the rnb component, with a sprinkle of other nationalities. Almost all are uni students. Of course, as rnb is killed, the rnb lovers left and the ratio became a mixed bag of everything – Whites, Asians, Indians.
Entertainment: MC and professional male dance crews. Wow, they actually *do* hire men to dance. They were more house dancers but were pretty good at what they did.
Atmosphere: Main room was always happening. The other rooms later in the night were only so so. The sublime room was the only other somewhat happening room for the trance lovers.
Video: – 360 view at around 2am,
Taken by C – you can see me for 2 seconds dancing with a random dude
Keep reading on for Gandalf’s adventures!
Related:
Future Music Festival Sydney @ Royal Randwick Racecourse: 6th March 2010
by James on Mar.06, 2010, under Festivals / Raves, Future Music Festival, House, Live Band, Royal Randwick Racecourse
A female native american indian - Future Music Festival Sydney 2010
All week it was raining. Forecast was raining. We bought tickets months ago, but on the day.. HALLELUJAH! Big old sun was out and about, kicking clouds’ ass. I put on my American Indian outfit, got some pre-drinks at a friends place and off we went – here we go!
Future Music Festival @ Randwick Racecourse Sydney
Assessment Time: 4pm – 10pm
Website: http://www.futuremusicfestival.com.au
Address: Royal Randwick Race Course, Randwick, Sydney
Dress Code / Door Policy: Anything goes. Everybody wore sunnies. I wore an American Indian outfit.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $100 FR, $120 SR, $145 FR for GA Tickets
Inside: 7 or so massive dance areas. It’s a freaking racecourse. Well its not the course itself, but all the pavillions and surrounding grasslands.
Cloak Room: There was one but I was too lazy to walk to the other side of the course to put it in there
Bar: $10.50 for smirnoff ice cans. They’ve upped it from $10!! Dodgy. Both times we waited about 10-15 minutes for our drinks. Limit of 2 drinks per person.
DJs/Acts: Prodigy. Most epic set I have been to (I havent been to many). I was pretty much situated a good 200 or 300 metres so from the stage, and the whole area was still jumping up and down like a moshpit through all the songs. I missed every other main act, but they included David Guetta, Empire of the Sun, Sven Vath, Boys Noize, Dubfire, and Booka Shade from memory.
Music: House, Trance, Electronica
Crowd: Mixed bag of everything. Mostly caucasians if you wanted to classify.
Entertainment: Roller disco, Rides, free shots of drinks, and lots of other stuff we didn’t discover that day.
Weather: Sunny all day. Perfect.
Atmosphere: very good. The weather was great and provided for a good mood for everyone involved.
Future Music Festival Sydney Videos:
Me doing drunken cartwheels
Read on for more heaps more videos and the Timeline
Related:
Bar Europa, Pavillion Hotel, Scruffy Murphys: Friday 12th February 2010
by James on Feb.12, 2010, under Bar Europa, Live Band, Pavillion, Pop, Rock, Scruffy Murphys
Related:
Homebake Sydney 2009: 5th December 2009
by James on Dec.05, 2009, under Festivals / Raves, Hip Hop, Homebake, Live Band, Rock, The Domain
Homebake: Standing outside the Main Arena
Homebake Sydney 2009 @ The Domain
Assessment Time: 15:30pm – 11:00pm
Opening Times: 12:00pm – 11:00pm
Website: http://www.homebake.com.au
Address: Royal Botanic Gardens, Mrs Macquaries Road, Sydney.
Dress Code: Anything goes. I wore an orange jumpsuit. Everybody else was pretty casual, and being summer, it was lots of shirts, hats and skirts.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Tickets were $99
Inside: Four or five areas. Most of the big acts were in the two main areas – the Main Stage and the Big Top, which is just a huge tent kind of thing. Food stalls inside, and a merry go round swinging thing. In the middle is a huge grass area to sit down. Plenty of toilets.
Cloak Room: $5
Bar: $10 smirnoffs. Lines were extremely long today.
