[I was originally not planning to write a review and so no photos/videos were taken as I was pretty tipsy. I have no idea how I managed to get in. Then I just literally decided just now to write a review up at the end of the night, for record keeping sake... so it's just a quickie]

Quickie: Taboo @ Civic Hotel (Level 1 Rooftop), Sydney 
Assessment Time: ~1:30 – 4:00AM
Opening Hours: Unknown – 4:00AM
Lockout: Unknown
Address: Level 1, 388 Pitt Street (Corner Goulburn Street), Sydney.
Venue Website: http://www.civichotel.com.au
Promoter Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/TabooSaturdays
Occurrence: Every Saturday night.
Outside Line: There was a line of about 12 guys and 1 girl upon entry. Keep in mind that this line is combined for both the Taboo event upstairs and “The Clinic” separate event happening downstairs. Took about 5 minutes before we got in.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Pretty okay door policay. I had my mini afro-wig on. Most people wore smart casual. Girls wore dresses and looked their best here. hats are also allowed here. Saw some gentlemen with hats.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $25 is the full cover charge. Apparently guestlists were still valid at this time, but I wasn’t acknowledged as on being the guestlist. I be sad.
Guestlist: taboo.saturdays@gmail.com
Inside: Just the upper level of Civic Hotel is used on a regular night.
Cloak Room: None.
Bar Prices / Line: Didn’t drink tonight, I already had pre-Christmas party drinks. Drinking four nights in a row isn’t good for me at all.
Bathroom Facilities: Not utilised.
Eviction Count: None spotted.
DJs: Unknown
Music Style: Mostly RnB, Top 40.
Crowd: Pretty much all Asian here, with less than a handful of Caucasians here. Ages ranged from 18 year olds to 30+ year olds I met. You can’t tell what is what anymore when you look at the Asian genes of youth.

Ratio: Ratio was expected to be more guys than girls at this time, seeing that most of the girls would have gone home by now. It was approximately 70:30. I’m sure the ratio was better earlier in the night.
Entertainment: An MC was here. Photographer.
Atmosphere: It was a good turnout for this small venue. The floor wasn’t too packed, but may have been even worse earlier. However half the lounges were not populated with people. You could get a seat anytime. Most people who are dancing are right close up to the DJ in the corner, while everyone else be chilling or standing around not doing much at all. At least 100 or so people were here.

Timeline
I was pretty tipsy from the Christmas party beforehand and pretty much chatting to every girl I could see. Grinded a few, what’s new. Then i ran out of girls and started talking to all the guys. For the final 30 minutes, all the dancing girls had left, and me and some guy friends were just grinding each other instead.

I met a reader as well as part of my world talking tour. Fun times. Had a bit of a dance too.

Met some friends as well, it was quite the night actually. Going out is always more fun when you have friends around you. Always have friends guys, always have them.

Hmm… that’s about it. OK, there’s more, but I shouldn’t write about it here.

Arrivederci 

Left at closing time.

Final Thoughts & Recommendation

I can’t really say much, except that it’s quite a small dancing space, while more than 75% of the space is lounges or chill out areas. It’s good music though. Some girls were a bit cold though. Place could deal with more people/girls.

Too inebriated to give a rating.

Promo poster

Upstairs 2AM general dancefloor shot

Click here to view the embedded video.

My shirt is ripped

Underground Level: Dancefloor

This event had all the hype, and it pretty much drove my curiosity insane! Take my money you sneaky little promoters, its time to visit this event – here we go!

