Leadup: Shelly called and asked what I was doing tonight. Nothing. I had this bad feeling she was going to ask me to go to Space or Skygardens. ‘Wanna come to Famous? I got a guestlist for my friends birthday!’… Wow! A change of venue. I’ve always wanted to go. It was a definite yes.

About Famous
What: Originally from Melbourne, this weekly event has only recently made its Sydney debut a few months ago.

Music: House, but played by good DJ’s. I don’t know anything about the DJ scene as I just go for the experience. There are three flavours of house tonight. There’s the current trend of electro house in the main room. Then in the other two rooms there is a slow ambient kind of house.. almost SHE-like, and another more experimental garage house to best explain it.

Cover Charge – $25. $20 on guestlist. Free if you’re the birthday boy or girl and organized a guestlist.

Crowd: Aussie / Euro

Entertainment Two podium dancers shook their stuff at the front. They were very very good dancers.

About Home Bar:
Location: Situated in Darling Harbour and the start of a long line of bars and clubs along the Eastern side of Darling Harbour which ends at ing St Wharf. Next to IMAX.

The place: Entry is via their side door. It is not accessible via the front bar entrance. When you enter, there is a little foyer with two openings. On the right opening is entry to the main room. The other is a set of stairs that lead upstairs.

The main room is quite large both in terms of dimensions and height. You enter from the back where the bar resides. The DJ is at the front. The huge Shiny ‘F’ logo hangs as a modern day chandelier. Overlooking the main room on 3 sides is a balcony setup where people are peering down Upstairs is another bar and the balcony peering over downstairs. There are lounges in one of the internal balconies. On the left near the stairs there is another hallway which snakes you to another room. No music is playing here. However there is a zillion lounges and an outdoor balcony to smoke. This room is probably for people to actually have a chance to talk to each other without yelling.

Back outside the snakey hallway, there are yet another set of stairs cleverly hid behind the bar. Walk up the first set of stairs and a tiny room resides where slow house plays. It’s not crowded and it’s quite dark so it’s a good place to start practicing clubbing. Walk up he second set of stairs and you are on the top level. There is a bar, and another small room, where the more raw/fast house is being played. I can’t remember. It’s well lit and it’s full of men who aren’t dancing.

Timeline
The line: anything held at home bar has a long lines. It was no different tonight. When I got there, a line from the place was stretched to kingdom come. I hoped Shelly had lined up earlier so I could score a lazy entry. “JAMES!!” I hear. It’s Shelly. She’s right at the front about to go in! Thank heavens, she is good for something after all. I cut right in, surely upsetting the massive line behind me who were waiting fair and square. I say hello to the birthday girl and make fluff chat with her friends. Line control man is ushering us in “Hurry up hurry up – keep moving !! Welcome to Famous !”. No security check, just ID. UV light stamp on entry. I was in within 5 minutes, but surely the wait in line would be much longer if I started at the end.

It’s your birthday – dance ! I had no time at all to get acquainted with the birthday girl and co, so I was basically cut out of their dancing circle. Well, I didn’t even bother trying to be part of it. I think I was still a little tired from the night before. I don’t know. The main room was very packed, and there was absolutely no room at the front to do any dancing. I got bored

quickly, thinking I should at least try to be social and join that circle. I got back and saw Shelly in the circle. I inserted myself in next to her. Pedro, her on/off boyfriend was there dancing with her.

So I had to fake some moves up alone. A guy dressed like Saddam Hussein was next to me on my right. In front, there were 4 or 5 of the girls including birthday girl. They were not dancing at all. Well they were swaying to the music. They needed a guy to sweep them off their feet. There were some drunk guys around them. I didn't know if the guys were random or were with them. Shelly, Pedro and I soon left the circle. Shelly told me she only knew the birthday girl.

Cruising with Saddam: I did get a chance to say hello to Saddam and his friend, let's call him Barry, since I don't know his name. Saddam was going around with a camera, asking people if he wanted to "take a photo with Saddam!!". It was great, though he was only asking guys. Girls would've loved it. He was wearing the army suit, beret and even
the fake Saddam moustache. So me, saddam and barry go into the room of pure lounge. We take a seat in front of two guys.

Saddam: Hey!
Guys: <silence and a stare>
Saddam: You want a photo with Saddam!?
Guys: <more silence and glarier stares>

These silent guys looked like they were going to jump across the table and strangle us.

Saddam: Hey... hi five guys!
Guys: <slowly shaking head no>. <More ice cold looks at Saddam>

I can't stop laughing. These guys were so unfriendly it was making me laugh at the while ridiculousness of it. They definitely didn't expect an arab dictator and his 2 asian sidekicks hassling them for hi fives or a 'borat'-esque conversation. They soon murmured to each other and left the couch, in acknowledgement that we weren't going to leave our seat anytime soon.

Lazy man pickup

Got to the bar. Two fake tanned girls, Suzanne (Sue) and Alisha (Ali G), almost push in. I gave them a dirty "dont freaking push in" glare. They apologized. Somehow we talked, and they asked for my number after a funny 5 minute convo. They must've been drunk. Got some photos the week after. Here's a group one:

Katie's 18th - Also a non dancer.
Tonight was her 18th birthday celebratory night. She came with Julie and anna. By this time, Shelly and her birthday friend had ditched me without letting me know. Katie had designated drivers syndrome and refused to drink. What kind of 18th is one that you remember? She had just came from pumphouse down the road next so the chinese gardens. I told her it was shit. She totally agreed. (You won't see a review here for pumphouse unless I was forced to go at knifepoint.. It's that bad in my opinion) anyway there's no real story here, except that it was Julie's first time at a club as well. I totally got her in the dancing mood. Katie claimed that she wasn't drunk enough yet to do it. anna refused to let me hug her goodbye. She was very adamant about that. Must've had bad experiences with clowns.

Coda
Got to about 3.30am. The girls were tired. Famous was still packed on the main floor. They had closed the other two rooms by this time, or they were dead I think.

It's a good place to go for house. The $25 is such a pain in the ass though. The main floor was constantly packed, giving one little room to dance. Made the atmosphere good though.

I would recommend to attend to Famous if you're a house fan.