I was out tonight, and I didn’t have a job to go to tomorrow… I needed my dance fix – everything in the south CBD was pretty dead.. except for one place …. dirty old Side Bar.. here we go!

Mondays @ Side Bar
Assessment Time: 12:30AM – 01:45AM 
Opening Hours: Early in the day – 03:00AM 
Lockout: None 
Address: Right next to Central station on the corner of Pitt and George St. 
Venue Website: http://www.wakeup.com.au
Promoter Website: Self Promoted
Occurrence: Every night.
Outside Line: Upon arrival there were about 3 people in front of me, we were all let in very quickly. 
Dress Code / Door Policy: Casual ok, any costumes were “probably” ok (there are themed nights here) but tonight everybody was just wearing their casual clothing, or smart casual. 
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Free all night.
Guestlist: None
Inside: The Bar/Club is situated beneath ground level. Enter and walk down the stairs to enter the square floor area with large bar in the middle. On the right are probably around 12 lounges along the wall. Along the back are arcade games and a pool table. To the left is the cleared out dancefloor area, Small overhead room due to the underground nature, with the DJ in the far left corner. The dancefloor side can hold approximately 100 people.  
Cloak Room: None. I was forced to leave my laptop bag on a sofa. I came back to it half an hour later and found that someone had opened my bag had been left the zips open. Oh fuck!! I looked inside my bag, but nothing was stolen… this shit happens all the time to me.
Bar Prices / Line: The line was 1 or 2 people deep, but prices unknown as I didn’t drink tonight.
DJs: Unknown
Music Style: Indie, House, Pop, Rnb – whatever the crowd is into
Crowd & Ratio: Pretty much almost everyone here is a backpacker, while the local population are less than a handful. Most are Anglo-Saxon but there are also Asians, and Africans. Age range from 18 to low 30’s. Pretty friendly vibe here.
Entertainment: Nil
Atmosphere: The first thing I noticed was that it was as packed or more than Friday nights here, which is pretty amazing. People are everywhere, drinking, dancing, making out, etc. This is where everybody in the city went. It can get crowded and overheated near the DJ corner. The floor also has a thin layer of liquid comprised of the spilled drinks that patrons have clumsily held. As mentioned, its a pretty much party vibe here throughout the night, whether or whether not the people know half the songs being played.

Continue reading »

Tagged with:
 

For years some of my friends have been attending Purple Sneakers but I was never into Indie music. Well my knowledge of Indie music was getting better from listening to Triple J the past few years, so tonight I think it was time to take the plunge to experience my first Indie club event, so here we go!

Masterchef: Purple Sneakers @ The Gladstone

Masterchef: Purple Sneakers @ The Gladstone

Purple Sneakers @ The Gladstone, Chippendale, Sydney
Assessment Time: 11:45AM – 02:45AM
Opening Hours: 19:00PM – 03:00AM
Lockout: None
Address: 115 Regent St, Chippendale, Sydney. Theres no real visibility that its called The Gladstone – all you see on the Verandah is www.aussiebar.com.au, which doesn’t even link to the Gladstone website. Apparently it only came under new management after a short stint as a strip club.
Venue Website: None
Promoter Website: http://www.boundarysounds.com
Occurence: Every Friday
Dress Code / Door Policy: anything goes, but everyone here is dressed in a very relaxed casual manner. I kind of almost felt overdressed with my collared shirt.

There’s even a 10 point rule list on entry which included things such as:
– No douchebags,
– No trashing of the toilets (The toilets became trashed anyway at the end of the night when a door was ripped off its handles, lol), and
– No pretentious behaviour.

Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $12 Full Entry.
Guestlist: There is a guestlist but I have no idea how to get on it or what it entails you to. You can try info@boundarysounds.com
Inside: The entrance to the venue is via the back. So, you first are presented with the back room of the Hotel/Bar, which resembles the rear of a typical small townhouse. Its like a tiny courtyard, with a brick shed to the right. The shed has wooden benches and plastic seats around the walls. Bricks lay around, and electricy and wiring is held down by gaff tape. BBQ in the corner. It really feels like you have walked into someone’s backyard, but they weren’t prepared for it. Continue walking inside to a hall where the cloak room is. Continue to the front where the bar is on the right, the DJs are in the left corner, and the dancefloor is in the middle. The dancefloor being a lightly carpeted area. Very danceable.
Cloak Room: $4 for all items
Bar Prices: I didn’t drink tonight, but the line was 1 or 2 people deep throughout the night
DJs: (In order of appearance per hour from 8PM) Retox, Erectro, PhDJ, SVU (Farewell Set), Joyride, Surecut Kids, The Holidays (DJ Set)
Music Style: Indie, Alternative Rock. M had no idea what any of these songs were, hailing from an RnB/pop background and he didn’t enjoy it. I usually listen to Triple J, so I had a fair idea what about half these songs were. Basically it was a complete mess of all these indie and alternative rock songs from the past 20 years, with no proper mixing. Most songs were played in full, and the crowd moment was often lost as a result. Songs that were heard were from R Kelly, Regurgitator, System of a Down, Art Vs Science, Friendly Fires, Yeah yeah yeahs, etc. These were the ones I recognized – but some songs played you just couldnt dance to at all.
Crowd: Mostly local Aussies. Surprisingly a few Asian fans were spotted. Most seem to be aged in their teens to early 20s, but I couldn’t tell.
Entertainment: No extra entertainment.
Atmosphere: Inside was as hot as an oven. There was definitely a huge build up of humidity in the room, and your body would have to change to an amphibian state to stay in there for long periods of time. It was pretty bad. The single fan and measly solo air conditioner did squat all with the situation. On the floor, empty cups and bottles lie strewn everywhere. The inside is pretty small, but its packed, and there is basically no room to dance properly – you could really only move or jerk your body around. There are no cleaners here apparently. Out the back is where you relax from the intense humidity of the inside, but you face another downer – cigarette smoke. The entire back courtyard and shed reeks of cigarettes. You can’t escape it. To top it off, there are also cups and bottles strewn on the concrete floor. It’s a filthy house party in the guise of a dance event. I am certainly not used to it, but a friend whom I met that night, certainly was. We were told that the monthly Purple Sneakers event in Canberra was much more cleaner, and that even the old venue at Abercrombie Hotel (which looked pretty dirty) was cleaner than this.

