I wanted to review another club tonight on my own but my friend has somehow gotten me to join him for a farewell party at the Ivy. It was free entry, and what do you know.. I stayed here all night:
Main room (view from the rear)
Thursdays @ Ivy Bar, Sydney
NB: This review is for the regular Thursday nights in the main building, and not for Pool Club Thursdays, held in Building 2
Essentials:
Opening Hours:
Ivy is open all day, but the clubbing tone (and volume of music) is turned up at 11:00PM
Address:
330 George St. Entrance is via a side entrance and through the back.
Venue Website:
http://merivale.com/ivy
Promoters:
Self promoted
Occurrence:
Every Thursday
Dress Code / Door Policy:
No dress code enforced. Any attire is accepted here tonight. Girls did their most part to dress well to impress while guys were a bit of a mixed bag of smart casual towards dirty casual (thank you backpackers)
Entry Fee / Cover Charge:
Free entry all night. Amazing for a place such as Ivy
Passouts:
No passout rules enforced
Guestlist:
Not Applicable
Cloak Room:
Cloak room is free, and is accessed in the second building at reception
Tonight:
Assessment Time
11:15PM – 2:30AM
Outside Line:
There is a constant stream of people walking into the Ivy, however because there’s no cashier to collect money, there wasn’t much lining up to do. I probably waited 1 minute in line.
Inside
The main building is open for free entry tonight. The Pool Club is also free, but is not reviewed tonight.
Bar Prices / Line:
I didn’t buy any drinks tonight but, according to friends, the wait for a drink downstairs was about 1 or 2 orders.
Continue reading »
Hello… New Zealand! Christchurch is where we are tonight, and since the earthquakes of 2010/2011, the entire city nightlife has disappeared. Imagine Sydney’s CBD, Kings Cross, and Darling Harbour decimated and fenced off because of an earthquake. That is the equivalent of what has happened here. The former city is rebuilding, and pretty much if you wanted to go for a dance, you have to make do with DJs playing at local bars or go out in the suburbs. It is quite sad.
Anyway, I asked a foreign backpacker where the place to be is at on a Thursday night. “The Rimming Bull”, he proclaims! I’m sure in proper English that meant “The Running Bull”, which is, coincidentally is across the street from where we rented our hotel. So much win! Let’s check it out!
Crowd 11:30PM
Thursdays @ The Running Bull, Riccarton, Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand
Assessment Time: 11:10PM – 12:45AM
Opening Hours: Open during the day as a restaurant / Grill – 12:45AM
Lockout: Unknown, but there was one a lockout at 12:30 when I checked
Address: 1 Riccarton Road, Riccatron, Christchurch City, Canterbury, New Zealand. Map: http://g.co/maps/njtg8
Venue Website: http://www.runningbull.co.nz
Event Website: http://www.facebook.com/TheRunningBullBar
Promoter Website: Self Promoted by the venue
Occurrence: Every Thursday. DJ events also available on Fridays and Saturdays here
Outside Line: 2 people in front but we were in within seconds. We had to use our passports to be accepted entry. The drivers licenses were not accepted.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Boys are pretty casual, with a handful with collared shirts with jeans. Girls in most part did wear their going out dresses and heels for a dance here. It is encouraged for guys to wear collared shirts and to not smell like B.O, and for girls to wear dresses. (According to the facebook page anyway)
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Free all night.
Guestlist: None
Inside: Walk into the bar / dining area where tables and stools are aplenty. Bar is at the back opposite wall. This are has about 4-8 tables. To your left are some lounge spaces for 10 or so people. On the right is the “dance room” is how it is best described. It really is just a walled off room from the rest of the bar, where you can walk in and suddenly you are in a rectangular box to hold maybe 100 or so people where there are lights and a podium.
Cloak Room: None
Bar Prices / Line: Didn’t drink.
Bathroom Facilities: Pretty clean.
Eviction Count: None spotted
DJs: Sole DJ tonight. No song repeats thank god.
Music Style: Mostly Top 40, RnB and probably after 12:15ish the reggae / some other esoteric music was put on. Total mood killer, but it was apparently approaching closing time so that was how it was done.
