Pirate and Indian

Visiting a random who we only met last week. We reached the door and I don’t really want to go in. Random begs us to come in for an hour or so because its her birthday. Well, we were already here, and we were in our costumes from the party before, so let’s make the most of this – here we go!

Impulse @ Hunter Bar
Assessment Time: 02:00AM – 03:15AM
Opening Hours: – 11:00PM  - 10:00AM
Lockout: None
Website: http://www.myspace.com/impulsefridays
Address: 50 Hunter St, Sydney
Dress Code / Door Policy: Anything goes. Hats allowed, costumes allowed.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $20. Unsure on guestlist but there probably was one
Guestlist: impulse_chamber@hotmail.com
Occurence: Every Friday.
Inside: Under street level, the place is quite dark. It is just one room – low ceiling height – a bar to the right, a dancefloor at the front to hold about 100 people tightly and the DJ at the far end. Lounges are located as you walk in. 
Cloak Room: Free for umbrellas. $3 or $4 for other items
Bar: Did not drink tonight.
DJs: Main DJ was Amber savage. See this pic for the set list. Aren’t they so nice to supply one?
Music: Hard Trance, Hard Style
Crowd: Older, mostly asians. Older meaning being on the wrong side of 30. There are also a handful of younger people, but no less than 25. These people were the last remnants of the classic trance generation of the 90s, still partying until the end, and you know what, I applaud them for it.
Entertainment: No extra entertainment.
Atmosphere: Dark, loud and kind of seedy, in a bad way. Most were standing around in the dark, and avoiding the dancefloor. Everyone kept to themselves in here.
Video: Walkthrough / 360

Click here to view the embedded video.

Set List - Impulse @ Hunter Bar

Timeline:
No talk in here
It’s way too difficult to even strike a conversation inside here. It’s so damn loud. My attempt to talk to someone remotely my age was met with fierce resistance by her friends after half a second. I talked to an older, non-attractive asian woman and she was all over me. We almost kissed after some boogie, but I couldn’t do it – the light unfortonately landed on her face, and I saw her true age – thank god I was sober.. Thank god.

Crowd - Impulse @ Hunter Bar Sydney Friday

The outfits that didn’t work
Usually Captain Jack Sparrow gets the adulation and love from the entire place but for some reason tonight, only one person came up to take a photo with me and Marty (who was dressed as an American Indian). What is with this crowd? It was this place – it was designed to make everyone on equal footing by making it really dark as well as blaringly loud. Not even a hardcore shuffling Jack Sparrow could excite people up.

Arrivederci
We left after an hour of shuffling. Just exhausting stuff, and the place never really picked up.

Recommendation
Only come here if you really want to continue your dancing fix from 4am onwards. It’s not very good as a place to go to unless you are into your hard style. Probably HSU would be better (apparently, I haven’t been).  As a venue itself it isn’t so good either. It’s dark and not many lounges to sit down on… but that is standard. I don’t know of any other place in the CBD that has a day club going on, so Hunter has kind of a monopoly in the day club scene. $20 entry is dear for a club that did not have many people either.

Hunter Bar Fridays (Hardstyle) : 2.5/10

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

Click here to view the embedded video.

Keep reading on for Gandalf’s adventures!

Timeline

Gandalf is back
It’s been 10 weeks since I took over Sensation White Melbourne.. and now it was time to take over Australia’s largest club. (yeah, it really is the largest one). As I line up, people in line are pretty much staring at my awesome outfit. People left right centre are taking photos of me and with me, and I still haven’t stepped into the club yet! I think the outfit is alright. I still like my pirate one better.

No usyd represent?!
This was a joint university thing. There were placards everywhere with “I <3 UNSW”, “I <3 UTS”, and “I <3 MACQ” .. but where was “I <3 USYD”??? Nowhere, my friend. I couldn’t find any placards. What a travesty!! Well, someone has to represent!

Photobooth is designed to steal your money.
Met some girls and we jumped into the photobooth for photos. It’s 8 dollars!! Jesus H. Christ what a rip off. So in goes 1 dollar, 2 dollars.. a few more.. until it says there is $1.50 left. Chuck in a dollar and it doesn’t accept it. Throw another $2 coin and it just swallows it. Oh my god.. what a crafty little machine this was… eating our money and yet not producing photos!! What a load of horseshit! Meanwhile, immature teenage boys keep peeking into the booth, praying that we are having an orgy of some sorts. Ha, one can only dream.

I have many many fans. Most of them guys.
A lot of guys come up and say things like ‘awesome outfit’, ‘can I have a photo?’, ‘JESUS!’, or anything along those lines. I like them, I take photos and usually we part. But shit, this one particular guy followed me around half the night! After we had our photo I dug into the main room and beelined to the middle. I turn around he is right behind me, following me! Fair enough, so I stop, but he stops as well. He wants to hang out and dance with Gandalf. My golly gosh. Biggest grin on his face everytime I looked back at him. He’s a fan of me, big deal. I had a suspicion he could have been gay, but I will never know.

