Clubbing with James Tran

Club recommendations. The problem with recommendations is that every club has its own unique qualities that make it lovable by different people. It’s easy to hate on some particular clubs, but extremely difficult to recommend a venue for someone.

I wrote an article for the I Heart Uni Magazine, listing clubs to recommend, for their edition which comes out this week. Article was submitted a few weeks ago. Target audience was asian uni students and I was pretty much restricted to outside the CBD. Quite difficult as Asians are as rare as hen’s teeth in the cross or on oxford st.

So anyway, my recommendations were:

1. Havana for Friday and Saturday: Havana Fridays for RnB is no longer. I went to their final night and it was shit as. For Saturdays, my recommendation is still to go here, but the crowd is still Euro and the music still House and Trance if you are into that.

If to find a replacement, I would say Slide Bar on the monthly ‘Bounce‘ Korean night events are the way to go. Unfortunately, they only come once a month.

Also, The Tunnel have RnB on Fridays, but I have not been yet to ascertain a recommendation.

2. Moulin Rouge for either Friday / Saturday: I wouldnt send an RnB lover here. They all hate it. If you like house and if you like dancing, then yes check it out. It’s a great dirty atmosphere. If you don’t like to dance, then avoid this place, as it is quite loud. Crowd is Euro/Aussie

3. The Gaff on Tuesdays: The Gaff Tuesdays is one of the best all round venues I’ve been to. People, cheap drinks, friendly people, wet t-shirt comps and some dancefloor action. It’s good as a safe recommendation for people on Tuesday nights. I still hold this as a recommendations. Crowd is still backpackers.

Thoughts
Most importantly, a good night is usually when you are in an open mood to meet people, and have fun with or without alcohol.

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I Love Uni White Party - Home Nightclub

I’ve been asked to check this University event out. A combined effort of all the universities, targeted for students who had just had their first O-Week. Well, considering my own O-week was about 8 years ago, I was wondering whether I should go. Then.. on the promo poster were the magic words: “WHITE PARTY”. Can anybody say GANDALF DA WHITE IS BACK??!! Got my dancing partner C to come along and so off we set our dancing merry feet – here we go!

I Love Uni White Party @ Home Nightclub

Assessment Time: 11:00pm – 3:00am
Opening Hours: 9:30pm – late (4-5am?)
Website: http://www.homesydney.com.au
Address:  Cockle bay wharf, Darling Harbour, Sydney
Dress Code / Door Policy: White attire only. However people who were not wearing white were still allowed in, despite warnings that people were not going to be allowed in.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $15 presold tickets (sold out). $25 at the door. The girl at the counter liked my outfit and I asked for a discount for having such an ‘awesome’ outfit.  She lowered my entry fee to $20. Score!
Guestlist: none
Inside: The White Party event was for the main arena room to hold 500 or so people. All the other rooms were closed. Later after midnight, the other trance / house / rock band rooms were opened up for the general public.
Cloak Room: Did not utilise cloak room today.
Bar: Didn’t drink tonight
DJ: Unknown.
Music: RnB initially in the main room. After around midnight, a change of DJ’s and an opening of doors to the public for sublime ensure the RnB was killed, and house and trance/ house took over for the rest of the night. It was strange because at one point in the night, a singer came out and sang some house songs, it was so bloody bizarre – how could people dance to this?? The small room upstairs was also used for a local rock band gig. I have never seen it done like this – what has happened to Sublime?? I was disappointed in one’s choice of music selection to dance to after the rnb stopped.
Crowd: Lots of asians for the rnb component, with a sprinkle of other nationalities. Almost all are uni students. Of course, as rnb is killed, the rnb lovers left and the ratio became a mixed bag of everything – Whites, Asians, Indians.
Entertainment: MC and professional male dance crews. Wow, they actually *do* hire men to dance. They were more house dancers but were pretty good at what they did.
Atmosphere: Main room was always happening. The other rooms later in the night were only so so. The sublime room was the only other somewhat happening room for the trance lovers.

Video: – 360 view at around 2am,
Taken by C – you can see me for 2 seconds dancing with a random dude

Keep reading on for Gandalf’s adventures!

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Related:

• Pajama Party @ Docks Hotel (26th June 2009)
• UNSW BSOC BSXC @ Home Bar (21st May 2009)
• Bamboo @ Martin Place Bar: Saturday 17th July 2010
• Homemade Saturdays @ Home Nightclub – 9th September 2009
• RNB night @ Home Nightclub, then Pontoon Bar – Friday 21 August 2009

A friend invited me to a little uni end of semester party – with a Pajama theme – sounded great! So I dressed up as a sailor.

