Prelude: We just survived a crazy set from DJ Shogun at Manning Bar. We met Shogun afterwards and asked what he was doing after? It was already 1:30AM. “I’m going to the Shanghai Nights thingy to party! Come and party with me!” Oh my god. Shogun wants us to come with him. Anything you say Mr Shogun. Time to go!
Shanghai Nights @ Space Nightclub
The name Shanghai Nights has been resurrected as a replacement for the Cubic event. It’s the same promoters, but the obvious target audience now are Chinese expats, rather than Cubic trying to attract both the locals and expats. Memories of Shanghai Nights at the previous venue conjour up images of busy crowds, cigarette smoke and asians everywhere. Probably not going to be the same here tonight but it’s always good to find out!
Essentials:
Opening Hours:
10:30PM – 4:00AM?
Address:
127 Liverpool st – enter via the second line to get your name marked off guestlist etc. Otherwise you may enter via the normal Shark Hotel line and walk in. After entering the Shark hotel floor, you may proceed to level 2 where Space Nightclub is.
Venue Website: http://www.spacevenue.com.au
Event Website: http://www.fb.com/shanghainightssyd
Promoters: Urban Agent, et al.
Occurrence: Every Friday since February 2013 at Space Nightclub.
Dress Code / Door Policy:
I was really casual. Jeans, running sneakers, t-shirt, leather jacket and I was let in.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge:
$25 after midnight. Cash only accepted.
Passouts:
No passouts before midnight (??)
Guestlist:
rob@ua.com.au
Cloak Room:
$5 per item.
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Just finished a dinner at Double Bay, and M and I walk by The Golden Sheaf. So many times I have heard friends rave about this place, so lets check it out – here we go!
Fridays @ The Golden Sheaf Hotel
Assessment Time:11:00PM – 1:00AM
Opening Hours: 10:00AM – 2:00AM (Friday and Saturday)
Lockout: None
Website: http://www.goldensheaf.com.au
Address: 429 New South Head Road, Double Bay, Sydney.
Dress Code / Door Policy:
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Free Entry all night
Guestlist: None
Occurence: It’s open every night. Tonights live band act is assumed to be at least every Friday. There is a DJ also on Saturday nights.
Inside: The Golden Sheaf runs over 2 levels. Enter via the bottom level into a hallway. Standard Pub to hold 50 or so people and TAB on the left and pokies room on the right. Walk through the hallway to enter the rear entertainment quarter. It’s a big beer garden and obviously recently renovated. Patio heaters, tables and chairs are everywhere. Floor space of the back end takes up about two thirds of the whole place. On the right rear end corner is the main bar, kitchen and dancefloor to hold about 80 or so people. There is a elevated podium with enough room for a 4 piece band to play. Stairs on the right and walk up to a recently renovated lounge area of about 3 main rooms and another bar, with balcony to look over the beer garden. Walls are decorated with flowery / artsy patterns. You can smell the freshness up here. However in essence the actual dancefloor itself is pretty small in size.
Cloak Room: No cloak room facilities. People who were dancing, simnply dumped their stuff in a big communal pile of jackets and bags at the front of the stage.
Bar: I didn’t buy any drinks tonight. The depth of the line was about 1.5 people deep, so you do have to wait a few minutes.
DJs / Acts: A cover band was playing until midnight – with the lead singer mentioning the crowd to look out for them on the X-Factor next month in August. Well, they hd to be at least decent. After midnight, an assumed resident DJ took over.
Music: (upto midnight) The cover band played a wide genre of songs including rnb, commerical house, classic love songs from the past decades, and pop. There was no mixing here, just songs played from beginning to end in a set. (After midnight) The DJ played a mix of RnB, Commercial House, and Top 40. Yes there was some mixing done up here. The choice of music didn’t really blow me away, and some songs left me standing there wondering why they were chosen. It was a very safe selection, and not really meant to replicate a pumping club atmosphere I suppose. It was however, good enough to get people dancing.
Crowd: One would assume mostly locals, and that’s true. There are also a small component of backpackers here
Entertainment: Tonight it was just the live band and DJ. There are two TVs on the edge of the dancefloor, playing Stephen Chow’s “Kung Fu Hustle” on loop. I have no idea why they have chosen this movie, but its pretty funny.
Atmosphere: On the dancefloor it felt pretty vibrant before midnight while the band was playing. When the DJ decided to rock up, it got a little more dancey, but it wasn’t loud thumping, but loud enough to keep the energy up. Wasn’t packed or dead – it seemed right.
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A third party invite to a birthday.. here we go!
Saturdays @ Opera Bar
Location: Just outside the Opera House, Circular Quay, Sydney
Dress Code / Door Policy: Smart Casual is the norm, but anything goes here.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Free
Music: Instrumental house.
Crowd: Classy.
Atmosphere: Cold, and so there weren’t many people outside – but enough to fill up all the seats.
Timeline:
So anyway, we are dancing casually, and suddenly an old asian man is dancing like a madman! His wife is looking at him with dismay, and I think.. “I like this guy – I want to be like him when I grow up”, so I joined him. Here’s the video:
The old man is the dude on the right. Seriously
Right afterwards, security warned us that we should take photos quicker, as they “dont like that sort of thing” (the dancing) in here. I wonder why a DJ is installed here then!
