In front of a brave Karaokeist @ The Harp of Erin, Wollongong

In front of a brave Karaokeist @ The Harp of Erin, Wollongong

We have decided to spend a day in Wollongong to see the wildlife at night. We have been recommended by the locals to check out The Harp for pre-drinks, so here we go!

Saturdays @ The Harp of Erin Hotel, Wollongong NSW
Assessment Time: 22:15PM -23:30PM
Opening Hours: Unknown, but it is a bar, so typical bar hours, which would be 10am – 3am.
Website: http://www.harpoferin.com.au
Address: 124 Corrimal St, Wollongong NSW
Dress Code / Door Policy: anything goes. it is a bar, so most casual clothes can get away with it. Hats are not allowed in here.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Free entry for both the bar karaoke area as well as the dancefloor area.
Inside: Walking into the main entrance you are presented with the main room where there is a karaoke thing going on. Get up and sing! they say. The standing area holds 150 or so people, and there is a stage on the right, where you stand up to sing, or where a band can play. Bar is to the left. A wall divides this area from the second area – The second area has a central bar, surrounded by tables and stools. On one side is an enclosed area which is the dancefloor, and it is sligly elevated from the rest of the room. It holds about 60 or so people .
Cloak Room: None
Bar: Standard beer prices
Music: House music in the dance room. Typical bar karaoke music in the karaoke room. The types of music you will be subjected to range from rock to retro.
Crowd: Mostly locals, some sydneysiders – with most being caucasian.
Entertainment: Karaoke of course! But only in the karaoke room.
Atmosphere: Karaoke room – busy the whole time we were there. In the clubbing room, the general atmosphere in the bar was busy, but not packed. A good balance to allow us a bit of room to dance.
Video:360 view of the Karaoke Bar Side
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Video: Walkthrough on the younger side, with dancefloor entry:

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Timeline:
Asahi Konnichiwa!
Tonight there are 4 of us guys, and to make things interesting we pretended to be part of a Japanese rock band touring Australia. Our band name (inspired by the beer) was named – Asahi Konnichiwa, which puportedly meant ‘Hello beautiful’.
I am talking to a guy, and he is very curious as to our Japanese origins:
Guy: So you’re Japanese
James: Yes
Guy: You guys have perfect Australian accents
James: Yeah, we were taught by Australian teachers in Japan
Guy: Awesome! I’m going to Japan. What’s a good city to go to?
James: Oh visit Dinki, its porn central. (I have never been to Japan, and Dinki is not a real city – anything that ends in a vowel could be considered a Japanese word, name or place)
Guy Dinki, great! *Takes out mobile phone and writes down DINKI into his mobile*

To top it off, he even bought us drinks, though I didn’t really want to drink. I had to accept his gracious offer. Too friendly they are here. 🙂

With a friendly local

With the friendly local giant

Taking over the floor quite quickly
We move to the other side ot the Harp, where the dancefloor is. The crowd on the floor are young white people – people who, are safe to assume, cannot dance. We stepped up and pretty much took over in a matter of moments. Taking over meaning a small area is reserved for us to dance and we have some people staring at us dance. Cheers from the crowd, we dance but we have other clubs to visit, so we have to leave.

Karaoke!
I must confess I have never done bar karaoke in front of a crowd. Well, we were in Wollongong – its just us boys, so who is going to care, right? I submitted a song of choice – “Pretty Fly (for a white guy)” by The Offspring. Well, after a good one hour, our song has not been put up yet, and we have to go. Booo! Maybe next time.

Arrivederci
Left because we had other clubs to hit, and this was just a bar for predrinks. Next destination is The Ivory.

Recommendation
If you are just here for the dancing floor component, it is not the best out there, but it isn’t crap. However it is surprisingly busy for a venue at this time before 11pm, so The Harp gets a 8.0 for the Karaoke side (purely in terms of atmosphere and not dancing – nobody was dancing here but everybody was singing), and a 5.5/10 for the Dancefloor side – if only the dancefloor area was bigger. It’s free entry so there isn’t harm in coming here first for pre-drinks


One Response to Saturdays @ The Harp of Erin Hotel, Wollongong NSW: 17th April 2010

  1. […] We were on our way to Hostage X or Illawara Hotel for the final club of the night, after visiting The Harp, Ivory and Glasshouse. It’s already 2am and locals have told us Hostage X was dead, and that […]

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