Volar @ Civic Hotel (All 3 levels)
Assessment Time:12:35AM – 03:30AM
Opening Hours: Unknown the exact time of opening for the club levels – probably 10:30PM. The club levels close at 04:00AM
Lockout: Unknown, but throughout the night it seemed to be okay to slip in and out of the venue, so long as there isn’t any trouble going on.
Address: 388 Pitt St (It is on the corner of Pitt St and Goulburn St between World Square and Mr B’s Hotel)
Venue Website: http://www.civichotel.com.au
Promoter Website:Primary Promoter: http://www.urbanagent.com.au alongside with ESO.net.au, 1nitestand.com.au , viplist.com.au, Z3nent.com, EpikEntertainment.com.au, G6
Occurrence: Every Friday since March 2011. (Tonight was the third week open)
Outside Line: The line was pretty short when I arrived (I did arrive a bit late), but earlier it was reported to be much longer.. to at least 50 deep. I waited about 5 minutes or so to get in.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Smart Casual is recommended, but it does appear that pretty much most attire is accepted tonight. A hat was spotted worn inside the club, so I assume hats are okay. I wore a black t-shirt, jeans and clean white sneakers and got in without a problem.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $25 is the full charge tonight….$20 on the guestlist. Guestlists closed at midnight.
Guestlist: Email volar@urbanagent.com.au or submit via the website. The guestlist submitted was not recognized at the door when my friend Marty came up, which was unfortunate. Alternate addresses are volar@z3nent.com and volar@epikentertainment.com.au
Inside: It’s promoted as three levels of clubbing. Upper/Rooftop level, ground level, and Underground.
Inside Upper Level: Otherwise known as the Rooftop level, walk into enter an area with a bar to your left and lounges to your right. The bar has three sides to it, to line up maybe 15 people comfortably. A narrowish path leads you to the other side of the room, where the open space serves as the dancefloor. In the corner is the DJ area and 2-tiered podium for dancing. The podium holds about 10 people. The immediate clear area for dancing holds about 40-50 people, while people can still dance a bit further back near the entrance or on the other end near the VIP area. Tonight the VIP area was roped off. On the diagonally opposite corner of the room is the smoking area, where people sit around on marble/wooden seating arrangements and smoke and talk. The area is ‘roped’ off by a thin stream of water, similar to the Cool Zones at Town Hall station during afternoon peak hour.
Inside Ground Level: Enter the ground level from Pitt St and be presented with a bar to your left spanning half of the floor. Roughly the same size as the Rooftop level bar. DJ area in the corner with a small dancefloor for 20 or 30 people. Stools and lounges dot the walls. No podiums and minimal lighting exists here, but there is a disco ball.
Inside Underground Level: It kind of feels like you are walking to the bathroom going down the stairs. Then you realise, that there are actually toilets here. However, there is also an entrance to the Underground room. Walk in here to be faced immediately with the side of the bar, about the same or smaller size than the other two bars above. On the right are saloon like seating arrangements on the wall, with a mirror running along around shoulder height on the side. On the far left corner is the dance area. It is actually a sunken squareish area about 50cm below the floor level here. The area holds 50 comfortably upto 80-100 squishily in my estimation. Rails border the sunken dancefloor so that observers can watch on by. Right in front of the dancefloor is the stage area at floor height. The stage could hold 20-40 people. This room also holds one of the most well recommended sound systems in the Sydney club scene.
Cloak Room: Located in the Underground level room. Pricing is unknown. Marty got inside at midnight and discovered that the cloak room in the Underground level was at capacity! That’s crazy! It’s not a very big cloak room though. It would be hard enough to cater for one full level full of people, let alone 2 full levels of people. Keep this in mind and put stuff in the cloak room ASAP for this event.
Bar Prices / Line: Upstairs is a nightmare to get drinks. Just like the Taboo event on Saturdays here, you still have to wait at least 20-30 minutes to get served, if you don’t push in. Ground level, there generally isn’t a line or a very sparsely populated line – the sole bartender here was a testament to that. In the Underground level, the line wasn’t as bad as rooftop – the line was 2-3 people deep with about a 10-15 minute wait during peak times. Pricing unknown – I didn’t drink tonight.
Music Style: The poster at the time was that the Upper level was dedicated to RnB, which was true. The poster mentioned the bottom underground level was dedicated to House music. This was kind of true. Some house was played, but easily the majority of music played was that of RnB/House mashup. The promoters had to cater for the crowd here tonight. Every time a house song came up (even if it was commercial house) which did not even have a hint of RnB in it, the dancefloor would pretty much clear out, and people would head upstairs to the other room. It’s quite the sad story for the Asian House music lovers. Then, when an RnB song or a pop song came on.. the TB’s would come RUNNING back to the floor to have their little dance. The music sounded pretty freaking awesome though with the sound system. very crisp even though it was pretty loud. I guess i didn’t appreciate it as much last time I was here due to me not appreciating the type of music they were playing that night. The Ground level was a designated ‘chillout’ area by the promoters, but there is some Retro music playing here with matching dancefloor. Typical Retro from the 70s and 80s would be played here, from my time in this floor.
Crowd & Ratio: (Upstairs and undergound levels) The majority .. maybe 85% were of Asian descent. It would be a mix of Asian Australian and Overseas based Asians. The rest of the populace consisted of Caucasians, some Europeans/Middle Easterns and Indians. Upper level had the distinct advantage/disadvantage to have a prominently more dominant male crowd, for whatever reason I dont know why – maybe they didn’t like the house/rnb mashup music in the underground. Either way, I personally didn’t stay up here too long. The Underground level also had heaps of guys at peak, but as the night went on.. the ratio started to become more balanced – Quality was good on both sexes, so nothing to complain about here. Ground level, it was pretty much mostly Caucasians of mixed ages, who were appreciating the music.. and the odd handful of Asian folk who came here for a bit of a rest. Nothing special here. Overall, I am guessing tonight is a mix of young crowd and old… I would hazard to say there weren’t too many TB’s to be honest, but the crowd in general is young. 
Entertainment: MC’s on upper and underground levels. A bottle water dump competition (aka cleverly disguised wet t-shirt contest) was on the cards followed by a booty shake competition. Oh wait, what’s that you hear? Oh yes, its me dropping the V-BOMB – The VIDEO BOMB of BOTH competitions for your viewing! Booyah!! Go on and watch it… you perverted scumbags

