1:30AM Inside crowd shot of about half the floor

1:30AM Inside crowd shot of about half the floor

Out tonight to celebrate Special K’s birthday tonight – I’m a bit late but I’m here now – wooo! Here we go!

Bamboo @ Martin Place Bar
Assessment Time: 01:30AM – 03:30AM
Opening Hours: 10:30PM (or earlier) – 03:30AM
Lockout: Unknown, probably 03:00AM
Address: Corner Elizabeth St and Martin Place.
Venue Website: http://www.martinplacebar.com.au
Promoter Website: http://www.urbanagent.com.au
Occurrence: Every Saturday night for the past few years. Recently celebrated their 5th anniversary.
Outside Line: There wasn’t much of a line – probably 2 people in front when I arrived for late entry.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Most people are smart casual, but casual is okay here. I was feeling daggy tonight – I’m wearing an out of fashion jacket with loose t-shirt and a pair of old jeans with matching runners. I looked really shithouse tonight.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Full price $25. $20 on guestlist before midnight. Free entry for ladies before 11PM with appropriate voucher, and free entry promotion for first year university/tafe students.
Guestlist: Submit via the promoter website above.
Inside: Nothing has changed since last time, except that the dancing pole has been removed, probably for safety reasons, as I have seen dancing poles fall down before. Anyways, to recap, walk into a long narrow room which is half occupied by the bar. The dancefloor fits about 5-8 people wide while it stretches along the length of the bar 30-40 people deep. There is a small VIP area at the back with a secondary bar about 8 people wide. Further out from the main bar and dancefloor is a corresponding outdoor/smoking area.
Cloak Room: I didn’t utilize cloak room services tonight, but it is found at the far back corner near the gambling area.
Bar Prices / Line: $9 for a vodka lemonade from memory. The line was 2-3 people deep, but birthday girl somehow managed to squeeze her way (ie push in) through these people within 2-3 minutes. I learned some dirty tactics that girls use, and realise that lining up at the bar is pretty much a battle zone in the eyes of a girl. I do advocate lining up rightly so, but some people I guess want their drink much more than others.
Music Style: Mostly contemporary american RnB, with the occasional house song thrown in to mash things up.
Crowd & Ratio: Almost everyone here is Asian. I did come very late into the night so there were noticeably more guys, but that’s typical of a normal club at this time. The girls here, may not be many but they were pretty decent looking.
Entertainment: They did have podium dancers (woo!) and Jason the Korean bum dancer was here as well. If you haven’t seen him in action, you just have to be there on most Saturdays here. Highly recommended. Hmm… It’s also only hit me just now after all these years that he loves polo shirts…
Atmosphere: Pretty busy and hard extremely to find your own personal space for a dance spot inside.. until around 2:15ish AM when some people left the club. In the meantime, dancing outside, at the very back or front near the DJ, or on the podiums would have to suffice for people just reentering the dancefloor area.

Timeline
Getting free entry:
Tonights promotion was free entry tonight if you were a 1st year university student – Oh heck yeah, I’m first year! So I proudly showed off my student card, but I was knocked down hard as it was not accepted – Apparently first year post-graduates aren’t included in the “first year” offer! DANGNAMNIT. After some whining, they were nice enough to give me $5 off. Someone totally needs to a post-grad party night, full of mature aged students. Probably nobody would come to this mythical party, but I would be there! booyah!

Story of one depressed girl
We spot a girl who looks a bit sad. She’s moping, and sitting on a podium. She looks possibly under the influence of a substance of some sort. later, we spot her taking a huge 2cm pill or some sort and popping it into her mouth. Literally a minute later she is no longer mopey and sad. She is happy again!! haha, so strange – it could have been meds, I don’t know. There is a guy standing right next to her the whole time who appears to be looking after her. He then tries to kiss her and she brushes him off. Oh it was just some creep.

Here comes some girls talking to her – Must be her friends – I wonder where they were before? Anywaythen they leave her alone again! What kind of friends are those? No idea.. maybe they weren’t her friends. Two more guys who were loitering around talk to her and try to get their grind on. It doesn’t work, but its probably become apparent that her friends have deserted her, she has her crunk on as well as her sadness going on.. and guys are doing their best to get with her.  The poor soul. We ask if she is okay. Incomprehensible response followed by moping. Security don’t seem to mind, but then, she isn’t causing trouble nor she is passed out. Hmm… At the end of the night she’s alone outside crying again. I wonder what happened. Usually if you’re sad / crying you leave the club instead of hanging around for an hour or so… seeing happy people wouldn’t necessarily help the cause, right?? There was no real funny side to this story. It just kinds of highlights the seedier side of the club scene.

Woo
Alright, so Special K and I are up on the podium or nearby dancing.. basically yelling “woohoo!” and “Yeeha”! to any nearby clubbers. This went on for probably 30-45 minutes, which was pretty awesome. Nobody seemed to care too much though.

Arrivederci
Left at closing time. A handful of girls left and about 25 guys at this point of closure.

Recommendation
It’s still the same old Bamboo, so if you haven’t been do check it out, but if you have been – nothing new to report. I was here pretty late in the night, so I did cop a lot of guy action.. might have been better/more packed earlier in the night.

Bamboo @ Martin Place Bar – 6.5/10

NB: A ‘relaunch’ of the Bamboo event on 2nd April 2011 occurred which changes how the night is run, so it may be better for returning patrons.

 

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2 Responses to Bamboo @ Martin Place Bar Sydney: Saturday 26th February 2011

  1. James says:

    After a 6 year run Bamboo will cease on the 9th July. Recently it has been associated with more of the tourist crowd rather than locals, so it will be interesting to see what new event will replace Bamboo.

    Big crowds expected on the final night, so good luck getting in if you rock up anytime after midnight.

  2. […] Code / Door Policy: There is no longer a dress code recommended or enforced tonight as per previous events here. Half the crowd was casual and the other half, smart casual. I got in with just a t-shirt, […]

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