Courtyard area (just the front bit)

Wonderland @ Greenwood Hotel, North Sydney
Assessment Time: 12:10AM – 3:00AM
Opening Hours: 8:00PM – 3:00AM
Lockout: Unknown
Address: 36 Blue St, North Sydney
Venue Website: http://www.greenwoodhotel.com
Promoters: The claim was 17 promoters joined in the fun to make this event. The main promoter was Syndicate Events, GTB, and Colab – the same promoters for Perfect Nights @ Pontoon Bar.
Occurrence: Once off event for Australia Day
Outside Line: There were about 5 people in front of us, but we quickly got in
Dress Code / Door Policy: Relaxed dress code. Most things were okay. Most guys wore t-shirts but girls still glammed up.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $25 full entry. Pre-paid tickets unknown.
Guestlist: N/A
Inside: Enter via the rear via the ramp where the register is. Pay your dues and walk down the ramp to enter the courtyard where the DJ is on the left with a standing area in front for around 100 people. There are tables, chairs and stonewalls for people to sit on to get their smoko on. The whole building looks like it could have been a little church (and it probably was), considering the large sandstone bricks that make its walls and the general architecture of the building. There are four separate door entrances along the walls to each of the 4 internal rooms. The right most room is “the clinic” room, a small room with a bar, lounges and a small dance area to hold 15-20 people. The next rooms are the chillout room and the Mashup room – mashup room has a bar along the wall and a wall cushion bench thing with a slightly larger dance area with DJ in the far corner. The chillout room is just that, with music supplied just outside from the courtyard – saloon style lounges and bar exist in here. The “Black Label” room is the largest of the rooms with DJ on the far right and dance area for a good 100 or so people.

Cloak Room: The cloak room was situated upstairs on your right, as you just step into the Greenwood Hotel courtyard. $5 for bag deposits. 
Bar Prices / Line: 3 minute wait at the bar in the mashup room. $49 for 4x Jam Donut shots and 2x Tequila shots.
Bathroom Facilities: Bathroom upstairs near the cloak room as well as downstairs by the rear of the ‘Black Label’ room. The facilities sufficed.
Eviction Count: Didn’t spot anything personally. Crowd were pretty behaved tonight.
DJs: A whole shitload over the four separate areas. There’s a picture in the gallery with the full DJ list.
Music Style: Outdoor courtyard: Contemporary RnB / Top 40, “Black Label” Room: Classic RnB / Hip Hop, Mashup Room: RnB and House mashup naturally, “The Clinic” Room: House, classic House. Overall compared to other typical Sydney clubs where you are faced with one or maybe 2 rooms, you have a choice from 4 rooms of music, but they all pretty much overlapped in terms of just playing commercial House and RnB / Hip Hop to satisfy the crowd, so if you just are a regular radio listener you would be into this kind of music.
Crowd: Mixed ages, mostly people in their 20′s – an even mix of young and slightly older late 20′s and some early 30′s characters I bumped into. A lot of people here is of Asian descent and pretty much every Asian person looked like a local Aussie Asian.  The rest (about 10-20%) were mostly Euro or locals in the area. 
Ratio: If you were to find a good ratio of women, they would be hiding out in the RnB / Top 40 rooms, rather than the house rooms. Overall it was alright, probably 65/35 female/male but it wasn’t an overwhelming feeling of sausage around.
Entertainment: No extra entertainment, though there are $5 burgers if your stomach desires it. The patties looked burnt and carcinogenic though. DJ in the mashup room was giving away mix CD’s. The CD has some choice songs on it, but the mixing was pretty horrid IMHO. 
Atmosphere: Outside its always busy with the crowd surrounding the DJ, but on the downer this area doubles up as the smoking area and I personally couldn’t hang out here for long periods of time. The Clinic room, being where most house and “shuffling” songs were being played, quickly became a mini literal boiler room, where the humidity of sweat just hits you as you walked in. It’s qutie dark in The Clinic room and you may shuffle as you wish without much judgement, if you could find some room in the cramped area. The Black Label room also fell under this humid B.O smell but only until just before it closed, as the room was larger. The chillout and mashrooms were pretty bright/well-lit and no more than a handful of people were up in front of the DJ dancing at any one time. Most people chose to sit down and have a chat/take photos here. The crowd in general as mentioned were pretty well behaved and most just wanting to dance and apparently enjoy the night.
Video: Montage of music and walkthroughs:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Timeline

Hate brings people together
“Whooa-ooa-oaa-oaa-ohhh… whooa-ooaa-ohhaoahohhh.. You know you love me.. (uh huh) I know you care!”.

Oh… if you haven’t figured it out, its a song I used to love, but now am not a fan of anymore. It’s JUSTIN BIEBER’S ‘Baby’. UGH. So when the DJ plays this song I sit down with a friend and mock-karaoke the words. The random guy next to me doesn’t like the song either and we quickly became friends over the song. I start thinking about a future friendship with him: going out, dinners, water sports together, etc.

Anyway we had some shots together! He said he was here alone only because the DJ was a friend of his. It’s like that with a lot of people who you see at the clubs and just sit down. He ran off after the shot. It was fun while it lasted.

Even when I am clubbing, I am not safe
I was chatting to a pretty girl and you know, I reckon we got along well. I started thinking about having a future relationship with her: Going out, dinners, water sports together etc.

Anyway we had a dance, and then… it goes a little something like this:
Her: I think I know you from somewhere.
Me: Where! (praying to god it wasn’t from this website)
Her: Do you live in XXXXX ?
Me: Yes, I do!
Her: OMG… I think I know YOUR MUM!!
Me: Ahhh WHAT!????????? MY MUM!!? X_X
Her: Your mum once babsit my kids a few years ago, and I remember meeting you!
Me: Oh right..

Hoolleyyy shitfucks this was way too weird.
It was all coming back to me now. I was a strapping young lad back in the day, and she looked exactly the same as the last time I saw her all those years ago. It would be weird if I went for it, and she decided to visit me again at home, so I wisely moved on.

Arrivederci
Stayed around until 3AM when everything was done.

Final Thoughts & Recommendation
This was a once off event but other events at Greenwood should be definitely considered going to, especially if you haven’t been before since it’s a nice little venue.

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:

Click here to view the embedded video.

