Someone guilt tripped me to come out at the very last moment tonight. Honest. It was already 11PM at home. Why would I crawl out of my warm home, out into the rain and hit a club on the otherside of the harbour 1 hour away? Well, I still don’t know why.

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.

Continue reading »

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

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: 
YouTube Preview Image

crowd upstairs

crowd upstairs

Continue reading »

Tagged with:
 

A friend is hosting a party here, so after my black tie event, I dropped down to Cargo and brought some friends.. here we go!

Saturdays @ Cargo Bar
Assessment Time: 02:00AM – 04:00AM
Opening Hours: Open during the day – 04:00AM
Lockout: Unknown. Probably 03:00AM
Address: 52-60 The Promendade, King Street Wharf, Sydney
Venue Website: http://www.cargobar.com.au
Promoter Website: Self Promoted
Occurrence: Every Friday and Saturdays
Dress Code / Door Policy: Dress code is enforced. Too casual and you won’t be let in. At minimum collared shirt and no sneakers. You can get away with casual shoes if the rest of your outfit looks good. I was wearing a tuxedo. M was wearing one too. The girls accompanying us wore heels and dresses. All of us are Asian.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Free all night.
Guestlist: None really needed, but if you are given the ‘guestlist’ reason for not entering, then you have sadly failed to pass the entry criteria.
Inside: Walk in the rear of the bar. The area is half dancefloor at this time, and half outdoor seating area of tables and chairs. There are some tables inside, but only standing room. Some lounges in the middle along the walls, and a bar to span the entire length on the far side of the entrance. DJ booth right up at the front with accompanying percussion drummers. Upstairs is usually reserved for a private function and not open to the general public.
Cloak Room: None.
Bar Prices / Line: Didn’t drink tonight.
DJs: Resident DJs, with percussions. Percussions being bongo drums most of the time.
Music Style: Mostly house music with occasional pop and rnb mashup. The percussionist adds a bit of that live feeling to the music, even though there is no live singer. It definitely makes for danceable music for the general music listener.
Crowd: Primarily a white crowd. Ages vary between early 20’s and late 30’s here. A mix of backpackers and locals. There are a minority represented by Asians and Europeans.
Entertainment: No extra entertainment besides percussionist.
Atmosphere: At the time we entered at 2AM things were going pretty well here in the dancefloor. Outside, it was still busy. Around 3AM the outside area was getting pretty dead, but inside was still kicking dance-wise. From then on it gradually went less and less busy. The darkness of the whole place kept the mood going. Some areas of the floor were a bit sticky from spilled alcohol though.

Continue reading »

Tagged with:
 

It’s my unofficial birthday out, and this time I get to choose the club!

Homemade Saturdays @ HOME Sydney
Website:
http://www.homemadesaturdays.com/
Cover Charge / Entry Fee: Free entry before 9.30pm for all on guest list and $10 after till 10.30pm and after that $15 till 11pm, VIP CLOSES 11pm and then general admission applies which is $25
Guestlist: Submitted through guestlistsydney.com, but you can also send to party@promotersinc.com or party@homesydney.com
Music: Main arena consists of House, Dance, Electro, Rnb mashups/remixes. This was enough to keep everybody around happy. Highlight of the night was “Im on a boat” near closing time. The smaller room is the specialized RNB room tonight. I wasn’t in here too long, as my friends hung out in the main arena most of the time.
Dress Code: Casual allowed. Dress up allowed. My hat was allowed.

Crowd: Mixed. Locals, backpackers, and different nationalities everywhere.
Atmosphere
: Main Arena big party mood. Rnb room, was the same, but because of the smaller size it was more isolated for each group of people there. It was pretty packed in here. It was pretty good.
Entertainment: MC to keep things running in main arena. Random people (ie pretty girls) picked to get up and dance.
Cloak Room: Yes

Timeline
It’s my birthday! and someone else’s too!
Everybody I saw, I would absolutely announce to them that “It’s my birthday!”. Either people said “happy birthday!” back or they wouldn’t believe me, and they would stand there ignoring the drunk old James.  Then suddenly some guy replied back and said it was his birthdate as well. We compared licenses and OMG we had the same birthday!!. It was his 21st birthday. Pretty cool to meet someone else with the same birthday!

Continue reading »

Tagged with: