Clubbing with James Tran

Prologue

Sensation @ Etihad Stadium Melbourne: 31st December 2009 Assessment Time: 10pm – 5am Website: http://www.sensation.com Address: Etihad Stadium, Melbourne Dress Code: You have to wear white, pants, top, skirt, everything. Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $149 (from memory) Inside: This years theme is the Ocean of White. One central area where the DJ spins around. The theme of tonight was the Ocean – Two platforms extend out to either side of the stadium, to hold where ten or so water geysers are installed. Huge octopus hang from above. There is also a trance room and a VIP dance room. Never got into the trance room. The line was massively long and the room was PACKED and probably hot and smelly – just as I like it. Sadly never got to check it out, it really looked good. VIP room was pretty clean in comparison as there was not as many people as the trance room, but was pretty good, because here you would have enough room to dance around in! It was pretty loungey here. Cloak Room: None Bar: $10 cans of Smirnoff blacks DJs: Caz James, Roger Sanchez, Sebastian Ingrosslo in the main stage. There Music: House in the main arena, and trance, funky house in the other rooms. Compared to last year, the music tonight was much better and ‘tolerable’ I suppose. Megamix was awesome and did not disappoint and well basically it was pretty pretty good. Crowd: People of all types were here. Entertainment: The whole setup was a show – dancers on the water, fireworks, laser lights, bouncing balls.. it was pretty decent Atmosphere: Very white. We had room to dance. The event didn’t sell out but it didn’t get squashy packed, regardless it was still a crapload of people here tonight. The atmosphere is buzzing before and  during the opening, then we dance. Buzz goes up again around new years midnight, then slowly dissipates as people head home, leaving the hardcores behind until the end. Opening to Sensation Melbourne video (continue reading…)

Funky Buddha @ World Square Pub (Equilibrium): Saturday 26th December 2009 Assessment Time: 23:45 – 1:30am?? Website: http://www.funkybuddha.com.au Address: Address: 680 George St Sydney (Formerly Equilibrium) Dress Code: Casual ok. Guys wore smart casual, girls wore dresses. Door Policy: You will be rejected if you are a group of guys. You will be told to leave if there are not enough girls. This is apparently WSP policy. At least they’re honest. Entry Fee / Cover Charge: I forget. $20 I think. Guestlist: See Website Inside: Upstairs room to hold a small group of 200, dark. Also downstairs open area for Trance to hold 50 or so people. Well lit. Cloak Room: None Bar: $5 Gin and Tonics Music: RnB upstairs, typical contemporary and classic songs. Downstairs area was the trance area, which was a welcome surprise. Crowd: Almost entirely Asian Entertainment: MC Upstairs Atmosphere: Pretty packed. Pretty, pretty packed. The whole city was pretty packed – it always happens that Boxing Day never disappoints in terms of crowd attendance. (continue reading…)

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

Lucky old me won 2x VIP tickets to Godskitchen. What a good way to end a long weekend. 3 nights out in a row I invited a friend and off we went – so here we go!

Godskitchen @ Hordern Pavillion Sydney Assessment Time: 10:00pm – 3:15am Opening Times: 9:00pm – 7:00am Website: http://www.futureentertainment.com.au/wsite/future-events/92-godskitchen-2009 Address: Hordern Pavllion, Fox Studios Sydney Dress Code: Anything goes. I had dress shoes, jeans, fedora hat. Pretty inappropriate for a rave. Everybody else was pretty casual, and the hardcore shufflers had their leg warmers out with glowsticks and light spinny things ( I have no idea what they are called ) and shiny reflective pants. Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Prepaid tickets for $60. Also available at the door. Guestlist: VIP tickets available for express entry, and access to the VIP room. Inside: Just two of the halls were open. One hall for Godskitchen main area to hold everybody, and the second hall to serve as a chillout space. Cloak Room: Yes, available, but forgot the pricing. Bar: $10 smirnoffs DJs: Main acts were Cosmic Gate, Blank & Jones, and John ‘00′ Flemming Music: The first act was .. ‘meh’. Crowd wasn’t really into it, just swaying around. The boombox wasn’t on at this time. Next was Blank & Jones, and the ‘official’ start to the Godskitchen event. Music was good. Everybody here seemed to be waiting for Cosmic Gate to come on. Music not too bad either! But, being someone who hasn’t heard any of the DJ’s before, it wasn’t too alienating. Everyone else seemed to know how to sing along to the songs. Once John Flemming came on, the music started getting a bit too hard, and was starting to get very repetitive. That is not something I really liked. Crowd: Just anybody who is into these DJs. Mixed crowd all natios and all ages. Entertainment: The ‘boombox’ was the star of the show. In the main room, it was a huge projector screen spanning the width and height of the stage. Behind the projector were bright lights and the speakers themselves. Four projectors from the back scan down to push projected imagess into the screen for awesome effect. Boombox wasn’t activated until 11pm, when Blank & Jones came on. Also alongside the DJs on occasion were two dancers in the Boombox. Pretty cool Atmosphere: Initially upto 11pm it was pretty tame. During Blank & Jones, and cosmic gate, the main arena got quite packed and the atmosphere was pretty awesome. After 3am I was just suffering fatigue from the thumping repetitive beats. This was not a sell out event, as opposed to the Melbourne show. Perhaps it was because it was the same day as Parklife, which had just finished at 10pm? Videos: on the next section (continue reading…)