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.

with a local

Saturdays @ Club 22, Papanui, Christchurch, New Zealand

Assessment Time: 11:00 PMish – 1:30AM
Opening Hours: 8:00PM – 2:00AM
Lockout: Unknown, but we were told at 1:30 we were not allowed back in if we left.
Address: 22 Harewood Road, Papanui, Christchurch, New Zealand
Venue Website: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Club-22/121971104547871 There are no other websites.
Promoter Website: Self Promoted
Occurrence: Every Saturday since the club opened in April 2011. Club 22 is also open on Thursdays, Fridays as well. 
Outside Line: I don’t recall any line there. We got in after showing our Australian Passports. Security were friendly enough to give us some flack for being Aussie
Dress Code / Door Policy: The dress code was promoted as casual. Pretty much anyone can get in wearing their pajamas if they wanted to. Most people dressed casually or dressed smart casual. There were a handful of guys who had top hats. Marty has my punk wig on and it seems to be accepted. After 5 minutes inside the club I got asked by a second security guard if I was allowed in with wearing of my pirate hat, and I said yes. I was pretty sure I was targeted for being too sexy. So the hat policy is questionable. 
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $5 for both men and women after 10 O’clock. Before 10PM it was free entry tonight. Not sure if this was a short promotion or a permanent entry fee thing. Regardless, as I have mentioned in another post, $5 is ridiculously cheap compared to $20/$25 in Sydney, but the locals still don’t like it, as every single other bar/pub/club in the area country is free entry. The club is still also haunted by the scandal of $22 entry fees for guys and free entry for girls when it first opened. 
Guestlist: Unsure, but very unlikely as entry is only $5. You can try club22club@gmail.com and ask if they have bookings, but what would be the point. 

Inside: Walk inside to enter the main open room. Bar right on the opposite end staffed by 2-3 personnel, and to the right along the wall is an elevated area for about 8-10 lounges. The ceiling is quite high and on the far right wall is a floor-ceiling dance pole. Smoking and seating area is behind here as well. There is little barrier between the smoking area and the immediate area inside the club, so you will get a whiff of the smoke if you hang around here. The main dancefloor is contained within a room to hold approximately 160-200 people. Entry is via two doors, one at the entry and one near the bar. Within the room there is a second bar attended by 2 staff members. Along one of the walls is a bench but it pretty much is used as a podium. DJ booth is on the opposite wall to the bar.
Cloak Room: Cloak service is available according to the website, but I couldn’t find a cloak area. It is probably done at the bar, but I can’t tell, as I didn’t use the services tonight.
Bar Prices / Line: I didn’t drink tonight, but I did have to line up for water. The wait at the main bar was quite long at about 10 minutes. Inside was the same story. It was just a matter of waiting it out. We were told by some of the regulars that if you knew some the bartenders then you could get lucky and get a bit of extra alcohol for your buck! Oh damn.
Bathroom Facilities: Appeared quite clean, I didn’t have to wait.
Eviction Count: There were a handful of evictions that I did see, in particular one of a guy who was just drunk, and standing against the wall with his beer in his hand. Security were quick to kick him out, even if he wasn’t causing trouble. Me and Marty had a bit of a dance outside the main room as well, in the general bar area – but we danced a bit too vigorously and were asked by security to basically slow down the pace of the dancing for the sake of other people. Haha to be asked to stop dancing in a club.. amazing, but I guess it had to be done for the sake of the general public who weren’t here to dance. Theres quite a heavy police present inside and outside the club – the club has been noted to attract a lot of drunk people who wander the streets, urinating on innocent residents property, as well as to start trouble.
DJs: Resident DJ Mike T all night. Hooray for no song repeats!
Music Style: This was a mix of house and rnb i believe. Unfortunately my camera ran out of juice so I couldn’t sample the music tonight. Later in the night it was mostly house a mix of commercial and unknown stuff. It kind of turned me off when I wasn’t familiar with the tunes, and I wasn’t going to hang around in the stuffy room.
Crowd: Mostly a younger crowd here teenagers, low 20′s kind of crowd. The majority, if not everyone, are locals here, not many backpackers / foreigners were here. This is truly also a mixed crowd – Indians, Africans, Kiwis, us Aussies, Asians, Wogs, whatever goes, goes.
Ratio: A tremendous sausage fest ratio early in the night, but it did get a little better as the night picked up. Initially the girls were in the dance room but nearing the end of the night they were more in the lounge area of the club.
Entertainment: Hired professional pole dancers go up and do a show for us, and the way they dance… Oh My Lord-Of-The-Rings, they are good at what they do. A must see.
Atmosphere: initially early on in the night there isn’t much going on. People are slowly tricking into the club, and it only starts to seriously pick up in the dance room at around midnight. The whole venue is indeed purpose built for a club-like atmosphere. The lounges are here, the strobes and flashy lights, loud soundsystem, no smoke machine though. In the main dance room, the ventilation is quite poor here, and combined with the bustling crowd it gets pretty hot, very quickly. Just standing around and slowly swaying left and right is enough to get you sweaty and uncomfortable when the place gets packed. People are generally quite friendly and here to dance and have a good time. Outside in the lounge its more chilled, people are generally chatting or just .. chilling out.

Timeline
Outfits
We still had out outfits from New Years Eve – Wheres Wally, Punk Wig, Captain Jack Sparrow. It was the last night so we might as well dress up for the fun of it, ahha. Martin dons the Pink punk wig and I go for Jack Sparrow, without make up. I really wish that they had a socially accepted man version of eye-liner, but unfortunately they do not have such items yet. Regardless, the sole purpose of the outfits was to rip it up the only way we know how and leave New Zealand, before New Zealand makes us leave. Needless to say hooray these simple little costumes work wonders, and we are the life of the party damnit! Not only that, we created the damn party since everyone else wasn’t dancing at all. 

A brief history of Club 22 (as summarised by the many people who shared their stories with me)
- Earthquake hits Christchurch. Nightlife is gone
- Club 22 opens, 22 being the location on the street as well as the coincidentally the date of the earthquake
- Initially $22 for guys and Free for girls. A few weeks later it was $5 even after government intervention. Patrons have never let this down and the stigma still lingers, that that this club is out to get your money.
- Lots of drunk people can be found outside
- Huge fight late 2011 resulted in an increased police presence for patron safety.
- This is still the only good club in Christchurch.
- Some of the people don’t like coming here, but have no other choice and come here anyway. Whether people love it or lump it, they won’t forget this club for sure.
- We arrived.

Once Upon a time in Christchurch
This entire trip, pretty much every club that was visited in New Zealand was all Caucasian with perhaps some Maori people. However tonight was the first time we saw A GROUP OF ASIANS. Not just one group, but MULTIPLE GROUPS OF ASIANS. It only took until the last day of our trip to find out that Asian people were also hiding in Christchurch! What amazement. Imagine not eating rice for 10 days, and then suddently you see rice. (Obviously this entire paragraph only makes sense if you are Asian. Otherwise replace the word “rice” with your ethnic food of choice, be it savlouki, kebabs, hot dogs, samosa, etc. ) You can’t help but say hello.

