Prologue

I was at Haymarket. It was dead for an odd reason. anyway we left for our intended venue – Blue Butterflly @ Arthouse at around midnight. The line was heaps massive (like ridiculous as usual) but we join the queue anyway.
ONE HOUR LATER we are in the front.
30 MINUTES LATER WE ARE STILL IN THE FRONT, while guestlisters and people who know organisers/bouncers head straight in. Frustration!!
It was probably another 10 minutes to go, but friends want to go home. We split and I go to Verandah, for a backup birthday (Oh I know, I’m such a dog). Here we go!
Funky Buddah @ Verandah Bar
Assessment Time: 1.30am – 3am
Address: 55 Elizabeth St | www.verandah.com.au
Dress Code / Door Policy: Casual ok. Recently they have allowed patrons with rat tails to enter.  So most people from most walks of asia are here.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $25
Guestlist: We were too late for guestlist. It is $20 before midnight, $25 after
Inside: There are two separate rooms. Keep this in mind. There is a small curtained off room which is the trance room. The main room is RnB, which is separated somewhat into two regions – the dance region, and the bar/hanging out region, where you stand and mingle with your drinks in your hand.
Cloak Room: $10 for a big bag, its the most expensive cloak rooming service at any venue I have been to, proudly brought to you by Funky Buddha.
Bar: I didn’t drink tonight.
DJ: Normal asian DJs on rotation tonight
Music: RnB and Trance. RnB music was all the modern stuff, not much old school at all besides the West Coast rap stuff. Trance was very dancable here – there is definitely a lack of asian places out there.
Crowd: Asian
Entertainment: Some podiums for people to dance on
Atmosphere: Pretty busy in the RnB room at peak, but when it dies down, it is very noticable because of the open  setup of Verandah. Trance room sadly didn’t enjoy as many people – there were only 10 or 15 people most at a time in the trance room, and out of those people, there would be no more than 5 people raving about at the same time. But its pretty pretty dark in here – you can barely see anything.
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Funky Buddha @ World Square Pub (Equilibrium): Saturday 26th December 2009

Assessment Time
: 23:45 – 1:30am??
Website: http://www.funkybuddha.com.au
Address: Address: 680 George St Sydney (Formerly Equilibrium)
Dress Code: Casual ok. Guys wore smart casual, girls wore dresses.
Door Policy: You will be rejected if you are a group of guys. You will be told to leave if there are not enough girls. This is apparently WSP policy. At least they’re honest.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: I forget. $20 I think.
Guestlist: See Website
Inside: Upstairs room to hold a small group of 200, dark. Also downstairs open area for Trance to hold 50 or so people. Well lit.
Cloak Room: None
Bar: $5 Gin and Tonics
Music: RnB upstairs, typical contemporary and classic songs. Downstairs area was the trance area, which was a welcome surprise.
Crowd: Almost entirely Asian
Entertainment: MC Upstairs
Atmosphere: Pretty packed. Pretty, pretty packed. The whole city was pretty packed – it always happens that Boxing Day never disappoints in terms of crowd attendance.

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We spent a good 2 hours at Pavillion dancing then it reached around 12:30, where everybody typically leaves. It was time to find another club, but we just ended up walking around half of the Sydney CBD area checking out the typical clubs…. so here we go!

11 Quick Club reviews as seen from outside the club aka Window Shopping – 19th December 2009. (Northern Sydney CBD)

Saturdays @ Star Bar on George St
– Packed. However we had overdosed lately on Star Bar and its amusing crowd of non-english speaking tourists. It was a no go tonight, no matter how tempting it was to go inside there.

PS. I no longer write reviews when I visit star bar, as I visit this place too much.

Saturdays @ Arthouse on Pitt St (1am)
– Tonight was not an ‘Asian’ night (Fame), but it was a white-crowd event. House music was playing outside, and there was no line outside – it looked pretty shit inside from the outside. There was a cover charge.

Saturdays @ The Vault on Pitt St
– We walked by this bar and heard RNB music playing! Whoa, we have to try it out. We walk up to the entrance and there is a smallish dance floor with about 15 people dancing on it – it was almost dead, but better than Pavillion. However the bouncer refused us entry on the excuse of ‘a private function’. We were 4 guys so it was understandable, but the private function excuse didn’t seem congruent, as there was no second person to confirm a guestlist. Whatever, it was dead.

Saturdays @ Coolabar
– Music is pumping out, tape and escalators are in operation to the bar upstairs. There are two people outside. It was on! We know Coolabar is a shithole, but we want to wow the crowd inside, if there was one.

We run up but the two people inside tell us we can’t go inside, as the place is closed. What!?! You wonder why some places are even open at all if they are closing at 1.30am on a Saturday night.

Bamboo @ Martin Place Bar
– The line is shorter than usual, but there *is* a line, which is better than the other places so far. Entirely asian, and RNB playing outside, it is tempting to go inside, but all four of us were not big fans of paying $25 to go inside. People inside had santa hats on. We could see Jason the resident Korean bum dancer hogging the podium from the outside.

Security came up and spoke with us. We had a short fun chat and perved on some girls walking by, you know, typical man stuff. Security was called to kick out a drunk person. Moments later he is walking out with a drunk girl and 3 of her girlfriends supporting her. haha, it is not classy at all to see a drunk girl, let me tell you that. Security tells the girls it is all ok, and wraps his arms around the two girls beside him. LOL omg he is hitting on drunk girls outside of thd club – I want to be a bouncer now!!! haha, what a sneaky sleaze.

Funky Buddha @ Verandah Bar on Castlereagh St (Martin Place)
Here they recently opened the trance room again (after a 3 or 4 year absence). Cover is $20, crowd is asian, music is RNB and trance.

We ask some girls who left Funky Buddah if it was any good.
“Average” was the reply. It was in other words, shit. There was, though, a line outside, so it must be somewhat ok.

I do want to check it out as it’s been a while, and I have to see how the Trance room looks now.

Saturdays @ Red Room Hotel Chambers on Castlereagh St (Martin Place)

We were able to peek inside from the entrance – and even though it looked crowded, it didn’t seem like a fun atmosphere. Music was old school RNB, with a cover charge of $20 and an asian crowd.

Tank Nightclub (Bridge lane)
OneLove moved to the Bourbon about a month ago, and we did not know if there was any event, so we took a punt and walked here. It was, unfortunately, closed. (At the time writing, Onelove @ the Bourbon has also shut its doors)… I think I might start a new event here! ha.

20/20 @ Brooklyn Hotel (George St Circular Quay)
Ever since Privilege closed for renovations a few weeks ago, promoters Hypnotize moved their Saturday event to Brooklyn and joined with Urban Agent to help out. The result is that my favourite place to go for free drunk girls and $17 Vodka Red Bulls has turned into a cover charged event full of not so drunk people. I yearn for the former glory days of seediness.

I peek inside the main rnb room and it is pretty packed. I go around the back and look down in the outdoor courtyard area where they are playing house/trance. Back in the no-cover charge days, the place usually had 5-10 people dancing max, while the others sit and watch. Now with the help of the promoters, the entire back area as PACKED. Jesus fucking christ I could not believe what I was seeing – Brooklyn Hotel actually packed out! I could not see any concrete, it was just a sea of people standing up, dancing and cheering. It looked pretty awesome. The bartenders must be having a hard time adjusting to actually having to work non-stop.

However my friends, still don’t want to go inside. They are pretty adamant about not going inside here, considering the crappy times they had the last few times. haha.

Also, regular patrons here (i.e. the islanders) were lining up to get in, not knowing that they need to pay entry. There were some outside, thinking of other places to go. So the crowd inside was a mix of islanders, asians and aussies. Cover charge I am guessing is $20. Based on what I saw, it looks good.

Sienna @ Establishment on George St
We are just walking by. They’re playing house music, though I had thought Sienna was an RNB event. The crowd is dominantly Euro, and cover charge is $20. I do need to check this place out too. It looked pretty busy from what we could see

Saturdays @ Ivy on George St
Loud, and looking quite busy. We can’t see inside from the street but we can hear people cheering from the inside. Sounds like fun. Am definitely going to spend a night here one day next year.

Saturdays @ Bar 333 on George St (2am)
Bottom level was closed and upstairs looked pretty dead.

Arrivederci
By this time we have given up, and we have managed to end up back where we started – standing outside Star Bar. I was dying to do any form of dance, but friends were puffed out from walking up and down the CBD for 2 hours. Fair enough, but I wish they were keen for a dance!! So we called it a night.

Recommendation
If I had to pick a club tonight, it would be 20/20 @ Brooklyn Hotel.

Funky Buddha @ Verandah Bar

On July 19, 2008, in Hip Hop, House, RnB, Verandah Bar, by J T

Mandy’s birthday. The majority wanted to dance somewhere. The vote was “We can go to Funky Buddha or Bamboo” ……. too easy a choice. I was going to Funky Buddha for the first time.

About Verandah Bar
Inside: Since the last report at Verandah Bar, the place has undergone extensive internal renovations and reconfiguration. On entry, the right hand side now has a sealed off section, and the DJ booth has been located to this area. The left side booths still remain. In the main area, there are now rows of tables (secured to the floor it looks like) and the wall booths removed to allow more standing room and the insertion of internal toilets. Also part of the balcony has been converted to floor space, leaving little room to stand outside.

About Funky Buddha
Music: Mashup of RNB, House (Electro)
Crowd: Asian
Dress Code: Casual. I had jeans and nice shoes.
Cover Charge / Entry Fee: $20 non guestlist. Guestlist $15
Occurence: Weekly Saturday Nights
Website: www.funkybuddha.com.au/
Atmosphere: Vibrant around the DJ area, bit dead in the back.

Timeline
Line
We got there around midnight and paid the $20. There was only a small line of about 5 people. This was a stark contrast to the 2 hour wait on the first night at Arthouse Hotel.

Dancing
There were two podiums on each side of the DJ booth. I danced a bit on one side and only got the attention of a girl and a group of 2 girls on the closest proximity to me, but they weren’t keen on grinding for longer than 5 seconds. The music was too loud to converse, perhaps I should try to extract them next time.

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