Upstairs

Perfect @ Pontoon Bar, Darling harbour, Sydney
Assessment Time: 10:10PM – 1:15AM, 3:15AM-3:30AM
Opening Hours: Downstairs: (Open earlier in the night for dinner – 4:00AM) Upstairs: 11:30PM – 2/3AM?
Lockout: No known lockout, but entry is closed to the general public at 3AM, while stampholders are still permitted re-entry rights at all times, though you have to line up in line AGAIN if you want to get back in. Totally sucks.
Address: Listed as 201 Sussex St, but access to the place is more or less via The Promenade at Darling Harbour’s Cockle Bay Wharf. The main entry is now via the ground floor where you will usually see a line of people. After 11PM you can also pay for your entry upstairs and get stamped as well – so there are two effective entry points.
Venue Website: http://www.pontoonbar.com
Event Website: http://www.theperfectnight.com.au http://www.facebook.com/perfectnights
Promoters: Joint promoter companies: Colab, Syndicate Events, GTB, and an extra promoter “Forever Fridays” tonight who are hail from Melbourne – they brought over their MC and a Melbourne based DJ.
Occurrence: Every Friday since Mid-April 2011
Outside Line: We arrived a little earlier than I would usually like, but there were no people in line. As we debated whether we should go in, about TWENTY people jumped in line. Oh my god. We joined the line eventually and got in after about 10 minutes. Upstairs opens at 11PM, and despite having stamps already, we have to line up AGAIN amongst the other people who haven’t paid entry to get access! Bloody ridiculous. It’s the same as well downstairs, once you go outside for whatever reason, you have to line up to get back in. Luckily for the smokers, there are “open” areas on each level where you can puff and stuff your lungs with tar. Later in the night around midnight it took a friend 30 minutes to get in. Tough love.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Smart Casual is promoted here tonight, and pretty much most people here are compliant. Not sure about the hat situation but the last few times I was here, they were okay to wear. Most guys are in pants/jeans and a collared t-shirt, and girls have managed to not wear casual tonight.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Standard full fare Asian clubbing price of $25 tonight. If you were on the guestlist and arrived before 11:30PM, you got a card that entitled you to $15 entry. Brilliant, except during a moment of absent mindedness, I forgot to use my card and inadvertedly paid $25 without even realising it. I simply gave the discount card to another friend so they could enjoy the benefits of me lining up early, while they didn’t have to.
Guestlist: Guestlists are no longer valid after 11:30PM. Guestlists to be sent to info@syndicateevents.com.au
Inside: Ground Level: Walk past the easy-to-miss cloak room and cashier to enter the middle part of the floor. To the left is the main bar with about 2-3 staff as well as the entire outdoor area. The are large wooden tables and stools, chairs, lounges about, where people were once dining hours ago. This outdoor area could hold easily 100 people or so. The dancefloor area on the right is a slow covered transition from the outdoor area where also 100-200 people can dance here. The DJ booth sits in the far corner near the toilets. There is little furniture bar a lounge at the rear of the dancefloor. Upstairs: Walk through the chillout/smoking area where there are many lounges, with a view of Darling harbour – continue on into the depths of the dancefloor situated on the far end of the room, as where the DJ is. The setup has slightly changed from last time, where the DJ was in the middle. I think this is a good thing as it is as far away from the smoke as possible, though at risk of the area overheating quickly. The walls are lined with squarely setup lounges. Bar is on the right
Cloak Room: Cloak room downstairs – $5 for placing an item, while it is $2 for rechecks. Pretty reasonable.
Bar Prices / Line: $15.70 altogether for a Gin and Tonic, Orange Juice and coke. $12.90 for a Vodka+Red Bull in a tall glass. At 10:15PM there was no waiting time. At 11PM the wait increased to about 5 minutes. At around 1AM, the wait was timed at about twenty five (25) minutes on both levels up and down.
Bathroom Facilities: Fair, could be a little bigger.
Eviction Count: None spotted, but I wasn’t paying attention.
DJs: Resident DJ’s plus guest DJ Mich from Melbourne
Music Style: Mostly Contemporary RnB downstairs, while upstairs did play some more of the older ‘throwback’ rnb songs. Oh yes, throwback is a word im going to use now.
Crowd: Dominantly Asian, and mostly local Aussie Asians. I don’t think I ran into one international Asian here tonight. Most of the ages were young. Company was of course lots of 21 year olds. That said, the crowd was mostly young 20′s to mid 20′s, as far as I could tell.
Ratio: You know its always going to be more guys then girls, but it was good. A lot of the girls looked their best surprisingly tonight, and I ain’t complaining.
Entertainment: There was no real special occasion except for having the MC and DJ from melbourne to do a set.

Atmosphere: Between 10-11PM: People were mostly in the courtyard chatting and drinking, with some daring to go on the floor.
Around 11:15PM: I would consider the dancefloor downstairs to have enough people to be considered pretty busy. That is quite the achievement. I got pretty hot in my blazer already at this time, and the lack of seabreeze from outside plus the cigarette smoke didn’t help either. Man, let me tell you cigarette smoke always does me in at the clubs. I try and stay away from it as much as I can, resulting me in being on the dancefloor most of the time. Though there were quite a lot of people outside in the courtyard not to smoke, but to just have a normal conversation about the weather, or discuss about why do they call it a building, when its already built?
Upstairs after 11:30PM it wasnt packed but it wasn’t dead. You could dance here but the sofas right next to the dancefloor made you feel like you were on show, and people shied away from that area. The line at the bar here was pretty long as well during midnight-1AM
Video:

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Timeline
Another reason I dont like lining up at the bar
You know what I like about lining up? Nothing. Well actually, I like it when there is like a girl behind me and unfortunately she has to place her breasts on my back as I line up. Besides that, there really isn’t much fun in the line at all. So as part of this fun experience we have two people placing orders, and they have bought some shots. Well, you know, they had to pass the shots to their friends behind us, and somehow spilled some of that shit all over our clothing!! yuuuuuuuuckk. I hate that. Keep your hand steady please. Then as a added thing, his friend spilled another drink on us too. Fun times. Turns out the guy who spilled the drinks was a friend of my younger brother. My lord, I don’t belong here.

A envigorating dancer
There are a few dancers that many Asian a folk will always remember, such as Jason from Bamboo/Wow.. or.. well you know. Other people. Anyway, a friend of a friend who came along to the party looks quite like a normal chap until he starts to dance. He is on supercharged energizers.. oh my lord. hair shaking, fist bumping, very surreal performance. A few people could probably keep up with this guy, but definitely the highlight was when he jumped up and did the splits on the floor. THE SPLITS! who in this world can do the splits? Apparently my friends say 1 in 5 but I don’t know.

Arrivederci
I took it extremely easy tonight as I had to go snorkelling in the morning. I left just before 1:30 .

Final Thoughts & Recommendation
Simply by having two levels of rooms, this place pretty much trumps the others in terms of numbers of Asians you can fit into one place. It seems to be a default for my friends and I do try to avoid it as much as possible to prevent getting sick of the place, but besides the long bar lines, smoking, stale warm weather, and that drink spill.. I can’t really fault much of it. Didn’t really interact with the crowd tonight so I can’t tell if they were friendly or what not. Other than that I would say though, do try to get in before 11:30 with a guestlist, because the difference between $15 and $25 is a big one.

Crowd: 12:15AM

Flaunt @ Sapphire Lounge, Kings Cross, Sydney (Under new promoters)
Assessment Time: 11:25PM – 2:05AM 
Opening Hours: 9:00PM – 4:00AM (according to Facebook anyway)
Lockout: Unknown
Address: 2 Kellet St, Sydney, Kings Cross. http://g.co/maps/ex79j
Venue Website: http://www.sapphirelounge.com.au
Promoter Website: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Postman-Productions/193173984047360 (This event is no longer run by Urban Agent) 
Occurrence: Every Thursday night. Formerly run by Urban Agent the past few years, we have actually stumbled upon the “re-launch” of the “Flaunt” nights, this time run under the new promotions company Postman Productions. Tonight was the second week of “Flaunt” under Postman Productions.
Outside Line: No line as we entered.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Smart Dress Code is encouraged. Hats are allowed in here. Most girls wear pretty dresses, and guys in general are looking good. There are some suits and casually dressed people as well (i.e. me), but this was no issue in getting us through the door.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $15 if not on guestlist. According to poster, entry is free before 10:30. Unsure if guestlist is required.
Guestlist: According to the promotional poster send emails to djtikelz@hotmail.com for birthday packages. Yes, it is the DJ.
Inside: The entrance is on Kellet St, just around the corner from the kebab store, its quite easy to miss. It’s a small entrance to a small club. Walk in past the cloak room to enter the main room, where there is a bar on the left manned by 2 staff. On the right are 3 separate lounge areas as well as one behind you to seat about 8 people each.

