Clubbing with James Tran - Sydney Event and Nightclub Reviews » Haymarket Hotel

Quickie: The Market @ Haymarket Hotel Saturdays: 25th September 2010

James — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 13:59:07 +0000

(The following is a quick review of tonight – Refer to http://jamestran.net/?p=1277 for the last complete details and review, it hasn’t changed much)

Arrived around 12:15AM. There was no line. Apparently the line was uber-long earlier in the night. Paid $20 to get in. I was expecting to be charged $25 so it was a surprise.

Crowd is pretty much entirely Asian, mid 20′s or later. A mix of fobs and locals.

Main middle floor was pretty packed, and I didn’t even try to go inside the middle. Everyone was dancing like sardines.

360 view:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Met lots of friends, including a website reader. Thanks for the drink Kev

Top level was also pretty busy, but people were more mulling around rather than dancing. Below ground level was pretty dead.

Closed at 2AM. Didn’t see any fights, so it possibly was a safe night tonight. Though the dancefloor area was littered in broken glass.

Aftermath - broken glass at the club

Recommendation

Not good for dancing freely, but its always packed.

The Market @ Haymarket Hotel – 6.0/10.

Club & Bar Crawl: Haymarket Hotel, Doctor Pong, Slide Bar, Puls8 @ Shark Hotel, The Oxford, Hi-Lo (Middle Bar), Courthouse Hotel, Zaia @ Space Sydney: 20th August 2010

James — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 12:53:53 +0000

A night out with friends who varied across the spectrum. I had M, Jungle Fever and bisexual girls who were into RnB and Hip Hop, other girls who were not into RnB and Hip Hop and preferred the bar scene, my cousin who only liked RnB, her Asian American relatives who were very conservative – and I had to find them all good place to go. You have to be kidding me…

Fridays @ Haymarket Hotel
I thought an event would have taken over Friday nights here, but it hasn’t. Downstairs was closed off, and it seems only regular patrons were here for a drink. On the TV screens SBS was on and, being SBS, a documentary was being played about the porno industry. Hilarious hearing the collective screams of girls as the more saucy were being played.

Off we went to Oxford Art Factory. Half of us went in first. The other half including myself tried a few minutes later but we were told that the venue was at capacity and we should try again in half an hour. I doubt a packed place would have suited some of the people here, so it was off to Doctor Pong, just a few shops down!

Fridays @ Doctor Pong (Bar)

Doctor Pong DJ area and dance floor

Assessment Time: 11:10PM – 11:30PM
Address: 1 Burton St, Darlinghurst
Venue Website: None
Dress Code / Door Policy: anything goes, no security checks. Cousin’s sister-in-law, who was wearing pajamas, was let in.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Free
Inside: Small place. Bar in the middle. Lounges on one side, table tennis ping-pong table on the other side (hence Doctor Pong), with a restaurant on the far left. DJ up next to the stairs upon entry.
Music Style: Whatever goes, but it was keeping the crowd going. Volume was at a loud house party level but not a club level. You could talk in here without shouting too much.
Crowd: Mostly Aussies.
Entertainment: The table tennis table was the star attraction. Four paddles so everyone can have a go.
Atmosphere: Pretty busy at this time when we entered. You could say it was relaxed and busy. Red plastic cups add to the american beer pong feel.
Video: Walkthrough

Click here to view the embedded video.

Timeline
We pretty much had a drink, and nobody here seemed to like this place, except for myself and one other friend. Some of the women here were already plastered. Majority overrules and we had to leave to another place. Others wanted RnB, but we were on Oxford st, and there was none of that around.

Recommendation
It’s just a bar with a ping-pong table, DJ and dance floor for about 5 people. Pretty cool bar.

Casey Donovan @ Slide Bar

Assessment Time: 11:30 – Midnight
Entry: Free, after Casey Donovan was finished.
Crowd: Mixed Uni students
Inside: Elevated flashing dance floor, bar, and sofas and tables in the middle. Overhanging balcony.
Atmosphere: Not so busy

Slide Bar Dancefloor on a free uni night

Yup, Casey Donovan, the Australian Idol winner was here earlier, and patrons had to pay $20 to see her. What a rip!

Was here for a drink or two, then we left. There was a uni event on, and being uni students, most couldn’t dance well, but at least the higher podium was packed full of people who enjoyed the night. Other friends were also not happy with this place, and wanted to leave. I was pretty content here – the people seemed friendly enough. Oh well.

Puls8 @ Shark Hotel
Time: Midnight – 2AM
Free entry, fob crowd, enough said.

We hung out here, danced for a bit, and played pool. Cheap drinks. I don’t really write about Shark Hotel, as it is the same old every week. Everyone by 2am had left, and it was just me and M left. We move on to Oxford St…

The Oxford
There was a DJ, but it was dead and it was a non-fun gay bar. Left very quickly.

The Oxford - Totally Gay

Hi-Lo (Formerly Middle Bar @ Kinselas Hotel)
Assessment time: 2:15AM – 2:45AM
I think this place was called Hi-Lo, but it was definitely the former Middle Bar. It’s a nice place. DJ playing old school tunes – Michael Jackson et al.

M teaching Drunk Mike breaking

No drinks
Sat down to relax, and the bartender struck a conversation with us. He asked if we wanted to order a drink.

“I don’t drink” M goes
“Why” the bartender says.
We laugh. It’s a joke.
“Why are you laughing? I’m serious”. He was serious. He didn’t understand why we weren’t drinking. Weirdo.

Drunk Mike
We found the DJ around the corner and danced. There was a drunk couple who liked us. M taught Drunk Mike some dance moves and, in return, Drunk Mike decided to teach us his signature cowboy dance. Here it is:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Courthouse Hotel
Assessment Time: 02:45AM – 03:30AM

Address: 189 Oxford St, Sydney
Inside & Atmosphere: This place had an electronic Jukebox to play your tunes. It was just a bar with carpeted area – carpeted enough to be able to dance freely. People here are friendly, and it appears after 3AM this is the place where quite a few people go to continue drinking after a night clubbing, as the crowd got more and more busier. Upstairs was dead throughout the night.

The StarCraft chant

There was a dude who, I am not sure how, managed to get me singing a StarCraft chant based on the “Marco Polo” game. He made me shout out “TERRAN” while he in return shouted out “PROTOSS”, and intermittently inserted “ZERG!”. Major lulz. He was ashamed that we did not play games, as we were quite clearly gamers in his eyes. Damn Asian stereotypes. He also encouraged me to hit on his female colleague, but she was a bit too older than me.

Zaia @ Space

The views expressed below are those of the author and NOT of Phat Entertainment

Assessment Time: 03:35AM – 04:00AM
Believe it, we managed to get in free. Security were relaxed this week, as opposed to weeks prior, and we got in after 3:45AM. Danced around for 15 minutes in the trance room. lol I was truly spent by then. The RnB room didn’t seem to ventilate the smoke out when we were inside. Check out the video:
[Video removed on request by Phat Entertainment]

Arrivederci / Recommenation

Thus ended the night at 4:00AM. I liked courthouse as a place to chill out afterwards if you are in the area, and Doctor Pong as a bar in general, but don’t bring your conservatives here. Know your crowd before you go out.

Miss Phoenix TV Cosmos Asia Pacific Dance Party @ Haymarket Hotel: Friday 30th July 2010

James — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 11:15:19 +0000

A friend has invited me 3 weeks in advance to go here. The selling point – 16 hot asian girls will be appearing for the modelling competition. Tempting. Same guys who did the old Havana events before it closed. I was free, alright, so here we go!

2010 Miss Phoenix (TV) Cosmos Asia Pacific Dance Party @ Haymarket Hotel

Assessment Time: 9:15PM – 12:30AM

Opening Hours: 9:00PM – 2:00AM

Lockout: None, or when venue reache capacity until further notice.

Address: 661-663 George St

Promoter Video: This video was made after the event http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1289098562151

Occurence: This appeared to be a once off event, but the finals will be held, probably here again in a few weeks time in September.

Dress Code / Door Policy: Smart Casual, but casual was accepted tonight. I was specifically told by my friend to dress very formal in order to fit into the VIP area.

Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $25 presold, and $30 at the door. Most people I saw had bought presold tickets.

Guestlist: No guestlist as far as I was aware. However when I was getting in, I saw a chinese dude pleading with the bouncer that he was “VIP” and that his name was on the guestlist. Well, here was some news – everybody was a “VIP” with their ticket, and well.. there was no guestlist, haha. He had to line up just like the rest of us.

Inside: All three levels are on tonight. DJ on the top overhead VIP area, ground level is the main drinking area, and also the dancing place – a small kind of enclosed area to hold about 50-80 people. Downstairs is another bar, and lounge area where it is all carpeted.

Bar Prices: I didn’t drink tonight.

Music Style: RnB, Pop.

Crowd: Entirely asian. I spotted 2 or 3 white people upstairs in the VIP area, but that was about it.

