Crowd at 1:30AM

Prelude – a massive conflict
A Korean event, named “Steam Partie” is on tonight! Whether the word “partie” was spelt like that on purpose, I do not know, but I had to get my dancing feet to this place. Marty was keen to try it out too.

However we realised it was being held at the same place as the “Babyface” event promoted by Infinity Productionz on Fridays. Both were promoting the hell out of their events, so either of these companies was going to have to pack up and leave, OR they could decide to run the event together and share profits… This was going to be interesting.  Obviously based on the review title , “Steam Partie” had won – promoters from Infinity Productionz were nowhere to be seen.

I wonder how communication between the promoters at Infinity or between Infinity and the venue owners at Tao Ultra Lounge broke down so much as to result in such a disaster for the Infinity crew?? Can you imagine spending so much on promoting for an event, rocking up on the night and realising you’re not meant to be here? It’s sad, but hope they take this lesson learnt with measure to prevent something like this happening again.

So back to it –  let’s check out the new event, here we go!

Steam Partie @ Tao Ultra Lounge
Assessment Time: 12:05AM – 2:05AM
Opening Hours: Unknown (Typical club opening times for this venue would be 10:30PM- 4:00AM)
Venue Address and Website: The promoters can’t decide on a venue. The first event was held at V Bar. Tonight is being held at Tao Lounge, while the June incarnation is being held at Civic Hotel Underground Level. 
Venue Website: http://www.mrbshotel.com.au
Promoter Website: The guys at S-Team only have a Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/steam2010
Occurrence: Occurs every month or two months. It has started since late 2010. 
Outside Line: Not much of a line outside at all.
Dress Code / Door Policy: It appears that there was no dress code for tonight. People are about 50/50 dressed smart casual or just casual with a t-shirt and jeans.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: I think it was $20. It included a voucher for a free drink before Midnight.
Guestlist: We didn’t submit one, but contact details should be on the Facebook page.
Inside: Walk downstairs underneath Mr B’s hotel to enter Tao Ultra Lounge. Situated beneath Mr B’s Hotel, Tao Ultra Lounge is setup as one room segregated by sofas and lounges,and fold away columnar wall-like arch things. As you walk downstairs into the club, you are on the right end of the club, where it is a standing and drinking area. Tonight the entry area has the huge banner for a professional photo with the promotional girls. The middle section is mostly the dancefloor area to hold 50-80 people . The latter third is again, standing room and lounge area, while the bar stretches along the farther two-thirds of the room.
Cloak Room: Didn’t utilise the cloak room tonight
Bar Prices / Line: You could usually get service right away.
DJs: DJ Snoop
Music Style: Primarily Trance and House. Considering the Korean audience I was expecting RNB but it never really surfaced, except in tiny sampling form. It was a pretty wierd type of Trance music that i really couldn’t get into. I think some of the other girls here looked pretty bewildered to why such music was being played here tonight. Was hoping later in the night more danceable or recognizable music would be played, but it was pretty much the same thumping beats throughout the night. I definitely did not picture this kind of music being played at a Korean oriented clubbing night. To be fair though, the style of Music to be played was not advertised on their banners and flyers. 
Crowd & Ratio: Mostly if not, all Korean . Definitely all Asian tonight. The ratio was quite even at one point but for most of the night there were heaps of guys. I would say 70:30 Men to women.
Entertainment: No extra entertainment for tonight.
Atmosphere: The whole place is pretty dark, with just the laser lights and minimal lighting going. Population wise it was pretty dead in the beginning, but only started to pick up at 12:30, with the dancefloor being filled but the other areas were pretty dead. Smoke machines helped give the illusion of having the place not being so dead. 
Video: Music Montage

Timeline
Where was everyone?
If you watched the video, my swearing was pretty much at the amazing LACK of people here. I honestly thought some lost people would actually who wanted to go to Babyface wanted come down here to check it out, but it seems not. There were about 10 people in here including the DJ, which is incredibly depressing considering it was already midnight. Plus midnight should be the time just before it kicks off to largest population.
I was thinking of leaving, but stuck it out and eventually people did come later in the night. It was still a disappointing turnout though.

I don’t want the free drink card
A free drink card upon entry. Excellent! Time to redeem it at the bar, but alas it is only valid before midnight. Well that was stupid, considering I entered the venue at midnight.

I went back upstairs to get another friend in. They offered her a free drink card when she paid, but I told them that the card was expired, and that they didn’t have to give them out anymore tonight. The guy at the register insisted that we take the card!! I explained again that it was way past midnight and these vouchers were useless, but he insisted it was still valid, despite on the card itself, it said it expired at midnight. You can only wonder if someone is even listening to you at all .

Arrivederci
Friends want to leave so off we went. The place was beginning to die.

Recommendation
I wouldn’t go to this. I’m not a fan of the particular Trance music playing, and the crowd didn’t seem too much into it either. It seemed that the crowd only stuck around as they wanted to make the most of their entry fee. It was probably better to go to another place and spend another few bucks on their cover charge.

Steam Partie @ Tao Ultra Lounge – 2/10