Continue the walk to enter the dancefloor area which could hold about 20 people comfortably. At the very front is the DJ booth on the left, and on the right is the largest of the lounge areas, which has lounges dotted on the far end walls to seat a small party of 20 or so people. The second room is one flight of stairs down and contains a smaller bar (unmanned tonight) and serves more as a re-entry point for patrons as well as a chill-out area. Nobody really is here at all, and its cordoned off later in the night.

Cloak Room: $5 per item
Bar Prices / Line: $7 cocksucking cowboy shots (3x). 2x Long Island Teas @ $18 each. $5 Alize lemonade (x2, before 11PM only) $9 Alize Lemonade (after 11PM) 3x Southern Comfort Apple Juice ($21). There are also $5 cocktail specials before 11PM but I didn’t buy any cocktails.
Bathroom Facilities: Pretty clean and well kept tonight.
Eviction Count: None seen.
DJs: Tito was mentioned by the MC during my time here. Others that are listed in the poster are: Moto, Lyrikz, R-Kayz, Reklezz
Music Style: Mostly contemporary modern RnB/ Top 40 music.
Crowd: Mostly local Aussie and Euro crowd. Ages range from 18 year olds who came from their year 12 formal to late 20 year olds having a late one after work. There are a handful of folk here above 30/40 as well.
Ratio: There were more guys than girls here, though all the girls were prettyful to make up for it.
Entertainment: MC Mistah Cheekz.
Atmosphere: Upon entry it looked pretty bleak (11:45AM) there were about 20 people counted. But by about half an hour later, the population literally doubled to 40 and the small floor has appeared busy. It’s also very dark in here to match the ‘classy’ atmosphere, so its hard to distinguish who is who, or find your friends quickly despite it being a small club. It also, I suppose, makes it easier to express your dancing without feeling too embarrassed. Music isn’t too loud to blare out conversations but it is loud enough for a dance out in the front.
Video: 

Click here to view the embedded video.

Timeline
Nothing really special to experience except that there was a really drunk guy dancing around. Surprised he didn’t get kicked out. He was seriously swerving and hugging and being a serious drunk, but he was a friendly one. I like friendly drunk.

I was expecting a lower turnout (it was pretty dead when we got in) but later as it picked up it was a little bit better than I anticipated.

Arrivederci
Left as the girls were a bit bored (well there were only so many people you could perve on), and wanted to go to a strip club. Oh well.

Final Thoughts & Recommendation
For a Thursday it was a respectable turn out but the crowd only picks up after midnight. The drinks are a little pricy as well abut that is to be expected from the classier like bars. I would get my pre-drink on somewhere else around then come here later for a dance when it is a little busier at around midnight.  5.5/10

Scubar Sydney Downunder - Monday night

Mondays @ Scubar Sydney Australia
Assessment Time: 10:30PM – 12:15AM
Opening Hours: Midday – 03:00AM
Lockout: Unknown
Address: 4 Rawson Place, Sydney central (Next to the YHA Central) Google maps: http://g.co/maps/kz2gn
Venue Website: http://www.scubar.com.au
Promoter Website: Self promoted
Occurrence: Every Monday (The venue is open everyday)
Outside Line: There was a LINE outside. Omg, people lining up to get inside Scubar, what is this madness? Line was about 15 people deep and took about an equivalent 10-15 minutes to get in as it was already at capacity.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Pretty casual today, most people were casual. Didn’t spot anyone with hats. Thongs are a no no, even here.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Free all night
Guestlist: N/A
Inside: Walk downstairs underground to enter the entire scubar. On the left is the bar attended by 2 or 3 people. Standing room and tables for about 40 or so people. In front and to the right is the dancefloor area. Its quite small in comparison to proper clubs, but tonight it seems to be holding quite a number of people to the tune of around 60-100 people.
Cloak Room: None
Bar Prices / Line: $5 foster cans. This must be one of the last places on earth that you can buy Foster cans, because I definitely don’t know where else I can buy them. 4x Jagerbombs + 4x Tequilas = $66.

Bathroom Facilities: Not utilised.
Eviction Count: None spotted.
DJs: Unknown
Music Style: Top 40, Pop, Classic Retro hits.
Crowd: Mostly backpackers today of many, many nationalities. Ages vary between 18 to 30 somethings.
Ratio: More guys than girls here, for sure. There are about 65% -70% guys. Kept the same throughout my time here.
Entertainment: No extra entertainment
Atmosphere: The first impression was again, jesus this place is packed to the max. Not just the dancefloor, but the standing bar areas, podiums, etc as well. Everyone is chatting, drinking, or dancing. It’s surprisingly not as messy as I thought either, compared to say, Side Bar, which always manages to get a slippery floor. The DJ tonight is playing a safe choice of music that everybody knows and sings along to. Makes for a good vibe here. Shame about the many guys around.
Video: Music Sample / Tour (Forgot my camera so I resorted to my 8MP shithouse mobile phone thing)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Timeline
Everyone is already coupled up
When you walk in on the scene, people are already making out and doing bad things. It’s only 11PM. I think this is just the backpacker way of doing things. Already people were hitting on our female company. I think one of them was indicating to me to save her from this good looking drunk guy, but I left her to writher in the grasp of the guys arms and advances. It’s quite funny. Eventually though she was saved.

The brownside to dancing in cramped conditions
Places that are packed, are always fun. So we’re having a fun time, and someone decided to drop a huge fart near where we were standing. Kind of sucked as we then had to move somewhere else. Seriously if you have to fart, don’t do it on the dancefloor. It’s so gross, and everybody starts blaming each other. This is how wars start.

Arrivederci
Friends had work tomorrow and had to leave. WEAK SAUCE. I had to drive one of them home so I had to leave as well.

Final Thoughts & Recommendation
As much as I thought Scubar was a disgusting place to go, it’s actually not too bad for a Monday night, consdering there is really.. nothing much else out there that is open and full of people.

I would recommend you to come here if you want to mingle it up with backpackers / fellow party people on a Monday night. It’s close to buses/taxis/Central station for your ride home, just in time for work/uni/school the next day. Nothing to lose for free entry anyway.

If you wanted something classy – this place IS NOT for you. Save the LBD for another day.

Tonight’s rating for the backpacking party animal- 6.5/10

FIrst impressions of the bowl

Stereosonic Festival Sydney @ Olympic Park Showgrounds
Assessment Time: 3:45PM – 11:00PM
Opening Hours: 12:00PM- 11:00PM
Lockout: None
Passouts: No pass-outs are allowed
Address: Olympic Park Showgrounds, Homebush Bay, Sydney.
Venue Website: www.sydneyolympicpark.com.au
Promoter Website: www.stereosonic.com.au
Occurrence: Once a year since 2007, held early December / Late November, held in different capital cities.
Outside Line: Transport via train was no hassle, while lining up to get inside the stadium was pretty fast as well – I walked all the way to the right of the multiple gated entry where there was no lines.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Pretty much you can wear anything that is in good taste, but you can’t bring in alcohol, weapons, drugs etc. I was wearing a toothpaste costume.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $150 at the gate, while early bird ticket prices ranged from $110 to $135. The Sydney festival sold out a few weeks beforehand. A friend bought an e-ticket via a “promoter” and subsequently had his ticket invalidated at the gates – he was basically, conned and ripped off. he had to pay $150 at the gate for a brand new ticket. What luck. Always be careful when buying tickets not from Ticketek or Moshtix.
Inside: Think of the Easter show, and replace everything with music. Here is a map of the layout. In the stadium and some of the other smaller grassed stages, there are floorboards placed, so that you don’t stomp on the grass and get all muddy feet, in the event that it rained.
Cloak Room: There was one available but I didn’t use it today. Last year it was $3 per item.
Bar Prices / Line: I bought stuff but don’t remember prices – a can of Smirnoff red would be at least $10. These are typical for festivals.
Bathroom Facilities: At the stadium there were long lines for women, and not so long lines for the men. Outside there were plenty of port a loos for everyone (so as far as I am aware)
DJs / Artists: Armin van Buuren, Carl Cox, LMFAO, Empire of the Sun, Afrojack, The Bloody Beetroots, Avicii, Benny Benassi, Ferry Corsten, Dirty South, Kaskade, Dash Berlin, and more.
Music Style: Artists primarily reflected on electronic dance / dance culture music.
Crowd: People of all ages are here from all backgrounds to see their favourite act or to enjoy the show.

