Despite it looking quite normal and possibly drab during the day, it has been reported that there are lines of people who wait to come inside here, with cover charge. For the first time in ages, I have nothing on Thursday, which means I can finally visit this place out. So here we go!

Dancing with some of the other shuffling locals upstairs

Wednesdays (Summer Launch Party) @ The Eastern Hotel, Bondi Junction
Assessment Time: 11:23 – 3:00AM
Opening Hours: Open early in the day – Unknown (4AM ++?)
Lockout: 2AM Lockout
Address: 500 Oxford Street, Bondi Junction, Sydney. It’s a bit hard to find if you haven’t been before. It’s on the far end of Wesfields away from the station. Google maps: http://g.co/maps/rachx
Venue Website: http://www.theeastern.com.au , http://www.facebook.com/TheEasternWednesdays
Promoter Website: Appears to be self promoted
Occurrence: Every Wednesday
Outside Line: 24 people was the headcount upon lining up. However the line was pretty fast, and we got in within 10 minutes. I like that.
Dress Code / Door Policy: A lot of people wore caps tonight – these were mainly the people who came for the hip hop music tonight. Spotted also were fedoras and cowboy hats. Others wore casual, smart casual and whatever is fashionable. It was a mix of everything here.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $10 flat entry. Free before 10PM if on the guestlist
Guestlist: wednesdays@theeastern.com.au
Inside: This place is made up of 4 levels. The ground floor is the regular bar and NOT OPEN tonight, while the 3 levels above are the club levels for tonight:
(1) Island Bar: Half the room is sat by the Island Bar, to the left half of the room. On the far left are booths to sit down away from the music. Theres a long light overhead along the rim of the room. The music / dancefloor is on the right hand side to hold 100 or so people. DJ booth is very small and along the same level as the dancefloor.
(2) Main Bar: On level 2, this place strikes you with the black and white patterned wallpaper as you walk in. The main bar is on the far end opposite you and is the length of the dancefloor (~20 people long) . To the left is a larger DJ booth, with lounges in the far left corner. In front is the large dancefloor for about 200 or so people. To the right are a smoking room, two further separate lounge rooms and a smaller bar manned by a single bartender. This is the biggest level by far.
(3) Pacifica: Another flight of stairs to take you upstairs to what appears to be an Asian restaurant lounge during the day. It’s very classy. Plush lounges, ambient lighting, high ceiling, portraits of what look like Geishas on the walls, Medium – Small dancefloor for 50-70 people. At the back is the bar, a small one manned by 2 staff.

Cloak Room: None found on any level.
Bar Prices / Line: Two Smirnoff Blacks and a Tequila Sunrise = $27.50. The average wait at a bar would be around 5-10 minutes. There was a bar or two on each level so it did just keep up with demand.
Bathroom Facilities: I only used the bathroom on the top level which, whose floor was pretty wet and filthy – a combination of vomit, urine and alcohol.
Eviction Count: Big fight spotted later in the night at Level 1 Island Bar, it was assumed that the people involved were kicked out, but it was quickly defused. As a side note, I saw another pissed off guy gesture a “pulling the trigger” with his finger at some girl, no idea what the back story was, but he looked mighty angry. Again, this was on the Island Bar bottom level. Also on top of this, a friend who came outside at 1AM REFUSED to come inside, because she saw quite a number of people outside the club vomiting their guts out, and she went home for fear of molestation or something else if she went inside and met more of these kids. Fortunately most of these drunks were outside the club, and not inside. The drunkards did provide for a entertaining journey back to the car afterwards.
DJs: Nacho Pop (yup, the Nacho Pop judge guy from So You Think You Can Dance), John Glover, Oakes & Lennox, Here’s Trouble, 14th Minute, Skinny, Eko, Naiki, Troy T.
Music Style: For each of the three levels:
(1) Island Bar Level: Entire time we were here, the music was rap / hip hop (NOT RnB) aka Kanye West, Snoop, Jay-Z .. that sort of music.
(2) Main Bar: Primarily House, Commercial House, and some other form of house later in the night
(3) Pacifica Room:  Pop and Top 40 with house mashup.
Crowd: Mostly a local Sydney crowd, from all over Asians, Aussies, Africans, etc. – I met people who travelled from as far as Casula to come here tonight. Mostly Anglo-Saxon for the Main Bar. At the Island Bar room (Hip Hop) it was a half mix of the locals, and the rest were people of African descent, backpackers, dancers (you can tell by the number of caps that were worn in this room) or just fans of the music here tonight. At the top level Pacifica bar it was more of a Anglo-Saxon crowd, with some local Asians. Earlier in the night this room was VIP only, and was opened up at around 12:30AM for the general public to enter, but most newcomers probably never realised there was a top level room here tonight.
Ratio: Pretty much an even ratio, or dare say at some areas of the club, even more girls than guys. For the majority of the night, there were never more guys than girls. Really there was nothing to complain about here. A healthy representation of the worlds gender ratio.
Entertainment: No extra entertainment. The week prior, LMFAO had dropped in for an unannounced visit. Missed out hard.
Atmosphere: (1) Upon entry the Island Bar level was pretty much packed. People were pretty chilled out and dancing to their own – the important part is that everyone is dancing here. Though, right in the midst of the dancing here, it does get quite stuffy and you will start to sweat easily. 
(2) Upstairs to the main bar, it was packed, but people are just standing around mingling, despite the massive tunes being dropped. I would say out of the few hundred people on this level, only 10-20 people were actually dancing next to the DJ booth here. The place stayed pretty busy until around 2:00ish when people started to leave. It became quite deserted by 2:30, and me and my friend were just shuffling around with about 3 other people on the entire dancefloor.
(3) Top level Pacifica: couldn’t get in until after 12:30, but that was pretty packed too. (This whole friggin place was packed.) Top level, is the smallest but the crowd here are the most vigorous in their dancing. Almost everyone who is standing is obliged to dance, and they are jumping and singing to whatever is being played. It’s quite the nice atmosphere, as time goes by in this room, people move back downstairs and the hardcore shufflers stay back for even more extreme dancing. It started to die down at 1:15 and I think eventually upstairs was closed at 2:00AM
Video: Music Sample, mini tour. 

Timeline
On the way here I met some people who were also going to tonight’s event for the very first time, which was pretty cool. Together we somehow found the place, and since it was raining, we walked in with our cardigans/jackets above our heads, looking like idiots.

We’re not freaks
There were in this club, 2 really really tall girls, and a friend tried to ask them for photos, but kept getting rejected everytime before he finished talking LOL.. perhaps they got that question many times before.

Arrivederci
I came with friends tonight and we stuck together most of the night. We left at closing time.

Final Thoughts & Recommendation
I was definitely impressed on first impressions, and I was asking myself, why can’t more clubs in the city be more like this? This would be my ideal kind of club night. Cheap entry, packed, friendly crowd and music to suit all tastes. Definitely give it a visit with friends if you have nothing to do late Wednesday night. My only complaints are a lack of ventilation in the Island Bar, and people getting drunk too quickly – that comes with the increased numbers.

Tonight’s rating – 8.5/10