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Timeline

For you, it really is just two levels of clubbing, not three.
While the Upper and Lower levels have proper DJs and a bustling crowd and crew of promoters making sure everything is okay, the Ground level, counted as part of the “three” levels of clubbing in promotional flyers, isn’t really a destination for the Volar Asian crowd. This is probably because The DJ is playing some mightily retro tunes, with matching older Caucasian crowd dancing along. You wouldn’t feel this is your type of music at all.

The ground level is actually open to the public, so anybody can come in here. All 10 patrons on this level seemingly are having a good time, but it was quite dead here otherwise – the Upper and Lower floors require a stamp to gain entry. So remember, ground level is just the chillout area, but isn’t as exciting as it is promoted to be. Anyone remember the “four massive arenas” of Brooklyn Hotel?

Anyway, looking at the latest promotional poster, it has evolved to 5 rooms over 3 levels, and the music styles have switched rooms which probably means they are still tinkering with the formula or wording, and arrangement of DJs over the three levels.

Aggressive mailing list building
“can you please add your name to the list?” she asks. You know.. the pretty girl standing outside in the freezing cold getting paid to collect email addresses.

I kindly told her I was already on the mailing list, but she didn’t take that as an answer.

“NO. Put your details down anyway. We need it.”

No way you don’t. She really looked like she didn’t like her job or probably was sick of guys cracking onto her. Maybe she’d rather spend time snuggling with the boyfriend. Who knows. Why do you want my email twice! You guys already have my details! She wasn’t being understanding at all about it. Maybe she got a sick satisfaction of seeing people sign up twice to the mailing list.

Fake details were given.

Tried and never true
I saw some girls and well.. I used the old classic
“Are you guys _____?” line. I know, I know.. how sad. In this case, I actually thought they were Korean. 
“No, we’re Chinese”
FML.

It’s another bum dancer
Surprised not to see Jason the Korean bum dancer tonight. However there is another Asian guy here dancing very feministically. I dont know his name but he was very sweaty and pretty much up on the front stage the entire night pulling out his moves. Entertaining but he doesn’t pull it off as well as Jason – it kinda comes off as wierd. Well, he was happy to take a photo though!

Jason II and Marty

Sitting down is great for meeting girls.. not
I sat down.. and you know.. a girl who gets tired of dancing sits next to me. It’s kind of strange hey. Talk.. talk.. talk.. and the next thing you know.. she was very keen on leaving with me. So we begin to leave.. and then suddenly her guy friends stop her. Where on earth did they come from? Apparently they were watching me the whole time! My goodness. As they scold her, I made myself disappear very quickly. Another potential lifelong romance gone.