Entertainment: Some dancers before the main show, and of course, there was the main show of the 16 or so girls smiling at us.

Atmosphere: Split over three levels, at around 10pm, everyone decked out the ground level to catch a glimpse of the girls. This left nobody downstairs for the entire night, as everyone stayed on ground level. So you could say it was packed. However before the show started it was dead, everyone waiting. After the show, it was a good 15 minutes before people started to drink and dance. By then it was around 11:30ish, proper clubbing time. During normal clubbing hours it was good, people were dancing about and the place was closed off many times to outsiders. More on on this population problem later.

Video: Walkthrough all 3 levels

Click here to view the embedded video.

Timeline

The Miss Phoenix Cosmos Modelling show

Tonight was apparently the showcase of the 16 or so girls who were the finalists of the Miss Phoenix TV competition “the only beauty contest held in China”:

09:55PM – People comee up as 3 dancers, start to dance. 2 of the dancers are promoters I recognize, and the 3rd is a white girl who is probably hired for the occasion. Mostly they are just shaking their asses, while the dude in the middle is dancing with the fellow promoter. White girl dancer is left alone but she doesn’t seem fazed to be surrounded by asians.

We await for the show to start

10:00PM – Dancing finally finishes and the dancers head off podium. We just want to see the chicks model and strutt their stuff.

10:05PM – Special K goes up to dance for a bit to the entertainment of the crowd. Hilarious. I am tempted to join in.

10:10PM – Special K goes off. Podium is empty again. People are wondering when the girls are coming down. Meanwhile, the DJ continues to play music but nobody is dancing. We are all watching the projector screen, which is just playing ads.

10:15PM – Apparently girls are still getting ready. BORING. There is no ETA to when the girls are coming down and we are considering leaving. It is that mind numbingly boring

Video: 360 of the crowd waiting for the posing show:

Click here to view the embedded video.

10:20PM – Girls FINALLY come down. Photographers flash their lights and what not. The first 6 girls step up and pose with their smile. They do nothing else.

Contestants for Miss Phoenix 2010 Set 1/3

10:25PM – The first 6 step down and the next 6 step up, and do the exact same thing. That is, stand and do nothing but smile.

Contestants for Miss Phoenix 2010 Set 2/3

10:30PM – The last set of girls stand up and AGAIN do the same routine. You wonder how these girls can smile for so long without being bored. They get off and people are standing around waiting for the next part of the show, which doesn’t happen. That was the entire show. What bullshit is that? Watching girls pose and walk off. Total Rort.

Contestants for Miss Phoenix 2010 Set 3/3

10:35PM – I am up on stage posing, pretending to be the Dark Horse wild card contestant. Special K joins me and we dance. Bored Photographers once again take photos of the attention whores at the front. I smile at the crowd, who don’t seem amused. This makes me laugh more.

Striking my own Model Pose on podium

10:40PM – I am still up on stage. MC screams out “put your hands up!”. We put our hands up in the air, and look around at the crowd staring at us – Nobody at all has raised their hands. Hilarity does not ensue. I step off stage.

So the MC says put your hands in the air, so we did

10:50PM – Nobody has danced for 10 minutes. 10 minutes is a long time when you are standing in the one spot doing nothing. The promoters finally move the podium away, as it was blocking access to dance and move around. People start to leave and others begin to dance.

The crowd didn't really join in on the dancing action, preferring to stare at the screen

11:00PM – The club is once again rocking and rolling, but not without leaving a bitter taste in my mouth.

Most of the girls left after their show duties were up. I don’t think they were the clubbing type. A handful stayed back to party amongst their uglier counterparts.

I saw my cousin again

I saw my cousin and had to say hello. I said whatsup! But he stared at me. He didn’t know me. He was someone who looked almost like him. Fuck, how embarassing. More embarrasing was that I insisted I take a photo of him to show my cousin. He agreed after the 3rd plea. Way to suck up James

Not much room to dance.

Well, everyone was upstairs, and nobody really went back down, and if you did, you’d get bored as .. there was nobody downstairs. Upstairs was just packed as a result.

The promoters oversold tickets. Tut tut.

Unbeknownst to the promoters – who sold 1000 tickets – Apparently the venue could only legally hold 200-300 patrons! Whoa! M was one of these patrons, who was not able to get in, and was told be security to basically “go away” and come back later, when people left the venue. Many people had to get their tickets refunded, which the promoters rightly did so. However for the people who just walked away and discarding their $25, it is a shame. A crying shame, as it meant I had to leave early to join my other friends who couldn’t make it inside. Throughout the night you could see handful of people coming in , but only every 5 or 10 minutes. A farce.

