After multiple times coming here after 3AM, it was time to give this place a fair go. Guestlist sorted out, so here we go!

(All images / video removed by request of the promoter Phat Entertainment)

Zaia @ Space Nightclub
Assessment Time: 10:30PM – 04:00AM 
Opening Hours: No idea on when doors actually open. Possibly 09:45PM – 04:00AM 
Lockout: None 
Address: Level 3, 127 Liverpool St, Sydney 
Venue Website: http://www.spacevenue.com.au
Promoter Website: http://www.phatentertainment.com.au
Occurence: Every Friday. 
Dress Code / Door Policy: Casual allowed. Hats allowed. My sneakers were allowed in. Basically anything goes here. Guys were a mix of casual and collared shirts/dress shoes. Girls were mostly in dresses. 
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: (On guestlist) – Free before 10PM, $20 between 10PM – 11:15PM, $25 afterwards. If you ain’t on the guestlist, it’s a $25 flat charge. There is no separate guestlist line. 
Guestlist / Birthday Package: Sent mine through musesydney@yahoo.com.au, the 3rd party promoters for Zaia. Reserved area was sorted out for M’s birthday, but no birthday free passes were given to us as promised, despite protests at the register. Package included bottle of champagne, which was given in the form of drink passes. However no cloak room pass was given, nor VIP table service. Admittedly there were 20-30 birthdays tonight, and I did not specifically ask for free entry, cloak room pass or VIP table service, but I did ask for the birthday party package which, I was told, would include these things. A birthday boy or girl DOES NOT have to go through the motions to ask for these birthday things. 
Inside: Please note Space has been renovated since early 2010. Walk up the stairs to the Shark Hotel level, where red carpet and cash register awaits your money. No longer are the elevators used to enter the venue. Walk up another flight of stairs to enter Space Nightclub into the Trance room. The wooden dancefloor has been largened to accommodate more people. A stereoscopic light has been installed which dishes out some funky light patterns. Dancefloor holds about 40 people capacity. Bar servicing this room on the right, and an internal smoking room at the rear to hold about 20 people, like you see at some airports. Enter the bigger room via either of the two doors to be presented with a large dancefloor for about 300-400 people. Tonight, the cage podiums have been rid of! Instead, a catwalk like setup has been created, right into the middle front of the dancefloor, for the bikini contest later on. Two single podiums reside next to each of the columns holding the ceiling up.
Cloak Room: $10 Large Items, $5 small items. $3 Recheck. Ridiculous pricing as usual from this promoter. 
Bar Prices: $8.50 for a Vodka Cranberry. There are two bars tonight, and the shorter lines were always on the Trance Room side. People at the RnB side waited about 20 minutes for a drink, while in the Trance Room I waited about 5-10 minutes. 
Music Style: Primarily RnB in the large room, with some hip hop later in the night and some house mashups thrown in the mix as well. Repeats of songs were experienced – Mixing was done well though
Crowd: Primarily local Asians. A handful of white people, but I would say no more than 10 or 20 in total. 
Entertainment: Bikini Party – Competition for a $5000 first prize. More details later. Also podiums to which only girls were allowed to dance on in the earlier part of the night.
Atmosphere: RnB: It wasn’t too busy at 11, but at around 11:30 it pretty much picked up and peaked until around 2AM – 2:30AM when the bikini contest concluded. Dancefloor was pretty busy throughout – you had room to dance around, and only about half the time you had to move around to let other people through. In the Trance Room, the trance music really only came on at around 11:30PM, and you always had enough room to bounce around and spin and do stuff, but it always managed to stay busy enough to not look too dead. In general the crowd vibe was friendly. The rest of the non dancers just stood around the edges of the dancefloor or lounges. 
Trance: Dark throughout the night, smoke machines, and flashy nights with loud noise. People are more reserved here as we are all about dancing. Pretty warm and stuffy in here as well as the night wore on.

Video: Walk-through – Trance room , RnB room, smoking room, back into the trance room.
(removed)

Video: Trance Room 360 
(removed)

Video: RnB Room 720 
(removed)

Continue reading »

Tagged with:
 
M, random drunk dancer and I - The Tunnel Nightclub Sydney

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

Photo from my booth at the back of The Tunnel Nightclub

Video: 360 view from my booth
YouTube Preview Image

Video: 360 view from the dancefloor taken at 1:00AM
YouTube Preview Image

Continue reading »


Table reserved for James

Table reserved for James! Shanghai Nights @ Brooklyn Hotel

A friend has a birthday and has decided to hold it at Brooklyn Hotel for the Shanghai Nights event. . I don’t want to go, as last time was mediocre for me, but I must keep up appearances, plus it will give this place another chance for a review, so here we go!

