When walking down Park Road near York/Kent St, you’re gonna hear some club music. Where is it coming from? Look up, and you can see flashing lights! Dropped on by to quickly have a look
More men and creepy looking Asian guy in the back.
Dropping by: Saturday Nights @ Sweenys Hotel, Sydney
Assessment Time: 11:40PM- 12:00AM
Venue Website: www.hotelsweeneys.com.au
Promoter Website: Self promoted
Occurrence: Every weekend
Outside Line: No line
Dress Code / Door Policy: Very casual here
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Free all night
Guestlist: None
Inside: It’s like a small courtyard with a small bar to go with it. It could hold about 50-80 people.
Cloak Room: None
Bar Prices / Line: Didn’t drink here tonight.
Music Style: House and some trance. It was good to shuffle to, bass thumping, but the tunes themselves were unfamiliar.
Crowd: Mostly locals as well as backpackers. Mixed ages from 20′s to 30′s
Ratio: Approximately 80% guys.
Atmosphere: The whole are was pretty busy so it was an okay atmosphere but everyone was smoking, and it got a little hot just even mildly dancing around. The actual dancing area in front of the DJ, not many were actually dancing, so it was difficult to pick the crowd up. The two of us danced away and got a lof of guy attention, and some of them end up dancing with us. Fun times?? Also on the way up, the lower floors smell quite dirty.
Video:
Arrivederci
After we had enough sausages, we left.
Final Thoughts & Recommendation
I wouldn’t come here solely to dance. This seems to be more of an added service to patrons who already come here for a dance, rather than to separately attract outside people here.
Despite it looking quite normal and possibly drab during the day, it has been reported that there are lines of people who wait to come inside here, with cover charge. For the first time in ages, I have nothing on Thursday, which means I can finally visit this place out. So here we go!
Dancing with some of the other shuffling locals upstairs
Continue reading »
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.
Exams are done and I’m in dance withdrawal. I want to go out for 24 hours straight – starting with a new event tonight (ending with Stereosonic + a nightclub tomorrow), so let’s check it out!
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??
Sunday night. I can’t sleep - I could read a book… or… I CAN GO OUT!! It wasn’t an easy decision to make, believe me. Anyway it wasn’t a long weekend, so I narrowed my choices to either Roxy’s at Parramatta or somewhere in the cross. The cross was easier – so I woke up an unlucky friend out of bed off we went – arriving at the cross Hugo’s seemed to be the only place open tonight, so here we go!
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
Another birthday, and the birthday girl has been convinced by a promoter into going to Soho. My honest opinion was to not go here (she was an rnb lover), but I didn’t press the issue – didn’t want a bad venue choice be blamed on me – so lets go!
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: 
crowd upstairs
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 Continue reading »
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
Thought you might like this irrelevant photo (Back Room)
I’ve heard bits and pieces about the redesigned place, and the opportunity came to visit it tonight – time to check it out!
Saturdays @ FakeClub (Empire Hotel Level 2), Kings Cross : formerly “Plantation Bar “
Review Note: This is the extended, personalised, version of the short review written for the Best Clubs In website, found at http://www.thebestclubsin.com/sydney/fake-club .
Assessment Time:11:40PM – 1:35AM
Opening Hours: 09:00PM – 06:00/07:00AM
Lockout: I don’t think there was any form of lockout, partly due to the extended opening times.
Address: Roslyn St. It’s on level 2 of Empire Hotel. This is the same venue/event formerly known as The Temple, formerly known as Plantation (Bar).
Venue Website: http://www.fakeclub.com.au
Promoter Website: Self promoted.
Occurrence: Every Saturday. The event is also open on Fridays, Sundays as well for other events with different music styles.
