The lead up:
I had to go clubbing. Shelly invited me to go to space again. This would have made it 4 weeks in a row. Space again? Hell no! I ended up walking down oxford and saw the line for UN, and it was looong. I walked a bit further down and saw the line for Havana. There was no line. Hmm.. was it open? I asked myself. I the proceded to debated with myself whether I should go in. Was it going to be worth it? I had no idea what music was playing, no idea about the entry fee. In fact, I knew nothing except that it apparently it wasn’t shit. It was either going to be Havana or Stonewall next door. I wasn’t keen on a gay club so I went into Havana..

About Mischief @ Havana Club:
Location:
169 Oxford St, Upstairs.
Website havanaclub.com.au

Cover charge:
$15 at the door
$10 if you guestlisted. Visit www.havanaclub.com.au to email your guestlist.

Music:
House / Housexy

General:
I got there just before 11pm. There was no line. Got straight in with casual clothing. Security didn’t screen me for weapons- this had to be non-asian.

Walked in and there was a about a 15×20 centre dance floor with a DJ playing house music. Surrounding the floor are carpeted areas, which in total, hold four bars with loads of lounges and stools. Here’s a diagram from the website:

Havana map

No, you can’t click to find out more..

Atmosphere & Crowd:
There were already a bunch of girls dancing. It was darkly lit. People are lounging around enjoying drinks and what not. It’s not as empty as I thought it would be. I actually can’t find a seat- everyone. Nobody is standing around looking lonely, except me, since I really didn’t know anyone. Would’ve been more relaxing if it weren’t for the house music blaring around.

The crowd is probably 60/40 Aussie / Euro, all white. Crowd is loud and friendly, and most are here to dance, the rest to make out. During the night I spotted probably only 3 non-whiteys.

Main floor: Midnight

My timeline:
I went alone, so basically I went straight to the floor. Early in the night, there are a bunch of girls dancing. I was apprehensive of being the first guy, so I waited a few minutes until some guys went onto the floor. I think they were gay, as they kept checking me out, with one of them giving me a massive bear hug!

How to dance with heels on
So anyways, there this one nut bag chick who was a most impressive dancer. You had to see her body shake like it was possessed – while wearing heels! Her secret was to rock her body back and forth while moving arms and shoulders in the opposite direction. This minimized the need to reposition her legs at all. So girls, yes, hard to picture, but that’s how you can dance with heels on!

Fight! (and should one be allowed to record them?)
Around midnight some commercial house starts to play. They were playing “NYC Beat” (uptown downtown turn the beat around..), but it’s ruined by a sudden brawl between 2 guys in one of the lounge areas, with everybody trying to separate them.Havana is a small place so everyone stops dancing while the brawl erupts. I couldn’t do much to help so I recorded it to post up here on the site.

While I’m filming some girl pulled down my camera with her hand. Then said to me “don’t !!” with a very pissed off look. Well what else was I going to do.. Dance? There were at least 3 other people recording with their cameras, with a better view. I didn’t see you try to stop them! friggin oath.

Who let the girls out?
After the fight, a lot of girls left Havana. I did a headcount and the ratio of women to men was 6 to 1. Sigh. Even though I came here to dance, the atmosphere is almost always more fun when there are more girls. I’m sure you guys agree.

Post fight
Not much really. I danced and got lots of compliments. Despite the new anti-smoking laws, there were still some people lighting up, especially later in the night when its more relaxed.

The place was basically empty at 3:30am, so I left soon after.

Post mortem:
A nice place to go if you like house and an aussie euro crowd. Plenty of bars meant very short lines, which was very nice. Lots of lounges sets the mood to relax and pickup. The big fight was a bit of a mood killer though, took some time for it to get under control.

I would go again but with a small entourage. There wouldn’t be enough room for a big circle of any sort on the dance floor. Otherwise large crowds would need to grab one of the lounges available to retreat to during the course of the night.
to retreat to during the course of the night.