Arrivederci

Left at 12:30 when friends were not able to get in due to overcapacity.

Recommendation

Well, it was a once off. Just hope promoters at this place realise about the capacity of this venue before going for gold in promoting it. Dancing was good, but the show itself was not worth coming 2 hours earlier for. You could look up a Victorias secret catalogue on the internet and experience what I did, without the boredom.

Modelling Show – Posing around with no known judging panel of any sort or interaction – 1/10

Clubbing (after 11PM) – Good atmosphere but downstairs was dead, and reaching capacity meant people who prepurchased tickets were locked out 3.5/10

Random Birthday @ Haymarket Hotel: Friday 23rd July 2010

James — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 13:15:52 +0000

I just wanted to get trashed as it has been a while. Eventually ended up at Haymarket Hotel (It’s the final night of free entry before promoters take over on Fridays) and feeling pretty tipsy. There were DJs on the underground level playing some music!! Unfortunately its a private party, but not to be deterred, and full of dutch courage, M and I walked up to the door dude. He asks for my name. I said “James”. No surname given. I squint down at the list to try and lift another name for M, but my state of intoxication does not allow me to focus on the small words on the guestlist. Thank god, he found a “James”, and said James is crossed off the list. I was in, but what about M? After I was crossed off, he just danced his way in. Ludicrous. Me and the door guy gave each other a strange look, and I just shrugged my shoulders and we continued on in – so here we go!

Random Birthday @ Haymarket Hotel

Assessment Time: 01:00AM – 2:00AM
Opening Hours: Unknown – 02:00AM
Address: 661-663 George St, Chinatown Sydney
Dress Code / Door Policy: Casual was ok tonight.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Free tonight.
Guestlist: See intro above
Inside: The entire basement level was reserved for this party. Lounges about, a small dancefloor at the front to hold 10-15 people. DJ in the corner.
Cloak Room: None
Bar: I didn’t drink anything here tonight
Music: Hardstyle and Hard Trance was being played tonight. I just remember lots of thumping around. Is this what 19 year olds listen to? Oh wait I should know – my 19 year old brother blasts this kind of stuff out of his room all the time.
Crowd: Birthday boy is 19, and so the crowd around is of similar age.
Entertainment: Just the DJs
Video: 360 of the bottom level

Click here to view the embedded video.

Timeline:
Found the birthday boy
Well, we quickly found the birthday boy. He seemed sad, or more likely tired, or possibly trying to recover from drinking. I couldn’t tell. Wished him a happy birthay. He didn’t seem like much of a talker. I wonder how much it cost him to rent out this floor and DJ all night?

We didn’t recognize each other the entire night
Struck up a conversation with random girl in the corner not doing much at all. She doesn’t dance. Not many do. I don’t know why, but I told her I was famous online, haha. She believed me, but I refused to mention what I did online. Chatted for maybe 15 minutes and that was it. anyway it was only after I woke up the next morning, I realised she’s one of my twitter followers! I spied her twitter photo and confirmed that it was, indeed her. Right now at the time of writing, she still doesn’t know who I am. You follow me on twitter! How can you not know who I am by now! anyway, I found it strange that, of all people to talk to, I picked one of my 92 twitter followers. However she didn’t recognize me at the time, so the recognition count still stands at 6 (The 5th recognition was at Shark Hotel on the 16th, which I did not blog about).

There are actually djs in here on the bottom level
I am pretty surprised there is DJ in here on the Friday, but I guess it was hired for the birthday tonight. Tempting to request some house or rnb, but that would have majorly pissed off some of the crowd in here, as well as the DJ. anyway, I am surprised that there was a DJ in the bottom level, and none upstairs.

Arrivederci
Well we were only here for a short time, and we left at closing time.

Recommendation
This can be a good place for a birthday. It’s dark, one end you have a DJ and the other end there lounges far enough to be able to talk.

Additional Info: 5th August 2010
The birthday boy himself has stumbled upon my blog and of course, found this particular entry – he had some things to clarify:
- Hardstyle was only later in the night. RnB / Pop was earlier in the night.
- Hiring of the floor + DJ cost $1300. Cloak room would have cost even more.
- He was wasted when I met him.

The Market @ Haymarket Hotel Sydney: Saturday 6th March 2010

James — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 13:59:09 +0000

We had just finished an epic day at Future Music Festival, and my body was about to go into shock. I was going through a mini-hangover from the drinking earlier in the day. I was starving, I was thirsty, I was tired from the walking and dancing. My body was royally screwed over and crying for some rest. But you know.. it was only midnight and the night was still young… Haymarket Hotel was nearby so I scoffed down some nutrients from a Korean restaurant and then I went down for a little visit.. here we go!

