Jesus with worshippers at Bamboo

Bamboo @ Martin Place Bar – 17th July 2010
Assessment Time: 11:00PM – 04:00AM
Opening Hours: 10:30 PM- 04:00AM
Lockout: None
Website: http://www.urbanagent.com.au , http://www.martinplacebar.com.au
Address: 51 Martin Place, Corner of Elizabeth Street Sydney
Dress Code / Door Policy: Casual allowed. Half the dudes are smart casual, and the other half are just.. casual. Girls are all in dresses and wearing their faces. Lots of pretty girls. And they’ve relaxed policy somewhat – they have allowed hats to be worn inside!
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Free entry all night if you wore white. Otherwise standard cover charges apply. $20 on guestlist before midnight. Free on guesetlist if you get to the counter before 10:30 (small chance), and $25 after midnight.
Guestlist: eric@urbanagent.com.au
Occurence: Every Saturday only.
Inside: Walk into a small bar to hold about 150 or so people – DJ at the front corner. Bar on the right hand side of the venue,taking up half of the floor space. 4 podiums are dotted along the length of the dancefloor, including one with a dancing pole. Small private area at back but was really open to anyone who walked in. Outdoor smoking and BBQ area on the left of the venue.
Cloak Room: $5 for all items.
Bar: I can’t remember. 3 ABC shots for $36 ?
Music: Primarily Hip Hop / RnB tonight. Top 40 and Commerical House mashup as well. DJ’s are mixing it well, keeping the crowd always active and dancing.
Crowd: Dominantly Asian. I spotted 2 white girls, 3 black guys as the minorities here tonight. There were probably a few more handful of the minorities. Age wise it varied, but most people I met were in their early 20′s. It seems as all the teens have gone to Funky. Bad news in a few years time for Bamboo as they would soon have no base.
Entertainment:Theme tonight was White. White balloons all over the place. MC to keep things going. Podium dancers, but only one or two. BBQ outside to feed your tummy. Similar to Shanghai Nights (well, it is the same promoter)
Atmosphere: At its peak, the place is extremely packed, and you would be hard pressed to find some floor space to dance – you would really need to hop up on the podiums to have your own dance action. Outside of peak periods it was still pretty busy. Most of the crowd are singing along to the songs, so pretty vibrant.
Video: 360 of Bamboo @ Martin Place Bar (at the back)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Jesus have a hairband

My hair got caught up
My wig hair is about shoulder length. Bamboo is a very very packd event. Inevitably my hair got caught up in many peoples zipper jackets, and it was pretty annoying. Also while dancing, the hair would get caught in the rings that girls were wearing. Pretty annoying for the girl, but I found it funny.

Balloons are not fun
Someone tied up three balloons to the back of my hair. For a fleeting moment I had the insane idea of repeating what I did last year at Bligh Bar, but quickly brushed it away. Anyway, the balloons on my hair didn’t last long – after they got entangled in one of the chandeliers, I had to manually undo it from my hair. It was an embarrasing look, standing in the middle of the dancefloor undoing these balloons.

I fooled one girl
Girl: “Can I wear your wig?”
James: “its real”
Girl: “nah, its not!” (tugs the wig and by sheer luck, it manages to stay on in place ) “OH MY GOD IT IS REAL! I’m so sorry I pulled it!”
James: “Yup”

Girls who look like who they have seen Jesus. Oh wait…
You walk around and a girl turns around. She look and YELLS IN HORROR like she saw a ghost. It happened twice. It really is amazing how scary I look, right? haha. I love this outfit.

Pole dancing
There is Korean looking chick who has taken pole dancing classes. Look at the pic and look at the crowd, all amazed at her style. Show off, but I must admit, it was hypnotizing.

Upside down pole dancer shows off

Multiple podiums (The Jason effect)
Last year when I went to bamboo, they had 2 small podiums, and one would always be dominated by Jason, the resident Korean bum dancer. Tonight, they have installed four podiums. I do suspect that it was a mitigation against podium hogs, and it has worked – you can dance on one podium and people around you will love you, but other dancers on the other end of the club are staring at their own podium. Focus is mostly on the pole dancing podium, to see what tricks people can get upto on it.

Standard dance moves while wearing robes or looking like Jesus
If you ever find yourself in the presence of a Jesus lookalike, or wearing holy robes, here are some holy moves that I discovered that would certainy send a message to the heavens above to let them know you ain’t gonna stop partying in heaven:

- The prayer: Simple yet effective, clasp your hands together in a prayer position. From here, keep your hands together and move up and down. Bend over for effect. For variation, move hands in a circle or above your head to move to a Thai / Egyptian style dance.

- The Hallelujah: A bit more daring, and effective with robes. Both hands in a diagonal manner away from your body, and pump them up and down at the elbows, with palms open, reaching for the sky. It’s a real crowd pleaser if you are up on stage, as it is very easy to follow. See images above on demonstation.

- The Holy Whip: Again, a robe only dance move, and the ad-hoc adaptation of the classic wind up your towel and whip the other dude. Grab a part of your robe that is dangling off and hold it about 1 metre up from the base. Lift it up and fling it quickly back and forth onto a persons buttocks. Perform the fling quicker for a better ‘ouch’ effect.

Here’s a video of me dancing

Click here to view the embedded video.

Really really packed. ugh.
During the hour at around 11:30PM until about 1:30AM the main dancefloor is undanceable. You stand in the dancefloor trying to dance, but you end up just letting people through your circle or bumping into other people. You either would have to dance at the far back where it was boring, or way at the front, where it was similarly away from the action. However it was still somewhat danceable.

I saw my cousin!
Ran into my cousin. He’s 23 and engaged already. His fiance was there as well. He couldn’t believe what I was wearing. His best friend was there who met me before, but I had no idea who he was, haha. Anyway we had a chat and he asks where my girl was. I pointed to a girl I met at the bar – he understood the bro code and pushed me back to her. I love him.

Too hard to hold a conversation
Being as awesome as Gandalf the white has its downsides. Primarily that I could not hold a converation with any person – male or female for longer than 5 minutes. I would have someone else run up and tell me how awesome they thought my outfit was or how they wanted a photo. How could I not take these compliments or photo opportunities. Many thought I was working here. Aww hell no!! A girl even asked for my business card. It got me dreaming of a business card – it’ll be one of those cards that when you open up, would play a random RnB or House tune in similar vein to classic old school mobile phone tunes! Awesome:

CLUBBING WITH JAMES TRAN
‘THAT GUY WHO NEEDS A LIFE’
Nightclub and event reviews at:
www.JamesTran.net

Hmm.. I like it! I might go make some.. they’re not expensive to make. Watch this space.

Arrivederci
Kicked out at closing time. Place had about 20 people still in it when they finally kicked us out.

