Heard word that the closed Moulin Rouge club had been bought, refurbished, and reopened for the public as O Nightclub! Time to check it out!
Costume Party
Friday Nights (Private Party) @ O Nightclub
Assessment Time: 11:55PM – 2:30AM
Opening Hours: 20:00 – 03:00 AM
Lockout: Unknown
Address: 39 Darlinghurst Road, Potts Point / Kings Cross
Venue Website: http://www.onightclub.com.au
Event Website: http://www.fb.com/onightclub
Promoter Website: Appears to be self promoted ?
Occurrence: Every Friday, Saturday
Outside Line: No line outside upon approach.
Dress Code / Door Policy: It was pretty much whatever goes. Tonight is a costume party, and we were caught unawares without wearing a costume at all.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: It was $20 with a free drink included, but we did a bit of negotiation and got it down to $10 without the drink. Not much of a difference as I end up buying a drink later worth about $10 anyway.
Guestlist: None
Inside: Did you ever visit Moulin Rouge / The Rouge before it closed down and became O nightclub? The layout is exactly the same but the refurbishment job done has made it look very new and more club like. No more is the moulin rouge / dirty feel of the club. It’s more open and “clean”.
Continue reading »
A friend’s birthday. Thank the lord the venue isn’t a packed Asian club because I had a horrific experience over the Easter weekend trying to get to any club. Tonight it’s Zeta Bar, and we are let in – here we go!
Dancefloor area at 12:30AM
Saturday Nights @ Zeta Bar Sydney
Assessment Time: 10:45PM – 2:55AM
Opening Hours: Bar opens at 5PM, but DJ music is up from 7:30PM
Lockout: Unknown, but probably 30 minutes before closing.
Address: Level 4, 488 George Street, Sydney, NSW 2000. The entrance is via George St – take the elevator up to Level 4.
Venue Website: http://www.zetabar.com.au and http://www.fb.com/zetabarsydney
Event Website: See venue website above.
Promoter Website: Self Promoted (?)
Occurrence: Every Saturday Night
Outside Line: The line on ground level was minimal, and we were let in right away.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Pretty much as the website states, it is a sophisticated dress code. Smart casual is the minimum to be here. Pointy shoes, collared shirts, vests for guys.. girls should look their best.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $20 for everybody. Even though a guestlist was sent in, the price was the same.
Guestlist: drink@zetabar.com.au
Inside: Take the elevator up to the 4th floor. Walk out past the register and on your right is the dancefloor to hold perhaps 50-70 people comfortably. An open wall separates the floor from two large U shaped lounges each to hold probably 20 people. On your left is the long bar along the wall, while opposite the bar are curtained off lounges for private parties. In between is the narrow walkway spanning the length of the bar upto the secondary bar on the far northen end wall. As you walk up to this particular area, there are spotted lounges along the walls, and note the outside courtyard on your left, with some trees in the middle of it providing you with a plentiful source of leaves. Courtyard could hold another 50-100 people.. very tightly though – there isn’t much room to move around here.
Continue reading »
We wanted to visit another club tonight but from the outside it looked really, really, shit, so we didn’t take any chances, and went down to the Martin Place precinct to visit one of the clubs there.. here we go!
Front w/ DJ
Luxe (Formerly Vanity) @ Martin Place Bar
Assessment Time: 12:25AM – 3:00AM
Opening Hours: Around 10PM – 4:00AM ??
Lockout: Unknown, but they were still accepting entry fees for people after 3AM for entry.
Address: 51 Martin Place (Elizabeth St corner), opposite hotel chambers.
Venue Website: http://www.martinplacebar.com.au
Event Website: http://www.facebook.com/LuxeSaturdays
Promoters: Urban Agent, VIPList, ESO
Occurrence: Started 3rd March. Previously it was called Vanity, held next door at Verandah Bar, and it has recently moved here to Martin Place Bar.