I had to talk to these rice people, so we did. Later we find out one of the girls is from Sydney, CABRAMATTA… of all places! Amazzzing! hahahahaha it was almost like we were having a conversation with a random girl at Verandah Bar or Martin Place Bar on an Asian clubbing night – because there was a bloody good chance she would be from Cabramatta or Bankstown. LOL Her guy friend wasn’t from Cabramatta, but judging by the way he was giving us dirties, he might as well have been! My lord of the rings, he wasn’t friendly at all, even though I tried my best. So after about 5 minutes of one-way dirties, I think we made the wise decision to mingle somewhere else, before we got glassed or something.

We also met a handful of Internationals here, and they are exactly the same as in Sydney: “No English” is the reply when you talk to them. Ah yes, the universal phrase of “go away” exists here too.

Arrivederci
Eventually the stuffiness of the room was too much to bear. The ratio also dropped considerably after 1AM, so it was just a matter of dancing and making the most of it. We gave up trying to keep dancing while sweating, and left at 1:30AM.

Final Thoughts & Recommendation
This was the only purpose club we could find here in Christchurch, so definitely come here for a dance. If you aren’t a fan of the occasional drunk person, stuffy rooms, or cover charge, an alternative venue is the Running Bull about 10 mins drive away, but not much else.

Despite all this, if you are able to take care of yourself and are with a group of friends who want a serious dance, then come here. I wouldn’t mind coming back here as I had a nice time, but only as there isn’t much else – do keep in mind the place doesn’t pick up until around 11:30ish, but the non-drunk crowd is quite friendly and ready to party in this somewhat city still trying to rebuild.

Rating : 6.5/10

Police shut it down for an unknown reason. Patrons were pissed off, and I was a little upset as well as I had literally just got there when everyone started getting kicked out. It’s 11:30PM, in the middle of bloody Parramatta.. nowhere close to any club (The Albion has been done so many times now).

Hopped back into the car. Considered going home, but I verbally assaulted myself into driving out towards the bright lights of the CBD, in the search for any decent place that was open…

Sunday Night Nightclub Search: (over the course of 1 hour):
Star Bar: No DJ nor people. Dead.
3 Wise Monkeys: Wildcatz Rock band night – no dance music. Dead.
Cheers: Dead with a population of 20. Dead.
Scubar – closed. Dead.
Side Bar: Non-Dance night. Dead.
World Bar:  Two rooms but only about 15 people per room. 2 of those people were women. aka Dead.
Trademark Hotel: Closed. Dead.

The only places left that looked decent were Hugos, The Piano Room (from the outside), and Goldfish, which happened to have Groove Terminator as their guest DJ. Oh hell yeah, GT, a personal favourite of mine! Let’s do it.

Martini Club Sundays @ Goldfish Lounge, Kings Cross
Assessment Time: 1:00AM – 4:00AM
Opening Hours: 6PM – Late (Definitely past 5AM)
Lockout: Unknown, possibly none.
Address: 111 Darlinghurst Rd, Kings Cross (at the corner traffic light where the Coke sign is). Google Maps: http://g.co/maps/jjb8b
Venue Website: http://www.thegoldfish.com.au/kingscross
Promoter Website: Self promoted
Occurrence: Every Sunday night.
Outside Line: There was a group of 3 drunk guys trying to get in, and they were rejected. Other times that I checked, there was virtually little to no line.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Tonight is pretty easy going with the Dress Code. Hats are okay, casual attire is okay, and later in the night two ladies in heavy make up and costume were allowed in as well (angel wings, chainsaws, or something). More than half the guys tonight are wearing just t-shirts rather than collared shirts. Some singlets are spotted here as well. The girls are generally well dressed, but not all are glamarous, there are some just casually dressed women here.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Free all night.
Guestlist: N/A
Inside: Walk inside to open up the back area of the bar. To the left are lounges for 3-4 small groups of people. to the right are tables, stools. Further up left is the outdoor smoking area which remains behind the mesh-like wall facing the pathway. Right in the middle of this back room area is the bar, which is manned by 4 or 5 staff members at a time. On the far right are 2 areas for lounges. In the front room area is the dancefloor area. This is almost a circular like area where there are lounges lining the walls and disco balls dotting the ceiling. Actual dancefloor room could hold 25 comfortably upto about 40 people. A small elevated podium exists for the band to play later is cleared out to make room for a dancing podium for the patrons (it could hold about 8 people). Behind the podium sits the DJ set in the corner of the room.

Cloak Room: None
Bar Prices / Line: $9 for a GT (Gin and Tonic, get it?… GT?… Pah.)
Bathroom Facilities: Still the same as before. It’s a unisex bathroom! But before you get ANY ideas – the unisex bathroom is manned by a staff member to make sure you don’t get upto any hanky panky, as well as ensuring that you women don’t get raped or something. The hand washing thing with a foot pedal is still awesome, and easy to use. There is even a waiting lounge chair in the corner while you wait for your friend to finish doing his number 1, 2 or 3.
Eviction Count: None. Most people were quite well behaved.
DJs: Groove Terminator, aka one half of Tonite Only was the main act tonight (1:40AM – 3:40AM). Martini Club, There was also another DJ after (3:40AM onwards) Groove Terminator finished, but no idea what his name was.
Music Style: Martini Club set: (early in the night – 1:30AM) The resident band were playing live versions of popular Top 40 music – with the lead singer most of the lyrics, backed up with a drummer, guitarists, and DJ’s behind. The crowd always love this live version of music. Groove Terminator (1:40AM – 3:40AM): GT played an Old School set – which pretty much gave him the excuse to play all of Tonite Only’s hits (which I bloody love), as well as their remixes and anything else with their name stamped on it. Also some other classic commerical House music songs were thrown in as well.
Crowd: A mix of backpackers and local people. Keep in mind as well that tonight is Sunday, so there would easily be a higher ratio of backpackers who don’t work to locals who do have to work. The backpackers are less rowdy than that of classical bars such as World Bar, but there was some douche who thought it would be nice to smoke inside. Piss that smoke off away from my clothes and hair. Ages varied wildly here from young 20 year olds to 40++ year olds. Around 30% I’d say of the people here were over 30.
Ratio: Upon entering, the ratio was about 2:1 and it got worse at around 3AM to 3:1 Guys to girls.
Entertainment: No extra entertainment. The main act tonight was GT
Atmosphere: The floor was always busy but not packed where you were squished – everyone had a little room to dance. It’s quite dark as well in here and often due to the small area and overhead, it could get warm quite quickly if you were dancing heaps.
Video: I got the timestamps wrong in the music sample video

Click here to view the embedded video.

Timeline
Too romantic
It’s only midnight and the vibe is pretty good… for couples. FML At one point I was surrounded on all four sides by a couple dancing away, making out… you know, doing coupley things. Just gross out. Well, I was a little jealous but seriously, yuck.