Atmosphere: I was at the stadium most of the time and it was pretty much packed the whole time I was there. On arrival there at around 5pm the moshpit was full, and no longer people were allowed inside. The floor of the stadium was also full and people were only being allowed to trickle in as people left. I had friends who came here earlier at 2PM and were able to just get places within the moshpit area. The crowd steadily built up through Afrojack and Benny Benassi sets so that we could watch LMFAO. The LMFAO set was arguably the peak of the numbers in the stadium, as well as my personal favourite set – simply because people were singing along and the guys were really into it. Highlights include actually popping champagne (“Champagne Showers”) onto the crowd, and the cameraman zooming into all the crotches during “Sexy and I know it” – Total gross out but hilarious at the same time. It was pretty bad that they came late 30 minutes late on stage, at the expense of shorter sets from AvB and The Bloody Beetroots. We stood around for 30 minutes just thinking.. when *are* they going to come on? Thank god that they weren’t cancelled. After the LMFAO set, quite a few people left the stadium (probably to Dash Berlin, whose set I heard was bloody amazing) – the rest of the people here were sticking around for The last two acts, or just had no idea who they were, and wanted to experience. I missed the entire Bloody Beetroots set, but got to experience the Armin van Buuren set. It was pretty good, but it would have been better if I was in the moshpit.
Video: Music Sample / Timeline

Click here to view the embedded video.

Timeline
Phone reception is simply atrocious
Pretty much from about 3PM onwards, I was unable to make ANY calls to ANY of my friends, just due to the amount of people here today. It totally sucked ass as I couldn’t meet up with my friends. So I just hung out with the friends I had already met earlier today. It was worse than new years eve, as new years eve call dropouts only last three to four hours – I was here for a good 5 or 6 hours! IT SUCKED HAIRY BALLSACKS.

Sydney is the biggest city, and so is this festival
Later in the evening, Stereosonic was declared Australia’s largest event in terms of attendance. I would say also probably the best overall line up in years for the general populace as well. I even had friends come out of festival “retirement” to come out for today. Never say never. You would be seriously missing out if you didn’t come out to see this line up. Like seriously. For the days upcoming beforehand, it was raining heaps, and lots of people sold their tickets, to the astonishment that today was a bright sunny day. A shame for them.

Packed to the rafters
All the main acts were at the main stadium, which was situated a few hundred metres away from the rest of the action. As mentioned earlier, this resulted in a lockout of the mosh pit area, the floor, and even a lockout of the stadium itself. I unfortunately got locked out of the stadium alongside some other folk. It was about a 30 minute wait of protesting and watching other people climb over the fence then we were finally allowed to be let in, under police supervision.

Video: The shitty side of Stereosonic (and other festivals): Lining up for ANYTHING. 

Click here to view the embedded video.

On someone's shoulders

Now I’m sitting raised on this dude’s shoulders, on the phone, looking out back at the crowd – the crowd are are all staring, cheering at me or however people react to seeing a toothpaste bottle arising into the air. My friend spots me (I couldn’t spot her) and finds me a few minutes later. That was awesome.

Condoms and other bad things
Here is a photo of one of the many condom balloons thrown around the place. Somewhere behind I could smell someone puffing on some sticky icky. A friend also got asked if he had pills. All in a typical day in a festival. LOL

Condom Balloon!

Life being a bottle of toothpaste
While a friend was being asked for drugs, people only were asking me if I had toothpaste. Then this was followed by people squeezing whatever part of my costume in order to excrete the wonderful, white, magic substance that is known as toothpaste. And the most common question I got was “where was the toothbrush?” – In my pants of course.

I didn’t get really hot until about after 3 hours, when I started to sweat profusely. It was quite disgusting, and I was glad that sunset finally arrived to cool me down.

Mixing it up with the crowd

Sticky, icky floor
Half of the time people are kicking cans away from themselves, to other people. So many people have spilled drinks in this heat, that the floor has become quite sticky. So sticky that beer cans are sticking to the bottom of the soles of my shoes. Yes, fucking BEER CANS ARE STUCK ON MY SHOE as I dance. It’s ridiculous.

Spotted by a fan?
Out of the thousands of people who came here today, surely one of them read this website. Well, someone did, and that someone found me. Haha! I was pretty amazed that I was spotted, but now that I think about it, I *was* in a Giant Toothpsate Costume

Arrivederci
Finished at 11PM. Transport out involved a long walk around the station, but we got on the first train right away, no waiting around. I was pretty exhausted and ready to go home. However, I got a call from a friend in the city….

Final Thoughts & Recommendation
A great lineup and as I said before one of the best I’ve seen that a festival pull. No idea how these guys will top it for next year, but I’m a shoe in for next year. Definitely a festival to go to.

Though I wish prices were cheaper as well as less of a requirement for people to have to be locked out of stadiums or be held up waiting for acts. I spent at least an hour of my time doing these things, when I could have listened to other acts.

Crowd - Live Art Space (3:30AM)

Friday I’m In Love @ Oxford Art Factory
Assessment Time: 2:10AM – 4:00AM
Opening Hours: 6PM to late.
Lockout: Unknown.
Address: 38-46 Oxford St, Darlinghurst, Sydney
Venue Website: http://www.oxfordartfactory.com/
Promoter Website: Appears to be self promoted. But there was probably an act earlier on in the night at the Live Art Space Room.
Occurrence: Every Friday.
Outside Line: There looks like a line but its actually a smoking area – there was no line upon approaching and entry. I’m sure though that during peak hours there would be a huge line outside.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Pretty casual. Not sure about hats – didn’t spot anyone with hats.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Free at time of entry for the Live Art Space Room, but this is normal after 2AM. Unknown whether there was cover charge beforehand. Free all night in the smaller Art After Hours Room.
Guestlist: None at this time
Inside: There are two main rooms which reside below street level. (1) Live Art Space Room: Walk into this larger room where live bands can play for small crowds. A stage is setup at the front, with dancefloor for about 200-300 people, with an elevated level at the back with 4 or 5 lounges. Tables and chairs on the left while the bar is on the right. Behind the Bar is the (2) Art After Hours Room, about half the size as the 1st room, it also has the bar, and a more narrow rectangular area for dancing for about 100 or so people. 2 or 3 lounges are in here.
Cloak Room: Surprisingly no cloak room tonight. it’s hard to find dark little spots here where you can hide your stuff.
Bar Prices / Line: Asahi and Vodka combo – $15
Bathroom Facilities: You piss on a brick wall (purposely designed). Otherwise enough taps to go around with the shared trough.
Eviction Count: One eviction spotted – Marty got kicked out at the end of the night. 
DJs: Unknown
Music Style: Live Art Space Room: Hip Hop, Rap, 90′s Pop. Art After Hours Room: Old School RnB / Hip Hop / Pop / Rock. Little to no mixing performed. Pretty much nothing from the past 10 years was played at this time.
Crowd: Almost all Anglo-Saxon crowd, and mostly locals here. Ages look like it varies between teenagers to more mid 20′s to early 30′s. Hard to tell in the dark.
Ratio: It was pretty even, with a slight tendency towards guys at times, which is surprising at this time of night.
Entertainment: No extra entertainment.
Atmosphere: Both room were quite busy and near capacity. People are all into the mood, and with minimal seating, people are forced to dance. It got a bit stuffy in the smaller Art After Hours room but that comes with the extra people. After about 2:30 numbers started to quickly drop, and people were all forced to move to the larger Live Art Space room to keep the vibe going. Smart move. Overall people are quite happy to dance and mingle tonight.
Video: 

Click here to view the embedded video.