He stalked me around the place

Getting up on main stage.
People are jumping up on stage and a random girl I met has jumped up for dance. Other people who are trying to get up are promptly taken down by security. I decide to give it a try, since I have the best outfit tonight and all. I crawl up onto the stage and stand up in front of the crowd. Everyone cheers, but within 2 seconds the security detail tell me to get off. So so unfair. Meanwhile the random girl is left ALONE up on stage to dance. She isn’t even dancing. I would call it swaying her body left and right, with the occasional booty bump to add flavour. She was obviously loving this attention. Godamn some things in life are unfair. One day I will be allowed up on stage!!

More guys follow me to take leftovers
Most places I went in the main room, guys are following me. I am noticing a trend. Girls come up to me and talk, and then these guys are swooping in left right and centre to be my wingman. I didn’t ask for this! Oh well, what are you going to do.

Girls don’t like hairy guys
I love this outfit. I walked by a few girls (and this only happens with girls) .. and you can see the look on their face as I walk by. Their entire face screws up into the ‘what the f*ck?’ look, or occaisionally a girl would turn around and see me coming – they literally YELP in shock / fright about this menacing wizard walking past. It’s quite entertaining for me. haha

Boob Squeeze War!
Yeah, a random girl squeezes my boobs without permission. I find that unfair, so I naturally grabbed and squeezed her boobs back without asking her. She REELED BACK in horror and gave me the DIRTIEST look ever. hahahahahahhahahaa..  how does it go – eye for an eye?

.. so take off all your robes
It was getting hot in here, so off went the cape and wigs. I felt like a free man. Meanwhile the wigs and cape sit near a group of 8 or so asians, who stare at me, C and her friend dance. They are literally gawking at us. I would probably have been doing the same thing back when I was 18/19, praying one day I could dance like that.

Getting pretty hot.. took off the beard

Anyway they seem bored and decide to do what any normal bored person does at a club – PUT ON SOMEONE ELSE’S OUTFIT. Second thing I know, there is a guy with my wig, beard and cape on. It’s funny, but I have to keep a close eye on it – I don’t want to get this stuff stolen. They seem friendly enough and we take some happy snaps. They can’t dance though, which was a shame.

He put on my white outfit without asking - it suits him though

Here’s an extra video of a raver at the Sublime room:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Arrivederci
C and friend want to leave at 2am, primarily of the bizarre music that was now playing, but Gandalf convinces them to stay another hour, and we leave 3am.

Recommendation

First half rnb was good. Everyone is in the party mood. However only the main room was open at this time for the rnb lovers. Still was a good atmosphere.

I Love Uni @ Home Nightclub (upto midnight) – 7.5/10

Second half is where the sublime / Oh My! crowd came in.. mixed feelings – all rooms were opened up and the choice of music you want to dance to was wide open, but the crowd just wasn’t there. There were not enough people to fill all rooms up. It was busy, but not like you would expect on an old ‘Famous’ Saturday night when it was truly at capacity. If the ‘I Love Uni’ was not on earlier – I am pretty sure the place would have been pretty dead. The trance room was a sad sight – I wish more people were into it – however the people inside were friendly and just danced away.

Oh My / Sublime @ Home Nightclub Sydney – 5/10

Sensation White Melbourne 2009

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.

DJ to the left, fountains cut into the crowd.

Opening to Sensation Melbourne video

Click here to view the embedded video.

Timeline

The Epic Outfit that Came Out as Something Else
So basically if you haven’t figured it out by now, I am dressed up as Gandalf the White, from the Lord of the Rings. Your guesses were totally off the mark. Everybody, (including yourself, my ignorant reader) thought I was dressed as:

- Jesus
- Moses
- God
- Santa Claus,
- Merlin
- The kung fu master from Kill Bill where he strokes his beard and laughs really hard.

Primaly it was “Jesus” that was  being yelled around –  It was always “Jesus!” this or “God!” that.. which is something I got used to as time went on, and eventually I took on as my new persona. So I end up walking around with my arms in the air crying ‘Jesus walks!’ and ‘The ressurection is here!’, much to the amusement of everybody.

Oh look, heres a photo of a group of people ON THEIR KNEES PRAYING IN FRONT OF ME! Oh my father, how I missed being alive on Earth.

Young christians pray to me. Keep the faith up.

"James is my homeboy"

Can my ego be stroked enough? Never!!

Happy new years 2010!!
An amazing shower of fireworks falls down upon the setup.. much akin to the waterfall at the Sydney Harbour Bridge – but this is way cooler because I’m right in the middle of it!

New Years Fireworks 2010 - Sensation Melbourne

You have to see this video – its sweet as:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Jesus made me a mini-celeb: Can’t be left alone
This outfit alone gave me celebrity status around the whole place – No other outfit that I encountered had topped mine, and only one came pretty close to being as awesome as mine – a man with a gas mask on… but I was still 10 billion times more awesome.

Cool outfit! His wasn't too bad either

Every waking second, people are looking at me with curiousity, and at an average of about once per minute, someone has asked to take a photo with me. I could not dance for more than a few minutes alone without someone asking me for a photo. I loved it, but I can understand how real superstars feel.. it can get annoying.