Entrance to the makeshift brickshed aka the chillout room

Entrance to the makeshift brickshed aka the chillout room

Video: Walkthrough Video

YouTube Preview Image

 

Video: 180 of the back courtyard:
YouTube Preview Image

Continue reading »

Tagged with:
 

Leadup
an hour to kill – a mini 4-club dance spree:
Tonight I wore just jeans, a shirt and sneakers..

Pontoon
– Crowd was half indian, half everyone else. Free entry. Casual door policy. RnB. Good venue for an RnB fix. Left after 30 minutes – another asian dancing guy was taking the girls. He was out there, just dancing with any girl he saw, and was doing quite well. I wondered where my energy was tonight.

Pavillion – Two girls in the front, 4 on the side, and indian guys for the rest of the people on here. DJ was playing west coast rap. My favourite anthems were being played (Dr Dre,  Snoop Dogg, etc). A crazy indian was dance-cracking onto the two girls in the front. He was out there, just shaking his body loose. I wondered where my energy was tonight. I think I get intimidated by other good dancers in a desolate setting.

Shark Bar/Hotel – I walked in and there was nobody on the floor. I was about to leave, but they started to play “Push it” by Salt N Pepa. I love this song so I *had* to get up there. So I jumped up and did a little boogie to the song, to the amusement of everybody staring at the elevated dancefloor in the middle. Everyone who looked at me I looked back, and they would stare away. A group of people at the very back took a photo of me and waved hi. The song ended and I ran off.

Spectrum – My usual friends had gone home, so I met up with the French backpackers for some dance. We checked out Spectrum first. Free entry. House. We went upstairs and it was *dead* as. A handful of people dancing, a handful of people sitting down, a small room, and that was it. I don’t think this was meant to be a place for clubbing. Reminded me like an oxford st version of Manning Bar at USYD. I can’t imagine that place being a place for clubbing. We left quite quickly.

We then stumbled upon Oxford Art Factory and settled in..

After Work Art Fridays @ The Oxford Art Factory (Art After Dark) (29th May 2009)

Note: This review is primarily for the ‘Art After Dark’ Room’, and not the ‘Live Art Space’ where a cover charge applied.

About Oxford Art Factory (assessment time 1.30am)
Address: 38-46 Oxford St, Darlinghurst
The Bar: Jugs of beers and cocktails offered for a reasonable price.
Website: http://www.oxfordartfactory.com
Inside: Walking downstairs, there are two rooms:

Live Art Space: Carpeted area with central wooden dancefloor, with DJ up on stage. At the back is an elevated area where more lounges exist. It was mostly dancefloor space.

Live Art Space - Oxford Art Factory

Live Art Space - Oxford Art Factory (image oxfordartfactory.com)

Art After Dark: (where we were) A further flight of stairs down takes you to this room. It’s pretty small, holding about 100 people max. A bar as well here. The room has a high ceiling length, and a big TV on one end of the wall. It’s been painted white, which is different. Tonight there were only lounges along the wall, and not sticking out as in the picture.

Art After Dark - Oxford Art Factory

Art After Dark Bar - Oxford Art Factory - This is where we hung out (image oxfordartfactory.com)

About After Work Art Fridays: (assessment time 1.30am)
Entry Fee/Cover Charge: Free for the Art After Dark Bar, $15 for the DJ in the Live Art Space Room tonight. After 3am it was free for all.
Crowd / Dress Code: Artsy types. People in their 20’s and 30’s. Lots of hats around. anything goes.
Atmosphere: I was expecting not many people to be here, so guess how surprised I was when I saw the whole room packed! Well, it was 1.30am, and it was a small area, but usually at an average to bad venue, 1.30am is when people start going home. So overall it was a good sign.
Music: Art After Dark Bar – Earlier in the evening there were live bands playing, but we missed that. So when we arrived, the band area was cleared and there was a DJ playing a mix of music across pop, rnb, retro and rock. Basically a bit of everything, and each upcoming song would be of a different genre. Somehow though the crowd was fully right into every song being played.

Live Art Space – DJ Sega (USA) was the main act playing tonight, (Indie). I didn’t get to check him out. Later another DJ was playing around 3am, with some dubstep beats, and another artist came up for some raps where I could practise some krumpin on the very open dance floor. The crowd here were all the hardcore types left, so everybody was into it.

Continue reading »

Tagged with: