Kin.ki @ City Hotel

On January 19, 2014, in Mr TIpplys, RnB, Top 40, by J T

A birthday tonight, its time to revisit this place!

James Tran and Mario Sydney

Kin.Ki @ City Hotel (updated 2014)
(Review combines visits on 20/5/2012 and 19/2/2014)

About: Coming from the same promoters who do the “Perfect” @ Pontoon / “Flow Fridays” event, the name “Kin.Ki” is based on its location on King St. Regardless, word was that this place was getting popular, so here we go!

Assessment Times: 12:10AM – 3:30AM (20th May 2013), 11:25PM-2:30AM (19th Jan 2014)
Opening Hours: 10:00PM – 3:30AM (on expected busy nights it may extend to 4:00AM-5:00AM)
Lockout: Unknown
Address: 347 Kent St (Corner of Kent and King St)
Venue Website: http://www.cityhotel.com.au
Event Website: http://www.facebook.com/Kinki.Saturdays
Promoter Website: http://www.syndicateevents.com.au
Occurrence: Every Saturday night since February 2012
Outside Line: We arrived a bit late, but lucky for us the line is barely there, and we got in within 5 minutes. (We did try coming here on an Easter Weekend, and the line was about 2 hours long and we gave up – so be careful. ) It was quite cold tonight and I was pretty happy to actually pay this amount, just so I could get out of the cold. If you were on the guestlist, you had to actually wait a bit longer (to time you out of discount entry).
Dress Code / Door Policy: Guys are expected to wear at least collared shirts and jeans/pants to fit in. Girls are expected to look “chick”. i.e. dress your best. Most are dressed well. No hats, thongs, singlets, runners or dirty shoes allowed. Clean sneakers appear to be okay. I had jeans / sneakers / skinny tie / collared shirt.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Guestlist entry $20 before midnight. I paid $25 full entry. For a special guest appearance night (e.g Mario) it is $30.
Guestlist: Send them to your preferred promoter (not me) or kinki.saturdays@gmail.com ,
Inside: Walk inside to the atrium area where there is a second room up the stairs on your left. Seating and the main bar are right in front of you and serves as the non-smoking chill out area, while the DJ and dancefloor are on the other side of the bar. The bar is of circular configuration against the right wall. It takes up about half the width of the floor space.

The dancefloor itself is just a big square floor with lounges along the walls with the DJ booth in front. Overall it is  of medium size, but compared to other “Asian” oriented events, the floor relatively larger, and can enough to hold about 150 people or so. Continue onto the rear outdoor smoking area where there are numerous more tables, couches and a second mini bar on the outside serving limited variety of shots.

Front of the dancefloor

Cloak Room: $5 with $2 per recheck. Reasonable.
Bar Prices / Line: It did take about 10-15 mins to line up. Vodka & Red Bull = $12 (They actually use legitimate Red Bull here, not that other chat stuff)
Bathroom Facilities: (2014) Bathroom looks okay compared to last visit, i would rate it moderately bad. (2012) Tonight got a bit messy in the mens. Someone decided to puke.
Eviction Count: None spotted
DJs: Unknown
Music Style: [Main Room] Mostly commercial top 40 oriented to the RnB side of things. Later after 3:00AM the DJ on rotation plays Hip Hop. [Upstairs Room] Played EDM the entire night. Siiick.
Crowd: Mostly, if not all, local Australian Asians. Young 20’s and TB’s.
Ratio: At 1:00AM it was about 2 guys per 1 girl, but the place was very busy at this time still, so there is still plenty of people to meet.
Entertainment: (2014) Mario was the guest appearance tonight and played almost a one hour show (2013) The occasional podium dancer here and there.
Atmosphere: Throughout the main hours it was kept pretty busy. At 12:30 there was only minimal elbow room, and as mentioned before, at 1:00AM it was still going off. The lighting is a hue of blue/purple. It’s dark but not dark, if you get what I mean. EDM room was mostly busy throughout the night, but enough room to shuffle away.

EDM Room upstairs

EDM Room upstairs

Video: Walkthrough / Music Timeline
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Timeline

The Mario Experience (2014)
Had no idea about the Mario thing tonight, it was just co-incidence.

12:20AM MC announced Mario was coming, a friend and I decided to line up at the front and get as close as we could. There were probably 2-3 rows of dedicated fans, nobody else in the club really gave a flying toss.
12:30AM We have waited about 45 minutes and his entourage appears. Mario appears, wearing sunglasses, and sits with his entourage drinking vodka. People are yelling “Mario!” and taking photos. Turns out it wasn’t Mario, it was just a single black guy who was part of the entourage.
12:35AM Mario appears to the screams of the crowd. He’s silent as he walks up to the front DJ and has a chat to MC and everyone and strangely sets up his laptop. People are yelling “Mario!” and taking photos. Turns out it wasn’t Mario, it was just his personal DJ, who is also black.
12:40AM Cat fight at the front row. This girl has pushed in and is fighting with a girl who was clearly there the whole time. Push-ingirl is screaming “I was here first!” and the other girl yelling back at the top of her lungs “No, you pushed in!”. The two girls grab each other and then their friends lock on to each corresponding girl. The whole mass of people sway back and forth, like a romantic group tenderly playing tug of war. Security isn’t there fast enough and there is mad tension after throughout
12:45AM Friend and I are in the 2nd row. Some guy tries to go through us, and we have to pretend to be boyfriend-girlfriend to stop him. He told us his cousin was at the front row and he wanted to be with her. What started as “no”, eventually turned into something more vulgar to keep him away. He was quite persistent. His cousin didn’t want to lose her spot and left him stranded. lol.

12:50AM: Mario appears! It’s the real Mario, in a leather jacket, sunnies, and he’s already sweating. Suddenly a bucketload of girls appear out of nowhere and come to the front. It is very humid in here.
1:00AM: verytime Mario finishes a song, he takes off an item of clothing. Sustained hysteria ensues as girls are jumping, screaming non stop, touching his body, grabbing his crotch. The heat is making everybody sweat.
1:15AM: I am surrounded by girls and yet I have never been so repulsed in my life. The girls all have sweaty hair, and its sticking to me. It’s an oestrogenfest. Mario continues the antics by pouring champagne into everyone’s mouth.
1:20:AM: Cat fight again from the two groups.
1:40AM: The Mario ordeal ends. I retire immediately to the bar to drink copious amounts of water. Wondered if I was going to get PTSD.

Video: The Mario Show
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Perks of the job (2012)

Podium has one security guard and has allowed one girl to dance (guys are discouraged to dance). The security just stand there and dont dance. So girl in question is dancing away, sharing this small podium with the guard, and I must say he was clearly very happy. All he did was stand there and she was happily grinding her ass against him in front of everyone. Ha.

Not a fan yet (2012)
A sad moment tonight was when they played a One Direction song and the whole crowd went bezerk! I immediately leave the dancefloor in silent protest.

Final Thoughts & Recommendation
The promoters have found a nice venue in City Hotel in that the floor is large and kept kind of separate from the rest of the place rather than blending in transiently. People seem to be friendly somewhat but its just them lines! If you don’t like to wait I would go out to the rear and get yourself some shots – faster that way. Staff are well into it which helps. This appears to be a good place to go. Second room also helps, but its easily missed tor the unawares. Would recommend it.

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2 Responses to Kin.ki @ City Hotel

  1. […] appears the promoters Syndicate Events and their friends have decided to end the old Kinki event and go with two separate events next door to each other. Tonight let’s suss out the […]

  2. James Tran says:

    This event is no longer running

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