Clubbing with James Tran

I won two tickets to Good vibrations 2010 in a 25 words or less competition. ( I wrote a very clever line which I shall keep secret ). Matty made me enter the competition, so I gave the second ticket to him as reward. It was pretty hot midday so we bought some sombreros and awesome hologram sunnies at Market City and suddenly we were ready – so here we go!

Good Vibrations Festival @ Centennial Park

Assessment Time: 16:00 – 22:00 (closing time)
Website: http://www.gvf.com.au
Address: Centennial Park Sydney
Dress Code / Door Policy: Anything goes, no dress code.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Prepaid tickets were $145 each. I won tickets to the show today.
Inside: There were 5 official big areas for the acts to appear. There were also 2 smaller sponsored areas for dancing as well.
Cloak Room: $5 per item
Bar: $8 light beers, $10 smirnoffs. Thanks to the cool weather, there weren’t so many people lining up for a bar, and we had some booze in our hands within 3 minutes of lining up.
Bathroom Line: Appalling at about 20 minutes
Acts: Salt-N-Pepa, Armand Van Helden, DJ Crazee, Aston Shuffle were the main acts we visited today. Other acts included Busta Rhymes, Naughty by Nature. The Killers and Friendly Fires (I was dying to see Friendly Fires) had pulled out of the Sydney show.
Music: A mix of Indie Rock, Hip Hop, and House
Atmosphere: Despite the pullouts, the atmosphere was buzzing throughout the whole day. People are everywhere and its quite good. Later in the early evening it starts to rain but not too hard, but it rains enough for people to get out their ponchos. Instead of being a downer, people embrace the rain and keep dancing and singing along. The rain is also a huge welcome as earlier it was pretty stinking hot earlier in the afternoon.

Videos:

Salt-N-Pepa : Let’s talka bout Sex + Man Dancing on Tent

Everyone is cheering for this guy more than Salt N Pepa – hilarious – The poor guy was most likely kicked out, but for immortal fame in the eyes of thousands? Sure, why not.

(continue reading…)

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…)

Homebake Sydney 2009 @ The Domain Assessment Time: 15:30pm – 11:00pm Opening Times: 12:00pm – 11:00pm Website: http://www.homebake.com.au Address: Royal Botanic Gardens, Mrs Macquaries Road, Sydney. Dress Code: Anything goes. I wore an orange jumpsuit. Everybody else was pretty casual, and being summer, it was lots of shirts, hats and skirts. Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Tickets were $99 Inside: Four or five areas. Most of the big acts were in the two main areas – the Main Stage and the Big Top, which is just a huge tent kind of thing. Food stalls inside, and a merry go round swinging thing. In the middle is a huge grass area to sit down. Plenty of toilets. Cloak Room: $5 Bar: $10 smirnoffs. Lines were extremely long today. Food: Rip off. $5 bottles of water. $7 hot chips, $5 Hot Dogs, $12 Salt and Pepper Squid Acts: Powderfinger, Jet, Hilltop Hoods, Eskimo Joe, Sia, Daniel Merriweather, Midnight Juggernauts, Sarah Blasko, A Special Best Of Performance By Tim Finn, Closure In Moscow, Short Stack, Phrase, Decoder Ring, Bumblebeez, Tumbleweed (Original Line-Up), Eddy Current Suppression Ring,  The Funkoars, The Middle East, The Aston Shuffle, Sugar Army, Record Producer, Shockone Music: It’s all Australian music today. Entertainment: The merry go round provided entertainment, as well as some of the small stores for tattoos or typical carnival like things. In between acts on the main stage, the TV screens would play some funny clips of people rendering their versions of popular songs. Crowd: Dominantly White Australian. I probably spotted a total of 7 or 8 other asians the whole day. Atmosphere: Throughout the day the good weather provided a very good atmosphere. This was a sold out event so there were just people everywhere, walking around, doing their thing. There was enough room to find your own spot in the grass and relax as well. The atmosphere at the two main stages was always pretty packed. I would say it was more intense in the Big Top than the main arena – it could have been because the Big Top had more acts which were ‘dance’ or crowd oriented. People in the Big Top were likely to dance and jump up and down. The Main Stage.. people just stood around singing along. (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…)

You may have been clubbing and been photographed by those Munky people in their orange shirts and Sony Cybershot cameras. I got their July newsletter – they post random pictures of people and if you are one of them you win a prize – and guess who I saw – A picture of me in my pirate outfit from We Love Sounds!! woot woot!!

I have never been so excited about winning something. Will keep you updated on what I win! I suspect it is that Saturday pass to Soho Saturdays. Yay -.- At least its not the trademark one.