A friend’s birthday and the criteria were: Good contemporary music, somewhat classy and non-Asian. I’ve thrown out the suggestion for the new location for the RnB Superclub event, with the risk that I had no feedback from anyone who had previously been here. Well, tonight is the night so, here we go!
I had to take a photo with a podium dancer
RnB Superclub (Sydney) @ Arthouse Hotel
Assessment Time: 11:15PM – 2:45AM
Opening Hours: Unknown – 3:00AM
Lockout: Unknown, but definitely after 2:30 is a lockout
Address: 275 Pitt St, Sydney (At TGV, Town Hall)
Venue Website: http://www.thearthousehotel.com.au
Promoter Website: http://www.rnbsuperclub.com / Facebook Page
Occurrence: Every Friday at the Arthouse Hotel since July 2011. Previously it ran at Tank Nightclub for a few years before the venue closed as a nightclub.
Outside Line: Actually arrived at 11PM but we loitered around the area to wait for other friends – during this time, the line was initially empty and eventually progressed to about 20 people deep when we joined the queue at 11:15PM
Dress Code / Door Policy: Code is smart casual and mostly people wore this. Guys had collared shirts as well as short-sleeve collared t-shirts. Girls could wear anything but most, if not all, opted to wear dresses
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $20 for 2 before 11.30pm provided that you printed out the voucher obtained from the website. $20 was the normal entry fee charge. This is quite a generous offer especially if you use the voucher.
Guestlist: Contact details unknown, but they are available from the website.
Main Room - 1:30AM
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We had just left a dress up party, and simply put this was the closest place nearby for a dance… a guestlist was sent a day earlier – here we go!
1AM - Taken from the DJ Podium
WOW @ Martin Place Bar , Sydney
Assessment Time: 12:10AM – 4:00AM
Opening Hours: Unknown (Probably 10:00PM) –
Lockout: Unknown
Address: 51 Martin Place
Venue Website: http://www.martinplacebar.com.au
Promoter Website: http://www.urbanagent.com.au http://www.facebook.com/WOWSaturdays http://www.ohsnap.com.au
Occurrence: Every Saturday since Winter 2011. This replaced the previous “Bamboo” event running for the 6 years prior. It’s run under the same promoters though. At time of writing it appears the “Bamboo” event will make a return under a new venue.
Outside Line: It was quite the long line our late arrival after midnight. We ended up waiting about 25 minutes before we got inside the club. This is typical for a busy event. I would try to get here before 10:30 if you want to have shorter lines – but in return you’re going to get a dead club upon entry.
Dress Code / Door Policy: “Strict” no hat policy was advertised, but it was weakly enforced. I had my hectic punk hair on. Someone else was dressed as a Chef, complete with a Chef’s hat. Most guys and girls were dressed at minimum smart casual and dressy/chic/sexy.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $25 full entry was paid. Discounted entry before 12:30AM if you sent in a guestlist prior.
Guestlist: wow@ohsnap.com.au I sent a guestlist the day before but there was no confirmation – however it did turn up on the list while people before me entered. Sadly enough when I got to the cashier it was too late.
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2AM. Phone rings from a girl – It can only mean.. Booty call!! “No” is the answer. Aww.
Even better though – it’s an invitation to go clubbing! Hooray!
At 2AM??
Haha, well I was already in the city, so might as well drop on by – here we go!
Upstairs 2AM general dancefloor shot
Volar @ Civic Hotel:
Assessment Time: 2:00AM – 2:45AM
Crowd: Asian – mixed Internationals and Local Asians. Mostly guys at this time.
Music: RnB
Atmosphere: Packed inside on the dancefloor. there were enough sofas around to sit down on, but nobody here was in a dancing mood.
Bar: The bar appeared to still be busy, but only with a row of people at the front instead of 4 or 5 rows deep.
Entry Fee: Full $25 forked out for this quick visit.
Video:
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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
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Friends are at Pontoon Bar tonight, so this should be a good chance to see how it has progressed since opening night. Here we go!
12:40AM Upper Level Bar Line
Perfect @ Pontoon Bar (Ground Level and Upper Level: Wallaby Bar)
Assessment Time: 12:05AM – 2:45AM
Opening Hours: The bars are open throughout the day, but the event opens 9:30PM. Tonight it closes at 4:00AM
Lockout: Around 2:30AM, but definitely no re-entry after 3:00AM
Address: Cockle Bay Wharf (201 Sussex St from the other side)
Venue Website: http://www.pontoonbar.com
Promoter Website: http://www.facebook.com/perfectnights or http://www.theperfectnight.com.au
Occurrence: Every Friday since April 2011. Note that this is the event that succeeded Flow Fridays @ World Square Pub, after it closed.