Recommendation
This place is just a bar, and nothing more. Pretty nice views though 🙂
119 @ St James Hotel
Friend has a farewell party and I’m a lucky 3rd invite. Unluckily the chosen event is 119, which has moved to St James Hotel, from the old location of Space Nightclub. Tonight is the opening night. So here we go!
119 @ St James Hotel Sydney
Assessment Time: 12:00AM – 04:00AM
Opening Hours: 10:00PM – 04:00AM
Lockout: None
Website: http://www.infinityproductionz.com (At time of writing the website is not operational yet)
Address: 114 Castlereagh St, Sydney
Dress Code / Door Policy: Casual ok. Hats ok. People here are wearing mostly collared shirts and dresses.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $25 Full Cover Charge. $20 on guestlist before midnight. Free before 10:30pm if on guestlist (usually only the first 10-15 people in line manage to get in before 10:30 for any of these type of promotions)
Guestlist: info@infinityproductionz.com
Inside: St James comprises of 3 levels but tonight’s event was only held on the top level. Enter via the middle level for the bar and chillout area, where there are tables and stools aplenty. Upstairs walk to the main carpeted area, where there is a wooden dancefloor to hold about 100 people. A DJ in the far corner. More lounges around the place to sit down and chat. Bar on the opposite end of the dancefloor.
Cloak Room: $5 per item.
Bar: $21.50 AUD for three shots of absinthe. The wait was about 5 minutes.
Music: Contemporary RnB tonight
Crowd: One of the last remaining places where every single person is asian. Usually there is one or two unlucky white people who either have yellow fever or accidentally walked into here, but none could be spotted. The crowd is a half mix of locals and internationals. You can spot the fobs by their fobby hairstyles.
Entertainment: No MC, but a photographer. My favourite photographer Will the Kill was here tonight. He’s surprised that there are so many non-local fobby asians here tonight.
Atmosphere: If wasn’t that good. Previously when Urban Agent promoted, it was packed out like sardines and hot as hell. Tonight, it wasn’t that packed. I would say the dancefloor was pretty much filled out the entire night, and the lounge seats were taken, but you see, the dancefloor and seats only took up half the entire floor space, there was lots of standing room, and, only a few were standing around. Despite this, there were enough people here to warrant staying here the rest of the night. Still, there was something in the air that didn’t make it a lively atmosphere, it was kind of muted – it wasn’t as wild as you would expect a crazy club to be. It might be that there wasn’t an MC.
Video: Walkthrough to the main room
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DCMs @ Havana
A birthday for a friend. She has chosen Havana, so here we go!
Assessment Time: 22:45- 1:30am
Website: http://www.havanaclub.com.au
Address: 169 Oxford St, Darlinghurst, Sydney
Dress Code: Casual OK. Hats OK.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $25. $20 on guestlist (?)
Guestlist: see website. No problems getting in
Inside: One central dance floor, three bars. Private room in the corner, and lounges everywhere.
Cloak Room: Yes
Music: ‘Scouse’ House and Trance. It was actually pretty good tonight, as the DJ has a big group of songs to choose from. Of course, he chose some of the popular house songs as well as mixing it up with a bit of progressive trance. It was pretty good i would say.
Crowd: Dominantly Euro, some Aussies.
Entertainment: Dancers on the podiums. No MC’s tonight, but dancing chicks are good enough for me.
Atmosphere: Good vibe. Not as packed as the Chocolate City RNB nights, but still busy nonetheless. A good vibe in general.
Video: 360 View from the dancefloor
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Ly and I are visitng the Gold Coast. We just left The Bedroom nightclub, and we are following girls, being the single men that we are. Somehow, we ended up outside Melbas.. so here we go!
Melbas Nightclub
Assessment Time: 02:40am-04:30am
Website: http://www.melbas.com.au
Address: 46 Cavill Avenue, Surfers Paradise QLD
Door Policy / Dress Code: Casual OK
Cover Charge / Entry Fee: $10. Free if a guestlist was organised
Guestlist: Email info@melbas.com.au
Inside: Two levels. Ground has lengthy bar in the middle. Stools / tables everywhere. an outdoor seating area. Out the back is a dancefloor. Upstairs is more cosy. VIP area at back for private functions (?), 3 large podiums at the front dance area. 2 Poles to dance with. I can’t think of any place in Sydney that has poles! (The retro might have some but I can’t recall). Long bar on the side wall
Bar: Short to no lines, thanks to the huge bar. Pricing unknown as we scored free drinks all night.
Music: Downstairs is Retro / Classic music, while upstairs is primarily house but the occasional rnb/pop mashup as well.
Crowd: Dominantly White Aussie. I think me and Ly were the only asians here. No problem, as everyone was friendly here. People of all ages were about. It does remind me of The Retro Bristol Arms back in Sydney, but it seemed cooler here.
Melbas Nightclub - Upper Level
Video Tour:
Right after we got inside. Ground level and moving upstairs:
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