The Market @ Haymarket Hotel

Assessment Time: ~12:30 – 2am
Opening Hours: 9pm – 2am
Website: http://www.themarketvip.com
Address: 661-663 George St, Chinatown, Sydney

Dress Code / Door Policy: As stated on the door “STRICT DRESS CODE APPLIES.. Guys collared shirts or jackets are essential – no sportswear, shorts or runners”. I was still wearing my American Indian outfit from Future Music Festival a few hours earlier. It was just brown pants with the indian top on, non-collared. I walked up to the scary looking security woman. She looks at me and my outfit and lets me in – telling the girls at the counter “Don’t worry let him in – He’s alright!!!”. Hell yeah – Chief Breaking wind is awesome! (Edit 24/03/10 – Truth be told, the promoters knew about Future Music Festival and apparently have ‘relaxed’ the dress code for tonight for any FMF party goers)
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $20
Guestlist: Discount if on list. email themarketvip@gmail.com – free entry before 10:30 . Before I got in, some people spoke with me and said I could pretend to be on “David’s guestlist”. However when I got to the counter, guestlists were finished at 12am, so it was no longer relevant. I know the promoter, but only if he were here tonight I could’ve scored free entry.
Inside: Promotional material claims 3 levels. Well its 3, but more 2 and a half. Bottom level is the Mi Cocktail lounge, and is very loungey, and dark. It has a bar and the lounge area is cut into 3 smaller areas, and for the promoters point of view it is presumed these can be used for birthday events. Ground level is where the main bar is and main dancefloor is. The actual dancefloor itself is very small. As small as the one they have at Bar 333. (Yes, they do have a dancefloor, its that small) – about 4 x 5 metres square. Even the bar here is bigger than the floor. Stools are everywhere around. Top level upstairs hangs over the bar and lounge area, to overlook the ground floor. I didnt go upstairs because I was told a group of gangsters were chilling out over there. (All the gansters have matching leather jackets with their gang sign emblazoned on the back) This is where also the DJ is spinning his tracks.
Cloak Room: None
Bar: I didn’t drink tonight
DJs: Kai, Willtown, Biggie, Beef, Nam (obtained for the 20th March event, but these are usually the same DJs for the weeks prior).
Music: RnB, HipHop, House Mashups. I can’t believe they have one DJ to service all 3 levels here. Could it be a money saving exercise? Who knows, it’s a different approach though.
Crowd: Asian, and mostly older. There is a 30th birthday party here, and I see some other asians I recognise around the 25 year old age mark.
Entertainment: No extra dancers or MC that I could recall, but there probably was an MC
Atmosphere: It was busy, but it was not at capacity as it was a few weeks ago when I tried to get in. Interesting. Half the asians being at Future Music Festival and going home afterwards may have been a factor.
360 view video from the ground floor dancefloor

Click here to view the embedded video.

Keep reading more on the timeline ..

Timeline:

My energy comes back!
Well I was really tired.. so I walk upon the small dancefloor and I spot Derelick and andy upstairs. They see me and laugh about how silly I look. I start to dance slow, and by miracle, the music has given me energy and soon enough I am dancing with my feet while people who stand by and watch in awe as the American Indian does his dance. Quite fun.

Downstairs we go, and I come up to the bar. The bar tender girl can’t stop smiling at me, but she dare not say a word about it. We both know what is going on, and I refuse to explain myself. Hmph!

Harassed by that sound
I don’t know how the sound goes, but it sort of sounds like ‘oololoolooo loo loo loo !’, while you shape your mouth in an ‘O’ shape and rapidly tap your mouth with the palm of your hand. You know, that American Indian noise that we make before attacking some Conferedate bastards.

So everywhere I go, I hear girls go ‘OOllaooloooloo loo loo !!’ as I walk by. They think its the funniest thing they have ever done. Well, frankly, its racist. I don’t do that. As a member of the Apache tribe I am offended by such ignorant behaviour by pretty girls! Oh its all fun and games isn’t it?

Arrivederci
It was only a quick 90 minute trip here, as the place closes at 2am. We were promptly kicked out.

Recommendation
A normal clubbing night. There was a fight upstairs though.. which was not surprising in the Chinatown side of things. Though i did come late, so I don’t know how good it was earlier.

The Market @ Haymarket Hotel – 5.5/10