Shanghai Nights @ Brooklyn Hotel
Assessment Time: 09:30pm-1:00am (Including lining up from 09:30pm – 10:15pm)
Opening Hours: Club night opens its doors 10:15 and closes at approx 4:00am. Brooklyn Hotel is open from 10am – 4am.
Address: Corner George and Grovenor Streets
Dress Code / Door Policy: Standard dress code applies. Jeans ok, normal shoes ok. Runners is risky, but you may or may not get in.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Free before 10:30 if you are on the guestlist. $25 otherwise. $20 if on the guestlist before midnight.
Guestlist: Submit guestlists to http://www.urbanagent.com.au/guestlist.html – Do mention if it is your birthday and they may be able reserve some seating etc.
Inside:  A main bar dance area to hold 100 or so people with DJ elevated a metre or so above the floor. 2 square podiums on the side to hold 2 or 3 people each. Central circular bar. Second bar at the back to primarily serve the back outdoor courtyard. The DJ here is also on an elevated platform about half a metre up. The courtyard holds 2 or 300 people. There is also a smaller room to hold metal tables and chairs for the birthdays.
Cloak Room: $4 per item I think. I didn’t utilize it tonight. I left my bag on the dancefloor and came back half an hour later to find it missing. Where was it!? I handed in a lost property form, and I only just picked it up the Monday after from the Brooklyn Hotel – someone luckily handed it in.
Bar: Advertised as $3.50 per shot based drink before midnight (scotch, bourbon, vodka, gin, rum).
Music: Modern RnB in the main room, with house mashups. Outside was pretty much commercial house all night, but at a lower volume so people could chat. It wasn’t as quiet as last time, thank goodness, but it wasn’t loud enough to warrant the house music fans to dance vigorously.
Crowd: Dominantly Asian
Entertainment: Podium dancers. I can’t remember if there was an MC tonight, but I don’t think so – correct me otherwise. Also the ‘Luxy girls’ (Apparently 4 girls from Taiwan who are great with pole dancing) appeared for a photo shoot as promotion for their club appearances for the upcoming Easter Long weekend. They didn’t perform tonight though.
Food: BBQ out back, with sausages, kebab sticks and Vietnamese ‘nem’ sticks for $5 each. It’s a monopoly here. The kebab sticks are burnt – It was his “first night” cooking, the promoter/chef explains to us. At least have a girl do it.
Atmosphere: Pretty busy inside. Outside was relaxed, and again a smokers paradise. It really wasn’t happening outside. All the action was inside the main room.

Continue reading »

Tagged with:
 

A  friend asked why we were going to a birthday at Docks Hotel, as both our names were submitted. I asked to get a copy of the list. and there it was, a list MY FRIENDS names submitted for a guest list under a name called BEN L. It was the exact same list I used for submitting my own guestlists – even my name was on the list!

To BEN L,

WHOEVER YOU ARE, BACK OFF.  YOU ARE USING MY FRIENDS NAMES AS A GUESTLIST – GET YOUR OWN FRIENDS!!

AND WHOEVER PASSED MY LIST TO BEN – YOU’RE A FUCKTARD OF A PROMOTER. HEARD OF PROFESSIONALISM? (DON’T EVEN TRY TO POINT OUT IRONY IN THIS POST, I’M NOT THE ONE MAKING MONEY)

That is all you loser. I would draw a spider with seven legs as well, but fuck that.

Best wishes,
James

Tagged with:
 

Preface:
My friend C has asked me to join her at Arthouse. Sure thing, so here we go!

Preface: Chinese Whispers @ Arthouse
The longest guestlist line on planet earth

The guestlist line outside arthouse. ha.

The guestlist line outside arthouse. ha.

Video:

YouTube Preview Image

We had been in the guestlist line for about 30 minutes at the time I took this video. Meanwhile, the normal line ($5 extra) was a measly 20 people deep.After 10 more minutes of waiting, me and the guys left. C stayed in line to get in 30 minutes later, for a total of 1 hour waiting. She said she had an awesome time there, and that it was pretty packed. Of course it was packed, look how many asians there were in line!

Coda: Ditching the line for another club
So where did we go? We went onto Bligh Bar… I honestly wasn’t keen to come to Bligh Bar, but it was a friend of a friend who was organising it. When I met the friend of a friend, I recognized him! He was the same promoter for the Fridays @ Bar Europa (I think I gave it an ok review….) Here we go!