Post mortem
Busted by someone who saw me at the last white party
Outside Verandah Bar: JAMES! JAMES!! He screams. Who the fuck is this guy coming up to me?
JAMES!! YOU’RE WEARING THE SAME OUTFIT AGAIN!
Oh shit. Totally busted. It was a guy who I met at the I Heart Uni White Party a few months ago. I remembered him and we had a good old chat. Luckily nobody at Bamboo came up to say they recognized me

Recommendation
It’s a nice place to meet people, but its way too squashy to dance during peak hours.

Bamboo @ Martin Place Bar – 6.5/10

Random photo with Pikachu - Beauty and the Geek theme

I already did Sanctuary Hotel last week – I do try to avoid going to the same venue twice in a row – you risk getting bored easily. The problem was that I made a promise to a friend I would come here tonight. Well, apparently it would be even more busier than last week – lets find out shall we!

Funky @ Sanctuary Hotel
Assessment Time: 9:00PM – 02:00AM
Opening Hours: 10:00PM – 03:00AM (?)
Lockout: None
Website: http://www.funkybuddha.com.au, http://www.phatentertainment.com.au
Address: 545 Kent St - Corner of Liverpool and Kent St, Sydney. Behind 3 wise monkeys.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Tonight, the theme is Beauty and the Geek! Casual OK. Hats allowed. Guys are wearing a mix of casual and smart casual. Girls are mostly in dresses. I saw someone walk in with a Pikachu outfit.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $25 Standard Entry, $20 on guestlist. Free before 10:30PM. The only slight hope you could get in before 10:30 was to be on a birthday guestlist, and line up in the birthday guestlist line at 9PM. If you got there 9:30PM, you wouldn’t make it. We were on a standard non-birthday guestlist. We got there 9PM AT THE VERY FRONT, and we only managed to get in after 10:30PM! We just stood there as we saw birthday guest after birthday guest walk in. We even stood there watching hopelessly as people off the street just cut the line! Amazing that bouncers could not be more strict on this or have a more foolproof way of being fair on people who actually lined up. Usually lining up 9PM gets you in before 10:30 but the organisers have actually done the right thing, and let the birthday lists have priority. This is how it is meant to be, unlike other venues where it is first come first serve, with birthday people not given priority at all. Well at least cut us normal people some slack. 90 minutes in the cold – give me my $5 discount!!!

Waiting outside Sanctuary with fellow free entry seekers

Guestlist: info@phatentertainment.com.au
Occurence: Every Saturday
Inside: The entrance is not at the normal Sanctuary Hotel entrance. It is via the TAB area further along on Kent St. The room upon entry is where people can have a chat and chill out without actually going outside. Walk in further to the main area, and the large carpeted room has been converted to a dancefloor. DJ on the wall, and a 3 tier podium smack in the middle, dividing the room into two halves. Bar along the far back wall.
Cloak Room: Cloak services are located in the entry room. Standard rip off prices for the event. I think it was $4 for small bags, and $8 for large bags, possibly $5/$10. Who knows. I avoided the cloak room and placed my stuff behind the ATM on the dancefloor. It held up the whole night.
Bar: I didn’t buy any drinks tonight. Waiting time 3-4 minutes or less.
DJs: Sefu, etc etc.
Music: Mostly Contemporary RnB / Pop, with the occasional house mashup.
Crowd: Mostly Asian, and mostly teenagers
Entertainment: Last week the podium was a three tiered podium. This week it is 3 separate podiums. One podium was rectangular to hold upto 5 or 6 people, while the other two were solo podiums which could hold upto 3 people. This freed up some dance room to walk around. Also an MC to keep things up.
Atmosphere: It got pretty busy quite quickly, then it got immensely packed on the dancefloor. Lounge areas – most seats are taken.
Video: Walking around the dancefloor 

Click here to view the embedded video.

Timeline:
Not used to this attention
Being early to line up, we are early in. Dancefloor already has some people dancing, so jump in we go, doing geeky dance routines. Then BAM! 6 korean girls surround and dance with me. I really didn’t know how to handle this. So I kept doing the stupid dance. They were going to leave in 1 hour to watch the Korea vs Argentina world cup soccer match at Darling Harbour. Why they hell did they spend $20 to stay here for an hour? Anyway, one had braces but she didn’t want a photo with me, even after I offered $5 for a photo. When the official photographer came, she actually ran and hid behind her friends. That made me laugh. Watching someone literally RUN and DUCK to avoid having a photo taken. hahaha

People too lazy to dance or who cant dance watch a world cup soccer game

No dance for the man
Minute 1: The podium is empty.
Minute 2: The podium is empty.
Minute 3: James is on the podium dancing.
Minute 4: James is kicked off by security. No reason given.
Minute 5: The podium is empty.
Minute 6: Girl is on the podium.
(10 minutes later): Girl is still up on podium!!!!!
Sexists!!! I tried a further two times to get up on the podium and stay there for longer than 30 seconds, but the security dude kept pulling us down. One third and final ditch effort resulted in a girl jumping up and grinding with me. The moment she jumped off, I was asked to get off the podium again. Total bullcrap.

Free Shots!
We met a dude and he liked our enthusiam so much he bought us drinks, and kept buying us more and more. He refused to take payment from us. We can’t say we didn’t try to pay back the guy.

Too busy on the dancefloor
It was now so busy it got to the point where the only space to dance was on the carpeted area outside the direct dancefloor. Fair enough, so we danced to our hearts content here. People found it amusing and some joined the silly antics. Was fun! Most though just sat there in the lounges staring at the other people having fun. They definitely were not coming back here.

Arrivederci
All my friends left, so Marty and I went off to Shark Hotel to continue dancing into the night.

Recommendation
Much more busier tonight. Not many in theme. Very upset that a 90 minute line up did not result in free entry, while a handful of people were seen pushing in. What can you do? Atmosphere pretty good. Music is great for a contemporary RnB joint. As much as I do not like to admit it, I had a better time tonight sans the lining up trouble. If only they let a man dance for more than 1 minute on the podium…

Funky @ Sanctuary Hotel: (Beauty and the Geek)- 7.5/10

Me with one of the fans in the attempt to keep the temperature cool

It’s my birthday weekend, but I really didn’t plan anything for Saturday. A friend has invited me to Sanctuary Hotel – The last time I walked in, the air con wasn’t working correctly for large crowds and it became stuffy and overheated. Since then I have been assured things were ‘fixed’. So let’s check it out – here we go!