U n’ I Pajama Party @ Docks Hotel
Assessment Time: 10:30pm – 2.30am
Entry Fee/ Cover Charge: $25 prepaid, $30/$35 at the door. Alternatively you could have come to Docks Hotel before 9.30 for drinks without paying entry and hung around for dance later.
Occurrence: Once off. It was U n’ I’s (the organisers) first event.
Crowd: Dominantly Asian, and almost entirely of uni students.
Music: RNB, House. The typical Sydney RNB DJ’s attended tonight. Sefu.. and Ace and some other ones for the main area. In the side room/area there was also RNB, but the DJ here also mixed it up with some House music. The King of Pop died earlier today, so there was also a 4  song Michael Jackson tribute in the middle and at the end of the night, which was nice of the DJs. A bit of Jackson 5, and then some MJ songs.
Atmosphere: Pretty good. Crowded as people were let in. Most stayed until 1.30.
Entertainment: Dance off, and an all girls pillow fight. Videos of the pillow fight later

360 Video Inside:

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Related:

• I Love Uni White Party @ Home Nightclub: Friday 12th March 2010
• Homemade Saturdays @ Home Nightclub – 9th September 2009
• UNSW BSOC BSXC @ Home Bar (21st May 2009)
• Candy Dreams @ Havana Club de Luxe Sydney: Friday 26th March 2010
• Shanghai Nights @ Brooklyn Hotel: Friday 26th March 2010

What an acronym!! The University of New South Wales  Business Society ‘Be Sexy’ dance!!! Try saying that 10 times. My boss has been encouraging me to use my annual leave, so I took a Friday off and went with a friend on Thursday night!

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.
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Related:

• I Love Uni White Party @ Home Nightclub: Friday 12th March 2010
• Homemade Saturdays @ Home Nightclub – 9th September 2009
• Pajama Party @ Docks Hotel (26th June 2009)
• Thursdays @ Scary Canary (25th June 2009)
• Homemade Saturdays @ Home Bar Nightclub (20th June 2009)

Tonight I was drinking at roof bar. It’s my de facto Thursday night watering hole. Around 8pm some people dressed up come into the place. Cheryl recognizes one of them from her high school. There was a dance party tonight, from none other than the UNSW comsoc / lawsoc societies. A few weeks ago myself, Kevin and a friend snuck onto a comsoc party cruise and had a good time, how very funny that I ended up being at the spot of their next event. The host kicked all the students out, but we stayed as we were patrons of Roof Bar. So then the party started…

Event details
Entry: $5 presale, $15 on the door (event was sold out)
Music: RNB
Dress code: Dualities/Doubles. Eg doctor and nurse
Crowd: Uni students, asian.

Timeline
About 9pm people stared coming in. Cheryl spoke to Pearl and Jan. I was introduced along with Ben and Joe, and An. Nobody was dancing yet and music just started so I went down to the floor with Ben, Joe and the girls. Soon enough the crowd warmed up and as more people filed in everyone was dancing away.

I bumped into the girls I met on the cruise a few weeks ago – Amanda, Christine, and a hello to Elizabeth. I really should meet more guys. Anyway,  both seemed to be off their faces!

Anyway not much really happened.. Me, Joe and Ben danced with Pearl and Jan most of the night. Most of the night we would see everyone saying hi to each other and dancing with each other.. lots of fun. It’s much different than to a club venue where nobody knows each other. I wore Jan’s angel wings which was pretty cool..

Coda
We left at 11pm so we could catch the train home, ha!

Related:

• I Love Uni White Party @ Home Nightclub: Friday 12th March 2010
• UNSW Bsoc Comsoc Cruise 2008
• Pajama Party @ Docks Hotel (26th June 2009)
• UNSW BSOC BSXC @ Home Bar (21st May 2009)
• Bamboo @ Martin Place Bar: Saturday 17th July 2010

Prologue
A moment of inspiration
Me, Kevin and his friend (i forget his name) were drinking at Cargo Bar on Thursday night. We look below and see some uni students awaiting for a cruise. Kevin recognizes it as the UNSW Comsoc cruise, which he and his friend went to years ago. We watch as the party cruise ship sails in. It’s a double storey glass walled ship. The bottom level has a bar and is purely for dancing, judging by the empty wood/carpet floor. Upstairs looks like a chill out area to observe the sights. Suddenly Kevin cries, “Let’s get on that boat!”. We were all in business attire, but we were asian, so we looked young…. we were going to sneak on board.
What’s the password?
We meekly approached one of the widly dressed people, who was one of the organisers.
Kevin: We lost our tickets! They’re at home!
Wildy: Do you have your receipts?
Kevin: No, they’re at home as well
Wildy: (Getting suspicious) So tell me, how much were the tickets?
(I opened my mouth to say $40 but then Kevin butts in..)
Kevin: It was $35, right? (nodding head, serious look)
<< pause >>
Wildy: Have you seen the poster?? What did it look like?
Kevin: No, I havent seen the poster at all…
Wildy: Alright alright you can get on.. just line up

