CLUB CRAWL!

Background: Woolie organised a night out with me, an, hanh and Steven. The purpose was to go clubbing somewhere else besides her usual spot: bamboo @ martin place bar.

ZODIAC HOTEL:

I got an sms the day before to attend zodiac hotel (fomerly diamond hotel) for free, so i booked. Sms claimed rnb, house was to be played. Since cheryl liked her rnb and I my house, I booked a guestlist

About Zodiac Hotel on saturday nights: Located on Pitt St opposite Arthouse hotel. 20 dollar cover charge unless you enter via guestlist before 10:30. On entering, you are faced with quite a sizeable dance floor taking half the space. This is the house area. A quarter of the floor was a walled area for rnb and separate bar. The last quarter was a carpeted area occupied by lounges.

Timeline:

10:20 got in no troubles. No line either. There was already quite the line for kink@arthouse on the opposite side of the road.

pioneers: There was a 30th birthday party going on in the small room, rnb being played. We couldn’t get in there until midnight. Looking at the house floor, we were the first ones there and it looked desolate. Great.

False advertising space: Posters around the walls advertised $3 shots from 10 to midnight, wow! I ordered 5 cowboys (heath ledgers I like to call them) and took out my 20…. “..that will be 40 dollars”. What the hell!?!? 8 dollars each. Fuck. The offer must be for non mixed shots.

The music playing is house and is really good, but the lack of crowd worries me. We speak to one of the people to see if it is ok to enter the rnb room. He says they don’t play rnb. We look at the poster which does not mention rnb to be played that night. So much for that sms.

Wuz goes to the other bar and orders 5 tequila shots. 15 dollars you expect. But no, another $40 slap. This is madness! We took our shots and we left.

Lasted about 40 minutes at zodiac, and never got to find out if it picked up an audience later that night.

Summary: Good house electro beats, but a lack of crowd makes it a lonely lonely place. False advertising for drinks and sms promotions made it also a bitter place.

THE SPANISH CLUB

Background: free entry, last time they played rnb, so why not

About the Spanish club: located off George st near 3 wise monkeys, the name says it all. it’s a restaurant that plays music late at night where the tables are cleared off the floor. Salsa music plays at this time of night. Older type of crowd.

Timeline: we came, we saw, we heard, then we left.

PAVILLION HOTEL

Being just at the pav the night before (see previous post) I wasn’t expecting much of a crowd.

11.20 : Free entry as usual, we were surprised to see the dancefloor packed full of people dancing!

Rnb was being played, and cheryl liked it. I liked it. Wuz didn’t like it. Didn’t understand why though, as the dj was belting out some great rnb tunes. We left around midnight to the very place we did not want to go to…

BAMBOO – Martin Place Bar

About: martin place bar by day, tables and stools are cleared to form a narrow stretch of wooden dance floor. This makes the nights always crowded and probably more fun. There is also an outdoor area for smokers and their regular Saturday bbq. Standard entry is $20 unless you guestlist and enter before 10:30. Crowd is predominantly asian. Music is purely rnb.

Timeline:

midnight: arrival. The girls have free entry, as they know one of the organisers. They suck up and score us boys a free entry VIP pass in. sweet.

The door bitch: everyone enters before me without a hitch. I flash my free entry pass and I’m promptly told “15 dollars please!”. Hey, this is not a discount pass.. its a free entry vip one! What a jib. I pay and go in.

12.30 onwards:

We dance, we prance. I’m wearing hanh’s winter jacket hood only giving me a sort of eskimo look. It gets attention and I keep it on.

Oh my god!!!

I am slithering through the crowd. 2 girls I slither by decide to pull my hood off. I look at both and scream “oh my god!!!”. They both laugh and scream back “oh m god!!”. I yell it back, and they yell omg back again. This Is the most simple yet crazy coversation ever in a while. We laugh and I comment that I’d dance with them later. I depart.

Jason defends his ground.

A brief history of jason: There is a well known dancer who frequents the asian rnb scene named jason. His label is “the solo korean dancer”. His signature move seems to be bending over and wiggling his butt. Every saturday that I have been to bamboo, he is there. It’s his home of calling. If you have bee, you know who i’m talking about. He is also a podium hog, but loves to entertain with his moves. I tried to shake his hand once and tell him how good of a dancer he was, but he totally ignored me.

Back to the jason story: jason is dancing and two guys join him on the podium and push him off. Jason is pissed. He can’t believe someone is stealing his spot on the podium. a small fight happens but is broken up. Jason will never give his his little podium spot without a fight. So jason stands up on the podium, and for the next minute or so pulls moves out of his ass like no tomorrow. Omg a dance off? It could only be described as magical. It was a piece of raw art. He went left, right, upside down, everywhere. He finished off with his signature butt move while glaring at the wannabe podium stealer. The other guy stands and laughs, knowing he can’t beat that jason. Jason takes the podium and resumes dancing. He needs to get out of bamboo and into other places.

Omg girls part ii: the omg girls found me and they took off my eskimo outfit. We trade omg screams at each other. Then they push me into the middle of a dance circle. What the! I had to pull some moves quick, or face shame. I grab th eskimo jacket and do some cancanesque moves with it. The circle loves it. Then I grab the jacket and attempt to marry a girl borat style (remember the wedding sack?). everyone is laughing, except my victim who is feebly yelling for her life. That was fun.

Shortly after security told me to take it off. Poo.

Djs are too predictable

The dj plays some crap song. I talk to an who isn’t dancing. We discuss the song and whinge about how pavillion had better music. an predicts the dj will cut off the chorus and let the crowd sing it (the song is “I wanna dance with somebody”). Funnily enough, the dj cuts the noise at the chorus and lets the crowd sing the line. Has clubbing gone too predictable?

I the make a prediction that the dj will play sexual healing next, and what do you know?? “sexual healing” starts playing!! I’m going to be sick. This is way too predictable..

I like repetitive music

bamboo likes to switch djs. The djs like to not tell each other what songs they play. Result: doubling, and even tripling up of songs played. this really put me off whee a song was doubled up and it happened throughout the night.

Finally we went home, and I spotted some ugly chicks from the car. They waved at me. Then I realized it was the omg chicks from earlier. I mustve been drunk

Summary: bamboo is great to pick up asians but not to dance unless you take the podium and can tolerate repetitive rnb

Pictures up at http://picasaweb.google.com.au/jamestran84/070602ClubCrawl