NB: The Bank Nightclub was forced to close in 2013 after a successful 3 year run. This review remains on the site for archive purposes.

The Bank Nightclub

Absolutely sick of RnB clubs and lack of diverse offerings on Friday lately, so I decided to go to Kings Cross – Specifically at a place called The Bank, where I read it was refurbished recently. I needed some house music, and M comes along. What do you know as we walk in – It’s RnB! ahahah far our brussel sprouts. It looks really nice though and I don’t see many asians at all, so we go in anyway – here we go!

Addiction (Final Night) @ The Bank Nightclub, Kings Cross, Sydney
Assessment Time: 11:00PM – 01:30AM, 02:00AM – 03:45AM
Opening Hours: 10:00PM – 04:00AM (closing time uncertain)
Lockout: None
Website: http://www.thebanknightclub.com.au , http://www.meentertainment.com.au
Address:42 Darlinghurst Road, Kings Cross Sydney
Dress Code / Door Policy: Casual ok. Hats are ok. It’s mostly urban here with the guys, and the women are all dressed up.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $20. Free before 10pm and discount after, if on the guestlist.
Guestlist: info@meentertainment.com.au
Inside: The venue itself is definitely suave with the feel of elegance. Dark polished wood everywhere, carpeted lounge areas. Ground level holds the narrow but long dancefloor for 150 or so people. Upstairs overhangs a balcony / 2nd tier lounge dance area but it is closed off for tonight. Bar is on the right with a shelf of alcohol which adorns side wall. So many bottles of Jagermeister 🙂
Cloak Room:None offered
Bar: $5 for most drinks before 11pm. Standard prices thereafter.
DJs: I don’t know but at one point they had DJ’s at the same time, albiet alternatively spinning and mixing into each other’s songs instead of playing at the same time.
Music: Hip Hop and RNB, mostly on the Hip hop side of things. Usually at the RnB club , you would hear Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre west coast rap at 2am – tonight it was being blazed out at 11pm. It may not be for everyone. I do like my hip hop, but there were some songs that I didnt know either. There were multiple moments where M and I considered leaving the club due to a questionable or unknown song being played by the DJ, but since we already paid $20 to get in, we stayed another song. Also throughout the night a random house song would be played out as well. It was a mind fuck, and not in a good way. Also near closing time, the DJ was guilty of playing songs a second time, even thought it was a different DJ. – totally wrong
Crowd:Initially an even mix of aussies, wogs / euros, and black / african people. There are also a handful of asians. Ages were probably 20’s or older. There did not seem to be any policy or any pretension in this place. Later on in the night approaching 2-3am, the crowd becomes a ratio of 50% black african and 50% everyone else. Some of the girls left were hot so it kept us staying. Shameless.
Entertainment:MC to keep the vibe going throughout the night. No other entertainment. At one point in the night, 2 DJ’s were playing , switching songs with each other, which was something I hadn’t seen before at a club.
Atmosphere:Initially at entering at 11pm, it’s pretty good and everyone is dancing, which is bloody surprising. Hopes are up, however it doesn’t really get any busier, and stays at the busy state throughout the night, which is still good. In terms of friendliness, it was dark enough to dance on your own, but since it was such a small dancefloor cross-area, you are always under the eyes of someone as you dance.
Video Walkthrough of The Bank Nightclub

Timeline:

Dancing
Well you know it’s quite busy here. Enough so to not have enough space to freely dance, but not packed enough to be sardines – M and I are isolated to the sidelines where we can jump around and do all kinds of immature things. People in our area look at us bemused and in wonder. Nobody dares to challenge either of us in a dance off. This place was too classy for that.

Random pash in hallway
Random girl kisses me in the hallway after I take a photo of her. I liked it.

girls from campbelltown – i dont even bother.
I stand and take photos of the place. Random girls next to me offer to take a photo. Sure! I take photos with them. They are from campbelltown, and they’re the largest girls in the club. Except for one hot one, but she is pashing some other dude. I am nice and talk to one of them, but she ignores me. DOG. I turn to the other and talk, and she genuinely tries to hear me but can’t hear a word that I’m saying. I give up and leave after 3 tries.

Mini arrivederci
We left temporarily as the music was just getting a bit annoying, and to also visit Club 77, to see if it had picked up. It didn’t, and we returned half an hour later.

It’s a blackwash
Later as time goes by, the ratio of black men to non-black men increase, to the point where looking along the bar, it was just a sea of black men leaning back against the bar with drinks in their hand. an interesting sight.

Even fatties wont dance with me
By this point in time its 2:00AM, and most of the girls left here are the unwanted ones. There is a good ratio of 1:7:2 – that is, 1 Girl for every 7 black men and 2 other non-black men. Well, since the girls are dancing, I tried my luck with two fatties. They just look at me as I do my little dance. I stop M and drag him over and he dances as well. They don’t seem to be impressed. JESUS how could they resist such awesomeness? Maybe their skin was really that thick.

Arrivederci
The rest of the night was spent dancing alone until we leave

Recommendation
The Bank as a venue is quite good. The event was alright for a Friday night but could have done with more people. More people and the opening of upstairs would have done this place justice. I only found out today that it was indeed the last night of this event, and the promoters have since moved to the new O2 nightclub on Pitt St (I will have to check this out soon). As a result of this being a closing night, no rating shall be given for the event, but for The Bank as a venue itself, I would be keen to visit it another time, when other event is on. It is nice and classy enough to avoid too much trouble and what not.