Crowd: A mix of Christchurch locals and backpackers such as Marty and I, with the Irishman and his friends as well. But definitely a majority would be locals. Ages varied but mostly we are dealing with a young crowd – teenagers, low 20’s.
Continue reading »
Prologue: The Roxy Paramatta
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.
Continue reading »
After leaving Hotel Chambers, the 24 hour party continues at Phoenix Bar – Here we go!
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
Continue reading »
Friends desire a late night wish to visit Scubar tonight – let’s go!
View of the Bar from the Dancefloor - Scubar Sydney
Dropping by: Fridays @ Scubar
Assessment Time: 1:05AM – 2:30AM
Opening Hours: Open through the daytime – 2:30AM
Lockout: None
Address: 4/11-23 Rawson Place, Sydney (near YHA Central)
Venue Website: http://www.scubar.com.au
Promoter Website: Self promoted
Occurrence: This place is pretty much open everyday until late. Most popular nights are Mondays and Tuesdays (apparently)
Outside Line: There isn’t anyone outside lining up upon entry.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Casual is okay to wear in here, and is normal. Some are even wearing hoodies.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Free entry all night
Guestlist: None.
Inside: Walk underground to face the dancefloor to hold around around 60 people. Bar is on the far left, and around the walls and in between are dotted tables and chairs. There are the occasional sofas in dark hidden crevices of the bar. Some disco balls hang down from the ceiling. Standard lightfare is around the place.
Cloak Room: None
Bar Prices / Line: $7 cowboys. There was only really one or two orders in front at a time, and it wasn’t very packed at the bar. You were going to get timely service at the bar.
Eviction Count: None seen, not many are sloshed tonight
Music Style: A Mix of Commercial RnB, Top 40 and past hits from different genres. Typical stuff you would hear at backpacker places – songs played in most of their entirety with minimal transitioning. Regardless we had a good time dancing to the tunes tonight.
Crowd & Ratio: The crowd is almost entirely made up of backpackers, so you have nationalities from all over the place. Ages vary as well. Mostly Caucasian / European backpacking crowd though. Ratio was more men than women, especially at the front. There was about 50 or so altogether including patrons at the bar side. Not many of the girls chose to dance here tonight.
Entertainment: No extra entertainment
Atmosphere: It’s quite dark on the dancefloor side of the venue, while at the bar it is much more lighted up. But back to the floor – at this point in time people are in the mood for love, with various people around making out with strangers that they met that night. Considering past experiences with backpacker nightclubs such as Scary Canary and side Bar, you would expect the floor to be pretty dirty, but suprisingly it’s clean!! I am truly amazed.
Continue reading »
M, beer breath dancer and I - The Tunnel Nightclub Sydney
It’s my birthday weekend, but I’ve already had two dinners, a karaoke and a meat tray raffle birthday party. My friends are getting sick of me celebrating, and I still had a house party to host as well. Tonight was my clubbing choice of night out, so here we go!
Addiction @ The Tunnel (Formerly Dragonfly) Sydney
Assessment Time: 11:30PM – 03:30AM
Opening Hours: – 03:30AM
Lockout: 02:00AM ? We tried to leave at 02:30AM but was told it was lock out if we tried to re-enter.
Website: http://www.tunnelnightclub.com.au, http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=166455593127
Address: 1 Earl Place Potts Point / Kings Cross, Sydney
Dress Code / Door Policy: Smart Casual. Hats were allowed inside. Groups of guys are allowed, and people of non-caucasian backgrounds were welcome tonight. Can you believe it?? The racist door policy of the old Dragonfly club on Fridays was no longer evident. This is primarily because tonight is an RnB event. However I do not know if their Saturdays have relaxed their door policy. Guys inside tonight are dressed mostly with collared shirts, and the girls are all dressed up and looking very good. There was a dancing girl with multicoloured boots with funky lycras and loose shirt etc, like a dancer from the fluro 80’s, and so it is safe to assume as long as you look good, you can come in no matter what you are wearing.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: I got free entry as it was my birthday, but if you submit a standard guestlist, the cover charge would be $10 before midnight. I am unsure what the standard non-guestlist entry fee is. I would assume this to be $20.
Guestlist: I sent mine to nathan@exclusivproductionz.com, though there are probably other email addresses as well. There is also the Facebook group.
Occurence: Every Friday
Inside: Similar to the old Dragonfly, as you walk in you are presented with lounges with a bar behind. Surrounding the bar are booths and lounges. One of these booths was mine. On the left is the dancefloor, which seems more open. The DJ booth has moved from the far left wall to the side of the dancefloor closer to the bar, to replace a booth that used to be there. In the old place of the DJ seat, is an elevated podium for the show offs to dance to the side of the crowd. A glassed off private area to the left exists as well but nobody has booked it tonight, and it remains closed off for the entire night.
Cloak Room: Yes, there is a cloak room offered (its on the far left behind the dancefloor) but I am not sure of the pricing. We just left our stuff on the booths during the night.
Bar: I didn’t drink alcohol tonight but waiting in line didn’t take long at all, at most 3-4 minutes, unless there was a big order in front of you. No more than 1 person deep.
Music: Primarily RnB and pop, with some house, Baltimore, etc as advertised.
Crowd: The crowd tonight was mostly Euro. Minority consisted of blacks, us asian dudes, some backpackers. You can’t tell who were the backpackers as they are all dressed like everyone else. Most of the crowd are young, but there are some older folk (ie myself) in their late 20’s and met some people in their 30’s.
Entertainment: There was an MC to keep things moving along.
Atmosphere: A pretty friendly atmosphere. The staff and security are pretty friendly so long as you don’t get on their bad side. No fights tonight that I witnessed.
Photo from my booth at the back of The Tunnel Nightclub
Video: 360 view from my booth
Video: 360 view from the dancefloor taken at 1:00AM
Continue reading »
Lucky old me won 2x VIP tickets to Godskitchen. What a good way to end a long weekend. 3 nights out in a row 😉 I invited a friend and off we went – so here we go!
Godskitchen - During the Cosmic Gate set
Godskitchen @ Hordern Pavillion Sydney
Assessment Time: 10:00pm – 3:15am
Opening Times: 9:00pm – 7:00am
Website: http://www.futureentertainment.com.au/wsite/future-events/92-godskitchen-2009
Address: Hordern Pavllion, Fox Studios Sydney
Dress Code: anything goes. I had dress shoes, jeans, fedora hat. Pretty inappropriate for a rave. Everybody else was pretty casual, and the hardcore shufflers had their leg warmers out with glowsticks and light spinny things ( I have no idea what they are called ) and shiny reflective pants.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Prepaid tickets for $60. Also available at the door.
Guestlist: VIP tickets available for express entry, and access to the VIP room.
Inside: Just two of the halls were open. One hall for Godskitchen main area to hold everybody, and the second hall to serve as a chillout space.
Cloak Room: Yes, available, but forgot the pricing.
Bar: $10 smirnoffs
DJs: Main acts were Cosmic Gate, Blank & Jones, and John ’00’ Flemming
Music: The first act was .. ‘meh’. Crowd wasn’t really into it, just swaying around. The boombox wasn’t on at this time. Next was Blank & Jones, and the ‘official’ start to the Godskitchen event. Music was good. Everybody here seemed to be waiting for Cosmic Gate to come on. Music not too bad either! But, being someone who hasn’t heard any of the DJ’s before, it wasn’t too alienating. Everyone else seemed to know how to sing along to the songs. Once John Flemming came on, the music started getting a bit too hard, and was starting to get very repetitive. That is not something I really liked.
Crowd: Just anybody who is into these DJs. Mixed crowd all natios and all ages.
Entertainment: The ‘boombox’ was the star of the show. In the main room, it was a huge projector screen spanning the width and height of the stage. Behind the projector were bright lights and the speakers themselves. Four projectors from the back scan down to push projected imagess into the screen for awesome effect. Boombox wasn’t activated until 11pm, when Blank & Jones came on. Also alongside the DJs on occasion were two dancers in the Boombox. Pretty cool
Atmosphere: Initially upto 11pm it was pretty tame. During Blank & Jones, and cosmic gate, the main arena got quite packed and the atmosphere was pretty awesome. After 3am I was just suffering fatigue from the thumping repetitive beats. This was not a sell out event, as opposed to the Melbourne show. Perhaps it was because it was the same day as Parklife, which had just finished at 10pm?
Videos: on the next section
Continue reading »