Food: Rip off. $5 bottles of water. $7 hot chips, $5 Hot Dogs, $12 Salt and Pepper Squid
Acts: Powderfinger, Jet, Hilltop Hoods, Eskimo Joe, Sia, Daniel Merriweather, Midnight Juggernauts, Sarah Blasko, A Special Best Of Performance By Tim Finn, Closure In Moscow, Short Stack, Phrase, Decoder Ring, Bumblebeez, Tumbleweed (Original Line-Up), Eddy Current Suppression Ring, The Funkoars, The Middle East, The Aston Shuffle, Sugar Army, Record Producer, Shockone
Music: It’s all Australian music today.
Entertainment: The merry go round provided entertainment, as well as some of the small stores for tattoos or typical carnival like things. In between acts on the main stage, the TV screens would play some funny clips of people rendering their versions of popular songs.
Crowd: Dominantly White Australian. I probably spotted a total of 7 or 8 other asians the whole day.
Atmosphere: Throughout the day the good weather provided a very good atmosphere. This was a sold out event so there were just people everywhere, walking around, doing their thing. There was enough room to find your own spot in the grass and relax as well. The atmosphere at the two main stages was always pretty packed. I would say it was more intense in the Big Top than the main arena – it could have been because the Big Top had more acts which were ‘dance’ or crowd oriented. People in the Big Top were likely to dance and jump up and down. The Main Stage.. people just stood around singing along.
Related:
Fridays @ Marble Bar Sydney – Friday 23rd October 2009
by James on Oct.23, 2009, under Jazz, Live Band, Marble Bar
Fridays @ Marble Bar Sydney
Jazz Cover Band - Marble Bar
Assessment Time: 9pm-11pm
Website: www.marblebarsydney.com.au
Location: Level B1, 588 George St Sydney (Hilton Hotel Sydney)
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Free. No guestlist.
Dress Code: Most acceptable attire accepted, but everyone here was wearing dresses or collared shirts. Wearing casual would not help your cause in fitting in.
Crowd: Dominantly older crowd of late 20′s/ early 30′s and above.
Inside: On big atrium-like room. Decor of cabaret style. A front stage and two side bards. Columns dotted in the room. Very symmetrical.
Music: A live band is playing with a singer. The band is doing covers of popular house and rnb songs, but her soul voice makes each song have a different jazz-like flavour take to it. Nice… also perfect for the older people here who know their contemporary songs but can’t be bothered going toa proper club.
Atmosphere: Bustling and busy, while the decor and band gives a cosy/relaxed kind of feel
Video – 360 view:
Related:
Tuesday Club Crawl: Coyote Night @ The Gaff, Scruffy Murphys (The Vault), 3 Wise Monkeys
by James on Jul.28, 2009, under 3 wise monkeys, Live Band, Pop, RnB, Rock, Scruffy Murphys, The Gaff
A night out with Xav and Storm – The Gaff is apparently the best place to be. So here we go!
Tuesdays : Coyote Night @ The Gaff
Assessment time: 10:30 – 12:00am
Address: 16-18 Oxford Square, Corner Oxford & Riley St Darlinghurst Sydney.
Cover Charge / Entry Fee: $10. You are then given a voucher in which you can use for free entry next time, a free drink or some free food. Pretty good.
Crowd: Backpackers and locals. Mixed ages, mixed nationalities due to the inherent nature of the backpacker.
Music: Upstairs and Downstairs were a mix of top40, rnb, house, rock and pop.
Inside: An outdoor smoking area. Ground floor is a bar, with a dance area in the corner to hold 20. Downstairs underground is a large clubbing area of 2 bars, lounges and a medium sized dance floor to hold about 100 people or so.
Atmosphere: Friendly and .. party party party! Since everybody I knew had work the next day – there were only the unemployed or backpackers in this place, and it makes for a pretty friendly vibe. Met up with backpacker friends and we just danced around like mexican jumping beans. This place got very packed, and is unbelievably busy for a Tuesday night. There was basically no room on the dancefloor to dance around freely.
Door Policy / Dress Code : Almost anything goes tonight. Mohawks ok.
Entertainment: Cowgirls dancing on tables and a wet t-shirt contest – Thumbs up.
Nightclub Level @ The Gaff Sydney - Full of backpackers. Yes, it's a Tuesday night!
Related:
Static @ Pumphouse
by James on May.09, 2009, under Hip Hop, House, Live Band, Pumphouse, Retro, RnB, Space
A friend’s birthday to say hello!
Pumphouse
Location: 17 Little Pier St, Darling Harbour
Website: http://www.pumphouse.com.au
Inside: 2 floors. Top floor was just a gallery / patio section to allow viewing of activities downstairs, and to relax. IT gave the whole place a hall-like feel. Bottom floor was a medium sized floor which could hold probably 70 or so people. Lounges in the back, and two podiums in the middle.
Event: Static
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Discount on guestlist before midnight, $25 otherwise.
Opening: 10pm-4am
Attire / Dress Code / Door Policy: Casual accepted. Hats accepted. I got in past the bouncers without hassle.
Crowd: Asian
Music: RNB / Hip Hop / House (I didn’t hear any)
Typical tunes were more on the hip hop side – i.e. none of that slow slow rnb stuff. It was all pumping, it was all good.
Atmosphere: People were dancing, jumping, and people were sitting. I suppose if you were sitting down you wouldn’t have had a good time. There weren’t that many people (its a small place), nethertheless the energy was definitely there.
Timeline
I was at the register. The people in front were guestlisted and when it got to me “SORRY! Guestlist has ended!”. It was midnight Arghh nooo if only I got here earlier!! Shame on me for playing two extra Guitar Hero songs before I got here. I grudgingly handed out the $25, knowing i wouldn’t be here long..
Bopping with a lifelong friend
I found the birthday boy. We’ve known each other since I was born. This was the first night we’ve hit a club together. So the whole time, he’s got his arm around me so tight.. so happy to see me. Likewise, it was good to see him too! There wasn’t much room to manouvre around, so basically we stood there, screaming out various ‘yeahs!’ and ‘woos!’ to the music, while I had my finger poking the sky. It was a simple affair. However, didn’t get the chance to waltz around and dance / meet others.
Podium dancers – MEN!
I like my podium dancers, and I ilke my podiums – but at this event, they had TWO GUYS as dancers!! They seemed to enjoy themselves. They were doing the hip hop thing. It was something different, but we all prefer scantily clad chicks, don’t we? I wonder if I could apply for a spot, and show off my average dance moves.
Coda (12:40am)
I was inside for a total of 40 minutes. That’s a rate of $37.50/hr to dance. *dies*. It wasn’t so bad with my friend around. I head down to Brooklyn for my next stop.
I am would only recommend this place unless you love your hip hop/rnb, your dancing.. and only if you go with friends.
Related:
-
Hello! I'm James. This subjective blog serves to post every dance event I attend to. I go out clubbing once or twice a week. I may include some stories as well. Feel free to join the discussion by leaving comments - Thanks for dropping by!
James' twitter
- bought the last 4 kettle chips at the north sydney 7-eleven... bwahahahaha
- train died at waverton indefinitely. too many people at north sydney, so catching a bus home. weeeeee
- i have had a strange day today, and i don't feel real at the moment. I am, however, full of Habibs chicken!!
- OMG YOU ARE SO F*CKED UP. I TRUSTED YOU WITH MY SECRET. BUT YOU HAD TO OPEN YOUR BIG MOUTH!! YOU TOLD EVERYONE! NOW EVERYONE KNOWS IM SEXY
- Look for me at Haymarket Hotel this Friday and Verandah Bar this Saturday
- Asian lesbians, what a concept! And what an excuse to cancel dinner on me.
- they changed my street name from a PDE to RD.. how strange
- you made a bad move trying not to sit on me, and your left buttcheek made big contact with the armrest. was it worth it? Nup I bet it hurts.
- I love finding lost things in my pocket!!
- youtube notes to self: double rainbow, masterchef, cityrail, pirates ... watch this space over the next few months!