Arrivederci - kicked out
Marty and some drunk girl sat up on the stage area and she proceeded to pull him to standing up position on stage, for what was presumably an impromptu dance. Suddenly within seconds, bouncers POUNCED on Marty and kicked him out!! Hahaha oh shit. Well that was the end of the night here. The drunk girl remained in the club as we left to quickly follow Marty out. Oh the injustice of it all.

Final Thoughts & Recommendation
A popular place with the locals, and with free entry and reasonably priced drinks with good classic music, I can’t see why it can’t go wrong. Despite the rain and Stereosonic the next day there was quite a big turn out. A cloak room would help though. I liked it, but Marty wasn’t so into it.

Score: 7.5/10

Sideways Fridays (“The Experiment”) @ Phoenix Bar

Assessment Time: 1:55AM – 2:05AM
Opening Hours: 10:00PM – 5:00AM (Separate Recovery Party after 5:00AM)
Lockout: None
Address: 34 Oxford St, Darlinghurst, Sydney
Venue Website: http://www.exchangehotel.biz/default.asp?id=9
Promoter Website: http://www.facebook.com/sidewaysfridays
Occurrence: Every Friday
Outside Line: None
Dress Code / Door Policy: Casual, anything is okay.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Free all night
Guestlist: None

Inside: Walk downstairs underground to the back area where there are one or two plastic lounges. The bar is on the left and is about 15 people long. The dancefloor at the front could hold 50-80 people, with the DJ at the far end along the wall.
Cloak Room: None found
Bar Prices / Line: $5 spirits all night.
Bathroom Facilities: Not utilised
Eviction Count: None, well since there was basically nobody here
DJs: Shepz, Manjazz, Detnum, Paper Cranes, Tough Love, Junior, Neon Youth, Roof, Ian Hard, Dan Bangs
Music Style: Tech House and Minimal House
Crowd: Looks like all local. Caucasians.
Ratio: Even ratio. Then again, it was just couples night tonight.
Entertainment: None
Atmosphere: It was so dead in here. There were 6 people on the floor, 3 at the DJ booth, one bartender, a couple at a back, and us 3. That’s 14 people in the whole club. I don’t know if everybody had gone home, or nobody decided to turn up because of the weather.
Video: Walkthrough, and head count

Click here to view the embedded video.

Arrivederci
Unfortunately we were not so into this music, or the lack of a crowd, so we quickly left after 10 minutes.

Final Thoughts & Recommendation
I don’t know of any other places that play Tech / Minimal House on a regular basis so there isn’t much else to compare it to. You’re only going to come here if you’re a fan of the music and nothing else.

View of the Bar from the Dancefloor - Scubar Sydney

Dropping by: Fridays @ Scubar
Assessment Time: 1:05AM – 2:30AM
Opening Hours: Open through the daytime – 2:30AM
Lockout: None
Address: 4/11-23 Rawson Place, Sydney (near YHA Central)
Venue Website: http://www.scubar.com.au
Promoter Website: Self promoted
Occurrence: This place is pretty much open everyday until late. Most popular nights are Mondays and Tuesdays (apparently)
Outside Line: There isn’t anyone outside lining up upon entry.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Casual is okay to wear in here, and is normal. Some are even wearing hoodies.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Free entry all night
Guestlist: None.
Inside: Walk underground to face the dancefloor to hold around around 60 people. Bar is on the far left, and around the walls and in between are dotted tables and chairs. There are the occasional sofas in dark hidden crevices of the bar. Some disco balls hang down from the ceiling. Standard lightfare is around the place.
Cloak Room: None
Bar Prices / Line: $7 cowboys. There was only really one or two orders in front at a time, and it wasn’t very packed at the bar. You were going to get timely service at the bar.
Eviction Count: None seen, not many are sloshed tonight
Music Style: A Mix of Commercial RnB, Top 40 and past hits from different genres. Typical stuff you would hear at backpacker places – songs played in most of their entirety with minimal transitioning. Regardless we had a good time dancing to the tunes tonight.
Crowd & Ratio: The crowd is almost entirely made up of backpackers, so you have nationalities from all over the place. Ages vary as well. Mostly Caucasian / European backpacking crowd though. Ratio was more men than women, especially at the front. There was about 50 or so altogether including patrons at the bar side. Not many of the girls chose to dance here tonight.
Entertainment: No extra entertainment
Atmosphere: It’s quite dark on the dancefloor side of the venue, while at the bar it is much more lighted up. But back to the floor – at this point in time people are in the mood for love, with various people around making out with strangers that they met that night. Considering past experiences with backpacker nightclubs such as Scary Canary and side Bar, you would expect the floor to be pretty dirty, but suprisingly it’s clean!! I am truly amazed.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Arrivederci
Left at closing time, 2:30AM. Surprised the closing time wasn’t 3:00AM.

Verdict
Things are pretty cheap here, crowd could do with a few more girls, but we did rock up at 1:00AM++. Though most people like Side Bar better for a dance, as it is bigger and closes later at 3:00AM. I would try this place on the famed Monday/Tuesday nights instead of a Friday, where I’ve seen lines out go pretty far.

club stamp

The Usual Suspects @ Soho
Assessment Time: 11:15PM – 2:45AM
Opening Hours: Unknown (I think it opens pretty early at 9PM and closes at 4 or 5AM??)
Lockout: Unknown
Address: 171 Victoria Street, Potts Point (It’s a few places down from the rear Kings Cross Station exit.
Venue Website: http://www.sohobar.com.au
Promoter Website: Self Promoted - http://www.usualsuspectsblog.net/
Occurrence: Every Saturday
Outside Line: There was no line when we approached.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Hats allowed, casual is okay and is the norm here. So much so, singlets are okay as well inside. That’s for the guys. Girls are all usually in their nice one piece dresses hey.
Guestlist: info@sohobar.com.au
Inside: Walk through the hallway to enter the main bar on the ground level, where lounges are on the left and right. Keep walking through to the main dancefloor to hold about 100-200 people. Elevated dance podium at the back of the room. DJ at the front, some lounges along the far end walls and behind the DJ. Go back and upstairs to the second main dancefloor with a smaller floor for about 30-40 people and bar in the same area. In surrounding rooms are other reserved rooms for parties and various lounges to chill out. Also a smoking area upstairs.
Cloak Room: None
Bar Prices / Line: Didn’t drink tonight. An attempt to get water upstairs was aborted after waiting about 10 minutes upstairs. It was much easier to get drinks downstairs as downstairs there were two bars.
Eviction Count: None seen
Music Style: Primarily House / Electro downstairs. Upstairs is also dominantly house but also some RnB and Party tunes mashup. Someone off the street would probably like upstairs better. Some good party tunes were being played upstairs later in the night.
Crowd & Ratio: Dominantly young Caucasian crowd. Ratio is pretty even during peak, or seems like it anyway. I don’t remember thinking at all that tonight was a sausage fest. The guys and girls are pretty friendly here if you talk to them nicely. Girls are pretty good-looking I dare say.
Entertainment: None
Atmosphere: Downstairs downstairs is pretty club-like: Dark, lights, loud and crowded, but there is enough room for everyone. People kept within their own circles or to themselves. Upstairs there are perhaps a few more lights (LED lights that is!) and combined with the mirrors around, makes more for the atmosphere. The crowd here was also more jubilant and into it – singing along to songs and what not. Unlike downstairs though, there is much less room to move around, and the floor is sticky most of the time. Yick. Mind you, the dancefloor areas are roughly one third to one half of the floor area – the rest are made from rooms scattered with lounges and chairs.
Video: 

Click here to view the embedded video.

crowd upstairs

Timeline

Bag Duty
It would be fair to say half the time I was dancing, and half the time, minding bags and chatting with fellow guests of the birthday girl. The floor was a bit too sticky upstairs, and downstairs was music I wasn’t too into.