It was pretty bad so i took a video, so you, my loyal reader, can experience just a minute of what I went through.

So here, I present – 90 seconds through the eyes of James:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Sneaking into the VIP Room
I didnt sneak in, I just walked right by the security fencing, and walked right by the door security – neither ask me for my wrist band. My friends however, got readily rejected, and I could not stay in the VIP area for long without dogging my friends. I do remember last year that they had opened up the VIP area for everybody later in the night, but this year security was a bit more tight.

VIP Room

New Years Milk
During the course of the night I run into a woman who appeared chemically imbalanced. Jesus immediately took hold of the situation and we are pretty much kissing… Shall spare you details. Anyway, she stops and asks me:
Woman: “Where is my daughter?? Have you seen her??”. A strange question to ask, as I have not met her daughter.
James: “no…” (more kissing)
Woman: “But i want to introduce you to my daughter to hook up with!”
James: ……………. (omg this awesome, keep calm James) “Yeah.. alright.. let’s look for her. What does she look like?”
Woman: “Blonde… big boobs…. sort of looks like me”

JESUS. How is that description of your daughter going to help? It will truly help in absolutely no way whatsoever.

Anyway she wanted to palm me off to her daughter!! Isn’t palming a guy off breaking one of the commandments? We never did find her daughter, and  she got obsessed with finding her. Her daughter was probably kissing a guy, then asking him if he’s seen her mum! So I left her after a few minutes…

Met some vietnamese
I was dragged by a guy to meet his friends. I assumed it was a bunch of girls, but it was an oldish woman and a scary looking, but friendly guy. They came all the way from America for new years! They probably would have had a better time in the Sensation White going on in Germany.

halp

Bouncing Balls!

During the Megamix, balls come flying down from nowhere – totally awesome. Here’s the video – I get to touch a ball!!!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Megamix
The megamix phase is where the whole stadium sound, water, fire  and light effects synchronize for 15 minutes or so of fucking awesomeness. A short clip:

Click here to view the embedded video.

People crashing the water features – nothing short of hilarious
It’s near closing time, and people are pointing and looking up – 3 people have breached security and jumped up into the water fountains and are dancing along various spots. They are surrounded by security at different spots and they dance in defiance. The whole crowd is taking photos and cheering on. Two of the three are tackled to the ground/water, and there remains one sole man. Hopelessly outnumbered, he does only what a dancer can do – he gets down into the shallow water and starts doing the worm! WHOA. This was such a hilarious sight – a guy doing the worm up on stage to the cheers and laughter of the crowd. Loving it. Security for a brief moment looked a bit puzzled but ended up dragging him out of the water to a place unknown.

Arrivederci
5am was the end time and everybody got kicked out.

Recomendation
Not as crowded as last year but the solid and entertainment kept everybody going.
Sensation White 2009 Melbourne – 9/10
I probably won’t come back next year – 2 new years eves in a row is hectic enough for me, and this year, even though still very epic on its own.. probably didn’t have the same amount of buzz as 2008′s Sensation.. The DJ lineup wasn’t very strong and the event didn’t sell out. Everyone should though, definitely check it out, if you don’t plan to visit the one in Europe soon.

FULL PHOTO GALLERY FOR SENSATION WHITE CAN BE FOUND ON MY FACEBOOK FAN PAGE !!!

Can’t run away
The whole night I spent dancing with some friends. One of them really likes to dance with me. So much so, when I wavered to try and dance with other randoms, she would pull me back in and keep grinding with me. -.-

Was packed
But jesus it was packed. Upstairs was expected to be packed, but I was surprised to see downstairs trance to be packed as well! On Flow Fridays, downstairs is usually a chill area, but the guys at Funky Buddha have utilised the space for a trance dance spot, and its quite a sight to see, since the room itself is very well lit, compared to the very dark trance rooms ravers are used to. This added to the good vibe of tonight.

Yeah! A podium
How good is this. Upstairs there is a podium/catwalk thing with about 50 people dancing on it! The promoters have let us go up and do our thing. This was way better than Flow whom are ever so tight ass about people dancing up on stage.
Arrivederci
I can’t remember what time we left, but it wasn’t closing, I think we were just tired.

Recommendation
Tonight’s Funky Buddha event was a once off at the WSP venue, but it was pulled off very well. Good music, great atmosphere and crowd. 9/10

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

Click here to view the embedded video.

Timeline:

How far would you let your GF go with another guy? A Q&A Session with James Tran:

One of the girls I know comes up and dances with me. She may have been a bit drunk… So lets have a Q and A session to best reflect of what had happened with this girl..

Q) James, is it cool to dance with you when I have a boyfriend in the same club?
A) Sure. It’s just a dance.

Q) James, is it cool to grind with you when I have a boyfriend in the same club?
A) Dunno, probably not, unless you explicitly allowed each other to do so.

Q) James, Dude, you’re grinding with my girlfriend! WTF??
A) I wasn’t grinding with her. She was grinding with me. I too, wasn’t cool with it, and I kindly reminded her that you were still in the club,  but I didn’t exactly push her off. I was just being neutral, standing there.. the pole to her strip tease. The Switzerland to the world.