Funky (Buddha) @ Sanctuary Hotel
Assessment Time: 12:15AM to 02:45AM
Opening Hours: 10:30 – Unknown
Lockout: None
Website: http://www.funkybuddha.com.au, http://www.phatentertainment.com.au
Address: 545 Kent St - Corner of Liverpool and Kent St, Sydney. Behind 3 wise monkeys.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Casual ok. Hats allowed.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $25 standard. $20 on guestlist before midnight. 
Guestlist: info@phatentertainment.com.au
Occurence: Every Saturday Night.
Inside: The entrance is not at the normal Sanctuary Hotel entrance. It is via the TAB area further along on Kent St. The room upon entry is where people can have a chat and chill out without actually going outside. Walk in further to the main area, and the large carpeted room has been converted to a dancefloor. DJ on the wall, and a 3 tier podium smack in the middle, dividing the room into two halves. Bar along the far back wall.
Cloak Room: Cloak room is located upon entry. Not utilized tonight but I would imagine it to be the same rip off pricing as of previous nights at the previous Verandah Bar venue.
Bar: Did not utilize tonight, but the wait was a bit longer than usual. Line was 2 or 3 deep. Bar closed altogether at 2:30AM, in a safe assumption that too many fights spoil the bar.
Music: RnB, Pop and some House mashup
Crowd: Mostly Asian. Mostly teenagers or early 20′s. You can tell via the baby faces and hair styles. I fit right in.
Entertainment: Podium dancers throughout the night. It’s good enough.
Atmosphere: It’s setup to encourage lots of dancing, which is good. The humidity of the last time I was here is gone – Fans are installed and air con is setup just right for a danceable experience. People are not as friendly but what else do you expect from 18 year olds. Carpeted area gives the place a more friendly vibe as well as the second room to allow people a breather is also good. It’s also pretty busy on the dancefloor itself, enough to have your own dance, but not sardine packed.

Podium dancer - Funky @ Sanctuary Hotel

Fights: I saw two fights break out tonight. One you may see typically at a club, but two in one night is bad. Ha. Teenage angst and alcohol.
Videos:

Walkthrough of the dancefloor area. 

Click here to view the embedded video.

360 View

Click here to view the embedded video.

Timeline:
The world cup
It only comes every 4 years. Tonight it was Australia vs Ghana. I sat for the majority of the match in the secondary room watching the game with my fellow clubbers. I know, it wasn’t utilizing the most of my $25 but I have to watch it. It was really upsetting to see Kewell red carded. Very unfair.

This definitely deserved a red card
So after the match I am trying to get through the crowd, but I face a wall of some dancers. I stand there for a few seconds waiting for a gap to open up so that I could continue on. A girl behind me pushes me. Ok, I was near their group so I step back a bit but I still can’t go through. Then, ANOTHER SHOVE from the same group, this time more violent – as if to tell me to fuck off already. HEY – IM JUST TRYING TO WALK THROUGH, AND COINCIDENTALY STANDING NEXT TO YOU GIRLS. I AM NOT EVEN LOOKING AT YOU. WHY SHOVE ME FOR?? Fuck you, fucking teenagers.

Used the birthday card
Was getting bored, and there was a circle of about 8 girls just dancing away. So I asked marty to jump in the middle and dance. He said no. I used my birthday card and forced him to go. He agrees and jumps in and dances. Great! It works and we all start dancing for my birthday. I think they were laughing at us rather than with us when we were dancing.

We have a fan from a previous clubbing night
An area in the back opened up and we go back to dance. Another dude joins us, and I shake his hand after. He says he met us last time at Macquarie Hotel! I don’t remember him at all, but if he knows where I was in the past, then I believe him. It’s been a while since I’ve been recognized randomly- I was starting to miss it.

Arrivederci
Left just before 3:00AM from being bored. The place was beginning to die down ratio wise.

Recommendation
This is not such a bad place to go, and a definite improvement on Verandah Bar. Do keep in mind its Asian teeny bopper night here if you are of the older classy type. Seeings two fight break outs in the short time I was here was a little disturbing, but that is expected in any club with young people.

Funky @ Sanctuary Hotel – 6/10

Marty, beer breath dancer and I - The Tunnel Nightclub Sydney

It’s my birthday weekend, but I’ve already had two dinners, a karaoke and meat tray raffle birthday party. My friends are getting sick me celebrating, and I still had a house party to host as well. Tonight was my clubbing choice of night out, so here we go!

Addiction @ The Tunnel (Formerly Dragonfly) Sydney
Assessment Time: 11:30PM – 03:30AM
Opening Hours: – 03:30AM
Lockout: 02:00AM ? We tried to leave at 02:30AM but was told it was lock out if we tried to re-enter.
Website: http://www.tunnelnightclub.com.au, http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=166455593127
Address: 1 Earl Place Potts Point / Kings Cross, Sydney
Dress Code / Door Policy: Smart Casual. Hats were allowed inside. Groups of guys are allowed, and people of non-caucasian backgrounds were welcome tonight. Can you believe it?? The racist door policy of the old Dragonfly club on Fridays was no longer evident. This is primarily because tonight is an RnB event. However I do not know if their Saturdays have relaxed their door policy. Guys inside tonight are dressed mostly with collared shirts, and the girls are all dressed up and looking very good. There was a dancing girl with multicoloured boots with funky lycras and loose shirt etc, like a dancer from the fluro 80′s, and so it is safe to assume as long as you look good, you can come in no matter what you are wearing.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: I got free entry as it was my birthday, but if you submit a standard guestlist, the cover charge would be $10 before midnight. I am unsure what the standard non-guestlist entry fee is. I would assume this to be $20.
Guestlist: I sent mine to nathan@exclusivproductionz.com.au, though there are probably other email addresses as well. There is also the Facebook group.
Occurence: Every Friday
Inside: Similar to the old Dragonfly, as you walk in you are presented with lounges with a bar behind. Surrounding the bar are booths and lounges. One of these booths was mine. On the left is the dancefloor, which seems more open. The DJ booth has moved from the far left wall to the side of the dancefloor closer to the bar, to replace a booth that used to be there. In the old place of the DJ seat, is an elevated podium for the show offs to dance to the side of the crowd. A glassed off private area to the left exists as well but nobody has booked it tonight, and it remains closed off for the entire night.
Cloak Room: Yes, there is a cloak room offered (its on the far left behind the dancefloor) but I am not sure of the pricing. We just left our stuff on the booths during the night.
Bar: I didn’t drink alcohol tonight but waiting in line didn’t take long at all, at most 3-4 minutes, unless there was a big order in front of you. No more than 1 person deep.
Music: Primarily RnB and pop, with some house, Baltimore, etc as advertised.
Crowd: The crowd tonight was mostly Euro. Minority consisted of blacks, us asian dudes, some backpackers. You can’t tell who were the backpackers as they are all dressed like everyone else. Most of the crowd are young, but there are some older folk (ie myself) in their late 20′s and met some people in their 30′s.
Entertainment: There was an MC to keep things moving along.
Atmosphere: A pretty friendly atmosphere. The staff and security are pretty friendly so long as you don’t get on their bad side. No fights tonight that I witnessed.

Photo from my booth at the back of The Tunnel Nightclub

Video: 360 view from my booth

Click here to view the embedded video.

Video: 360 view from the dancefloor taken at 1:00AM

Click here to view the embedded video.

Timeline:
Where are my friends?
This was the question asked by the promoter who was taking care of my guestlist of 50 or so people. I was with only 2 of my friends in line. The promoter had organised free entry for myself and two others as well as a reserved booth to have the entire night. I felt bad that I only brang two people so I lied to him:

‘My friends are behind me’ I reply. I really had no other friends coming. This was a hastily organised clubbing night and I really didn’t invite anyone to come along except 5 or 6 people. This on top of what was mentioned above, in that my friends were sick of my birthday celebrations

Get out of my booth! (and brithday benefits)
I look for the booth with my name on it. I couldn’t find it – all booths were taken and occupied by people! Someone has stolen my booth, but I don’t bother. There were only 3 of us anyway. So its straight to the bar for some water. A tap on the shoulder. It’s the promoter:

‘Look over there’.

He points to a booth. It was just cleared out and is now empty, with a table with four champagne glasses.

‘Thats your booth, and the champagne is free on us’

This guy has just kicked everyone out of this booth and given us free entry and bubbly. Jesus Christ, *now* I feel really bad to bringing two people, but free alcohol!! WOOT!

Reserved for James Tran - Addiction @ The Tunnel

After this write up I would not be surprised if was not offered any more free champagne, free entry or booth reservation.

Continuous assault of women at my booth
So there is 3 guys in a booth which could seat 15 or so people. So what does the promoter do? He sends 3 girls to our booth and asks if we mind if there are extra girls here. “Oh, I guess I dont mind them”. Far out brussel sprouts! I just want my own personal booth for my birthday. A few minutes later here comes another girl, then another.. until there are about 8 girls in my booth – their bags and jackets strewn everywhere. WHY? I don’t want them invading my space. Well I did, but not really.

Don’t trust me with your jacket
Girls were not friendly, even if they were invading my booth. In fact, one walked right up to me, picked up her jacket next to me, and moved it further away from me. Say What? Don’t trust an asian guy sitting next to your precious jacket?? Did I really look that dodgy?? I look like freaking justin bieber right now – I am totally trustworthy!! AGH! This was upsetting, so I left my booth to dance – as there was no room in the booth to dance due to women sitting down with their legs in their way.

More dancing
It’s a bit dark in here, so its hard to take over the dancefloor. The best way was to get on the side podium where everyone could see you. Sadly though it was packed so we had to wait until later in the night when we could actually jump on there and dance.

Danced on the upper podium, and got people videotaping and taking photos of us. I have no idea what they are going to do – put it on facebook? I am moving so fast I would just come out as a blur, especially in the darkness of a club. Found a drunk girl who danced like one, and her breath stank of alcohol. Total turn off. She was fun to dance with. Oh look theres a picture of her at the very top of this post.

Also got stalked by an Indian dude. Everywhere we went , he would follow us, or he would pounce on a girl we were not chatting to. It was kind of creepy.

It sort of died quickly
People started to leave from around 1AM and by 2AM it was pretty dead. You know its dead when I am able to do multiple cartwheels on the dancefloor.

Arrivederci
We are kicked out at closing time. At closing time there are only 4 or 5 people left in the club. Security tells us ‘come back tomorrow.Its busier on Saturday’. Hahaha, every promoters nightmare.

Recommendation
Despite the recommendation by security to visit on the busier Saturdays – it was like comparing oranges and apples as Saturdays are their house nights. Anyway nice clean crowd, danceable music and new refurbished venue makes for a good night out here. It is a safe place to bring friends who may not be into dancing but are happy to drink (ie for a birthday). If people stayed here longer it would have also been good.

Addiction @ The Tunnel - 7.5/10

Macquarie Hotel Sydney Liverpool Dancefloor

I am celebrating a friends birthday at Macquarie Hotel, so here we go!

June Babies @ Macquarie Hotel
Assessment Time: 10:45PM – 03:00AM
Opening Hours: 09:00 PM- 03:00AM
Lockout: None
Website: http://www.macquariehotelliverpool.com.au/ , http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=121829681183563
Address: 269 Macquarie St, Liverpool Sydney
Dress Code / Door Policy: Casual allowed. Most guys here were indeed wearing casual t-shirts, runners etc. Girls were half dressed up half csual. Surprisingly hats are not allowed.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Free all night.
Guestlist: Pointless as it was free entry. People who were born in June were encourages to create guestlists to be entitled to 6 free drinks. I sent a guestlist of one person (me)
Occurence: The birthday event is Monthly, but Macquarie Hotel in general is on every Saturday with the same crowd regardless.
Inside: Walk inside to the gaming area. Bar to the right for the area. Keep walking into the main bar area where the bar is also to the right. Bar area has various tables and chairs, and is carpeted. Following up is a strip of patch and a set of lounges. Past the row of lounges is the dancefloor, with overhead convertible roof. Dancefloor to hold about 150 people. Side room to the left for smoking, if the overhead roof was closed. There is also a secondary entrance on the right corner of the dancefloor.
Cloak Room: None
Bar: Shots can only be ordered at the main bar before midnight.
Music: Contemporary RnB for most of the night.
Crowd: Mostly Asian, mostly teenagers. There are a handful of older locals in their late 20s and 30s but these are the minority. I met someone who was celebrating their 18th here. Also my other 18/19 y.o clubbing friends were here. The birthday girl tonight was 22/23 – I can’t remember.
Entertainment: There’s an MC.
Atmosphere: Vibrant, busy and packed on the dancefloor. Way too packed. People openly smoke on the dancefloor as it is open air. Otherwise everyone here is into the dancing / jumping up and down here.

Timeline:
Securing the free drinks
On offer tonight for people born in June were 6 free drinks! Amazing, because I was born in June. A few days before, I asked a promoter what the conditions were. The only thing I had to do to was spam all my facebook friends to tell them about the event. I said I would think about it (no). Well, in any case, a guestlist event in my name was created in my name, with zero guests. Apparently this ws good enough to score free drinks anyway, which I happily got from the MC at the front. The MC actually CHECKED that I was born in June. Never in the history of guestlisting has my birthday been verified until tonight.

World Cup Fever
People are still on about the World Cup. What luck that tonights match was Argentina vs Some Team, where Argentina won 4-0. So while people on the dancefloor are happily dancing away, the rest of us who can’t dance just stare at the soccer match. About half the night was wasted watching the match.

Security still hustling people around
Last time we were here, security were bossing people who were mingling around areas where you are not meant to mingle. Mingle areas include the bathroom, the strip of path between dancefloor and back area, and the bar, if you were not buying a drink. It does keep the people and flow going well though, I have to admit.

Meet my niece, and my fiance
Woo! So I am chatting to a 30 something year old local girl. She’s engaged. Her fiance is here as well at the club. Amazing. So is her niece. Bam! She is hot. Auntie tells me to go for it. Ok, so I strode on up and did a boom boom pow dance (you can imagine the moves), and fiance steps in and pushes me away! He said no, no, no. Auntie didn’t tell someone it was ok. Oh well.

He just turned 18 tonight, Gemini power!

Arrivederci
We left at closing time, and went for a pork roll at the 24 hour place at Cabramatta.

Recommendation
If you are honestly too lazy to head out to the city and live in the area, do check it out. It is the only decent RnB place out west (besides albion in Parramatta), but only if you are prepared to hang out with a young (and potentially dangerous, but I did not witness any fights) crowd.

June Babies / Pure @ Macquarie Hotel – 6.5/10

Timeline:
Scoring free entry
It was already 3AM and we didn’t want to pay entry for 30 minutes of dancing, so as my friend thinks about turning around, I tell him that I got it covered. I was going to try and smooth talk my way past these two girls. A tough job but this is $20 we are talking about. So as we walked down the stairs to the cashier, we put on our geek glasses on. Mine had a mechanical wind up moving moustache and eyebrows – its hilariously awesome. I wound it up and let the moustache and eyebrows wiggle around. The girls start laughing so hard its not funny, and we slide on through like snakes. WIN!!!

Now that I’ve written about it, it would probably never work again. We were lucky there was no stamp checker, but I fully expect them to have one now. I do understand why now they have a dedicated stamp checker sometimes at the clubs.

My frames are awesome
Everyone wanted to wear this awesome thing on my face… this wiggly moustache device. It was epic. Random girls and guys are trying to take it off me and when they couldn’t.. they would try to take my zebra tie off. Hmph!! Oh well, I am popular. Sadly this is all I was good for. Nobody wanted to get to know my personality. I am used yet again.

Me and my moustache mask thing

Arrivederci

Place closed at 3:30AM and we leave.

Recommendation
Well it was ok considering it was 3:00AM when we entered. It may have been packed earlier- but all in all, it was a better experience than last time, when it was totally dead.

Blue Butterfly Arthouse Crowd - 1AM

Another weekend, another birthday. Tonight it’s Arthouse, so here we go!

Blue Butterfly @ Arthouse
Assessment Time: 01:00AM – 2:30AM
Opening Hours: 10:30PM – 03:00AM
Lockout: None
Website: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=23591850198
Address: 275 Pitt St, Sydney
Dress Code / Door Policy: Smart Casual. Everyone is dressed well. Guys collared shirts. some t-shirts. Girls are almost all in dresses. I spotted a short lesbian with jeans.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $25 standard entry. $20 on guestlist
Guestlist: See group and follow events to find guestlist details
Occurence: Once a month or so. 
Inside: Within the arthouse only the main room is open for clubbing. You walk into a hall-like room. Half is occupied by stools, chairs, and the other half a wooden dancefloor for about 100 people. Bar on the right to serve all patrons. 
Cloak Room: None
Music: Mostly RnB tonight.
Crowd: Mostly Asian. Some Aussies and Euros.
Entertainment: An MC was here. 
Atmosphere: Good, considering it was past peak time.
Walkthrough:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Timeline:
I am not allowed to talk to girls
I am with the birthday group and I decided to talk to two randome girls from another party. Not after 5 seconds. One of the guys from our party steps in between me and the two randoms, and pulls me away saying “no, no, no”. Why? Were they Mafia / Triad girls? They didn’t look like it. Did he think I had a girlfriend? Not the case. Were they his girlfriends? Didn’t appear so. The only logical conclusion was that he was gay and into me. I don’t have proof of this but what else can explain this mysterious cockblocking behaviour from a fellow man?

Taking over
Well, there really wasn’t many people on the dancefloor to take over, so acquisition was quite easy.

Fight at the end
Apparently big brawl at the end of the night ended things early for all patrons.

Arrivederci
Left around 2:30 for some Hungry Jacks across the road

Recommendation
This was an average night. Again, disappointed in only one room being open tonight. Probably not worth the $25,  especially that its only one room open. Arthouse Hotel – 4.5/10

Judging Panel

A friends birthday at Havana, so here we go!

Candy Dreams (Final night) @ Havana club deluxe

Assessment Time: 11:30PM – 02:00AM
Opening Hours: 10:30PM – 02:00AM
Lockout: None
Website: N/a
Address: 169 Oxford St, Sydney
Dress Code / Door Policy: Anything goes.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $15 on guestlist.
Occurence: Tonight was the final night of this particular event.
Inside: Dancefloor for about 250 people surrounded by lounges, and 3 bars. 
Cloak Room: $4 for standard size. $6 for larger items
Music: RnB, House mashup.
Crowd: Asian.
Entertainment: Modelling show. Tonight was the grand final where 8 of the most beautiful girls from previous rounds, strut it out for the $1000 grand prize.
Atmosphere: Dead. Pretty much the worst I’ve seen Havana at.
Video: 360 from the side bar:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Timeline:
It’s dead
The first thing that we see as we walk in, is that the entire place is dead. Amazingly dead. There were approximately zero people on the dancefloor, and about 10-20 people around the floor. It was a sad sight, maybe the promoters weren’t bothered seeing it was the final night.

The modelling show
Tonight was the finals of who is the prettiest girl, and there were 8 beauties. You would imagine people would pack this place out for this event, but not really. The girls strutted their stuff, and someone won $1000. Nobody was here to see them compete at all. It was a shame. Here’s a little snippet:

Click here to view the embedded video.

class

Meditating

Arrivederci
The place closed at 2AM, and not the usual 4AM, which was surprising, but also not surprising considering the deadness of the place.

Recommendation
I can no longer recommend Havana for a night, however it doesn’t matter anymore, as tonight was the last night of the Candy Dreams events.

Candy Dreams (Final Night) – 2/10.

Favela Nightclub downstairs area

It’s a new promoter, same music and same venue. Been nagged to go as I was originally going to go to The Tunnel- so here we go!

Quick review: Friday rnb @ Favela (New Promoters)
Assessment Time: Midnight – 3:00AM
Opening Hours: Unknown – 3:00AM
Lockout: None
Website: http://www.favela.com.au
Address: Kings Cross, Sydney
Dress Code / Door Policy: Casual ok.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $25. $20 on guestlist.
Guestlist: Yes, facebook event.
Occurence: Weekly on Fridays.
Cloak Room: $5
Bar: 2 bars.
Music: RnB
Crowd: Asians and Wogs. Mostly asians on the dancefloor
Entertainment: An MC, but that’s about it.
Atmosphere: Initially pretty shit an later picked up for a short bit in the main room.  Downstairs was a private function but it was pretty dead.
360 Video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Only asians are dancing.
Most of the time in the main rnb dancefloor, only us asians are dancing. Occasionally some of the other natios would dance but its not a very big dancefloor

Taunted by cloak room people
As I leave, I realise I lost my cloak room ticket. The guys taunt me and tell me they are going to keep my stuff. I impressed them with a blood type analysis of their personality, and they let me have my bag back.