The Indian Mac
Well, I’m not sure if he was Indian or Sri Lankan, but there was a guy who just stood there and macked on all the girls. He had the cojones, but not quite the charm. Especially when he was sweating profusely. However the important bit was he had cojones. Respect. I don’t think he understood what the word “no” meant.

Arrivederci

Left soon after GT finished the set.

Final Thoughts & Recommendation
Not a place for real clubbing, but a pretty nice place to bring your partner or a small group of friends, if you aren’t really into the doof doof and want more of a lounge setting with a side dancefloor to go with it.

Martini Club (Sunday Nights) @ Goldfish Lounge, Kings Cross Sydney: (For the chilled out type) – 7/10

Dancing with some of the other shuffling locals upstairs

Wednesdays (Summer Launch Party) @ The Eastern Hotel, Bondi Junction
Assessment Time: 11:23 – 3:00AM
Opening Hours: Open early in the day – Unknown (4AM ++?)
Lockout: 2AM Lockout
Address: 500 Oxford Street, Bondi Junction, Sydney. It’s a bit hard to find if you haven’t been before. It’s on the far end of Wesfields away from the station. Google maps: http://g.co/maps/rachx
Venue Website: http://www.theeastern.com.au , http://www.facebook.com/TheEasternWednesdays
Promoter Website: Appears to be self promoted
Occurrence: Every Wednesday
Outside Line: 24 people was the headcount upon lining up. However the line was pretty fast, and we got in within 10 minutes. I like that.
Dress Code / Door Policy: A lot of people wore caps tonight – these were mainly the people who came for the hip hop music tonight. Spotted also were fedoras and cowboy hats. Others wore casual, smart casual and whatever is fashionable. It was a mix of everything here.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $10 flat entry. Free before 10PM if on the guestlist
Guestlist: wednesdays@theeastern.com.au
Inside: This place is made up of 4 levels. The ground floor is the regular bar and NOT OPEN tonight, while the 3 levels above are the club levels for tonight:
(1) Island Bar: Half the room is sat by the Island Bar, to the left half of the room. On the far left are booths to sit down away from the music. Theres a long light overhead along the rim of the room. The music / dancefloor is on the right hand side to hold 100 or so people. DJ booth is very small and along the same level as the dancefloor.
(2) Main Bar: On level 2, this place strikes you with the black and white patterned wallpaper as you walk in. The main bar is on the far end opposite you and is the length of the dancefloor (~20 people long) . To the left is a larger DJ booth, with lounges in the far left corner. In front is the large dancefloor for about 200 or so people. To the right are a smoking room, two further separate lounge rooms and a smaller bar manned by a single bartender. This is the biggest level by far.
(3) Pacifica: Another flight of stairs to take you upstairs to what appears to be an Asian restaurant lounge during the day. It’s very classy. Plush lounges, ambient lighting, high ceiling, portraits of what look like Geishas on the walls, Medium – Small dancefloor for 50-70 people. At the back is the bar, a small one manned by 2 staff.

Cloak Room: None found on any level.
Bar Prices / Line: Two Smirnoff Blacks and a Tequila Sunrise = $27.50. The average wait at a bar would be around 5-10 minutes. There was a bar or two on each level so it did just keep up with demand.
Bathroom Facilities: I only used the bathroom on the top level which, whose floor was pretty wet and filthy – a combination of vomit, urine and alcohol.
Eviction Count: Big fight spotted later in the night at Level 1 Island Bar, it was assumed that the people involved were kicked out, but it was quickly defused. As a side note, I saw another pissed off guy gesture a “pulling the trigger” with his finger at some girl, no idea what the back story was, but he looked mighty angry. Again, this was on the Island Bar bottom level. Also on top of this, a friend who came outside at 1AM REFUSED to come inside, because she saw quite a number of people outside the club vomiting their guts out, and she went home for fear of molestation or something else if she went inside and met more of these kids. Fortunately most of these drunks were outside the club, and not inside. The drunkards did provide for a entertaining journey back to the car afterwards.
DJs: Nacho Pop (yup, the Nacho Pop judge guy from So You Think You Can Dance), John Glover, Oakes & Lennox, Here’s Trouble, 14th Minute, Skinny, Eko, Naiki, Troy T.
Music Style: For each of the three levels:
(1) Island Bar Level: Entire time we were here, the music was rap / hip hop (NOT RnB) aka Kanye West, Snoop, Jay-Z .. that sort of music.
(2) Main Bar: Primarily House, Commercial House, and some other form of house later in the night
(3) Pacifica Room:  Pop and Top 40 with house mashup.
Crowd: Mostly a local Sydney crowd, from all over Asians, Aussies, Africans, etc. – I met people who travelled from as far as Casula to come here tonight. Mostly Anglo-Saxon for the Main Bar. At the Island Bar room (Hip Hop) it was a half mix of the locals, and the rest were people of African descent, backpackers, dancers (you can tell by the number of caps that were worn in this room) or just fans of the music here tonight. At the top level Pacifica bar it was more of a Anglo-Saxon crowd, with some local Asians. Earlier in the night this room was VIP only, and was opened up at around 12:30AM for the general public to enter, but most newcomers probably never realised there was a top level room here tonight.
Ratio: Pretty much an even ratio, or dare say at some areas of the club, even more girls than guys. For the majority of the night, there were never more guys than girls. Really there was nothing to complain about here. A healthy representation of the worlds gender ratio.
Entertainment: No extra entertainment. The week prior, LMFAO had dropped in for an unannounced visit. Missed out hard.
Atmosphere: (1) Upon entry the Island Bar level was pretty much packed. People were pretty chilled out and dancing to their own – the important part is that everyone is dancing here. Though, right in the midst of the dancing here, it does get quite stuffy and you will start to sweat easily. 
(2) Upstairs to the main bar, it was packed, but people are just standing around mingling, despite the massive tunes being dropped. I would say out of the few hundred people on this level, only 10-20 people were actually dancing next to the DJ booth here. The place stayed pretty busy until around 2:00ish when people started to leave. It became quite deserted by 2:30, and me and my friend were just shuffling around with about 3 other people on the entire dancefloor.
(3) Top level Pacifica: couldn’t get in until after 12:30, but that was pretty packed too. (This whole friggin place was packed.) Top level, is the smallest but the crowd here are the most vigorous in their dancing. Almost everyone who is standing is obliged to dance, and they are jumping and singing to whatever is being played. It’s quite the nice atmosphere, as time goes by in this room, people move back downstairs and the hardcore shufflers stay back for even more extreme dancing. It started to die down at 1:15 and I think eventually upstairs was closed at 2:00AM
Video: Music Sample, mini tour. 