Outside Line: Arriving just after midnight, there was a huge massive line outside the downstairs entrance. A good 70+ people waiting, which is ridiculous. So I went to the second, lesser known entrance upstairs. There was a pretty long line here too, but only about 30 people or so. It took 30 minutes to get in. This was including some folk who joined the line and got sick of waiting, and left. This was also the first week off for pretty much every tertiary school student in Sydney, so people were out clubbing in their droves.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Hats allowed. Most guys are casual in jackets jeans, pants due to the winter. It is encouraged by promoters to go ‘dressy’, but I did spot a friend dressed in sweatpants and a jumper, so there you go. Again due to winter, many girls have leggings on but most brave the cold and wear their clubbing dresses on. I actually paid attention to the dresses tonight and there were a number of questionable leopard print designs tonight. Tonight I wore a blazer, jeans, collared shirt, white sneakers and my ‘bad hair day’ cap.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $25 full charge. $20 on guestlist before 11:30PM , $15 if it is a birthday guestlist.
Guestlist: Ends at 11:30PM. Email info@theperfectnight.com.au
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Plans for an impromptu house party fell through, as my friends think calling them at 11:30PM is too short a notice to hold a midnight party – so I went clubbing instead. Got in the car and headed out west along with Marty to Nox – Had no idea what was on tonight but I hoped it would be open. Here we go!
Crowd shot at the front (1:00AM)
Tequila Fridays @ Nox Nightclub, Liverpool, Sydney
Assessment Time: 12:15AM – 02:30AM
Opening Hours: 09:00PM- 03:00AM
Lockout: 2:00AM or around there.
Address: 279 Macquarie St, Liverpool, Sydney
Venue Website: None could be found at time of writing
Promoter Website: http://www.facebook.com/TequilaFridays
Occurrence: Every Friday. Unknown when it started, but it was mentioned that it was a new event. ‘New’ meaning probably the past 2 or 3 months IMO.
Outside Line: None.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Hats are okay. Guys are pretty casual and so are some of the girls. It’s a smart casual affair one could say here. It was quite a chilly night so not many girls showed their bare legs tonight.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $15 after 11PM. Before 11PM, it is $10. Good value.
Guestlist: Check the Promoter website link for the current email address to send guestlists to.
Inside: Walk to enter the back of the club. It’s a large room with a large bar in the middle taking up about a quarter of the floor space. On the opposite side is the higher stage where DJ and MC hang out. It’s quite a large podium and I suppose it could hold a band here for small concerts. Space between the bar and stage for people to dance around is about 5 metres. On either side of the bar there are lounges along the walls and more space for room for people to dance around. Smoking area is back outside next to the entrance by the street.
Cloak Room: None
Bar Prices / Line: Didn’t drink tonight, but the lines were pretty short. A wait of no longer than 5 minutes.
Eviction Count: Crowd seemed pretty friendly. Some drunk guys were a bit rowdy with the dance but there were keeping it to themselves.
DJs: DJ Don Juan for pretty much most of the time I was here
Music Style: Contemporary Latin American influenced music and commercial RnB. Some foreign language songs from latin America were played too throughout the night. I had no idea what was going on, but the crowd knew the words and sang along. RnB songs I could dance to, but the slower pace of the latin songs later in the night made it a bit more harder to do anything crazy in terms of dancing. Coco the dancer also lends a hand to the bongos that are setup at the front of the stage to add effect.
Crowd & Ratio: It was a mixed crowd – A handful of Africans, Asians, but mostly the crowd tonight is Caucasian/ European and people with Latin American heritage – Ages range from young to people in their 30s. A fair ratio, but most of the hotter chicks were up on stage dancing away.
Entertainment: MC and Coco to keep things lively throughout the proceedings MC does his thing, while Coco dances and reels the girls up onto stage. It is mentioned now that free pizza is given at 9:30PM from the local pizza shop if you rock up early. Stage was open to any girls who wanted to dance. There was also some dancing competitions for prizes.
Atmosphere: In terms of capacity the club was at half. However this doesn’t really matter too much as there are enough people around – most are at the front surrounding the stage. The very nature of latin music gives a friendly vibe anyway and people are dancing and seemingly having fun.. on the dancefloor anyway. It is pretty dark otherwise in the back areas. Comparing to a typical RnB club, it is less sleazy for sure.
Video: Walkthrough and music sample
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jltCnS4P9LM[</youtube]
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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
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