Arrivederci
Left at closing time

Recommendation
I did not expect much to happen here, and I was right. Don’t come here on Friday.. It is not worth the high entry fee. 4/10

Macquarie Hotel, Liverpool Sydney

I’ve never been to Liverpool – There’s three clubs I know of in this area – Collingwood, NOX and Macquarie. A friend constantly raves about Macquarie Hotel, so I rounded up some local friends, and off we went – Here we go!

Pure @ Macquarie Hotel Sydney
Assessment Time: 11:30PM – 03:00AM
Opening Hours: Unknown – 03:00AM
Lockout: No lockout
Website: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=226724078936 , http://www.macquariehotelliverpool.com.au/
Address: 269 Macquarie St, Liverpool Sydney
Dress Code / Door Policy: Casual shirts and casual shoes allowed, and is what almost all the guys are wearing. Girls are dressed up and looking pretty. Hats are not allowed to be worn inside.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Free all night.
Guestlist: None.
Inside: Walk inside to the gaming area. Bar to the right for the area. Keep walking into the main bar area where the bar is also to the right. Bar area has various tables and chairs, and is carpeted. Following up is a strip of patch and a set of lounges. Past the row of lounges is the dancefloor, with overhead convertible roof. Dancefloor to hold about 150 people. Side room to the left for smoking, if the overhead roof was closed. There is also a secondary entrance on the right corner of the dancefloor. See video for more.
Cloak Room: None
Bar: $7.50 for a shot of tequila.
DJs: DJ Dee.
Music: RnB all night, with about 20 minutes of house/trance from 02:30-02:50AM
Crowd: The majority of people here are asian. There are pockets of wogs and other nationalities. Most people are local asian teenagers. There are some older folk well in their 20′s but were the minority.
Entertainment: MC to keep things going
Atmosphere: The dancefloor was pretty much packed the entire night, but too packed – pretty much Bamboo like. The rest of the club was also bustling the entire time. Kind of dark as well, which was good in a way. People are smoking everywhere on the dancefloor thanks to the open roof. You are unable to escape it.
Video Walkthrough:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Timeline:

I’m not a teenage dirtbag
One of our friends is 19, and when she walked into the club with us, probably every 3rd person she saw said hello to her. Far out, this was land of the teens, and there was no end to it. Most of the asians here looked underage or barely legal, but luckily I have braces to fit in, ahaha. But yeah, this place is Asian Teen Central!

Back when I was your age
It was only a few years ago when people were allowed to smoke in clubs. Here, I was surprised to walk in and see people smoking in the middle and around the dancefloor! What the ?? Of course, I look up and the roof is partially open – it’s enough to warrant the area to be an outdoor area and to allow smokers to smoke, and more importantly, stay inside the club. I absolutely hate it because at the end of the night my skin and clothes are drenched in the smell of cigarette ash.

Security is everywhere
There is security everywhere. Was this place prone to fights? It’s a possibility, considering we had to be scanned to get in.. as well as the crowd being asian teens, and the locality of this place, being in Liverpool.

We are only allowed to dance on the dancefloor
We are having a little dance at the bar. Security man comes up and warns us that we are not allowed to dance here, and that we can only stand up normally at the bar. Man, far out! This place is strict.

So between the dancefloor and the bar area behind, there is a strip of tiled patch about 1 metre wide. We dance there instead, but within secondsm we are shooed away by the security personnel and told to dance on the dancefloor. My god, there is actually a dedicated security person to shoo away people from this little narrow path! I have a good look at him for 5 minutes and that is all he does the entire night – telling people to get off the tiled floor. He waves his water bottle around as his instrument of shoo-ing. Amazing job, but someone has to do it. Given, this area would have been way too packed to move around if that path was not there, not that it’s not packed enough already as it is.

Video: A very packed crowd singing along to Justin Beiber: (shameful)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Photo with DJ
DJ Dee actually came down and put her headphones on me for this quick pic. Awesome.

DJ Dee at Liverpool club Macquarie Hotel

Not allowed to touch her ass
Chatting to 2 fat girls at the bar. One fat girl told me off for touching her friends ass. Now I swear to whoever god you believe in, I did not touch her ass. I had no reason to! 5 minutes later, the accuser is randomly making out with a random horny dude, and he is touching her ass. DOUBLE STANDARDS BITCH!

Jockeys can dance
Near the end of the night there was a tiny bit of room for everyone. We met a white Aussie jockey and he danced with us. He was a tall jockey, but still shorter than me =) He wanted to go to Collingwood or NOX afterwards. Tempting, but I have friends to drive home. Booyah.

with Jockey man, Marty

Arrivederci
Left at 3:00AM where they kicked us all out.

Recommendation
It appears that this event is only promoted every few weeks, so do check if it is on before coming, otherwise you will catch Macquarie on a ‘dead’ night (so I have been told) and not enjoy your night. Otherwise if you are in the Liverpool area and can’t be bothered to go to the city for your rnb fix, it’s worth checking out, and since it’s free entry, there is nothing to lose. Probably the big downer for me tonight was the open smoking policy inside. This can’t be helped, as I assume that if the top roof was closed, then the place would have been stuffy as hell.

Pure @ Macquarie Hotel – 6.5/10

Bounce @ Slide bar - The podium

Walked by here last month and it looked alright – Asians and RnB blasting out from the doors. Promoters said it was a monthly event, so I decided to check it out next time it was on – finally tonight the night has arrived! I got on the guestlist and brang some friends – so here we go!

Bounce @ Slide Bar
Assessment Time: 10:30PM – 02:30AM
Opening Hours: 10:00PM – unknown (probably 4:00AM)
Lockout: We left at 2:30 and were advised of lockout. Safe to assume that lockout is at 02:00AM
Website:
Occurence: Once a month. Check facebook for details.
Address: 41 Oxford St, Sydney
Dress Code / Door Policy: Standard collared shirt for guys, though it is ok to wear shirts. Stated that no hats were allowed to be worn, but I did see people wearing hats tonight.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Free before 11pm if on guestlist. $10 before midnight. $20 Otherwise.
Guestlist: I found the facebook event and added myself to the Facebook guestlist.
Inside: This reminds me of a similar layout to The Bank at Kings Cross. Walk into an open floor to hold about two hundred people. The floor includes an elevated dance platform in which the tiles light up and change colours. Bar to the left. DJ in the far right corner. Overhanging the bar is a balcony for private functions and what not, to hold about 60 people.
Cloak Room: Cloak room available but was not utilised tonight.
Bar: Did not use the bar tonight.
DJs: DJ Slim, Edo, Bonniez
Music: RnB, Korean Pop.
Crowd: A rare night where everybody is Asian. Dominantly Korean. A mix of locals and international students.
Entertainment: Runway modelling show, and a dance off on the elevated podium area. MC Jayddup to keep things going.
Atmosphere: Initially on entering there wasn’t anyone dancing on the podium. Around midnight it picked up quick and stayed pretty busy the rest of the night. It got very packed at around 1-1:30AM. Dark atmosphere adds to the mood and the crowd was pertty into most of the songs. It was pretty good.

The Korean crowd looks down to the dancefloor during the fashion parade segment

Video: 360 View Taken during peak time, and everyone chants along:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Awesome photo with promoter brace buddy

Arrivederci
We left, as some friends were a bit tired. I would have happily stayed the rest of the night.

Recommendation
If you like all asian events, with the occasional K-Pop song thrown into your RnB music, then this is a good place to go. Friendly vibe and entertainment segments to keep things interesting as well. I never thought Slide Bar could be done so well but it has, and I’m happy for it.

Bounce @ Slide Bar – 9.0/10.

Fever Nightclub Wollongong NSW (Bluenote) - taken from the corner of the dancefloor

Tonight I am in wollongong with friends to check out the clubs. We were on our way to Hostage X or Illawara Hotel for the final club of the night, after visiting The Harp, Ivory and Glasshouse. It’s already 2am and locals have told us Hostage X was dead, and that Illawarra Hotel closes in one hour. This pretty much ended our night.. except there *was* one club left still open after 3am – This club was named Fever (It was formerly known as but still constantly referred to as The Blue Note / Bluenote)… it plays RNB, and apparently gets packed once all other clubs close – so we realy don’t have a choice – so here we go!

Saturdays @ Fever Nightclub (Formerly Blue Note / The Bluenote)
Assessment Time: 02:00AM – 04:00AM
Opening Hours: Unknown (apparently opens late) – 05:00AM
Lockout: None
Website: No website found.
Address: Corner of Station St and Pacific Highway, Wollongong, NSW.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Casual OK. Hats are not allowed to be worn.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $10 all night
Guestlist: None
Inside: Walk upstairs two or three flights of stairs to arrive to the nightclub, which holds about 160 people. Dancefloor to the far right corner, bar on the left, and lounges on the furthest left corner. Dancefloor is a flashy neon-based dancefloor. Check out the video for footage, its quite sizeable and this is where the dancing is concentrated at.
Cloak Room: None
Bar: Did not drink at this venue.
Music: Purely RNB as far as I can remember. Mix of contemporary and old school.
Crowd: Mostly locals, and almost all of them have come from other clubs and bars in the area. Asians, Samoans, Aussies, Indians, Euros.
Entertainment: Big flashing dancefloor! Biggest flashing one I’ve seen in a long time. (ok, I haven’t seen that many)
Atmosphere: Dead at first, but it picks up at around 3am, when all the other clubs close, and Fever / The Blue Note is the last place within 100KM’s that is still open and belting out the beats.
Video: Walkthrough into Fever Nightclub

Click here to view the embedded video.

Video: 360 of Fever Nightclub including flashing dancefloor

Click here to view the embedded video.

Relax… *deep breath* – ‘Dear dude with one dance move’…
FUCK! IF YOU WANT PEOPLE LOOKING AT YOU AT LEAST LEARN MORE THAN ONE MOVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ONE MOVE = ANNOYING MUCH?

Fun for the whole Family
We met a samoan girl hanging out with her Auntie. Her Auntie has been banished by security to sit in the corner. Yes, there is a punishment corner in the club, which has a bench, for where drunk people sit down and sober up. What a concept. Well that is what I was told. They await for 9 more of their Samoan relatives to come to the club. Man, I didn’t know clubs in Wollongong were family friendly. I may yet take my mum clubbing sometime.

Drunk Auntie
Auntie is easily the most visible drunk in the club.
Case 1: Auntie pulls someone on the dancefloor and walks backwards, pushing everybody out of the way. I didn’t see her coming and she just literally smashed me off balance as she started to dance.
Case 2: As she sat down on the lounge, I see her literally sit on Marty, not knowing he was there. The poor guy, getting squished.

I see asians, but they don’t wanna talk
I saw asians. Being wollongong, there are not many in this area, so I went up to talk to them. She was the most unfriendly Asian I had ever met! haha. She did not want to talk to me or anything. Of all girls to pick, I picked the unfriendliest one. Sigh.

The dance off that lasted 1 second. I won!
I am dancing away, and suddenly another asian girl stomps on right up and starts to stomp her feet and wave her arms like a mad woman, dancing away. IT WAS ON!! But the moment she strided in to dance with me, her foot slipped … and she landed extremely hard on her ass. I was too busy laughing to help her, but eventually I helped her up, and for the rest of the night she couldn’t really dance. Whose fault was it that her arse is now injured – hers for wanting to dance with me, or mine for dancing so well that she wanted to dance with me? I blame her for wearing heels.

Arrivederci
So tired from dancing and drinking, so we left.

Recommendation
Avoid this club before 3AM as it is a deadhole. However do come here after 3AM if you still have the energy.

Saturdays @ Fever Nightclub (Formerly The Blue Note / Bluenote):
1/10 (before 3AM),

6.5/10 (after 3AM)

Main dancefloor area - Glasshouse, Wollongong NSW

In Wollongong (an hour from Sydney) tonight to check out the clubs. We have just left The Ivory, I am fuming and swearing to god about their bullshit no camera policy. Across the road is The Glasshouse, the next place on our list of clubs to visit, so here we go!

Saturdays @ The Glasshouse Tavern

Assessment Time: 12:30PM – 01:30AM
Opening Hours: Unknown – 03:00AM
Lockout: None
Website: No website available at time of writing
Address: 90 Crown St, Wollongong
Dress Code / Door Policy: Casual ok. No hats allowed inside. It was 50/50 casual, collared shirts for guys. Most girls had dresses. Dress up costumes were ok in here as well, as there was a group of people dressed up as the members of KISS.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $10. We bargained the door girl to $5 for the four of us each.
Guestlist: None
Inside: As you walk inside the premise there is an outdoor courtyard, albeit very small. Walking inside the Glasshouse itself is large bar area to mill around with stools and tables. This is to the right. To the very left is a two stepped podium to hold about 15 – 20 people. In front of you is the main dancefloor, elevated from the rest of the bar (the entire Glasshouse venue is on a slope) to hold about 150-200 people. The entire place is wooden floor board.
Cloak Room: None
Bar: Did not drink here
Music: RnB, House, Pop, Top 40
Crowd: Mostly local Aussies / Caucasians. Young.
Entertainment: No MC. Just podiums.
Atmosphere: In the dancefloor it was constantly packed, and people were dancing about, but not much signing along. The vibe didn’t seem to be there – I think the venue itself just was a bit too airy for intimacy. Outside the dancefloor in the bar areas, it was not that busy. You could easily get a stool if you waited around for a minute or two.
Video: Walkthrough

Click here to view the embedded video.

