Since Kinki @ City Hotel stopped, two events have popped up. Fabric, and tonight’s review – Taboo. We were at a booze cruise earlier, a bit tired but still keen to club. Lets check it out!
Taboo @ Verandah Bar, Sydney
Taboo used to run, years ago, down beneath Mr B’s hotel, then I think it popped up at Equilibrium / World Square Pub, before going into hiding again. It’s finally made a return to Verandah Bar.
DJ booth (yes that’s a purse)
Essentials:
Opening Hours:
9:30AM – 4:00AM (?)
Address:
55-65 Elizabeth St
Entry is only available from Elizabeth St for the club event.
Venue Website:
Event Website:
Promoters:
Kick On Entertainment, Got Game Entertainment, X, As One Ent, B Diamond
Occurrence:
Tonight is the public grand opening. There was a VIP only soft launch the previous week. The event aims to run every Saturday from March 2014
Dress Code / Door Policy:
“Strict Dress Code Applies” is encouraged. I got in with black pants, shoes, and a daggy striped jumper. My female friends wore simple black dresses. One wore flats, other heels.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge:
Paid $25 at the door full entry.
$20 on guestlist. Unknown what time the guestlist expires, but typically a guestlist will end at 11:30PM or Midnight.
Passouts/Lockout:
1:30AM Lockout applies tonight to this venue
Guestlist:
info@taboosaturdays.com.au
Table / Bottle Service
Available on enquiry. Prices unknown.
Cloak Room:
$5 Cloak per item, $2 for recheck
Tonight:
Assessment Time:
1:10AM – 3:10AM
Outside Line:
At 1:00AM there was no line when we entered. There were people already leaving at this time.
Inside:
Things have been rearranged compared to the old Vanity event held here.
The right hand side, as you walk in, has been placed with various lounges and sofas to act as the VIP areas. People just chill here and drink their expensive bottles of alcohol, sadly away from the main dance floor. The dance floor has moved back towards the back where there is more room to dance around. The area can hold about 70 people. There are two small podiums next to the DJ booth, centred on the right side of the wall.
The second room to Verandah was not open today.
Bar Prices / Line:
Three Vodka + Red Bulls cost me $43.50 or something extraordinary. The line up was quite quick (1:30AM)
1:30 AM at the bar
DJs:
DJs rotated on an hourly basis.
Music Style:
RnB, Hip Hop most of the night
Later in the evening (2AM) there was a stronger emphasis on EDM, House music
Special note on the phrase “put your fucking hands up“. Wow I must have heard that 10-15 times in the space of an hour. Each time it was played, I obediently put my fucking hands up. Then I realised how tiring this was, and everytime the DJ plays “Put your fucking hands up”, it became just sooo annoying putting my hands up. I never realised until tonight how one phrase can be so, so repetitive. Once in a while is fine, but omg, this is almost as bad as entering a Reggae club and being subjected to laser beams, horns and the MC yelling “this one is for the ladies“.
Crowd:
The first thing I heard when I walked in was a girl screaming “My sister is here! She just turned 18!”.. Oh god.
Not reflective on the crowd as such, but pretty much I knew nobody in here when I walked in. All fresh faces to me. It’s good in a way in that I can keep to myself tonight.
The crowd is probably 80% Asian and the rest Caucasian. Lots of dudes at this time of night. Lots of drunk dudes
It was quite busy on the dance floor throughout the night (especially during David X’s EDM set 2-3AM) but the VIP areas were left pretty empty.
Ratio:
Probably 5 guys to 1 girl at this time.
Entertainment:
Earlier on in the night they had professional podium dancers – The “Taboo Dancers”
There were free canapes between 9:30-11:00PM (This is dead time)
There was also a photobooth between 10:00-1:00AM
Dance Floor 1:20AM
Atmosphere:
Most of the night people are centred around the dance floor either dancing or not dancing. I did a count at 2:40AM and there were about 20 people actively on the floor moving their bodies around. The rest were standing and staring.
Quite a few guys were touchy with my female friends. Some dude jumped in and randomly grinded one, while two other guys brushed their hands up my other friend and pretty much grabbed her boob. They laughed and I’ve had to step in between to be the cockblock. My friend commented they should have at least grabbed both her boobs if there were two hands, rather than one of her boobs. Ha.
The crowd seemed very responsive to the RnB music, while when EDM came on, most of this crowd left to go home while the party on goers continued to dance here. Not too dark, not too light, but it still wasn’t a true club feel as compared to say the Fabric event next door. Then again, the people seemed more friendly here.
Video:
Walk-through, music timeline
Upon Departure
Left at 3:10. 2 hours into the venture. Just tired.
Final Thoughts & Recommendation
If you were looking for an alternative RnB night for Saturday with a younger crowd, go for this place. If you don’t like creepy guys then maybe don’t come here, but creepy guys are everywhere. For an EDM fix, go next door to Fabric. I think I could have gotten more value out of $25, though this is the price of arriving late. 6.0/10