As part of bag duty, various people sat next to me. Including a guy who sat down and spoke with me about how awesome and dirty the music was tonight. Couldn’t disagree. But that’s all we talked about. Pretty sad but he was also trying to hold a conversation with the two girls he brought with him. Fair enough.

Security guys are loving it
A drunk girl decided to dance on a chair or something, and security was quick to arrive at the scene. Security guy decided that instead of pulling her off, he danced with her! hahah. He even took photos with the girl, as well as participating in some photobombing. Throughout the night pretty much this guy socialised with people – basically using their powers to mack on chicks! So, so unfair! What of professionalism? Professionalism was thrown out the window long ago when he realised the others on duty can do the job… It’s made for a more fun atmosphere.

Tattoo Talk
Some beastly guys somehow struck up conversation with us and for a good half hour we talked about their tattoos. Only one of us had a tattoo, but regardless they kept on talking and talking. They wouldn’t stop! I didn’t mind at all listening to stories about how painful it is to get some ink done on your ribs, but when they finished talking the birthday girl decided to leave the club immediately. Haha.

Our Friendly Tattooed Friend

Arrivederci
Gone at 2:45AM after the tattoo talk. 

Recommendation

I currently avoid coming here. Music isn’t to my liking and the sticky floors are a turn off.

Though, there are regulars who love this place, so do come here only if you’re into this music and don’t mind the crowd type. If you only listen to the radio, songs will be played that you do not know downstairs. Listen to the music from the montage and make your own judgement.

Despite the music side of it, the crowd is pretty friendly and into it. Try it out once in your life if you’re up for meeting people.

12:40AM Upper Level Bar Line

Perfect @ Pontoon Bar (Ground Level and Upper Level: Wallaby Bar)
Assessment Time: 12:05AM – 2:45AM
Opening Hours: The bars are open throughout the day, but the event opens 9:30PM. Tonight it closes at 4:00AM
Lockout: Around 2:30AM, but definitely no re-entry after 3:00AM
Address: Cockle Bay Wharf (201 Sussex St from the other side)
Venue Website: http://www.pontoonbar.com
Promoter Website: http://www.facebook.com/perfectnights or http://www.theperfectnight.com.au
Occurrence: Every Friday since April 2011. Note that this is the event that succeeded Flow Fridays @ World Square Pub, after it closed.
Outside Line: Arriving just after midnight, there was a huge massive line outside the downstairs entrance. A good 70+ people waiting, which is ridiculous. So I went to the second, lesser known entrance upstairs. There was a pretty long line here too, but only about 30 people or so. It took 30 minutes to get in. This was including some folk who joined the line and got sick of waiting, and left. This was also the first week off for pretty much every tertiary school student in Sydney, so people were out clubbing in their droves.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Hats allowed. Most guys are casual in jackets jeans, pants due to the winter. It is encouraged by promoters to go ‘dressy’, but I did spot a friend dressed in sweatpants and a jumper, so there you go. Again due to winter, many girls have leggings on but most brave the cold and wear their clubbing dresses on. I actually paid attention to the dresses tonight and there were a number of questionable leopard print designs tonight. Tonight I wore a blazer, jeans, collared shirt, white sneakers and my ‘bad hair day’ cap.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $25 full charge. $20 on guestlist before 11:30PM , $15 if it is a birthday guestlist.
Guestlist: Ends at 11:30PM. Email info@theperfectnight.com.au
Inside: The big difference from opening night is that the main entrance is pretty much downstairs, encouraging people to enter the downstairs area. After walking in, to the right is the cleared out dancefloor for about 100 people. DJ is right up at the back. To the left is the ar in the far corner, and the rest of the area is an open air design of tables and benches. Walk back out and up the escalators to enter upstairs. You first walk past the balcony / lounge area for 80 or so patrons, where it eventually transitions to the main dancefloor, slightly smaller than that of downstairs. Bar is on the right while DJ is on the left. A few lounges in the far corner as well next to the DJ booth.
Smoking: Downstairs the open bar allows for smoking. Upstairs the balcony allows smoking. There is no clear-cut border to where you can or cannot smoke, so if you are infringing on the edges here, you and your clothes will be insulted with some cigarette chemicals.
Cloak Room: $5 is the standard rate. It is located on the bottom level just outside.
Bar Prices / Line: $12.90 for a Vodka + Red Bull (They actually use Red Bull thank god). Upstairs, upto 1:30am, it is about a 30 minute wait (!). Theres about a 20 people at the bar continuously ordering with only 4 staff during peak hour. They simply can’t keep up, and patrons have to wait as a result. Downstairs, after 2am, is 5 minute wait at the Outdoor Bar. I’m not sure how it was earlier in the night.
Eviction Count: No fights spotted upstairs but there were two fights downstairs which were resolved very quickly by security.
Music Style: For a place of two floors one expects one room to be house and one room to be RnB, but the promoters have gone for the ‘Two RnB rooms are better than one’ approach, which works out well. The music is mostly RnB with pop, with some top 40 and commercial house mashup tracks thrown in. Closer to the end of the night, ye old school Hip Hop comes out on rotation as well. Mixing was also well done on both levels to keep the crown energy sustained.
Crowd & Ratio: Dominantly Asian. A handful of white folk have come tonight as well. Considering it was mostly uni students, the age range would be from 18-30, skewering to the low, low 20′s. The ratio was pretty much more guys than girls most of the night.. around 60/40. It wasn’t pretty lining up, where it was 5 guys to 1 girl in line. Upstairs was first to have the BBQ setting turned up high, while downstairs maintained a better ratio consistently throughout the night.
Entertainment: MC to keep things going.
Atmosphere: Upstairs was pretty busy throughout the night. Though at around 1am onwards it progressed to a very bad sausage fest. Dancewise it was a bit cramped at times, with a lot of time dedicated to let people through. That’s when we went downstairs where it was still pretty busy on the dancefloor, with the floor being at about 75% capacity at 2am, which is still good. There were *still* people lining up outside, but they just guys, haha. The back of the floor is quite dirty at this time – your shoes *will* get dirty. The front of the dancefloor was somewhat more clean I guess and busy. That said, I think at this time people preferred to continue to drink in the open area. So in comparison, upstairs seemed a bit more cosy, while downstairs, with the glass walls did seem to be more open, but a little bit more dirty. Both were pretty packed.
Video: Timeline / Music Montage

Click here to view the embedded video.

Thank you, mystery $50 note.

with my two newest fans

Stop and stare
Alright, so when you dance with the only white girls in the club, YOU ARE GOING TO GET STARED AT. You can just feel the eyeballs of every person within a 2 metre radius dart towards you and you try to pretend you can’t see them staring, but you know they are staring! So creepy, especially from the guys! If you are good looking specimen of the Homo sapiens species, you would know what I mean.

Guys also came up and chatted me up to chat the girls up. It’s quite interesting to see how many guys do hit on girls on a typical night.

The state of affairs on the floor.
Late in the night, the dancefloor downstairs is wet from spilled drinks, and idiots who have littered the floor with pieces of toilet tissue. I even spotted someone by the wall chucking up her drinks, dessert, dinner, and lunch… disgusting, smelly, putrid, chunky orange patch on the floor that was not cleaned up for a good half hour. Freaking gross. The cleaners were probably like “Meh, CBF”, and joined in the sausage fest at the time.

I love my hat
I refer to it as my directors cap. People liked it. Possibly because my hair has been so shit and I’ve been lazy as a pet coon in regards to styling my hair. So guys, if you run out of wax/gel/whatever .. I highly recommend the hat option.  

Arrivederci
Left at 3AM. Got a bit tired of the guys. 

Recommendation
Lots of people here, come early (before 11PM) for when the ratio is better and when the lines are shorter. People are young and pretty. Music choice is faultless for the contemporary RNB fan.I came later and copped longer lines, and more sausage as punishment.