Outside Line: The line looked long. 30-50 people lining up. It took about 15 minutes to get in. It is frustrating to see other people being able to cut the line and get in beforehand by knowing the promoters et al. , it always is.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Quite a few people are here from Future Music Festival, so the dress code is very relaxed tonight – people in their singlets and outfits mixed up with people who came here dressed up for clubbing.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $25 Full entry.
Guestlist:Contact your preferred promoter or use any of the following: Info@eso.net.au luxe@viplist.net.au luxe@urbanagent.com.au
Continue reading »
A non-Asian night out for Martin and I, so here we go!
One of the many couples tonight
Heaven @ Helm Bar, Darling Harbour Sydney
Assessment Time: 12:40AM – 3:00AM
Opening Hours: 8:00PMPM – 3:00AM
Lockout: Unknown
Address: 1 wheat road, darling harbour. It is located between Pontoon Bar and Sydney Aquarium along the water. You can hear the music blasting out as you approach. There is no real easy way to get there by car, you simply have to walk it.
Venue Website: http://helmbar.com.au
Event Website: http://www.facebook.com/HeavenSaturdays
Promoter Website: http://www.goldlabelevents.com.au
Occurrence: Every Saturday since it opened 2011. Tonight is their 1st year of survival. Hurrah! Always a good sign.
Outside Line: No line when we got in at 12:40AM
Dress Code / Door Policy: Hats allowed. No dress code was encouraged at the door, but most people dressed sensibly. There were some hen’s nights and birthdays here so there were some girls and guys dressed really well mixed with people dressed casually who were more laid back. The website stated that no sport shoes or t-shirts/hoodies were allowed. All I can say is that there were no hoodies.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $25 for us as a full charge. This was a big step up from the $15 they had when they first opened. Anyway, you can still get $15 entry if you submit a guestlist and arrive at Helm Bar before 11PM.
Guestlist: submit to info@goldlabelevents.com.au . Birthday packages available for guestlists of 25+ people.
Continue reading »
Waiting for a friend in the city, so I am dropping by here for a bit.
Bad Party / Club Wings @ Cheers Nightclub, Sydney
Assessment Time: 11:50PM – 12:40AM
Opening Hours: 11:00PM – 4:00AM
Lockout: Unknown
Address: 561 George St. Cheers Nightclub is underground, separate from Cheers Bar on the ground floor.
Venue Website: http://www.cheersbar.com.au
Event Website: http://www.cheersbar.com.au/sydneycheers
Promoter Website: Unknown, but it is definitely one of the Korean promoters.
Occurrence: Every Thursday since 2011. It was called “Bad Party”, with the idea that “Bad” implied naughty-ness, but that has immensely backfired in a contextual sense, and because of this, the promoters have changed the event name to “Club wings” this year. You can tell the promoters are the same, when the club stamp on my arm says “Bad Party”. These promoters are living off a shoestring.
Outside Line: There was no line. Just 3 pretty girls in Angel Wings. Admittedly they swayed my decision to go inside here tonight. Damn me for having a mindset of a man.
Dress Code / Door Policy: No hats allowed in here. Other than that, you were allowed to pretty much wear casual clothing within reason. Most guys wore collared shirts. The girls were pretty casual as well tonight
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $5 entry. Previous weeks girls got free entry before 1AM but it is unknown if that was applied tonight.
Guestlist: N/A
Inside: Walk downstairs underground to enter the one room of the nightclub. On the left wall is the bar. On the right wall are TV screens playing the video clip to whatever song is being played at the moment. The other two walls are lined with lounges. The DJ booth is on the far right wall. Right smack in the middle is the wooden dancefloor, with the rest of the area being carpeted. The floor is approximately 7×7 metres.
Cloak Room: None
Bar Prices / Line: I didn’t drink tonight. Water can be had separately.
Bathroom Facilities: On a weekend the bathroom usually reeks like urine and vomit. Thankfully tonight nobody has done such things, and they are acceptable for a Thursday night. That’s right folks, it doesn’t smell like piss tonight.