Click here to view the embedded video.

Timeline
On the way here I met some people who were also going to tonight’s event for the very first time, which was pretty cool. Together we somehow found the place, and since it was raining, we walked in with our cardigans/jackets above our heads, looking like idiots.

We’re not freaks
There were in this club, 2 really really tall girls, and a friend tried to ask them for photos, but kept getting rejected everytime before he finished talking LOL.. perhaps they got that question many times before.

Arrivederci
I came with friends tonight and we stuck together most of the night. We left at closing time.

Final Thoughts & Recommendation
I was definitely impressed on first impressions, and I was asking myself, why can’t more clubs in the city be more like this? This would be my ideal kind of club night. Cheap entry, packed, friendly crowd and music to suit all tastes. Definitely give it a visit with friends if you have nothing to do late Wednesday night. My only complaints are a lack of ventilation in the Island Bar, and people getting drunk too quickly – that comes with the increased numbers.

Tonight’s rating – 8.5/10

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

Jesus

An Intimate Night with Armin @ The Metro
Assessment Time: 12:00AM – 3:00AM
Opening Hours: 8:00PM – 3:00AM
Lockout: None
Address: 624 George St. Google Maps:  http://g.co/maps/pn6tg
Venue Website: metrotheatre.com.au
Occurrence: Once off show, which was only announced after his Stereosonic gig the Saturday prior – Sly Dog. 
Outside Line: We got in right away at midnight. 
Dress Code / Door Policy: It’s pretty open, most wore casual tonight. 
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $90 at the door. $80 pre-paid online. 
Inside: It was held in the main theatre
Cloak Room: There may have been one but I didn’t use it. I doubt it. 
Bar Prices / Line: Didnt drink here tonight, I had pre-drinks at Star Bar next door – much more cheaper. 
Music Style: Trance
Crowd: All ages (above 18 of course), all nationaties were here. Mostly 20′s and low 30s crowd. Basically people who aren’t working on Friday, or who don’t give a shit about being a little tired on a Friday morning. 
Entertainment: Some acts prior, but I skipped them. 
Atmosphere: Definitely a packed house – people were forced to party on the stairs (which was a fire hazard but nobody seemed to care). I was on the moshpit and it was pretty rocking but OMG we probably stood in a bad spot right in front of the speakers. Ear plugs I wore only helped a little bit. People were all into the songs, dancing, cheering etc. Wasn’t too hot at all here, just only got warm from all the dancing. 
Video: Music  summary of what I heard tonight.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Video: The final song played “Burned with Desire” / Armin getting flowers and saying goodbye to the crowd. 

Click here to view the embedded video.

Final Thoughts & Recommendation
Only for the fans and general progressive trance fans. It’s definitely much more better up close and personal rather than 100 metres away, outside of a moshpit at Stereosonic.

An hour later and I have arrived. Dress code here is Smart Casual, but I have a strong suspicion that they are very lenient tonight regarding dress code, due to Stereosonic removing pretty much more than half of the crowds from the city’s clubs tonight. Suspicion confirmed, as the security allows the giant toothpaste costume through without any questions. The toothpaste party continues! Here we go!

Most of the crowd @ 2AM

Sassy Saturdays @ World Square Pub (Formerly known as Equilibrium)
Assessment Time: 12:50AM – 3:00AM
Opening Hours: Unknown (Facebook page states 8PM, but I think 10PM?) – 3:00AM tonight.
Lockout: Unknown.
Address: 680 George St, Sydney. Google Map Link: http://g.co/maps/wvqjz
Venue Website: http://www.worldsquarepub.com.au
Promoter Website: Appears to be a multiple promoter event. Dynamic Entertainment (http://www.dynamicau.com) &  SyndicateEvents.com.au and others.
Occurrence: Every Saturday since September 2011
Outside Line: A handful of people, but we got in within 5 minutes.
Dress Code / Door Policy: As mentioned before, usually a no daggy clothing policy applies, but due to Stereosonic being on, the dress code was pretty much open. Costumes and hats were freely allowed in. Though marty was asked to remove his wig when he was inside.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: You would have thought I remembered how much the charge was here. Last time I was here at this event (no review was written) it was $20, but from the depths of my memory it MAY have been $25, but I cannot remember. Either way, it is at least $20 for full entry. If you are on the guestlist, a discount probably applies before either midnight or 11PM. You will need to contact a promoter for exact details on this one.
Guestlist: If you can find a promoter, go through them, otherwise send an email to: Youngnsassy.saturdays@gmail.com
Inside: Previous weeks had the event held upstairs but tonight it appears that only downstairs was open. Perhaps they expected a low turnout tonight. Regardless, enter into the ground level to enter the “stand around” atrium like area, with dancefloor on the right to hold about 80-120 people. In front of you is the corner of the bar. It extends down the left side where there are lounges and tables. On the left is the outdoor smoking area. it’s a long space and enough for most people to get a lounge seat or a table.
Cloak Room: No cloak room facilities tonight.
Bar Prices / Line: Unknown, but you could get service pretty much right away. 
Bathroom Facilities: Pretty clean and maintained well tonight.
Eviction Count: None spotted. There were not that many people here tonight anyway.
DJs: Dirty Dex for most of the night.
Music Style: Pop, House, RnB , and many “Songs dedicated to the people from Stereosonic” – mostly LMFAO songs or something house related lol. All from the same DJ so minimal song repeating, if any.
Crowd: Mostly Asian tonight. It’s a mix of local and international Asians. also as the night progressed on, the crowd became more and more comprised of people dropping in from Stereosonic. I would suspect that without the Stereosonic crowd, tonight would have been pretty dead, as are the clubs out there. Rest of the crowd were a handful of South Asians/ Indians, and some Caucasians. 
Ratio: Despite low numbers, the ratio was fairly even throughout most of the night.
Entertainment: MC to keep things going, and pretty girls dressed in white, giving out freebies, like cups and flashing light things. I put a flashy light thing beneath my toothpaste costume and .. well.. a flashing dancing bottle of toothpaste looks awesome
Atmosphere: It wasn’t as busy as one would be, but the people who were on the dancefloor were all dancing about. When I say it wasn’t busy – only enough people were here to fill up the dancefloor well, while the rest of the club (lounges, bar, etc) was deserted. Only a handful of people chose not to dance here tonight. It was a little warm in the middle of the dancefloor though. 
Video: Music Sample and a bonus ending of Marty and I dancing.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Timeline
Shoutouts to Mr Toothpaste
There wasn’t much happening tonight, so when I walked on in (modest mode off) everyone was like BAM look at that guy! I could feel it. MC had a mixed look of amazement that I would dare wear such an outfit at a club, or perhaps he liked it, but it was a funny look. He then would sprinkle words of encouragement to the crowd to “Party like Mr. Toothpaste over here!”. Love it.