Klassic Nights @ Bligh Bar
Assessment Time: 12:30am – 1:30am
Address:  2a Bligh St, Sydney
Website: http://www.klassicnights.com
Dress Code: Casual ok. I wore a fedora hat, jeans, collared shirt, dress shoes.
Entry Fee/ Cover Charge: I think we paid $15
Inside: One main room, sectioned off by a hinese pretzel looking wall. Bar occupies an entire corner of floorspace. Tables and chairs everywhere else.
Crowd: Asian, young to mid 20s.
Music: Modern RNB

Atmosphere: Felt a little empty, could have been better. Actually it was shithouse. Think of Pavillion Hotel on a bad night. People sitting around the floor. At peak time, all 20 or so of us were dancing on the small floor.  There wasn’t much promotion that I noticed for this event, but the dance floor was small enough to have a vibe going. The last time I was here, urban agent held a Friday Night here back in December 2008 – they did a pretty ok job (I didn’t write an entry for it but I was dressed in a Santa Suit, feeding people chocolate). Tonight was worse. However we had paid our entry, and so we just danced it off. The only benefit of a dead club though, was that there was no waiting at the bar – Hooray!

Walk-in video:

YouTube Preview Image

Continue reading »

Sunday night – our last night in the Gold Coast. Sin City is apparently the place to be. It also happens to be the ‘sister’ nightclub of “The Bedroom” Nightclub, which we visited the night before, and enjoyed.

A guestlist was submitted, and again as previous night, we had a truckload of drinks before we left, so here we go!

Sin City Nightclub
Assessment Time: 11:30pm – 1:45am
Website: http://www.sincitynightclub.com.au
Address: 22 Orchid Ave, Surfers Paradise QLD
Dress Code: Casual OK.
Cover Charge / Entry Fee: I’m not sure. $10 I believe. Free on guestlist. Free entry before 11pm if you obtained a voucher. Vouchers are obtained from a stand outside the club., making the whole process irrelevant.
Guestlist: A friend submitted the guestlist through the website. Guestlist also includes 3 free drink vouchers.
Inside: Walk in and you are faced with a seated area. To the right is the dancefloor that could hold about 100 people or less. Two podiums on either end. Elevated standing areas along one walls, and a DJ booth along the other wall. At the back is the bar, with lounges on either side. 2 or 3 VIP areas are in the very back corner.
Music: Commercial House
Bar: $50 Fishbowl Long Island Teas. Awesome. Waitresses in skimpy outfits. Double awesome. Photos below.
Crowd: Locals and tourists. Mixed nationalities tonight of Aussies, Euros, Asians and Indians. For some reason there were quite a few guys in here, I would say a 70/30 ratio of guys to girls in here.
Atmosphere: For a Sunday night, it was quite good. By midnight the bar and dancefloor were pretty packed. You could easily confuse it for a Saturday night out. People were pretty friendly too.

Walkthrough Video of Sin City Nightclub (Sunday):
YouTube Preview Image

Continue reading »

Tagged with:
 
The email thread
Electric Love Promotional Poster 1st May 2009

Electric Love Promotional Poster 1st May 2009

>> James Tran to Electriclove

hello
I would like to rsvp for this fridays electric love event with the following names as well:
<my list of names>

thank you. can i also ask what dress code is?

Kind Regards,
James

>> Electric to me

Hey James,

Dress code is smart,

Trademark have a reputation for being tight on the door, collared shirt/dress shoe’s etc,

You/your friends have been placed on the General RSVP list for free entry before 11pm,
Hope to see you there

>> James to Electric
thank you for the info. just confirming its 11pm not 12am as stated in the promo poster? what is the price thereafter?
James

>> Electric to me

Hi James,

Apologies – it is free before midnight and $12 thereafter. Please be sure to advise your guests to mention your name at the door as it will be marked as part of the competition.

Thanks and good luck man

>> James to Electric

Hello

I used the information below to dress exceptionally well as well as with my friends, but on arrival (around 11.20pm)  could not get in.

I was first asked if I had a guestlist. I did confirm my name, but my name was not found. No guestlist under my name was there either. After this first hurdle, was then told that there was a private event on and that we weren’t allowed in – this begs the question – why did she not say this in the first place? Less than a few minutes later we observed a group of other men enter the club, without the girl questioning them. however i don’t know if they had previously entered the club with a stamp or what not. In any case I wasn’t happy

In any case, please fix up the guestlisting system, as we wasted our night.

Thank you.

>>>

no reply.

Continue reading »