Pumphouse Crowd Main Floor II

Mix @ Pumphouse
Assessment Time: 11:30PM – 02:40AM
Opening Hours: 10/10.30 – 3/4AM?
Lockout: Didn’t appear to be a lockout when we left.
Address: 17 Little Pier St, Darling Harbour, Sydney. It is right next to the Entertainment Centre.
Venue Website: http://www.pumphousebar.com.au
Promoter Website: http://www.thesyndicateevents.com.au http://www.myspace.com/colab3000
Occurrence: Tonight was a relaunch of the event, but at time of writing it is unknown whether it is a regular event.
Outside Line: There wasn’t much of a line at all. There were 3 patrons in front of us lining up. Very quick.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Most attire is accepted tonight. Most girls dressed well with heels. Guys were a mix of collared shirts and normal t-shirts with jeans. Hats were allowed in here. Chucks / sneakers are allowed. It’s a very casual scene tonight.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $15 for pre-sale tickets. Otherwise $25 at the door.
Guestlist: I’m not sure. This appeared to be a pre-paid ticketed event and not a guestlisted event.
Inside: Entry is through the side of the covered patio on ground level. The cloak room can be found here. Walk to your left into the main open area to a wooden dancefloor to hold around 150 people. Various lounges line the 2 walls. A stairwell on the left and the sole bar to the right cover the other two walls. Overhead along three walls is Level 1, where the DJ is positioned as well as extra chairs, lounges and patio. You are able to look down upon the crowd from here. Smoking take place outside the entrance.
Cloak Room: $3 per item. Perfect.
Bar Prices / Line: You would have to wait 1 or 2 orders before you got your turn here. Around a 5 minute wait. Prices unknown.
DJs: Moto, Edo, Biggie, Bonniez, Flipsta, Stunna
Music Style: Tonight is American contemporary RnB, and the DJ list reflects this. There are also some house songs and old school 90′s and 00′s RnB songs thrown in. There wasn’t anything to complain about here, it was a good safe typical rnb mix of songs.
Crowd & Ratio: Crowd is mostly Asian Australian. Age would be low 20′s to high 20′s on average, from what I could ascertain. There are also some regular dancers here who show off their dancing at times. Ratio wise, there were of course more guys than girls here, but just enough girls to not become a sausage fest.
Entertainment: MC Phili to keep things going.
Atmosphere: The dancefloor is busy throughout the night. Upstairs is pretty dead throughout, even though it is open access to all patrons. Most people kept to themselves here – the socialising was done outside.
Video: 370 view from the corner of the dancefloor

Click here to view the embedded video.

Static @ Pumphouse Review
Assessment Time: 12:15 – 2am
Dress Code: Casual ok. Everybody here dresses up in their dancing rnb/hip hop gear. Baggy pants, MJ jackets, and hats are the norm.
Cover Charge: $25. Discount on guestlist before 11pm I think.
Music: RNB and hip-hop. When I mention hip-hop, I mean lots of rapping, and lots of rnb songs which you can dance your heart to. It was good tonight.
Atmosphere: Average. The place wasn’t packed nor was it empty… in essence it was a bit disappointing as there were people on the floor, but upstairs there were only about 15 people, looking down. you could easily find a place to sit down here.

Inside: 2 square podiums for the dancers, and wannabe dancers, dancefloor to hold a good 100 or so people. Upstairs is the DJ area and another small dance area, but nobody really goes up there.
Walkthrough video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Entertainment: Female podium dancers. Good stuff.

Podium dancers, and a MJ fan with his red jacket

Bar: No shots after midnight. Booyah. This was a huge dealbreaker for my friends tonight. We wanted a place to have shots all night!