Long lines are a total turn off, though at the time of writing, they will have waitresses/waiters for reserved areas to get you express drinks – meaning that if you’re just a regular patron, you will have to wait even longer for drinks! Boo!! It would be better if there were fewer people, haha. Well, it’s a fine balance between profits for the promoter and getting patrons the best experience.

Overall I found it an okay night. It’s hard to get drunk in here though – security is tight here and looking to kick people out for any sign of intoxication.  I can say though, that it’s better than the old Flow event, for sure.

Crowd shot at the front (1:00AM)

Tequila Fridays @ Nox Nightclub, Liverpool, Sydney
Assessment Time: 12:15AM – 02:30AM
Opening Hours: 09:00PM- 03:00AM
Lockout: 2:00AM or around there.
Address: 279 Macquarie St, Liverpool, Sydney
Venue Website: None could be found at time of writing
Promoter Website: http://www.facebook.com/TequilaFridays
Occurrence: Every Friday. Unknown when it started, but it was mentioned that it was a new event. ‘New’ meaning probably the past 2 or 3 months IMO.
Outside Line: None.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Hats are okay. Guys are pretty casual and so are some of the girls. It’s a smart casual affair one could say here. It was quite a chilly night so not many girls showed their bare legs tonight.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $15 after 11PM. Before 11PM, it is $10. Good value.
Guestlist: Check the Promoter website link for the current email address to send guestlists to.
Inside: Walk to enter the back of the club. It’s a large room with a large bar in the middle taking up about a quarter of the floor space. On the opposite side is the higher stage where DJ and MC hang out. It’s quite a large podium and I suppose it could hold a band here for small concerts. Space between the bar and stage for people to dance around is about 5 metres. On either side of the bar there are lounges along the walls and more space for room for people to dance around. Smoking area is back outside next to the entrance by the street.
Cloak Room: None
Bar Prices / Line: Didn’t drink tonight, but the lines were pretty short. A wait of no longer than 5 minutes.
Eviction Count: Crowd seemed pretty friendly. Some drunk guys were a bit rowdy with the dance but there were keeping it to themselves.
DJs: DJ Don Juan for pretty much most of the time I was here
Music Style: Contemporary Latin American influenced music and commercial RnB. Some foreign language songs from latin America were played too throughout the night. I had no idea what was going on, but the crowd knew the words and sang along. RnB songs I could dance to, but the slower pace of the latin songs later in the night made it a bit more harder to do anything crazy in terms of dancing. Coco the dancer also lends a hand to the bongos that are setup at the front of the stage to add effect.
Crowd & Ratio: It was a mixed crowd – A handful of Africans, Asians, but mostly the crowd tonight is Caucasian/ European and people with Latin American heritage – Ages range from young to people in their 30s. A fair ratio, but most of the hotter chicks were up on stage dancing away.
Entertainment: MC and Coco to keep things lively throughout the proceedings MC does his thing, while Coco dances and reels the girls up onto stage. It is mentioned now that free pizza is given at 9:30PM from the local pizza shop if you rock up early. Stage was open to any girls who wanted to dance. There was also some dancing competitions for prizes.
Atmosphere: In terms of capacity the club was at half. However this doesn’t really matter too much as there are enough people around – most are at the front surrounding the stage. The very nature of latin music gives a friendly vibe anyway and people are dancing and seemingly having fun.. on the dancefloor anyway. It is pretty dark otherwise in the back areas. Comparing to a typical RnB club, it is less sleazy for sure.
Video: Walkthrough and music sample

Click here to view the embedded video.

It’s all love though – girls of all sizes come up to dance, and to a point even when the MC gave them all tickets to the Bobby Valentino concert.

Arrivederci
We left as it was beginning to die down, and the slower paced Latin music wasn’t getting me in the jumpy mood.

Recommendation
A good RnB / Latin alternative on a Friday for the people living out West. Good friendly vibe. The event is still new so hopefully more people will fill this place to capacity.

Tequila Fridays @ Nox Liverpool Sydney – 6.5/10

Dropping by: Fridays @ Star Bar
- We got in at around after midnight. The dance area is upstairs on the top level , while the  ground and underground levels are more drinking areas with no dancing at all going on
- Cover Charge / Entry Fee: Free all night
- Lockout: None
- Closing Time: 3:00AM
- Website: http://www.starbar.com.au
- Address: 600 George St (Opposite the Event Cinemas complex)
- Outside Line: 3 people – the line progresses pretty quickly.
- Dress Code / Door Policy: No large groups of guys, Dress neat casual or smart casual. Do not dress daggy. If the bouncers ask if you are on the guestlist, you haven’t met their requirements for entry. Most people are dressed casually or smart casually.
- Inside (top level dancefloor): Nothing has changed. The dancefloor holds 200 or so people with surrounding lounges. Podium at the front for the girls and two podiums at the back for the paid dancers. Two bars supply the beverages for the crowd tonight
- Cloak Room: None
- Music Style: Pop, Top 40. The DJ plays music videos that play on the big screen. There is very minimal layering/mixing , and songs are played for their entire duration.
- Crowd & Ratio: A mix of everything. I would say half the crowd is International Asian. The rest consist of Indians, Africans, Caucasians, and some local populace. Many people here are backpackers or travellers who have no idea what is a good place to visit, and plonk into the first free entry place they see on George St, in this case being Star Bar. The ratio was definitely more guys than girls in here, but pretty much all the girls can’t speak English. 
- Entertainment: They’ve added professional podium dancers now! I was very impressed with that. They dance at the back to the entertainment of the crowd. 
-  Atmosphere: Pretty busy on the dancefloor. However it does become stuffy on the dancefloor. This combined with the constant spilling of drinks on the floor, the lack of lighting and dominance of guys in here added to the somewhat seedy atmosphere. Nothing has changed.

Timeline
Slip and Slide
The floor was so wet we were able to slide around and glide without having to lift our feet off the floor. Where were the cleaners? Anyway there aren’t many dirty places where you can do that on a dancefloor, so me and this random guy made the most of it, pretending we were ice skaters.

Spotted her again
Once upon a year or two ago, we saved a girl from the advances of a sleazy guy. She clung onto us and, to be honest, she wasn’t someone I wanted to hang out with, but somehow it happened. I spotted her again tonight, but this time decided not to say hello to her, lest she latch onto me as last time.

Manhandled by a manwhore
I am standing in the back of the dancefloor doing my business, and I felt a hand grab my arm and YANK me out of the way. It could only be a bouncer pushing me out of the way of a fight. Turned around – there was no fight! It was some freaking random Indian dude who just pushed me out of the way so that he could hit on some lucky Asian girl… what the fuck! As he talks to the girls, I marched right in and after a few seconds I ended up dancing with the girls – both simultaneously saving them from creepy guy and giving them a taste of a dance with me. Win-win. Haha. Anyway take that, rude creepy Indian guy! You could see this creepy guy doing the same with other people too later in the night.. ridiculous. Dancefloor Etiquette needs to be part of the school education - no no.. just normal etiquette of walking around a person instead of pushing them would be enough.

More dancing
Let’s play a game of dancing with a girl. So it was done. A girl was found, then one of the guys passed her on to me, and after a song she danced with some other guy. She was pretty drunk.. and at least 40 years old. (This is Star Bar). It turned out she had a boyfriend the whole time. There is no moral to this story.

Recommendation
There are some friendly people, but there are a whole lot more creepy guys. Oh, its free, so there is nothing to lose, except your dignity. Still, definitely give it at least one visit, so you can appreciate what other clubs are like. You might even like it here if this kind of atmosphere excites you.

Click here to view the embedded video.

With a fan of the ears before they were stolen

Arrivederci

Bartender has advised us there is actually a local proper nightclub spot down the road, so we leave. It has unfortunately not picked up much patronage, and as it was midnight, the lockout was in place and nobody else was going to come in anyway.

Recommendation
This looks like another simple watering hole for the older crowd who don’t want to deal with the youngins at Northies, with a dancefloor to boot. Come for a drink, it’s a good atmosphere for that – but for the dance atmosphere – I wouldn’t come here for a dance.

Sting Bar, Cronulla Sydney
- Bar aspect – 6.5/10
- Club aspect – 2.5/10 The potential is there… but the music needs more work to keep the crowd going and in place. 12AM cut-off doesn’t help the cause either, but I am guessing it is what is enforced upon this venue for now.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Boys shall be boys

Bounce @ Slide Bar
Assessment Time: 10:15PM – 03:00AM
Opening Hours: 10:00PM – 03:00AM, but doors only opened 10:15PM.
Lockout: Lockout at around 2:30AM as noted by security.
Address: 41 Oxford St, Sydney
Venue Website: http://www.slide.com.au
Promoter Website: The guys at Red and Blue events run off a Facebook profile page http://www.facebook.com/bounce.kpop.party
Occurrence: Typically once every month or two months, depending on how they feel.
Outside Line: Friends started lining up at 10:00PM and there were about 5 people in front of them. When the doors opened the line got to about 20 deep. Later in the night at around 11:00PM, the line was observed to be 30 deep. The wait didn’t seem to take long, as they freely allowed people in. The wait would have been around 10 to 15 minutes.
Dress Code / Door Policy: There is no suggested dress code by the promoters. Guys: Most guys wore collared shirts. Normal t-shirts were allowed inside as well. Sneakers are okay. Hats are allowed here. I wore a collared shirt with black pants. Some clever girls wore bunny ears! I’m so doing that next time…
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $20 full cover charge. $15 on guestlist. It’s $5-$10 cheaper compared to all the other Asian events held on Fridays.
Guestlist: redandblueevents@hotmail.com – I brought 10+ friends, and got a complimentary bottle of champagne to share around as a reward. Very cool
Inside: Walk into an open floor to hold about two hundred people. The floor includes an elevated dance platform in which the floor tiles light up and change colours. Bar to the left for a length of about 20 people. DJ booth is in the far right corner. Overhanging the bar back on the left is a balcony for private functions and what not, to hold about 60 people in a squishy fashion. The upstairs balcony has its own separate bar as well. There is also a large projector screen behind the DJ where they are playing random clips from Asian television
Cloak Room: $5 per item. However I did get a little surprise that my large sports bag qualified for the special $10 offer as not advertised. Sweet! I didn’t ask why, but I suspect it was because it had other jackets and bags inside. (Cloak room girl asked me earlier what I had inside the bag)
Bar Prices / Line: Tonight’s specials were $6 Alize & Sprite, $6 Bourbon and Coke. I drank a glass of house red wine for $8; It was grossly bitter – never again. It was fun though feeding the wine to unsuspecting friends, and watching their faces twitch in disgust.
Eviction Count: One of my friends was kicked out for being too touchy feely with the girls around here, and creeping them out. Unfortunately I’m going to be a bad friend and say I can’t disagree. Guys.. girls don’t like it when you are grabbing a handful within 30 seconds of interaction.
Music Style: Primarily RnB and K-Pop (Korean pop). A handful of house, and hip hop songs are scattered throughout the night as well. So if you are a fan of K-Pop, you are going to like it tonight. Even if you haven’t heard of any K-Pop songs – they are pretty catchy to dance along to.
Crowd & Ratio: That said, pretty much everyone here is Asian, with the majority being that of Korean descent. Both Australian Koreans and Koreans from overseas are here tonight. The rest are a mix of whatever Asian races there are left. At around midnight the ratio was pretty good/even.. but of course as the night wears on, the girls leave and there are heaps more guys. However there were plenty of people, so there were still plenty of women around. Ages would vary here, but the general gist of the crowd is that of people in their early 20′s.
Entertainment: All that the promotional poster mentioned was that it was a ‘naughty’ event. They brought a female stripper in. This was followed by an equally entertaining guy strip show. More on these later in much more detail in the timeline.
Atmosphere: The first hour or so the music is blaring out the speakers, but people are only drinking and chatting. Nobody dares to go up onto the dancefloor. Eventually though, effects of alcohol and a crowd that is building up gets people going. Pretty much from that point on, the crowd was constantly on the dancefloor going hard at it. Even when we left at 3AM, it was still packed! This was a first for my times here, as usually it would be dead by 2:30AM. I could only attribute this to being the beginning of the 5 day long weekend, so everyone was going hard out at it. Needless to say the atmosphere on the dancefloor and immediate surrounding areas was pretty energetic, especially when they play a random K-Pop song and everyone sings along to it.
Video: Music Sampling of the night

Click here to view the embedded video.

Bounce @ Slide Bar - Crowd

Timeline
Cloak Room Incident 1: Almost kicked out within 5 minutes
After entering, I made a beeline straight to the cloak room at the upstairs back area. The cloak room is manned by a girl, and Mr A is there talking with her. She thought I worked here, but he noted that doors were actually open to the public, and that I was the first customer (maybe second, my ticket was #2), and lightly smacks the back of my head… Maybe being over friendly.
They are in conversation and she said to him
Cloak girl: (to Mr. A) “.. you’re going to buy me drinks all night!” (in an obvious joking manner)
James (to Mr. A): ” ohhh the challenge ha been laid down!” (big smile)
Mr. A: (Angry face to me) “HEY! Don’t think I am bull-shitting you. I have known her [Cloak girl] longer than you! I can get you kicked out!! OK?”

WTF? A threat to kick me out ALREADY for making a comment? I offended him somehow but what? All I was doing is saying she laid down a challenge. Which she did. If anything, if he was threatening to kick me out, he should have threatened to kick her out as well for asking him to buy her drinks. Seriously? Did he interpret my message as “I bet you can’t afford drinks for her all night?” Same could be said with what she said as well. So during this very short outburst from Mr. A, my brain is processing what this he is upto. Maybe he was drunk – I couldn’t tell, but it was possible he could have been under the influence, but he seemed coherent and controlled in his outburst.

I wondered what kind of promoter abuses his / her power like that to threaten to kick people out without proper cause? Maybe he did genuinely misinterpret my comment. I didn’t come here to get involved in an argument though.

James: “Alright.. Ok, don’t worry about it.”

Walked away, wrote down all I could remember, then bitched to all my friends about what had just happened. I was in a sour mood, but it can only get better from here, right?

Cloak Room Incident 2: Girls threatened to kicked out by Mr A
I need to return to the cloak room later in the night, and I line up behind a group of girls. Sadly Mr. A is still there.. still talking to Cloak Girl. He seems quite normal. Alas, I am wrong! He turns around and pushes through the group of girls yelling
Mr A: “Get out of the fucking way!”
Girl: “Hey! (a few words I dont remmeber)”
Mr A (cuts off immediately): “Shh!! SHHH!! You aren’t allowed to speak”
This guy, I got no idea who he is – but right now he is being a total jerk off.
Girl: (paraphrased) “What’s your problem?”
Mr A: (cutting off again) “Hey.. hey.. whats your name? Whats your name?”
Girl: ” [name] ”
Mr A: “[name], I’m going to get you kicked out, OK?”
OMG… no way – he used the eviction line AGAIN! Seriously this guy could NOT be a promoter, or could he be?
Girl: “Yeah, go on, kick me out! DO IT!”
The guy walks off continuing the threat of eviction.

You could tell the girls are extremely angry and upset to be treated like that, and their night has been pretty much tainted for sure. I shared my little story earlier with them, and we both shared our views on what we thought about this guy.

After this second incident, I sat down with one of the other promoters and told my story and also what happened to the girls. The other promoter, on the other hand, is much more caring and undersatnding, perfectly fit for the role – it is a bit of a shame one guy can ruin many a persons night.

I have no idea what reasoning goes through Mr A’s mind, but there are some theories on his behaviour: (These are just theories, and I can be entirely wrong):
- He is pretending to be a promoter, and pretty much ruining other’s clubbers nights, to which he doesn’t care about.
- He is definitely a promoter, and he is preparing to quit.
- Aliens have taken over his body. (I saw on TV that aliens like to probe inside assholes.)

Ideally you never want to meet these types of people in the clubs, but unfortunately you do, but tonight was extra surprising in that it was someone who claimed to have the power to evict patrons – and if true, it is a big abuse of power.