Q) James, is it cool to tell you that I’m not wearing a bra while boyfriend is watching?
A) Well that’s nice to know. Just make sure he didn’t hear you, or you’ll be in biiig trouble. (which he didn’t). In a normal situation without loud music, I would advise not to do it. Besides, you should be telling your boyfriend that you’re not wearing a bra, not me!

Q) James, is it cool to sandwich you in the middle of me and my hot friend while boyfriend watches?
A) Oh hell yes!!! A Sandwiching god does exist.

Boyfriend finally arrived to take the pretty girls claws away from me. (they have now since broken up at time of writing)

Lady Gaga
I Met her! Well, I sort of met her. She has an awesome disco stick.

We steal someone’s booth
We didn’t quite steal it. The sign was still up there. It was a girl’s birthday, but the birthday girl wasn’t there. A friend had found the birthday girl, sitting in front of the DJ booth, with her girlfriends, looking quite bored. It was their first time in the club and they didn’t want to dance.. or even try. That’s a boring birthday.

Drug ladies
Two larger girls drop by and sit down. This was their booth as well. We all became friends. We left the two girls to chat up our non-dancing friend. After about half an hour, he has told us that one of the girls force fed him MDMA for free. (The free bit was the most important bit). The guy that they were with was a drug dealer.

Funny that the police dogs were here earlier, and they didnt catch him out.

Also as an aside, why is it that people assume that I know how to get drugs?? I don’t have the faintest idea where to start. Sure, drugs are a part of the experience, but alcohol is good enough (and bad enough) for me. I digress.

Coda
We leave early 1:30am as the designated driver has to leave.

Recommendation
7 out of 10

The place could have a better atmosphere with more people. Music is great though.

Godskitchen - During the Cosmic Gate set

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

Timeline
Munky sponsored tickets
I won two VIP tickets by being featured in a Munky newsletter.  Thanks

VIP treatment
We had 2 VIP tickets. This gave us express entry into the event (we waited about 2 minutes) and access to the VIP room.

The VIP room was located next to the main stage. It was a small room with chairs outside facing the crowd. The room had a single unisex toilet and a bar. The “VIP Toilet” was totally crap, as both men and girls lined up for it. It was basically a disabled toilet. total joke.

The VIP room. Overwhelmingly disappointing

However on the other hand, the bar was pretty good. Even though there was only one guy at the makeshift bar, there weren’t many VIP holders in line, so we never had to wait long for a drink, where as outside the lines were massive long!

Boombox videos
Videos even cannot describe how epic the boombax was. Without this boombox, Godskitchen would have been only mediocre, at best, for me:

Blank and Jones: Intro to Godskitchen’s boombox

Click here to view the embedded video.

Cosmic Gate – “Firewire” Intro

Click here to view the embedded video.

Chillout room
So there was a chillout room. Not many people chose to sit in here, but instead chose to mingle in the outside cold, which was really bizarre, because on occasion there would be some rain and what not. Anyway, inside the room there were two bars, and a DJ playing some songs. Behind the DJ set was a video feed of what was happening live inside. You could see the boombox doing its magic, and it always looked beautiful.

And the chairs! the chairs were were the most comfortable fold up chairs I have ever sat on. The cushion was at least 2 inches thick, and it wasn’t the plasticky material – it felt like office chair rug material. It was pretty awesome. on top of this there were chairs everywhere – anybody who came in had a spot to sit as well as a place to dance and drink if needed.

Also in the far corner was a huge inflatable head of a supposedly DJ. we took some photos with his nose. About an hour later, security had enough of people hanging off the nose ring and sealed off the area with metal gates. Boo!

Inflatable Head Guy - Got a photo before they fenced off the area

The huge Godskitchen balloon falls down
There are two huge godskitchen floats hanging from the ceiling, and during the night the whole balloon floated down. The crowd bounces this whole thing along like a beach ball and it looks pretty cool. Sadly after a few minutes, security pounces on the float and deflates it. Boo!

People:

Witnessing awesome shuffling
Well, its events like these where you meet true lovers of this music genre. They dress up to dance, and are easily recognized with these leg warmers. A funny look, but it works impressively when they dance/shuffle/whatever you want to call it. I witnessed an exceptional female shuffler, spinning and leg splitting, whatever you want to call it, it was hypnotizing and I don’t think I could ever be as good as that. I’ just not flexible enough.

Raver girl - godskitchen sydney

Met this guy and he wanted me to tag him on facebook, but I lost his contact, so I’ll just post the pic up here. I don’t think he would  mind:

Random face paint guy - Godskitchen sydney

This was in the VIP area – there was a little area where we could dance.