Crowd at static @ pumphouse

Timeline
Again, everybody is a great dancer.
I like places where everyone tries to dance, but can’t. However at pumphouse, I feel like I have to have had to be part of the top 100 of ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ in order to be noticed here. So instead of trying to be a good dancer I try to be the total opposite – an idiotic dancer. So i pulled out my my fail-safe starjumps.
Dancer stalker tries to cut my grass – dance style.
Through my awesome starjumping, I soon have two girls dancing up on stage with me for a dance. Suddenly another dancing asian guy comes up and tries to take the girls away from me! hmph! What’s with that? I walk on to dance with my friends. But you know what he does – he follows me an danced with my girlfriends! UGH! not on..  So I ended up grinding with a black chick. Things are heating up when suddenly, he grabs her hands and tries to take her away for a dance! Like WTF NOT COOL DUDE!! Stop fucking following me!! Especially not now – I am griding. I am in the middle of dry humping this girl and you are trying to ruin it! Not cool!! I told him “no” but he insisted for a dance with her. My god. Eventually he gives up and his first ever words to me were “you can have her”. Oh no shit I can haver her.

The bored DJ girlfriend
I went upstairs and talked to the DJ’s girlfriend. She was here supporting the DJ as his girlfriend. She looked totally bored. Maybe the DJ didn’t let her dance? Who knows.

Later as I was downstairs dancing – I looked up and saw her with her DJ boyfriend, and she still looked bored. I found that funny.

Coda
I was making out with that black girl, but friends wanted to leave right away. So I left.

Recommendation
I would still not recommend to come here… the music is great, but the atmosphere just isn’t there yet. Not compared to the only other options for the local asian RNB clubber.

Hmm women dressed in lingerie… check
Hmm a free ride to the city… check
But where was the party at? ……

“Pumphouse” the driver says.
“WHAT!!? Are you serious??” I was just at Pumphouse the week prior. I’m not a fanatic of it and I don’t completely mind going, but visiting it twice in a row was too much for old James. Here we go…

Pumphouse
Location: 17 Little Pier St, Darling Harbour
Website: http://www.pumphouse.com.au

Inside: 2 floors. Top floor was just a gallery / patio section to allow viewing of activities downstairs, and to relax. IT gave the whole place a hall-like feel. Bottom floor was a medium sized floor which could hold probably 70 or so people. Lounges in the back, and two podiums in the middle.

Event:  Static
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $15 before 11pm on guestlist before 11. Unsure about between 11-12am, but after midnight, you pay $25 .
Opening: 10pm-4am
Attire / Dress Code / Door Policy: Casual accepted. Hats accepted. I got in past the bouncers without hassle.
Crowd: Asian

Music: RNB / Hip Hop / House (I didn’t hear any House though) Typical tunes were more on the hip hop side – i.e. none of that slow slow rnb stuff. It was all pumping, it was all good.
Atmosphere: People were dancing, jumping, and people were sitting. I suppose if you were sitting down you wouldn’t have had a good time. There weren’t that many people (its a small place), nethertheless the energy was definitely there.

The view of Pumphouse main floor from the above level

Timeline
A review from a regular patron – mixed feelings:
I was next to some guy in line, lets call him Orange. Orange starts talking to me. He talks about how he used to visit Pumphouse every single week before it temporarily closed. Now that it opened again under new promoters, he’s only started coming back recently.

He said to me, in the ‘old days’ of Pumphouse, if one could dance really well, the hot chicks would come to you. Now, they only come to you if you look good. You can’t even approach any girl without getting brushed off immediately. Nobody cares about the dancers anymore he wails. That’s a shame. It would be difficult to pick up here? He still came here though, as there weren’t any other decent hip hop places to dance to (I certainly cant think of any other hip hop venue – Bamboo is more on the lines of rnb, and Hunter Bar – not for me either)

A female professional dancer!
They finally got a hot female professional dancer, compared to the two men last week. I have a video but its really really small sized:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Alice the friendblock and cockblock. What more can you ask from a ‘friend’? (a non clubbing related rant)
on being a friendblock.
I don’t usually mention names, but Alice was such a bitch I’ve put her real name on here. She wouldnt have given a sh*t anyway. Alice is a friend of Orange. She looks at us comparing the old and new Pumphouse events. She looked bored so she interjects to him with a “Oh, you’re so friendly today – since when did you become such a social butterfly?” in a VERY VERY SARCASTIC TONE… Me and Green give each other  ‘Like W-T-F??!!’ looks while she tells Orange off.  It was so awkward. A man, talking to a fellow man, talking about clubbing experiences, then suddenly being criticized by a female friend for having a friendly conversation?? Is this how bitches communicate to the world outside of them? By criticizing their friends about WHICH FRIENDS HE CAN MAKE.  Easily bitchiest bitch ever. She spoke directly to him and didn’t even acknowledge me nor Green’s existence. Made a mental note to blog about her.

