As I write this review, news has come through that Tank Nightclub, after 10 years, will be shutdown after April 2011 and converted to a non-clubbing venue by the owners. It is sad to see one of the great club venues of Sydney go out like this, as it was definitely underutilised in recent years…

Here for a friend of a friend’s birthday tonight – simple enough.. here we go!
RnB Superclub / Not Myself @ Tank Nightclub
Assessment Time: 11:30PM – 01:15AM
Opening Hours: 10:30PM – 04:00AM ?
Lockout: Unknown
Address: 3 Bridge Lane, Sydney CBD, Sydney
Venue Website: http://www.merivale.com/establishment/tank
Promoter Website: http://www.rnbsuperclub.com
Occurrence: Every Friday until April 2011.
Outside Line: About 4 people in front of us, but the line is held up FOREVER, so as to not have an empty appearance. Okay, it was more like a 15 minute wait – but when you’re out at the front it does feel like forever – you would access within 5 minutes.
Dress Code / Door Policy: You need to be pretty much at least smart casual. Casual won’t cut it, unless you are with company of hot girls.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: I don’t recall. Either $25 or $20 full charge.
Guestlist: See promoter website to submit guestlist details. Various forms and what not would need to be filled out
Cloak Room: None tonight. Strange as it usually is available.
Bar Prices / Line: Didn’t drink tonight. Oh wait, I did, but my friend bought drinks. He’s awesome. 
DJs: Unknown
Music Style: Rnb in Main room (which only opened after midnight). Meanwhile some house tracks were being played in the upstairs small room and downstairs den area.
Crowd & Ratio: Mostly Caucasian crowd of Euros and Aussies with some other minor nationalities here represented. Mixed crowds of prior where Indians/Asians used to be a good part of the population are no longer tonight. Likely to blame is door policy. The age of the crowd isn’t teeny bopper but still looked young, but a little more grown up. I would hazard a guess to be a 21-25 year old crowd.
Entertainment: No extra entertainment.
Atmosphere: Kind of empty at first, and it only truly picked up the pace after midnight when downstairs opened up and people flocked down here.

Timeline
The stigma still lingers
Friday nights is RnB – with the unforgiving dress code against ethnicities and groups of guys, though it has relaxed somewhat. Tonight we were a group of ethnic guys with one girl. A huge gamble and I wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t get in, again…

The man-bitch checks us out, asked the security guy “what do you reckon?” (a shoulder shrug is the reply) and then presents us the question:
“Pick a number – 16 or 17?”
For a moment here, we are wondering why he is asking such a question. I have a feeling this is like the Red Pill / Blue Pill scenario from The Matrix, except we weren’t being told which choice left us outside in reality, or was going to let us into the club. Perhaps I was overanalysing it and he was screwing around with us guys for kicks…
“Go on.. pick a number!” it is repeated.
This is seriously strange. Finally, one of us says
“..17”
Another moment fleets by, as one wonders what he has to say next..
“Lucky! If you picked 16, I wouldn’t have let you in”
Are you freaking serious? REALLY? The ultimate fate of our entry to the seemingly not so busy club based on a chance 50/50 pick? I don’t think my friends cared (or even remembered) at all, but seriously if you are have doubts about dress code, just pull the wool over our eyes. Oh it doesn’t matter, it’s RnB Superclub / Tank anyways. The stigma still remains from all those years ago. It is entirely possible that he was going to let us in either way and use the same line, but it didn’t appear that way.

A toned down affair
No cloakroom and no main DJ until after midnight, where prior it was 11:30PM. These guys were seriously cutting costs. Kind of a spiral of death. I must say tonight was one of the lowest points I have seen Tank events. I suppose for the first timer friends here they enjoyed it, no doubt, but it wasn’t like “old times”…. OK IM OLD. 

Arrivederci
The birthday girl passed out and got carried out in a chair by security as she couldn’t be lifted out by one person. Hilarious, but unfortunately it also meant the end of the night for us.

Recommendation
I found it somewhat average compared to past times here. Sad to see it go. If you have never ever been, check it out simply to experience what one of the better venues in Sydney has to offer.

For the first time punter –They got a taste of what a purpose built club was. 5.0/10
Personal experience – Disappointment pulled this one down. 4.0/10

Epilogue
I saw a guy passed out on the steps nearby, and someone pulled his pants down as he lay there. We pulled his pants back up and called police to take care of him. The police came and pretty much woke him up demanding if he took any drugs. He honestly looked like he was just passed out from alcohol and was incomprehensible. He was treated pretty roughly too. Kind of sad, entertaining, and yet got me wondering why I called the police. At least he is safe and alive now.. ?