Coda
After John Fleming came on, the music got too heavy for us,  (even I have my limits) and we left. Time of departure 3:15am

Recommendation
I probably wouldn’t go back, as I didn’t know any of the songs. However, if you knew the songs and artists, you would have loved it. Crowd was right into it. I think most people, if not all, were here for Cosmic Gate, which was a good set. With all the aforementioned in consideration, my rating for the Godskitchen Sydney Boombox Tour  is 6.5/10

About Home Bar

Address: 101 Cockle Bay Wharf, Darling Harbour (opposite the IMAX theatre)
Website: http://www.homesydney.com
Inside: Entry is via their side door. It is not accessible via the front bar entrance. When you enter, there is a little foyer with two openings. On the right opening is entry to the main room. The other is a set of stairs that lead up.

The main room is quite large both in terms of dimensions and height. You enter from the back where the bar resides. At the back is a technician (yes, a light and possibly sound technician) The DJ is at the front. The huge Shiny sublime logo hangs as a modern day chandelier. Overlooking the main room on 3 sides is a balcony setup where people are peering down Upstairs is another bar and the balcony peering over downstairs. On Level 2 there is a small room playing trance music. Another set of stairs around the bar leads you to level 3 -  set of stairs and a tiny room resides where slow house plays. It’s not crowded and it’s quite good music, but it was dead as throughout the night.

The main room of Home Nightclub. Taken from the 2nd level balcony

About BSXC
A once off event, possibly once a year for the UNSW BSOC.
Entry: $10 (1st round), $15 (2nd round), $20 (3rd round). $25 at the door. A relative bargain.
Crowd: Dominantly Asian. It was UNSW, after all.
Atmosphere: Main room – very good. Use of MC had the crowd continually going. Trance room – Small, but there was no pretentiousness when dancing here. House room upstairs – Dead most of the night, but for me, seemed to be the best room, I liked the beats, and I loved the freedom to dance, compared to downstairs were it was packed to the rafters.

Entertainment: I caught a glimpse of some dancers at the front. Don’t know if there were any other forms of entertainment. It was a good way to break things up. No podium dancers at this place, nor podiums to speak of.

Timeline
Got in around 10pm, and it was packed as in the main room. I headed straight for the cloak room.  Everyone got their bags in,  then it was my turn to put my bag in the cloak room- “sorry, the cloak room is full”. NO WAY!! I KNEW I should have gotten here earlier for the bar tab. I hid the bag behind a chair, where a couple was already making out.

Earplugs (a plug)
I was in front of one of the main speakers while waiting for the cloak room. It was so loud, I could literally feel my clothes and body vibrate to the really loud music. I had my earplugs in my ears to save me (later when I got home – no ringing!) – Thank god for earplugs!
They aren’t that bad, and some people do notice, but most of the time people don’t really care. Its only when you take photos and see you realise how dorky looking you look like:

Myself with an orange 32dB reducing ear plug, (and my chest hair)

Room switching
I’m an impulsive dancer – When I hear a song, I run off to the next room and dance, until I am sick of the song playing over there as well. This way, it sort of keeps me happy through the night, instead of being stuck in one room where you have no choice in what music you wish to dance to. I like these kind of venues, but sadly most only have one room of music.

Phased closing
First they closed the top level house room, then they close the trance room and everyone was pushed to the bottom rnb level, where they started to play some more commercial house than rnb. It was a bizarre mix. At least the MC was still there on the mic

Some technical difficulties
Unfortunately throughout the night, especially nearing the end, there were a few sound difficulties. Meaning that at one time the music was pumping at normal loud levels, then suddenly the volume would cut in half! It became as quiet than a lounge, and people could actually have normal conversations in the room. This kind of happened to often, and just got a little annoying.

Teenagers – everywhere
I have never seen so many sets of braces at a club, ever. I think everybody I met or talked to here was under 20. This line pretty much scaerd me:

“I just turned 18 in April!”. April was 3 weeks ago. I didn’t start proper clubbing until I was 22. A late bloomer. Everybody I met here said it was their first time here. I felt pretty old here! Oh well, it more or less made me look like an awesome dancer since they couldn’t dance.

Videos:
Twirling in the trance room:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Spinning glowsticks on strings, around 2am:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Coda
Left at around 2am, I was exhausted. Over an an average to good night. Nothing much to complain about, which is good.

Easter Sunday @ Space Nightclub
Address: 127 Liverpool St, Sydney
Entry Free / Cover Charge: $20
Dress Code: Casual. Hats allowed

300 people in the club! Bouncer’s honour..
The bouncer at Space told me “Theres 300 people inside the club. Are you sure you want to go in?”.
“I guess so” I say

“You guess so? Theres 300 people inside the club! It’s packed!!” Did he not us to go in?
I ask my friends “So, do you guys want to go in?”
“We walked for an hour, lets just go in”
Bouncer to my friends “are you sure? theres 300 people inside!!”
The bouncer even kindly pointed out that his hand counter had clicked 500 people entering. The exit bouncer had 200 clicks, which made for 300 people inside. He was messing with us the whole time! grr..

I really wonder why we even bothered arguing with the bouncer and his counter. We went inside and paid the $20…

Hardstyle room
The doors open and present us with a tragic scene. About 5-10 ravers on the hardstyle floor. So dead!