Get a room
It’s tolerable to watch two people kiss romantically. But O.M.G. It’s more disgusting than left over chicken in the car to see these two people tongue, grope and virtually dry hump each other on the dancefloor. Why weren’t these two kicked out?? Bloody hell, get a room guys. Really, before I vomit toothpaste all over you.

Arrivederci
Left at closing time. We were just here to dance it out to the end. 

Final Thoughts & Recommendation
The low turn out was expected, and even promoters here expected it too I suspect, to the point that I can’t even find a corresponding promotional poster for this night, as well as moving the DJ set downstairs (where its cheaper to hire I guess). Hoping future weeks will have back to normal crowd levels. My friends and I have been before on a regular Saturday and liked it, so its a safe bet to come here on a non-festival weekend. The freebies were a little bonus tonight. Despite this, it would probably have been better to go to a free entry venue  for a bigger crowd.

Tonight’s Rating: 4.5/10

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.

Ground Level Arq Sydney

Twinkland @ Arq Sydney
Assessment Time: 4:25AM – 6:55AM
Opening Hours: 9PM – Late (apparently until midday next day?)
Lockout: None so far as I am aware of.
Address: 16 Flinders St, Taylor Square (off Oxford St)
Venue Website: http://www.arqsydney.com.au
Promoter Website: Appears to be self promoted by the venue .
Occurrence: Most Fridays. Exceptions are special events such as Fomo, the massive Foam Party regularly held here.
Outside Line: There were just 2 people in front of us when we approached. We quickly got in without any trouble, though the security was pretty strict on not letting drunk people inside. He just stares at you while he asks the standard sobrierity question “How are you tonight?”. Bloody scary.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Anything goes here. Most of the guys dancing have taken off their shirts to set the standard – don’t expect any less in a gay club.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Free all night. Free entry policy was introduced in May earlier in 2011.
Guestlist: N/A
Inside: Arq is comprised of two levels. Ground level and Underground. (1) Ground Level: Walk through revolving doors to enter the one large floor shaped in a diamond. On the right is the bar, while in front of you is all dancefloor, with podiums in the middle and back. The entire floorspace looks like it could hold 250 people easily. Through the back door you can walk downstairs to the smoking area. Down another flight of stairs and enter (2) Underground Level, where a similar layout exists to the top room, except the bar is on the left rather than the right. It is a little bit smaller than upstairs in terms of floor space as well. There are pool tables in the corner to keep you entertained, and some lounges at the back, probably for making out.
Cloak Room: On the right, straight after you get past security. $3 each item to be stored.
Bar Prices / Line: I forget.
Bathroom Facilities: Not utilised
Eviction Count: None seen.
DJs: Scott Tanner, Kitty Glitter
Music Style: Described by most people as progressive Trance/House, with some pop, I would agree.
Crowd: Dominantly male gay crowd tonight. Ages varied from young to older guys I met, who were probably in their 40′s. Wide variety of backgrounds as well, but most of the crowd appeared to be local Sydneysiders here.
Ratio: I’d say 95% guys, but I have no idea on the gay:straight ratio. There were definitely other straight guys here I suspect.
Entertainment: Shows from Summer Salt, Millie Poppins, Ripley Waters (aka The Glamazons). MC Benita to keep things going (I didn’t see the MC tonight at this time)
Atmosphere: Pretty much up until 4:45, everybody was on the ground level. I mean, ground was more superior than underground in terms of strobe and laser lighting I guess. Then once ground level had closed, everybody moved underground, or went home. I don’t know why they just kept ground level open – it might have been for noise reasons but who knows. Throughout the entire night there were sufficient numbers of people to keep this place busy. Quite surprised at how many guys were still up and about bouncing around the place. Both rooms were pretty dark, with lots of smoke machines, so you do get that dirty club feel for sure. It did get eventually stuffy after a while though. People are also quite friendly here, well the guys are anyway.
Video: Tour and music sample

Click here to view the embedded video.

Timeline
Feeling quite buggered
I’ve been dancing for quite a while now, and I regret not having a nap before coming out to attempt this 24 hour marathon, because I am just super freaking tired. We played a game of pool here but that didn’t help at all. I was still getting really tired. I must.. keep.. dancing!

Gay clubs – Not so scary anymore for me
The guys here are quite friendly and will talk to you, or you can talk to them. They love to give everyone a wet kiss on the ear/cheek so dont be surprised when it happens to you for the first time. I think if it was my first time at a gay club I would be freaking out, but tonight I was pretty relaxed about being here. It might have been just this particular club as it’s not as bright or smelly/dingy as other ones I’ve been to. I think the main reason I avoid gay clubs now is that there are no girls in them, rather than because there are gay guys there. 

Don’t play pokies
Killing time in the Pokies room I decided to put $2 and try my luck. The machine took my $2 but didn’t register the credits! Fucking bullshit. I hate technology so much.

Arrivederci
All I could do was yawn for the last 30 minutes. As I type this up, I am actually yawning. That’s pretty bad that you have to yawn, when you think about yourself yawning in the past. I had already been awake 20 hours, and I dont think I could do another 17 hours (I still had the 11 hour Stereosonic Festival in a few hours time), especially after all the drinking tonight. Marty and our female accomplice had pretty much given up a long time ago as well, so it was time to leave and to try the 24 hour party attempt some other time.

So we all left for some breakfast before going home. Next attempt, it will probably be done on a Saturday night, without any drinking, and with plenty of rest beforehand.

Final Thoughts & Recommendation

Arq is a pretty good club in its own right, and definitely one of the best gay clubs out there considering how it can still hold a crowd after 4AM. For free entry on Fridays its defintely worth checking out. I love progressive trance so it was a bonus too. Friendly crowd too. Though if you are not used to the gay scene, then I’ll leave that upto you to whether or not you choose to come here for some dirty late night dancing.

Score – 8.0/10

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.

Far end of the bar. Looking towards the dancefloor.

Chamber Fridays @ Hotel Chambers
Assessment Time: 11:45PM – 1:35AM
Opening Hours: 9PM – Unknown (3AM?)
Lockout: Unknown
Address: 53 Martin Place (It’s on the corner of Elizabeth St and Martin Place, across the road from Martin Place Bar)
Venue Website: http://www.hotelchambers.com.au
Promoter Website: http://www.cliqueevents.com.au
Occurrence: Tonight was the grand opening, to be run every Friday for as long as possible.
Outside Line: No line upon entry.
Dress Code / Door Policy: People were either well dressed, or casually dressed – but casually dressed in a good way, not a daggy way. Hats were allowed as well as sneakers.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: We paid $20 for entry. The promo poster mentions $15 all night entry – this might be for people on a guestlist, but I don’t know. We also got a free shot of a red thing upon entry!! Good value but not such a good taste.
Guestlist: Try a promoter, otherwise send to admin@cliqueevents.com.au. $15 on guestlist??