Outside Line: There was nobody in line as we entered. There was, though, a small crowd outside having a smoke, so at least you knew the place was at least populated.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Pretty much you could wear as you please, excluding thongs. The relaxed dress code today might have been influenced a big chunk of the patrons coming from Creamfields festival earlier in the day, with whatever they were wearing – they are easily spotted with their singlets and shorts. . The rest of the crowd wore casual or smart casually dressed. The door policy was pretty relaxed – we were not scanned by security for any dangerous items.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $20 was entry. $15 entry if you wore a Creamfields wristband. Discount/Free before 10PM, which isn’t much leeway.
Guestlist: Guestlist ended at 10PM.
Inside: After walking up the (what appeared to be) fire exit stairs, you will be presented with a room which resembles a large garage or a small warehouse. High ceiling dotted with stability columns around the edges. To the left is the dance floor area to hold probably 100-150 people, with DJ on the West wall. Large LED screen intallation spans the DJ booth and rises up 3 metres or so close to the ceiling. To the South side are a handful of medium sized reserved lounge areas to hold parties for 20 people or so. To the right is the main bar for length of about 10 people. The North side is just pure wall, and the bathroom. The back room, hard to find, is located just adjacent to the main bar via a closed door. Walk inside to enter a smaller room – it can only hold 20 people squishily on the floor itself. DJ on the far end, while a makeshift bar on a table is on the left. Futons and lounges dot the walls here.
Cloak Room: None Found. Noted were people leaving their stuff around the place.
Bar Prices / Line: Didn’t drink tonight but the line was pretty busy – it would be at least 15 minutes of waiting time at the bar. It’s also in thoroughfare between the two rooms so you’re awlways moving and bustling around.
Eviction Count: None that I spotted. It was pretty dark.
DJs: Resident Fake Bratpack DJ/s, Teenage Terror Squad, Bangers and Mash, Oh Glam, and more.
Music Style: Main room played different flavours of electronic house (this is not the same as electro) and dubstep, (except notably commercial flavours) during the time I was here. During times, there were a good 10-12 minutes of ‘dull’ time where the beat/rhythm of the music being played was not sustaining the crowd at all, and you could tell people were getting bored. I don’t think the DJ sensed this – or it was just a part of his plan to not have the crowd jumping around and have them relaxed instead? Who knows. The secondary room is Old School Rnb, Hip Hop and Rap, with some old boy band songs too. Think Snoop Dogg, Tupac, Eminem, Backstreet Boys – A tribute to the 90s and early 2000′s hip hop/rnb scene you would say. The mixing in the back room was non-existent here, as the DJ used a standard form of slow-stopping the track and moving on to the next one. She made up for the lack of this by picking some good tunes and even dancing up and singing with the crowd.
Crowd & Ratio: Primarily local Australians / Caucasians here. We are one of two Asian groups tonight, and there are some islander groups. Gay friendly. The ratio was 65/35 male/female from best estimates. A good proportion of the crowd here are also from the Creamfields festival event earlier. This helps keep the average age here at about…. 19. haha.. well in all fairness the crowd was pretty young anyway. There are some folk in late 20′s and I saw a bloke who was definitely in his 30′s, but the place is pretty dark so its hard to spot anyone else older. Pretty OTT amongst some of the crowd here, with crowd surfing and people dancing on the speakers here.
Entertainment: MC for the main room to keep things going.
Atmosphere:
Pretty dark atmosphere here in the main room, with the LED light wall providing the main source of photons. It’s a blur of noise, the LED lights from the DJ area as well as constant strobic lighting giving the passive person’s first time out a very overwhelming experience. The people in this room seem a bit cold.. had a girl with ADD shove me and other people aside to get to the front without apologizing or anything – shameful. Otherwise the music is the focus here tonight. Also the first thing I wanted to do was take my jacket off when I walked in, so be aware of the warmth here.
In the backroom, it is more well lit and as the room is smaller, it does have more of a cosy vibe but can be overrun with the amount of people trying to fit in here. The atmosphere is more vibrant with people singing along to the music of years gone by. Sadly though the room died at around 1:30AM, arouns the same time the DJs were switched. Unknown how the room progressed later in the night.
Video: Main Room and Back Room: Walkthrough and Music Sample Timeline