RNB room
Holy crap! Where was the 300 rnb warriors? We only could count at most 100 people. Half the room was filled, and I was very disappointed. Did the bouncer lie to us? Why would he do such a thing? The missing 200 probably escaped through the secondary exit via the stairs.

The first thing that came to our heads was “we should have paid the extra $5 to go to nevermind nightclub!” and rightly so. Things weren’t looking good

Atmosphere
It was average to poor. There weren’t many girls, and of the lot that were there.. they were all 18 year olds who couldn’t dance that well. Except, there was this one girl who we danced with, only cause she had flats on. Her friends looked at us in awe as boys we danced with such skill.

In any case most asians here probably had no other choice to go to or didn’t know of any other place to go on a Sunday for some asian rnb clubbing.  Literally there were no other rnb events on for these poor asian children.

Other than that the music choice was good, no complaints.

Coda
Left when there were about 15 people left ~ 2.30am, wondering why we ever came here. Easter Sunday @ st james 2 years ago was packed to the rafters. I don’t know what happened. Disappointed.

Timeline
After leaving Verandah (Free entry.. it was pretty dead but scored some free drinks from the organiser for dancing) we arrived at St. James at around 1am. Way past prime time…

Sneaking in
Joe and I were off our faces (well I was) and somehow went past security without being rejected. We walked in and moved some chairs aside and snuck through inside.. bypassing the counter.

My personal booty dancer
Some african american girls were dancing on the bottom floor entry.. I went up in my drunken state and just grinded on her. Bad move.. but somehow she liked it and started grinding back… my god she had a huge ass. She then moved backwards like a tractor and I couldnt stop her.. she kept grinding me all the way to the bar.. then grinded me some more. I was totally shocked.

Couldnt get upstairs to RNB
We went upstairs but there was an line to go upstairs. Unbelievable. We didn’t bother and went back downstairs, where the music turned from old school RNB to trance.

Leaving early
At around 2am we left.. didn’t even last one hour in the hot hole. We were all fatigued from the karaoke and drinking which lasted the hours prior to arriving here.

The Retro Hotel
Music: Retro, Rnb, House from the 80’s, 90’s and early 2000’s
Location: 81 Sussex St
Website: www.theretro.com.au
Cover Charge: Free before 9pm, or Free if you were dressed for the night’s theme. Otherwise it’s $20
Atmosphere: Party, fun
Crowd: Mixed nationalities, generally a bit older.
Dress: Casual and fun. Theme nights are held every Saturday.

Timeline

Early arrival
Got there with Tanya at around 8pm for birthday drinks. I was stamped on my way in. Only ground floor was open at this time, and there were people dancing already!! This place is nuts. I did some dancing with Tanya, birthday girl Jane and her friends. Tanya and I left about an hour later to get to her place.

Early departure
At this point in time, I am thinking.. sweet I’m going to score. She puts on a DVD of her favourite movie Bra Boys, then promptly passes out on the sofa. WTF! It was 11pm.. and I am wide awake. So I walked back from her Kings Cross apartment all the way back to the Retro…

The return of the James
Jane had already left when I got back, so it was just me on my own. I went straight up to the middle level. Some pure 80′s and 90′s retro stuff going on. I then quickly went to the top level. It was classic rnb. Cool, something I can dance to.

I was basically doing laps around the room, and dancing with the same or new groups who were keen to dance. There were two podiums on each level and I hogged a lot of it. The music was great, all singalongables as well as danceables.

Friends denying a chick her rights to dance with a hot guy .. why ?
As mentioned I was doing laps around the room. A particular group of 3 girls I would drop by and dance with. The one who was most interested and most fun, I guess, was the biggest one. She loved it, so I danced with her and had plenty of fun. They were actually here for a friends birthday. They pointed the birthday boy to me. He was sitting along the wall with his mates having a drink, refusing to dance. Each time I came around, I would dance with her. About the 5th time, the birthday boy stood up, grabbed her hand, and pulled her away from me. Why deny her rights to have fun dancing on the floor. Why ? I wasn’t going to take advantage of her – I wasn’t drunk.

Crazy Ballet Dancers
I was dancing, arms in the air walking by another group of 3 girls. I look in their direction and throw a little boogie. The tall asian right away pounces and starts her crazy dance, hair flying everywhere. She was crazy good. I asked how she became such a good dancer – she told me she was a Ballet dancer. If it weren’t for her normal voice, I could have easily mistaken her for Vanessa from So You Think You Can Dance Australia. She took photos of me. I asked for facebook details so I could be tagged, but I was met with a ‘I dont even know you’. C’mon.. at least limited profile?

Dancing with Brides (to be)
On this top level alone there were 2 brides to be for their hen’s nights. The bride and her girlfriends usually congregate in a circle just dancing on their own. What present could I give to a bride to be in a club ? A grinding dance of course. Theoretically, jumping in the circle and doing a seductive hip-hip grind dance would tingle her spine and get her girlfriends wild. That was theoretical. I jumped in the circle, stick my leg in between hers and start to grind dance. Both girls during both times she was frozen in time, unsure how I managed to sneak in and start to dance with her. The first girl was unimpressed. She gave me this really cold look, and so did her friends. Geez. I told her “happy wedding!”. She replied. “I’m not getting married”. Right, and that’s why you’ve got the freaking veil thing on your head. The second girl said “Thanks!”, while standing there, not moving. I ask if she would like to dance. “no.”… Geez. I left that cold circle. Perhaps a sandwich with another guy would have gotten her more receptive.

