The premise was easy enough among some friends tonight – to have a few drinks and dance at their favourite local, which happens to be The Marlborough Hotel – let’s go!

Crowd shot Underground - 1AM

Fridays @ The Marlborough Hotel (aka The Marly) , Newtown Sydney

Assessment Time:12:50AM – 02:30AM
Opening Hours: 10:00AM throughout the day with the underground dancefloor closing at 2:30AM. I think the general ground floor closes at 3:00AM
Lockout: None
Address: 145 King St, Newtown
Venue Website: http://www.marlboroughhotel.com.au
Promoter Website: Appears to be a self promoted evening.
Occurrence: Every Friday and Saturday night
Outside Line: No line upon entry, just a few people catching up on their cigarette break.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Pretty much anything within reason was okay. Considering it was winter most people, both men and women, wore casual. T-shirts galore, while some girls wore singlets and jeans – some people even kept their warm casual jackets on tonight. I wore a t-shirt and jeans and casual jacket straight from university – very lazy of me ( there’s a picture of me later )
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Free all night for both ground and underground.
Guestlist: N/A
Inside:  Walk in to enter the ground level where there is a small raised platform in the corner. This is where the band usually plays. This is actually a 3 level venue but tonight only the ground level and underground levels were open. I’ve been told on other nights, that upstairs would be open too. Under ground, walk into a small-ish dancefloor room – Bar on the right, and dancefloor the left with a central column which has been covered in mirrors. Some flashing lights on the ceiling in combination add to the effect of the room tonight. Down at the back are lounges and mirrors that line the walls, to give it a bigger impression of space. 
Cloak Room: None
Bar Prices / Line: Didn’t drink tonight
Eviction Count: None spotted
DJs: Unknown
Band: Wilcatz
Music Style: Ground level: The Wildcatz were playing, whom are known for covering an assortment of well-known rock songs. Underground level: This appeared to be a mix of top 40 both contemporary and over in the past. I don’t even know if there was a DJ here mixing things up as there was minimal mixing/transitioning. It sufficed for the crowd.
Crowd & Ratio: Ground Level: A mix of old and young who appreciated their rock music. Mostly Caucasians here with a handful of Asians in here too. Appeared that most were locals.
Underground Level: A mix of everything tonight. Australians and International Students from Indians, Caucasians, Europeans, Asians in the underground club room. The ratio was pretty much mostly guys at around 70% at best, but as the night wore on it became more like 80% guys. People of all ages are here. Generally younger than the crowd upstairs.
Entertainment: No extra entertainment.
Atmosphere: Ground Level: Pretty small crowd here but most people are up and jiving about and singing along to the music, so it was a nice cosy atmosphere to say the least.
Underground Level: Being a mixture of everything and being underground it was a bit dirtier and considering the small size also a little warm. Well lit areas removed any potential dark nightclub factor here. It was pretty normal atmosphere for a club. Though it is full of people, I will give you that, so it did have something going for it. 
Video: 

 Timeline
In General
I probably spent an equal amount of time upstairs as well as downstairs. Some songs that were being played downstairs were ones I weren’t familiar or probably didn’t like as much, so I would head upstairs with another friend who was definitely into his rock. When the upstairs band finished at 2:00AM we headed downstairs to finish up what was happening.

Which came first?
A friend had inspired me with this video of an Indian party – with a trance track overlaid on top of the audio. (I highly recommend watching it here ) The main protagnoist of this short clip has an assortment of amazing dance moves and I borrowed one of them,  the one where he is flapping is arms akin to a chicken. I was ready and now I was about to test to see if I get some chicks to turn into chickens. Oh yeah, I said it.

So I’ve started flapping like a chicken and slowly approached the girls
James: <flap>, <flap>, <flap>, <flap>, <flap>, <flap>
Girls: ….
James: <flap>, <flap>, <flap>, <flap>, <flap>, <flap>, <flap>, <flap>, <flap>, <flap>
Girls: hahahahahhahahaa

They may have laughed at me – BUT This has not deterred me.. I must fight!!
<flap>, <flap>, <flap>…
…. Slowly… but surely…….
… as sure as the day follows night,
… as sure as honey is sweet and gold is precious,
… and as sure as as sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti
… they slowly they started to flap their arms as well… Hahhahahaa… Success!!

My friends are pretty much laughing at this point at this ridiculous sight, and they join me for a big chicken / dance session. I think I’m going to use this move more often.

Practicing the chicken wing flap dance

Arrivederci
And thus after lots of dancing the night was ended at 2:30 when everyone is evicted.

Recommendation
A good local night for a dance at a place where there is an actual dancefloor. It is a shame that upstairs wasn’t open, as that would be also a great spot to get your dancing shoes on.

I wouldn’t go out of my way to go here, but if you are in the area and a bit lazy to head to the city (or a bit lazy to dress up in proper dress attire for that matter) just want a free dance without much fuss of music choice with a friendly crowd, definitely come on by here. Otherwise for classier places  try someplace else.