…
……

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111

We couldn’t believe it, Kevin was a guessing genius!!!! We were all giddy and full of excitement, like little kids let loose in a toy department. We got stamped and walked on board with anticipation…

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Related:

• UNSW Comsoc Lawsoc BSOC “mixed doubles” @ Skygardens (Roof bar)
• UNSW BSOC BSXC @ Home Bar (21st May 2009)
• I Love Uni White Party @ Home Nightclub: Friday 12th March 2010
• Future Music Festival Sydney @ Royal Randwick Racecourse: 6th March 2010
• Bamboo @ Martin Place Bar: Saturday 17th July 2010

Meiny and Dania invited me for clubbing tonight. It was a university event @ Docks so young girls guaranteed. Indonesians though. Hmm, I had no idea what kind of quality they were. Oh well, I had to go !

About Glow
What: A once off Indonesian student event. Entrants get glow sticks and party with UV light.
Music: RnB and Minimalist House
Crowd: Young and Indonesian (Indo as they like to be called for short)
Cover charge: Ticketed event. $20 for members of the Indonesian society organising the event. Otherwise it’s $25.

About Docks Hotel:
Located at Darling Harbour, it’s a long stretch with two areas on each end. On one end is a dance area and a carpeted lounge. On the otherside is another loungey area. On a typical clubbing night out there, both ends will play different styles of music. Along the middle are more chairs and a bar, leaving a narrow area to walk through.

What happened:

I crown you Lord James
The line wasn’t that long so it was ok. Once I got in, they gave me these glowsticks. Where am I going to put them? It was then I realized I was wearing my striped elastic hairband. So I put the sticks in my head, and now I had a glow in the dark crown thing. Well it looked more like I had antennae sticking out of my head, looking to pick up any rogue television or alien broadcasts from the air. I think everyone I walked by thought I was some weirdo .. they definitely had a good look at my bright crown as we pass by each other.

Why there are no pictures in this post:
I met Meiny and Dania. We took photos of my lovely crown and of each other. I held onto Dania’s camera. We danced. I took more photos. Gave back the camera. A while later Dania asks for her camera. I gave it to her. No I didn’t she insisted. Yes I did. Well it wasn’t in my pocket anymore. It was gone. Fuck. As I’m writing this post up.. we had negotiated to pay 50/50 for her new camera. Expensive night out!

Meiny tries Absinthe
Asian girl meets Absinthe – we all know how this is going to end. She ran off after the shot and we couldn’t find her. Her SMS to me sums it up:

“Im in toilet.. Fukin spewin”

That’s gold. SMS and spew at the same time? Women are truly masters at multitasking.

The Music:
RNB side: I think they used the same DJ’s as the ones from bamboo, because not after long, the 2nd DJ started repeating the same songs as the 1st one played ! They also had the same MC who usually attends Space and Bamboo.. I don’t know his name. The music was better with the last DJ who played lots of west coast rap. As usual though, the main RNB was the typical shit.

That Akon song ‘I wanna fuck you:’
Meiny has a boyfriend, who isn’t here tonight. I’m dancing with Meiny when this particular song comes up. Oh no. Yes that song. Now really – It was totally awkward because usually you sing along to the songs that are being played. It didnt seem right to sing a song about performing coitus with your mate’s girlfriend. We just stopped dancing. Finally left to the house area after the first few “I wanna fuck you.. ya already know — I wanna fuuuuuckk youuuuu” chants.

My final thought about this song – “Hey dj.. PLEASE Mr DJ… tell me if you can you hear me… turn that fucking music off”

House side:
I’ve escaped to the house side. It’s apparently an Indonesian DJ playing his house. I was hoping for some good commercial house or some thumping beats. But gawd. There was no electro beats.. it was real old school house.. and a bunch of guys were ecstatically dancing to it. Nuts, so I joined in. There was a guy with a fake set of tits running around. It was a good feel.

Otherwise the house music was forgettable.

Fights of the night

1. This was on the way home, we saw a scuffle between two groups of indonesian guys

Guy 1: Don’t fight over a f*cking woman !
Guy 2: I’m not! I’m fighting to defend my friend !

Yeah. Right.

Coda
I’m ending this post early because I’ve got a huge backlog to do. Finished. Went home. I don’t recommend docks unless you like rnb. The both times I’ve been there, there were fights. Crazy.

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