The girls point of view
So I had some girls tonight with me.. and i was upstairs, where all the guys are. The guys are pretty respectful thoughout, letting us have our own space. But I have to run downstairs. I left for about 15 minutes. Came back and the girls have reported that pretty much at least 5 guys have cracked onto them. I think they were being ‘wingmanned’ but failing repeatedly as so happens so often in Asian clubs. I think the word to describe them was “vultures”.

 Arrivederci
And so finally at around 3:30AM, we left, after some mental dancing and what not.

Recommendation
The girls I were with didn’t enjoy upstairs, and didn’t spend any time downstairs, as it was too packed. I agree.

As it got later in the night, I did enjoy it more as there was more space to move around and dance yet still plenty of people around. It just wasn’t possible to do anything earlier in the night as it was so packed.

So be prepared for the adventure that is being a sardine for an hour or so, before you have a bit more room to wiggle around and mingle.

Volar @ Civic Hotel: Rooftop Level – 4/10 - Sausage much?
Volar @ Civic Hotel: Underground Level – 7/10 - only as I love the sound quality here, and I am a fan of my house / house-rnb mashups that were being played here. No hardstyle, thank god. Also met a few nice people here.

Gallery

Crowd shot of the dancefloor area - 12:00AM

Sweet Taboo Saturdays @ Civic Hotel (Rooftop Level 1)
Assessment Time: Midnight – 03:40AM
Opening Hours: 10:00PM(?) – 04:00AM
Lockout: I think no more new guests were allowed after 03:00AM
Address: Level 1, 388 Pitt St (Corner of Goulburn St Opposite World Square / Tao Lounge). Don’t go downstairs, as a separate dance event is held here on Saturdays.
Venue Website: http://www.civichotel.com.au
Promoter Website: http://www.syndicateevents.com.au/
Occurrence: Every Saturday since late 2010.
Outside Line: There was no line outside where security was, nor there was a line at the cashier as we walked upstairs.
Dress Code / Door Policy: At least Smart Casual is recommended – Collared shirt and nice shoes. You may risk non-entry with dirty shoes. However inside, I did notice guys with normal t-shirts on and sneakers (non-dirty). Most guys wore collared shirts. Hats are allowed as well. Girls that were let in tonight were mostly well dressed up and looking pretty good.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Free before 10:30PM if on the guestlist. $20 between 10:30PM and midnight if on the guestlist. All other conditions is $25 full price
Guestlist: taboo.saturdays@gmail.com
Inside: Walk upstairs and give out your hard earned cash. Walk into the door on your left into the front of the venue. The whole place is of two distinct parts. You are in the combined dancefloor/bar area to hold 100 or so people. There are facing lounges to your right which are used for birthdays. DJ in the corner of the room with a 2-step poodium in front. In the back half of the club space are two rooms. One taped off ‘VIP’ area for larger private functions (later opened to all) and a smoking/chillout courtyard. It doesn’t feel like a courtyard as you enter, as it is partially enclosed. Walking in and out of this area you are sprayed with a very fine mist of water to cool you down. The courtyard area is all benches and holds probably 40-50 people.
Cloak Room: None. This is surprising.
Bar Prices / Line: The ‘theme’ of tonight was the promotion of Agwa Bombs for $10. A mix of new drink Agwa and whatever the chosen mix is. I am not sure if anyone tried it out. I didn’t drink tonight, but I did line up with M for when he ordered some drinks. The line was 2 or 3 people deep, but it appeared the bar was understaffed, as it took at least 20 minutes according to my watch before being able to place the order with the bar staff. This is an exceptionally a long time – almost if not worse than Bamboo.
DJs: Rotation of Dj’s tonight. See poster in gallery below for details.
Music Style: Contemporary Modern American RnB with Hip Hop and House mashups. After 3:00AM is old school Rnb. Expect to hear from the likes of Taio Cruz, DJ Unk, Nicky Minaj and Afrojack. Watch the music sample below for more. Yes, some songs were repeated tonight! Yuck.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Ran back and the handbag is re-hidden under a sofa. A few songs later, she went to check up on the bag, and it DISAPPEARED. Bar staff and security didn’t have it.. it was stolen! A cloak room would have solved these problems, but not to be. Keeping the bag on you could have solved these problems, but who goes to a nightclub to dance with their handbag? The rest of her night was understandably ruined. To think some people have the audacity to go to a nightclub just to steal things. Total bullshit! That’s two times I’ve had female friends have their things stolen in 3 months. So women .. beware your precious goods!! There are always thieves about – even in nightclubs. Fucking Assholes.

Slippery when dancing
The floor is wooden floorboards. Whenever someone from the podium jumped off, they would either slip and fall or almost lose their balance. I saw at least 4 people fall down onto the floor. Who knows how many others have gone home with minor bruises on their bodies. This dancefloor is bloody dangerous.

Dance-off!
I sit on the mini-podium and a song comes up. I rise and dance away! Then suddenly, 2 girls who are next to us suddenly pull out their amazing dance moves. OMG I felt so miniscule. I couldn’t keep pace so M stepped in to pull off his dance routine. I followed up with my ever trustworthy booty grind (you thought I was going to do the star jumps didn’t you, dear regular reader) which earned me some reverse grinding action. Kind of unexpected. My girl was pretty touchy. She asks if I know Salsa. I kind of know Salsa. “Let me show you salsa!” she says, and runs into some kind of seductive salsa dance, *leading me*. This wasn’t right. Men are meant to lead in Salsa! I pull out my basic Salsa moves and it is barely enough to be okay. She has a fiancée nearby, so this was really just a dance off.

Turned out they were professional dancers from interstate >.< !! I need dance lessons again.

Arrivederci
Left when there was pretty much 10 guys left and 1 girl. Friends handbag didn’t show up nor was it found misplaced anywhere.

Recommendation
The music is good, but can repeat later in the night. The actual floor space for dancing is ok for its size. The atmosphere was pretty good here and the crowd stuck throughout at 3AM. The $25 entry still hurts though. Ratio is surprisingly excellent, but shame about the no cloak room area as my friends’ night was ruined – hopefully in future events a cloak room will be setup for patrons. A higher rating would have been given if it weren’t for this.

Sweet Taboo Saturdays @ Civic Hotel (Level 1 Rooftop): 6.5/10

Civic Hotel Underground Pit Dance Area

Saturday. I am to play catchup with a friend, and he is at Civic Hotel, so here we go!

Adult Disco @ Civic Underground
Assessment Time: 01:35-01:45AM
Website: http://www.civichotel.com.au/pages/home.asp
Address: 388 Pitt St, Sydney
Dress Code / Door Policy:
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $25 we were told at the cashier, so we pretty much turned around to leave. She said “WAIT! WAIT!” and told us, that for the three of us, she would discount it to $15. This was surely a bad sign, but we did not notice. Before 11pm, entry is free.
Guestlist: None that I could find.
Occurence: Every Saturday
Inside: This place is of similar size of the Favela upstairs component. You walk in to the bar area with sofas and tables arranged in the same manner as a dine-in saloon restaurant in america. The dancefloor is in a pit, in the far back left corner, to hold about 80 people. It’s not very big.
Cloak Room: None
Bar: Did not drink
DJs: Unknown
Music: “Adult Disco” was the name of the event tonight. What kind of music was this? This was some really underground funky house music they were playing. Not commercial friendly at all, but even so, it was absolutely not danceable to at all. Ugh, but some patrons here were enjoying it. The short time I was here, I just felt my mojo being drained away from me. You can listen to the music in the video below.
Crowd: Definitely just adults. Lots of people in their 20′s, maybe 30′s. Mostly wogs/aussies.
Entertainment: No extra curricular things here.
Atmosphere: Dark, confined and not feeling the vibe at all.
Video: 360

Click here to view the embedded video.

Timeline:
In and out faster than a premature guy
Walked in and realised how shit the music was. Was not feeling anything and I and friends pretty much felt ripped off. Took the videos and photos and left

Arrivederci
Left to go to Shark Hotel up the road, which has at least danceable music.

Recommendation
This place is not for the person who has only heard music via the radio. For me, I could not tolerate it.. Perhaps this music is truly underground, but for me it is absolutely undanceable to – and danceability (if that is a word) is what I am here for. It is though great music to sway side to side with. I suppose I was not the target audience they were seeking, so I can’t blame them. There was a audience though who likes this music as the floor was pretty packed.

For the punter who visits rnb/house clubs, I can’t recommend this place at all. If you are going to visit this place, get here early to avoid paying the entry fee.

Adult Disco @ Civic Underground: 2/10