Inside: The venue layout is pretty “rectangular”, being long and narrow. The entry is on the West end – walk into the standing area where there isn’t much except some lounges tucked away on the right. The DJ is on the far East end. In between are numerous lounges along one wall, while the bar sits on the middle opposite wall on the other side. The walking path was about 5-7 people wide. At the DJ area where most of the dance action is, there isn’t much room. This is not just a dance area but also a thoroughfare area to the lounges  behind the DJ, meaning potentially more crowded conditions. It appeared they had at least 3 or 4 birthday areas reserved just on this side of the club behind the DJ. Anyway the standing room was quite small – to fit about 20 people, otherwise you will just have to dance somewhere a bit further out.
Cloak Room: $3 per item as far as I remember. Pretty good value. Though we didn’t see anybody manning the cloak room, so I don’t know if it was in use today of it was a leftover sign from a previous night. The umbrella that we brang was kindly offered by the promoter to be left at the reception desk for tonight.
Bar Prices / Line: Bartender charged us $5 each for 2 bottles of Smirnoff Double black – so good! We told him how good the pricing here was. Then he told us it was a mistake – it was $10 per bottle of Smirnoff. Goddamnit. Still okay pricing.
Bathroom Facilities: It was quite chat in the Mens. There was only one basin and someone had already decided to deposit the contents of his stomach all over it and clog it up. Not cool. More than enough room to find a urinal to pee.
Eviction Count: None spotted, though to keep things orderly, there was an RSA Marshall, pacing the club looking for drunk people. Last time I saw one of these guys was at Club Fusion down at Cronulla. No drunken antics allowed here I guess.
DJs: A mix of DJ’s tonight. Eko / Sirdee / Sivi / Nacho Pop / Wendy Samantha.
Music Style: It appeared each DJ had their own style. When we entered approaching midnight, we got commercial Rnb, then from 12-1AM it was mostly Commercial House (Think Ministry of Sound), then after 1am it was old school RnB. Basically it was a different genre every hour during peak time. Yet somehow, just somehow, they managed to double up some songs during the night. Groooan. Nobody cares apparently, so long as the repeated song is “Low” by Lil Jon.
Crowd: Earlier on it looked like some corporates were still here, assuming from a Friday night after work drinks, maybe about 10-20 when we got in. The rest of the crowd were a mix of Asians, Indians and Euros. It also looked like some people were also here to support some of the acts here and the DJs (Note to Self: Get T-shirts emblazoned with my name on the back). Ages varied wildy from young 20′s to 30′s.
Ratio: Slightly more men than women tonight.
Entertainment: MC hosting throughout the night. Also there were two artists who performed one or two of their original songs for the crowd to dance to. One of the guests played a bit of drums to add to the music, worked quite well actually, though he did seem a bit sick of playing it after a while.
Atmosphere: In terms of numbers there were probably 100 people at any one time until around 1:15 when people began to leave. It was at this time the lights got turned down. Before this time, the lights were dimly lit on, giving a relaxed, friendly kind of warm feel. Most people hung around the one corner near the DJ so it did seem to appear busy. Basically on the dancefloor it was busy and quite friendly, but everywhere else, it was a pretty sparse – you could get a lounge at any time if you wanted in the far ended areas. On the main floor people were in their own groups dancing and chatting, though it was a bit loud for some of the girls I overheard. It was also pretty warm in the middle of the floor, but at the entrance and the back lounges, it was pretty cool.
Video: Walkthrough & Music Sample

Click here to view the embedded video.

Timeline

A special guest, all the way from…  ”.. all the way from Sydney’s West!” Was the proclaimation. You would think it would have been somewhere with more glitz and glam after the build up moments beforehand. I couldn’t help but laugh at the ridiculousness of it. Anyway the guest was an 18 year old Tim Batista who confidently stood up, said some words and performed some rap songs. Pretty cool, I congratulated him afterwards.

Whinging for his song to be played
Paul Lizzy all the way from overseas is the other performer. In return, he seems to have agreed to a one hour stint of being MC and playing the drums, which he does quite well but with with a bit of reluctance. You could tell he was super keen for his track to be played though, as everytime the DJ ended tracks, he would tell the DJ via microphone “Play my track play my track”, but the DJ kept teasing him by playing other tracks, LOL. This was followed up by a glance at the DJ booth, where this big mean ass looking dude was just staring at Lizzy, as if to telepathically tell him to keep going. Anyway he kept whinging and finally his track got played. I mean it’s fine to whinge, but don’t whinge up on stage in front of everyone to hear. It wasn’t a nice impression. I didn’t congratulate him afterwards.

Paul Lizzy at work

Arrivederci
There’s only so much time you can spend in one small area to dance before you get a bit tired of it. We left at 1:30AM to continue the journey to attain 24 hours of clubbing. Security recommended us to head on to a gay club for some daytime clubbing such as Arq or Phoenix Bar. Sure thing!

Final Thoughts & Recommendation
A combination of bad weather and Steresonic festival the next day dampened numbers for tonight (Friends reported that other clubs were similarly low on numbers) but still a respectable number turned up. I’m giving it the benefit of the doubt just for this weekend, but it would be interesting to see how it goes the next few months. Though the random mix of rnb/house/rnb may not be for everyone (I like all genres so I was happy with it). Promoters that we spoke to tonight were also quite friendly, so at least this venue is in good hands.

Overall score: 5.5/10

Crowd

 Sneaky Sundays @ Hugo’s Lounge
Assessment Time: 1:10AM – 2:30AM
Opening Hours: Open throughout early evening to late (closing time unknown)
Lockout: Unknown
Address: 33 Bayswater Road, Kings cross (Upstairs and opposite World Bar/Candy’s Apartment – Don’t confuse this with the entrance to TheClub, which is on street level and in front of Hugo’s Lounge)
Venue Website: http://www.hugos.com.au
Event Website: http://www.hugos.com.au/newsletter/whats%20on/
Occurrence: Every Sunday since 1999
Outside Line: No line at arrival
Dress Code / Door Policy: At least smart casual here, lest you be declined entry at the door. If you even wore casual and managed to get in, you would look out-of-place here tonight, so dress your best
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Free at the time of arrival.
Guestlist: N/A