on being a Cockblock:
I was up on the podium dancing with this random guy. He is dancing with two hotties behind me. I complete the 4th space on the podium. Alice, comes from fucking nowhere, and steps up on the podium. It can really only hold 4 people comfortably, and 5 is a tight squeeze. She puts herself between the random guy and the blonde, and chats her up, so that she could introduce her to another random guy. Not only is Alice is a friend-block, but a cock-block with no shame. What a messed up bitch. I’m sorry Alice, but I hope you have painful rags next cycle. REAL PAINFUL RAGS!!

Random crazy dancer with hot girl later gets cockblocked by Alice

This place is FULL of dancers
I don’t think there is a higher concentration of talented dancers than at Pumphouse. Even though it doesn’t hold many people, everyone here can dance. Its crazy. You really need to be on your best here, not that there’s anything wrong with trying to dance – you’ll just feel intimidated seeing so many other dancers taking turns on the podiums doing their thing. It does give inspiration though!

The burlesque party:
Nobody wore lingerie, and only my friend wore a corset. All the girls were in, lacy-like at best, dresses. Hardly much. The men have it easy with vests and ties etc. Must be an asian thing.

Coda / conclusion
The male friends decided to leave at 1am? It was only 2 hours! They didn’t seem to be having too much fun dancing. Well, they weren’t dancing at all.

I was quite enjoying the vibe, but I wasn’t feeling it. This would be an ok place to go once in a blue moon, only if you like to dance and only if you like the hip hop side of music.

Pumphouse
Location: 17 Little Pier St, Darling Harbour
Website: http://www.pumphouse.com.au

Inside: 2 floors. Top floor was just a gallery / patio section to allow viewing of activities downstairs, and to relax. IT gave the whole place a hall-like feel. Bottom floor was a medium sized floor which could hold probably 70 or so people. Lounges in the back, and two podiums in the middle.

Event:  Static
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Discount on guestlist before midnight, $25 otherwise.
Opening: 10pm-4am
Attire / Dress Code / Door Policy: Casual accepted. Hats accepted. I got in past the bouncers without hassle.
Crowd: Asian
Music: RNB / Hip Hop / House (I didn’t hear any)
Typical tunes were more on the hip hop side – i.e. none of that slow slow rnb stuff. It was all pumping, it was all good.
Atmosphere: People were dancing, jumping, and people were sitting. I suppose if you were sitting down you wouldn’t have had a good time. There weren’t that many people (its a small place), nethertheless the energy was definitely there.

Timeline
I was at the register. The people in front were guestlisted and when it got to me “SORRY! Guestlist has ended!”. It was midnight Arghh nooo if only I got here earlier!! Shame on me for playing two extra Guitar Hero songs before I got here. I grudgingly handed out the $25, knowing i wouldn’t be here long..

Bopping with a lifelong friend
I found the birthday boy.  We’ve known each other since I was born. This was the first night we’ve hit a club together. So the whole time, he’s got his arm around me so tight.. so happy to see me. Likewise, it was good to see him too! There wasn’t much room to manouvre around, so basically we stood there, screaming out various ‘yeahs!’ and ‘woos!’ to the music, while I had my finger poking the sky. It was a simple affair. However, didn’t get the chance to waltz around and dance / meet others.

Podium dancers – MEN!
I like my podium dancers, and I ilke my podiums – but at this event, they had TWO GUYS as dancers!! They seemed to enjoy themselves. They were doing the hip hop thing. It was something different, but we all prefer scantily clad chicks, don’t we? I wonder if I could apply for a spot, and show off my average dance moves.

Coda (12:40am)
I was inside for a total of 40 minutes. That’s a rate of $37.50/hr to dance. *dies*. It wasn’t so bad with my friend around. I head down to Brooklyn for my next stop.

I am would only recommend this place unless you love your hip hop/rnb, your dancing.. and only if you go with friends.