After the top level died (2am) I headed down another level.. and another Hens night was going on! I decided not to even try out my theory with Hen’s groups. However after about a few minutes the drunkest of the girlfriends went up to me on the podium and danced. She was my way in. Slowly, one by one, I progressed and danced with each girl. They were probably fascinated by the wig I was wearing at the time. After some small talk, I pretty much established some form of contact with all of the girls (about 8 of them) and I was safe. At this point in time Natalie was touching my hair, so I took it off and gave it to her. Seeing the hair as a wig drove the girls crazy, shocked that the hair wasnt real. The next thing was ‘I want to wear it!’. So they did.. and I’m sure right now some of their profile pics are of themselves with my wig. The bride was the most conservative of the group and was least willing to dance (but she did dance) … there may be a pattern here.

Coda
Left around 3.30 after a quick shuffle on the ground floor, where they changed to retro trance music, early 2000′s house. Would definitely come back here dressed up for the theme of the night!

Here’s a group photo with me on the top floor.. (Note the bride in front of me – she was the one who ‘wasn’t getting married’)

Time to go back into Rnb again with Selvi on this heavily promoted night.

[ This is Urban @ Home Bar ]
A once off event for Boxing Day 2007
Music: Main room rnb, House and Trance in the others.
Crowd: Dominantly Asian, some Africans.
Atmosphere: Crowded, Hot, Fun
Cover Charge: $35, $30 on guestlist, free if you organised a large guestlist(?).

[ Experiences ]
Me, Selvi, Pedro, Su and Su’s friend were here tonight. I had the hat, bandana, tie and sunnies on.. the most accessories I’ve worn in a night. The line was superlong. Two lines. One for pre-paid or discount tickets and one for pay at the door. Funnily the door price line went faster than the cheaper line.

Right after going in we went upstairs and I did some dancing. After a few minutes a group of girls lead went up to me…

Pretty blonde leader wanted to keep my hat.. in exchange for her mobile number. I really didn’t want to give my hat away for this girls number , so I said no… silly old me. I danced with her friends for a bit, her Filo friend kept falling with her heels on, and I had to constantly catch her! There was no close..

Su. We danced for a minute.. then she danced with some other guy wearing goggles. She danced with him for a bit (and snogged I think according to Selvi), then I bumped into her again. She then latched onto me for the rest of the night and didn’t want to dance with him again .. strange. Goggle guy liked my tie, though I didn’t get a pic with him.

Su and I just walked around and tried to pick up guys and girls respectively. She is so picky. Su had a few guys approach her but she just rejected them all. I danced with chicks a plenty.. scared a few as well.. while some tried to outdance me… including the one below.

Katrina i think was her name. Hilarious she was for some reason!

[ Coda ]
We just got tired and hungry.. left around 3am. The place was still packed.

Home is a great place for any event. Fucking expensive though.

Hanh and Jon were going to Space. Jon was going to pay for entry. I really had no other option, I was too lazy to check out another club.

[Summer Luau @ Space]
Cover Charge – $25
Crowd: Asian
Atmosphere: Okay. Loud.
Extras: Everybody got a Luau on entry

[Timeline] (Midnight onwards)
So we line up. The line went progressively fast. Unusual . On entry it wasn’t packed as other nights. I was given an Orange Luau, but I stole Hanh’s pink one and combined the two to make a super Luau headband thing with rat-tail. It was super cool.

I hear two girls behind me:
“OH MY GOD $25 DOLLARS!?? LET’S GO!!”
Haha how funny.

The trance floor was empty, surrounded by people too scared to step on. So I jumped right in and did some footwork. I could hear everyone cheering on! I never felt so free. Then another guy jumped in to dance it up with me. Wow this was fun! The song ended and we hi-5′d. I was dead tired from that.

Rnb room was pretty busy. There was a catwalk like podium right at the front. Anyone could jump up. Mostly the brave ones went up.. myself.. Jason (again!) and some other crazy fellas. I was so attracted to the trance area as the rnb was too crowded for me.

[Coda]
Eventually we left 1.30ish. Hanh and Jon got bored.

It was a good night only cause I got to wear the Luau things!

Entertainment:
The booty shaking competition went well. Dancing competition went well too, they actually gave it to the proper dancer to win it.

Podiums? Man.. there were no podiums !!

Music
Other than that, I am not going to waste any more time posting about it. If you’ve been to Space, it was the same type of music. The trance was probably more improved as the songs were better to dance to for some wierd reason.

Misc
Saw Jason the solo bum dancer there. I had lost my dodgy looking glasses (again!!), so he probably didn’t recognize me? He’s a funny character. It is so hard to be different at Space. Perhaps its because of the large amount of people there.