Timeline:
Taking over the club – before we got in
Even before we got in, we were outside deciding whether to go inside or head on to Illawarra Hotel / Hostage X. Being the Glasshouse, the walls are of glass, and you can see inside. People inside can also see outside. Exploiting this fact, Marty and I just said ‘fuck it’ and we started dancing outside one of the glass walls, while people in line look at us. Soon after a minute or two, about 30 people inside the club closest to the glass window are staring at us and cheering us on. We have, again, taken over the club but this time, without being inside the club! Brilliant stuff!! Someone even walked by and yelled out ‘GROW UP!’ to us as we danced. I will take that as a compliment thank you very much.

No Vomit Here
A local had advised us the Glasshouse was pretty filthy and dirty. So much so that they even sprayed vomit over the cash registers to keep patrons away from the money, ha! Well that was a few years ago though. Tonight it seemed to be a clean open place, and there was not a trace of vomit or slime to be found, I am pleased to report.

An odd location for a podium
The main dancefloor was always busy, and its pretty spacey. However there provided no mechanism for us to take over. The podiums did not overlook the dancefloor at all, they were in a different section altogther, and it overlooked the patrons who are drinking at the tables and stools. It was more of a tiny performance stage converted to a podium for tonight. So when you stand up to dance at the podium, you don’t get much of an audience.

The bar stool seating area - Glasshouse, Wollongong NSW

Arrivederci
It was reaching 1:30AM and we were no longer feelng the vibe at all. We still needed to Visit our next club !

Recommendation
The music played here caters for all the younger crowd. Big venue, and it doesn’t smell or stink as previously insinuated by the locals. So if you haven’t been back here in a while, do try it out again, but do go with friends – you will find yourself pretty lonely without someone. The vibe just isn’t here. Whether it was the fact that it was a glasshouse and there was light coming in or it was just too airy – I just couldn’t put my finger on it.

Saturdays @ The Glasshouse – 6.0/10

119 @ St James Hotel

Friend has a farewell party and I’m a lucky 3rd invite. Unluckily the chosen event is 119, which has moved to St James Hotel, from the old location of Space Nightclub. Tonight is the opening night. So here we go!

119 @ St James Hotel Sydney
Assessment Time: 12:00AM – 04:00AM
Opening Hours: 10:00PM – 04:00AM
Lockout: None
Website: http://www.infinityproductionz.com (At time of writing the website is not operational yet)
Address: 114 Castlereagh St, Sydney
Dress Code / Door Policy: Casual ok. Hats ok. People here are wearing mostly collared shirts and dresses.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $25 Full Cover Charge. $20 on guestlist before midnight. Free before 10:30pm if on guestlist (usually only the first 10-15 people in line manage to get in before 10:30 for any of these type of promotions)
Guestlist: info@infinityproductionz.com
Inside: St James comprises of 3 levels but tonight’s event was only held on the top level. Enter via the middle level for the bar and chillout area, where there are tables and stools aplenty. Upstairs walk to the main carpeted area, where there is a wooden dancefloor to hold about 100 people. A DJ in the far corner. More lounges around the place to sit down and chat. Bar on the opposite end of the dancefloor.
Cloak Room: $5 per item.
Bar: $21.50 AUD for three shots of absinthe. The wait was about 5 minutes.
Music: Contemporary RnB tonight
Crowd: One of the last remaining places where every single person is asian. Usually there is one or two unlucky white people who either have yellow fever or accidentally walked into here, but none could be spotted. The crowd is a half mix of locals and internationals. You can spot the fobs by their fobby hairstyles.
Entertainment: No MC, but a photographer. My favourite photographer Will the Kill was here tonight. He’s surprised that there are so many non-local fobby asians here tonight.
Atmosphere: If wasn’t that good. Previously when Urban Agent promoted, it was packed out like sardines and hot as hell. Tonight, it wasn’t that packed. I would say the dancefloor was pretty much filled out the entire night, and the lounge seats were taken, but you see, the dancefloor and seats only took up half the entire floor space, there was lots of standing room, and, only a few were standing around. Despite this, there were enough people here to warrant staying here the rest of the night. Still, there was something in the air that didn’t make it a lively atmosphere, it was kind of muted – it wasn’t as wild as you would expect a crazy club to be. It might be that there wasn’t an MC.
Video: Walkthrough to the main room

Click here to view the embedded video.

Picking a girl up
I’m with a friend and one of her female friends. She has a boyfriend, but I was not foretold of this. Of course, me being me, I tried to get my grind on with no luck. So I figure, ok she doesn’t want to dance, so lets do something fun. I bent down, wrapped my arms around her knees and stood up, lifted her above the ground and I span around the dancefloor.

She is literally beating me and screaming at me. Haha ok, after a few seconds she is placed back down, and she runs about 5 metres to the corner off the dancefloor. It was like she saw a ghost. Wow. I had to apologize, and I was then told she had a boyfriend and that she loved him very much. I could still dance with her, but I was no longer allowed to touch her. LOL.. wow, I cannot even touch her – that is a request and a half! You are serious, right? Yes, she was.

Shot virginity broken for our dear friend
James: We are having shots. Want one?
Friend: Sure!
James: Here (hands over a shot)
Friend: What is this?
James: It’s called absinthe. (Friend: never heard of it) Try it.
Friend: ok!
You can imagine the look of disgust on her face. Oh its hilarious seeing people’s reactions to absinthe. She took the shot down entirely like a champion, but pretty much was in a funny state rest of the night.

Lots and lots of dancing – good that there is space.
The good thing about a club that is not at capacity is that you have room to dance and do your own thing. It was too dark for many people to notice our awesomeness though. I think near the end of the night we had some guys join us for a mini dance off but they were just men.

“We’re leaving the club now”
That is what the girls said as I keep hitting on them. 3 hours later when the club closed, I spotted them outside. Cold!! I’m James Tran, man.

Arrivederci
We did leave at closing time.

Recommendation
Hard to tell how this event will go in the future. I don’t know many events that have lasted the distance at St James Hotel. I know that I won’t be coming back here. I still hate paying $25 for entry, and despite what was mentioned earlier, the atmosphere just was not there for me to enjoy a good time. Just a few more people, some podiums and an MC.. and tonight may have been more decent. I only stayed as I met a lot of my friends here, who are probably sick of the other clubs on offer, lol. I have a feeling they will not be coming back here either.

119 @ St James Hotel – 4.5/10