Naughty naughty time
Midnight – The stage is raised and the dancefloor is cleared. Out comes the surprise of the night – a female stripper! During this time, I was outside, so this is what I apparently missed out on:
- Skipper going through the routine, and eventually going topless. Audacious!
- She then picked out a guy, sprayed some whipped cream on her chest.. and you can guess the rest

Oh what’s that I hear? Did I have a video you say? Not this time you sickos – but I’ve got something better for you though – the man version! Hahahahaha. The female strip tease was followed by a competition of some guys from the crowd to compete in a ‘Street Dance’. The first guy dances and waves his hands like a maniac, to the jeers and boos of the crowd. Why do they boo for his street dance?

It is clear the participant misheard what the MC had said. The MC said “strip dance”, but due to his slight accent, it was lost in translation as “street dance”, haha. Well, second time around, they did take their gear off  to the delight of the crowd.. so here’s the video for you female hornbags:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Clothes stripped
After both strip shows.. guys raid the stage and the dancing resumes, but the guys have kept their shirts off, and in the madness, some girls have come into the equation and helped grab any guy nearby and to take off their shirts. hahaha. Scary for the guy whose shirt is being removed, but funny for everyone else.

It was inevitable to strip down
Me taking photos of half naked guys. One of the guys looks at me. “JAMES!!”. It turns out he’s a fellow reader – Oh what are the chances! Always chuffed to meet a reader, and likewise for him too. The moment of elation was followed by innate fear that I was next in line for a forced strip, which is a very sly process I must say – first a girl sucks you in by dancing with you, and then before you know it – there are multiple hands over your body, as your clothes are removed piece by piece until you are topless! Arghhh. I didn’t resist, lest my shirt be ripped. Here’s an unflattering picture:

I joined the action under duress

It was pretty crazy in our little section of dancefloor – about 10 guys pretty much yelling and going nuts – it was pretty fun if you were in the moment. From the outside observer we just looked like drunk idiots. I would say some of the guys here were intoxicated no doubt.

I found comfort in some crazy dancing guys
Spotted: Two korean guys just dancing like crazy people. I like these type of people, who just come for the dance. Happily introduced myself and they were happy to dance silly with me, which is what we did. I actually felt pretty comfortable being with them. One of the taller guys ran out of breath and had to take a breather for quite some time. Poor guy. They were both Korean and they absolutely loved tonight, which was understandable.

Arrivederci
We left just before closing time

Recommendation
If it wasn’t for that particular guy upstairs who was threatening right at the beginning of my night, to not just me but also a group of other girls (and who knows how many other people), I would have said this was one of the best nights I’ve had in a while. Instead my personal experience was tainted – though I am sure the rest of the crowd who had the pleasure of not talking to this guy (and also my sleazy friend who got kicked out) would agree they had a pretty good night.

Bounce @ Slide Bar – 6.5/10 (Consider tonight an 8.5/9.0 if it were not for the other bad factors)

Perfect @ Pontoon - Punking it out

(Event Name Resurrection) Grand Opening: Perfect @ Pontoon Bar (Level 2 only) Darling Harbour Sydney
Assessment Time: 11:30PM – 02:00AM
Opening Hours: Unknown. From past experiences at Pontoon it should close at 03:00AM. Opening time unknown.
Lockout: There was no lockout at 2:00AM, but it might have been put into place later.
Address: Listed as 201 Sussex St, but access to the place is more or less via The Promenade at Darling Harbour’s Cockle Bay Wharf. The main level is not ground, but the upper level. It is accessed externally via a set escalators in the courtyard area of Pontoon Bar. (It almost is like the old World Square Pub venue, isn’t it). Ground level doesn’t receive so much attention here.
Venue Website: http://www.pontoonbar.com
Promoter Website: Run by Syndicate Events in conjunction with Colab Entertainment, and Intouch events- specialised webpage at http://www.theperfectnight.com.au
Occurrence: Tonight was Grand opening night, and is set for a weekly Friday occurrence.
Outside Line: A line of approximately 20 people were outside. Luckily some friends of mine had lined up prior and were close to the front. We waited about 5 minutes before getting in.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Hats allowed. Theme is to dress to impress. Guys: Smart Casual recommended. It was strongly advised that all men must wear collared shirts or entry would be denied. I did see some guys inside with t-shirts on, so I am not sure how strict the policy is. I had a t-shirt but with a blazer which got me in, but I took off the blazer once inside. Girls: Recommended to dress sexy/chic, and so happy to report overall almost everyone dressed well tonight.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $25 full price. Kills me every time, but appears to be standard for the Asian oriented nightclubs. $15 on guestlist before 11:30PM. No midnight love tonight. I think ground level was free entry for the public to dance their socks off, and that only upstairs was charging. Do correct me if I am mistaken.
Guestlist: Expires 11:30PM. Send guestlists to perfect.pontoon@gmail.com or colab.entertainment@gmail.com – tell ‘em I sent ya!
Inside: The event covers two levels, but the focus is of the upper level, with the ground level not getting much love.
Downstairs: Walk into the back of the dance area for about 100 or so people. it is just a roundish room with DJ in the far back wall. To the left is the open bar area for all users with tables, lounges and what not taking up half of the ground floor area.
Upper Level: Outside pontoon is a courtyard area to which patrons can sit down and relax. Escalators from here take you upstairs to the upper level. Walk inside to see a view of Darling Harbour to your left. This immediate area is of lounges and chairs, for people to mingle but not dance. Probably for 40-50 people. Move in to the right where there are a zone of 2-3 small lounge areas for birthdays or what not, then followed by the main areas – dancefloor on the left to hold 80-120 people, and a single bar to the right to hold about 15 people along its length. At the furthest end is the cloak room and bathrooms.
Cloak Room: I did use it but I don’t remember the price. It was reasonable, so I would say it would be $5 or less.
Bar Prices / Line: I didn’t drink, so pricing was unknown. However to get water, there was no simple jugs of water to be around, so I had to line up. After about 10 minutes I gave up, because the line did not move one bit! People were coming in left right and centre to get a piece of the bar action. I could have had better luck going downstairs to use the bar there, but I was too lazy to go outside in the rain. A friend of mine stayed in line for a drink, and she reported it took her 30 minutes for a glass of water. That is really messed up. I secretly hope that future events will have easy jugs of water at the bar, or even better – someone running around with buckets of bottled water giving it away. Oh wait, that did happen! A man came by with a bucket of bottles of water, handing it out for FREE. He was definitely the most popular person of the night. Seriously free – usually bars charge $2 or something for a bottle of water. Am sorry that we didn’t get to see the bottle guy for the rest of the night.

View of the bar and the crowd line (11:50PM)

DJs: Edo, Moto, Bonniez, Flipsta, et al.
Music Style: Mostly contemporary commercial RnB tonight.
Crowd & Ratio: Upper Level: Pretty much mostly Asian Australian here. There are some Caucasians and Indians in the mix, from either downstairs or here for birthdays. There were a slight more number of guys than girls, but that said, a lot of the guys were lined up at the bar, presumably buying drinks for themselves or for some girls – so that left the rest of the venue in a kind of even-ratio.
Entertainment: Just the MC to keep things going. Also CD giveaways were had, and a friend won a copy. Awesome
Atmosphere: Upon entry it was pretty busy, it took a while to cut through the crowd to get to the other side. This included the dancefloor, where people are dancing their hearts away. On the dancefloor itself, there is not much room to dance, but it isn’t sardine packed, it is what a typical busy dancefloor is – enough room to have your own little circle, some simple dancing and that’s about it. Throughout the night it was indeed at least busy on the floor – but somehow , I had the feeling the lounge areas weren’t so alive – people were sitting around being .. people. At the time of departure the place was still indeed busy. Throughout the night even though there were a sizable amount of people, it never got heated up and sticky as in the previous venue, so props to the promoters for that. The vibe was pretty good throughout the night.

View of the general dancefloor area (12:30AM)

Video: Walkthrough the main area and music sampling from the night:

Click here to view the embedded video.