Eviction Count: None spotted
DJs: DJ Nick Kim all night
Music Style: Purely Top 40 and classic party hits. Full music songs are played, with the associated video clip played on TV screens around the walls. The DJ doesn’t really have much flexibility in this case in terms of mixing – being forced to really only be creative when transitioning between songs, which isn’t the hardest thing to do. Even my mother could do it. I felt sorry for the DJ, he looked like he was over these pop songs.
Continue reading »
A venue I’ve always wanted to visit. I made plans, cleared the night, and tonight was the night. Here we go!
Dance podium area
Saturdays @ “The Club” Nightclub, Kings Cross, Sydney
Assessment Time: 12:30AM – 2:00AM
Opening Hours: 21:00PM – 05:00AM
Lockout: Unknown
Address: 33 Bayswater Road, Potts Point, Sydney.
Venue Website: http://theclubsydney.com Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/theclubsydney
Event / Promoter Website: Self promoted
Occurrence: Every weekend.
Outside Line: There’s two lines, one for re-entry and one for ‘first time’ entries. Our ‘first time’ line took about 5 minutes, while re-entry was only a few seconds. Security were pretty lenient on scanning.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Being situated below Hugo’s, one would believe the dress code would be strict, but it suprisingly isn’t. T-shirts and hats were allowed for guys and so were singlets allowed for the ladies. There is a simple explanation for this later on.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Tonight was $25.
Guestlist: you may enquire within at info@theclubsydney.com but we are not sure if you are guaranteed a response.
Inside: Walk past the counter to enter the common pre-club hangout area where you can either move onto the main room, a side room, the bathroom or the outdoor smoking courtyard area. The side room is quite small and has a small DJ set on a table, with lounges and a small bar staffed by 1 person. Bathroom to the left and main room on the right. The first set of steps takes you to the main bar area, which is basically: big long bar on the left, with lounges around the whole floor. There is even a darker corner of lounges on the far left. Continue walking and approach the second flight of stairs, which leads you to the main dancefloor. The area can hold about 200-300 people easily and if you watched the video, our first reaction was “wow”, just seeing this big space snugly hidden underground from the outside view. Big giant disco ball overhangs while there is a large podium/stage area with not 1, not 2, but three dancing poles. That is pretty impressive. It is no surprise to learn that this place was a former strip club.
Continue reading »
Someone guilt tripped me to come out at the very last moment tonight. Honest. It was already 11PM at home. Why would I crawl out of my warm home, out into the rain and hit a club on the otherside of the harbour 1 hour away? Well, I still don’t know why.
Courtyard area (just the front bit)
Wonderland @ Greenwood Hotel, North Sydney
Assessment Time: 12:10AM – 3:00AM
Opening Hours: 8:00PM – 3:00AM
Lockout: Unknown
Address: 36 Blue St, North Sydney
Venue Website: http://www.greenwoodhotel.com
Promoters: The claim was 17 promoters joined in the fun to make this event. The main promoter was Syndicate Events, GTB, and Colab – the same promoters for Perfect Nights @ Pontoon Bar.
Occurrence: Once off event for Australia Day
Outside Line: There were about 5 people in front of us, but we quickly got in
Dress Code / Door Policy: Relaxed dress code. Most things were okay. Most guys wore t-shirts but girls still glammed up.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $25 full entry. Pre-paid tickets unknown.
Guestlist: N/A
Inside: Enter via the rear via the ramp where the register is. Pay your dues and walk down the ramp to enter the courtyard where the DJ is on the left with a standing area in front for around 100 people. There are tables, chairs and stonewalls for people to sit on to get their smoko on. The whole building looks like it could have been a little church (and it probably was), considering the large sandstone bricks that make its walls and the general architecture of the building. There are four separate door entrances along the walls to each of the 4 internal rooms. The right most room is “the clinic” room, a small room with a bar, lounges and a small dance area to hold 15-20 people. The next rooms are the chillout room and the Mashup room – mashup room has a bar along the wall and a wall cushion bench thing with a slightly larger dance area with DJ in the far corner. The chillout room is just that, with music supplied just outside from the courtyard – saloon style lounges and bar exist in here. The “Black Label” room is the largest of the rooms with DJ on the far right and dance area for a good 100 or so people.
Continue reading »