Inside: Walk upstairs to get to the outdoor area of the bar. On your far right would be a small bar with 5 or 6 lounges along the wall in between. A bar to your left with more lounges around. The view overlooks the street where you can see people walking around a distance away from where you stand. Walk to the covered part of the bar, where the scene is a bit darker and more club like. Disco laser lights are everywhere in the middle of the dancefloor, as well as a ceiling full of shiny disco balls. It makes for a dazzling experience when you’re in the middle of it. The dancefloor is in the middle to hold 70-90 or so people comfortably/squishily. Bar on the right alongside the DJ. Lounges on the other side where you can also look outside the windows below.
Cloak Room: None
Bar Prices / Line: Had a beer but honestly can’t remember the price. It wasn’t cheap neither expensive. Beverage is happily given in the bottle instead of a plastic cup. There was only one order in front of us at this particular bar. The other bars were pretty quiet as well, so there wouldn’t be trouble getting a drink within a few minutes.
Eviction Count: None. I doubt they remember kicking me and my kleptomaniac friend out 2 years ago (and rightfully so).
DJs: Traditionally the Sneaky Sound System DJ’s played here but I don’t think they play anymore here. Not sure who the DJs were tonight.
Music Style: Disco house would be best to describe it. The tempo was right for a Sunday night – not fast enough for a shuffle, but not slow like an RSL – it was right for a jiggle and a dance when you felt like it.
Crowd & Ratio: It was a bit of a mix – mostly locals here of Anglo-Saxon background, but also some tourists here too just looking for a place for a dance. Spotted two Asian people – turned out they were tourists a well. Ages appeared to be mostly young 20 something year olds. Ratio was around 60/40 men to women tonight.
Entertainment: No extra entertainment.
Atmosphere: Best described as quiet on the outside (OK it was barely happening – anyone could get a lounge to themselves on arrival). Inside the lounge situation was similar, with most patrons on the dancefloor. It was a Sunday night and there weren’t that many people on the dancefloor either. I would say 2 or 3 groups of friends were here as well as some couples. To be honest it was more than I expected considering how dead it was outside on the streets of Kings Cross. That said though, it’s very dark inside the dancefloor and the place does prove that a dark yet classy nightclub can be pulled off.

Video: Music Timeline

Click here to view the embedded video.

Recommendation
For a Sunday night out in the city you can definitely have a look at this place but don’t expect a big crowd, but expect a more relaxed and quiet atmosphere. For similar alternatives there is also Goldfish lounge down the road but which is a bit smaller and less ‘dancey’.

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.

Crowd at 1:30AM

Prelude – a massive conflict
A Korean event, named “Steam Partie” is on tonight! Whether the word “partie” was spelt like that on purpose, I do not know, but I had to get my dancing feet to this place. Marty was keen to try it out too.

However we realised it was being held at the same place as the “Babyface” event promoted by Infinity Productionz on Fridays. Both were promoting the hell out of their events, so either of these companies was going to have to pack up and leave, OR they could decide to run the event together and share profits… This was going to be interesting.  Obviously based on the review title , “Steam Partie” had won – promoters from Infinity Productionz were nowhere to be seen.

I wonder how communication between the promoters at Infinity or between Infinity and the venue owners at Tao Ultra Lounge broke down so much as to result in such a disaster for the Infinity crew?? Can you imagine spending so much on promoting for an event, rocking up on the night and realising you’re not meant to be here? It’s sad, but hope they take this lesson learnt with measure to prevent something like this happening again.

So back to it –  let’s check out the new event, here we go!

Steam Partie @ Tao Ultra Lounge
Assessment Time: 12:05AM – 2:05AM
Opening Hours: Unknown (Typical club opening times for this venue would be 10:30PM- 4:00AM)
Venue Address and Website: The promoters can’t decide on a venue. The first event was held at V Bar. Tonight is being held at Tao Lounge, while the June incarnation is being held at Civic Hotel Underground Level. 
Venue Website: http://www.mrbshotel.com.au
Promoter Website: The guys at S-Team only have a Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/steam2010
Occurrence: Occurs every month or two months. It has started since late 2010. 
Outside Line: Not much of a line outside at all.
Dress Code / Door Policy: It appears that there was no dress code for tonight. People are about 50/50 dressed smart casual or just casual with a t-shirt and jeans.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: I think it was $20. It included a voucher for a free drink before Midnight.
Guestlist: We didn’t submit one, but contact details should be on the Facebook page.
Inside: Walk downstairs underneath Mr B’s hotel to enter Tao Ultra Lounge. Situated beneath Mr B’s Hotel, Tao Ultra Lounge is setup as one room segregated by sofas and lounges,and fold away columnar wall-like arch things. As you walk downstairs into the club, you are on the right end of the club, where it is a standing and drinking area. Tonight the entry area has the huge banner for a professional photo with the promotional girls. The middle section is mostly the dancefloor area to hold 50-80 people . The latter third is again, standing room and lounge area, while the bar stretches along the farther two-thirds of the room.
Cloak Room: Didn’t utilise the cloak room tonight
Bar Prices / Line: You could usually get service right away.
DJs: DJ Snoop
Music Style: Primarily Trance and House. Considering the Korean audience I was expecting RNB but it never really surfaced, except in tiny sampling form. It was a pretty wierd type of Trance music that i really couldn’t get into. I think some of the other girls here looked pretty bewildered to why such music was being played here tonight. Was hoping later in the night more danceable or recognizable music would be played, but it was pretty much the same thumping beats throughout the night. I definitely did not picture this kind of music being played at a Korean oriented clubbing night. To be fair though, the style of Music to be played was not advertised on their banners and flyers. 
Crowd & Ratio: Mostly if not, all Korean . Definitely all Asian tonight. The ratio was quite even at one point but for most of the night there were heaps of guys. I would say 70:30 Men to women.
Entertainment: No extra entertainment for tonight.
Atmosphere: The whole place is pretty dark, with just the laser lights and minimal lighting going. Population wise it was pretty dead in the beginning, but only started to pick up at 12:30, with the dancefloor being filled but the other areas were pretty dead. Smoke machines helped give the illusion of having the place not being so dead. 
Video: Music Montage

Click here to view the embedded video.

I went back upstairs to get another friend in. They offered her a free drink card when she paid, but I told them that the card was expired, and that they didn’t have to give them out anymore tonight. The guy at the register insisted that we take the card!! I explained again that it was way past midnight and these vouchers were useless, but he insisted it was still valid, despite on the card itself, it said it expired at midnight. You can only wonder if someone is even listening to you at all .

Arrivederci
Friends want to leave so off we went. The place was beginning to die.

Recommendation
I wouldn’t go to this. I’m not a fan of the particular Trance music playing, and the crowd didn’t seem too much into it either. It seemed that the crowd only stuck around as they wanted to make the most of their entry fee. It was probably better to go to another place and spend another few bucks on their cover charge.

Steam Partie @ Tao Ultra Lounge – 2/10