Summary / Coda
Left the place. What a misleading advertisement. Well I might have misinterpreted it !!

“I’m sorry. I cannot allow you to get in tonight. You’re dressed too casually”

What?

I looked at Martin and I looked at myself. Martin was dressed in a slick outfit – black pants, collared shirt, nice black jacket, and a modified waist belt as a neck choke. I, on the other hand, was dressed in a cotton t shirt, and a pair of faded light grey jeans (they used to be black) with rips all down along with a massive hole at the base, to compliment my dirty sports shoes. I was still groggy from last night. My hair was a mess. Frankly, I looked like shit, and Roxy wanted none of it.

Leadup: Cabramatta love
Feeling very dejected I felt like going home. Martin was still open. We took a trip to find the recently opened club 888 at Cabramatta Leagues club, which I heard about in a radio ad. It was a 30 minute drive. We were going clubbing tonight no matter how shitty the location.

Leadup: Finding Cabrabrandi
The only problem was that we didn’t know where the leagues club was. We first got to a club where I thought it was, but it was the Cabramatta Bowling Club. We went to the other side and saw the CabraVale RSL. They pointed us to the right spot. It was on the end of railway st, smack in the middle of nowhere. Cars were everywhere. Packed. Here we go…

About Club 888 @ Cabramatta Leagues Club:
Location: At the southern end of Railway Street, Cabramatta
Cover Charge: $10
Music: Trance. Not that happy hardcore crap, just normal trance that you have a chance to dance to.
Crowd: Dominated by Vietnamese people who are probably living locally. The majority are mature. Mature as in their late 20′s and 30′s. Dare to say 40 something year olds were there too. Nothing too much to get excited about. Atmosphere: Dark inside, smoke machine, and light strobes add to the loud trance experience. Crowd is somewhat friendly. Hard to tell in Cabramatta.
The venue: on entry, you are facing the square dance floor with the DJ out front. Hard tables and chairs on both carpeted sides provide a resting spot. The bar is on the left within an enclosure to minimise the music. Smoking area is outside but being Cabramatta, everyone smokes inside. There is a medium sized floor with enough to hold everyone.

Tonight’s timeline:
I got in the club with my daggy outfit. So did a whole heap of other guys. Most were crammed on the floor. Most were also late 20 to 30 something year olds.

Cha cha cha
These guys only knew the solo cha cha, and they were solo cha cha-ing to the trance music like zombies. There were no circles, just rows of people who look like they’re going to line dance. At least they were trying to dance, which is better than shark bar any night. There was one guy going well, but only in the back carpeted area. There was nobody out on the floor to inspire and lead. Martin and I waltzed right up front and swazzled the crowd with some moves. Martin was exceptionaly enthusiastic considering he hadn’t been clubbing this year at all (a downer of having a girlfriend). Definitely better than I was!

The only hottie
I bumped into cassie who I met from VSA. She didn’t know my name. She and her friend were probably the youngest there. Cassie said there were other VSA people here earlier but had left. Kevin ‘the gay guy’ was the best ever dancer I had ever seen from VSA.. Anyway I digress. Cassie’s friend was hot. Problem was that she was dating Martin’s brother. Talk about torturing a brother while not being there.

Man vs smoke machine
Everytime the smoke machine blew smoke, Martin and I would run towards it and dance in it like little kids. Anyway, a guy was leaning over the stage taking a breather. Suddenly the machine spits out a huge plume of smoke – right in the unsuspecting face of our recovering victim. Hahaha !

Anyway, the guy didn’t flinch! He was either because pretending it wasn’t there, or he was just so tired he didn’t move. After a few seconds the smoke cleared and I could see him again. Then.. the machine roared up and blew another fogworthy cloud of white in his face again! HAHAHA! He moved away this time – good work.

Man vs sleep
We moved to the back carpeted area where some space was. We did some crazy moves. Martin saw a guy standing up not doing much. We went up to him. Martin stood face to face and danced land waved in front of his eyes. No reaction. I had a look. This guy had his eyes shut. He was sleepdancing! It wasn’t really dancing. It was more swaying left and right. I thought he had taken some drugs or alcohol, or both. In any case, everyone around thought it was funny.

Wet floor
The floor always was wet at the front. Surely nobody sweats that much! It wasn’t sticky like someone had dropped their drinks. I later found out people were putting water on the floor so that they could dance easier! Who and what the hell? Must be a trance or cabramatta thing. It worked though, I nearly slipped a few times.

An abrupt end
One of the guys who has been drinking all night is ejected for being too drunk. Security stops the music and kicks everyone out. It was 2:50am.

Outside there was a shirtless guy with tattoos all over. He wanted to fight another drunk guy, for reasons unknown. He was yelling in Vietnamese, and I tell you, it sounded scary.h is friends were holding him back from fighting the other guy, and likewise for guy 2. We left in case they brought out their knives and decide to give everyone haircuts.

Coda + Post Mortem
I’d only go here if i was trapped in the west cabramatta with no trance place to go.

(Got some pork rolls at the 24 hour pork roll place at Cabramatta. Yeah you heard me. 24 hour pork rolls!! )