A friend wants to head out tonight to make the most of a somewhat cold Anzac Day Monday.. so here we go!

macquarie hotel

Macquarie Hotel: Bar area - Dancefloor behind the white wall

Easter Monday @ Macquarie Hotel Liverpool Sydney

Assessment Time: 10:30PM – 02:15AM
Opening Hours: It’s open all day until 3AM, but I think the DJ starts at 10PM or earlier
Lockout: No lockout I believe
Address: 269 Liverpool St, Liverpool, Sydney
Venue Website: http://www.macquariehotelliverpool.com.au
Promoter Website: Self Promoted event
Occurrence: A once off event for Easter Monday
Outside Line: No line outside. It was like this pretty much the entire night, so its good.
Dress Code / Door Policy: No hats allowed inside. There is no recommendation by promkoters, but the majority here are wearing casual clothing – t-shirts, jeans, hoodie jackets. Guys wearing t-shirts, and girls wearing simple dresses tonight.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Free entry all night
Inside: Walk inside past the gaming area (and secondary bar) to enter a large room split into two areas. “Open air” Smoking dancefloor at the front to hold 120 people or so. DJ out at front and bar at the back, where you stand.
Cloak Room: No cloak room tonight
Bar Prices / Line: $11 for a can of Smirnoff Double Black. $5 for a glass of house red wine (it was pretty bitter). Early and later in the night there isn’t much of a line, but during peak time the line is about 4 people deep – so approximately a wait of 15 minutes, but I didn’t even try – just head over to the other side in the gaming lounge where the smaller secondary bar is – there are usually fewer people so you may have a chance of getting your drinks sooner – however the choice is more limited here. BUT… they did give out free pastries and pies from the kitchen. We helped ourselves to a handful of these delicious goodies to go with whatever you are drinking. It took us a good 2 minutes to convince a group of girls nearby that the pies were, indeed, free.
Eviction Count: None that I saw. Crowd looked well-behaved tonight anyways.
Music Style: From the start to about 1:30 it was primarily commercial RnB with the house mashup song thrown in. 1:30-2:00AM it was very trancey with some rock song remixes thrown in, just to mix it up. The crowd didn’t seem very receptive to the unknown trance songs (no vocals), and the rock songs such as Kings of Leon, were so-so. From 2:00AM until close, it was pretty much entirely American hip hop / rap / West Coast, whatever you wish to call it. I’m familiar with the songs and dance to it but friends are not familiar with these songs.
Crowd & Ratio: Initially composed of visitors who were here earlier in the day, the ratio is 50/50 Asian and European/Middle Eastern guys here. Ages varied wildly between early 20’s to late 40’s. I am pretty sure I saw a woman here who was at least 40 or 50 – probably here for a birthday. However don’t be surprised if you see a much older crowd here. Mostly though, the crowd would be in their 20’s. Ratio wise, I would be saying 65%:35% at its best during peak.
Entertainment: An MC to keep things going. I must note he was pretty good at his freestyling and keeping the crowd alive. I might have just probably paid more attention tonight to him, but MCing isn’t an easy job, that is for sure.
Atmosphere: 10:30-11:00PM it was still building up, so not much dancing to be had, but by the time 11:00PM came around, the dance floor was pretty busy, but you could always find yourself some space to dance around – we found a spot at the front and danced our merry way without much problem. Again the front here is considered an open area, because of the open roof (which was pretty much closed due to the rain), and so smoking was more than welcome here. I dislike cigarette smoke muchly, but such is the venue. To alleviate the smoke smell as well as possible overheating issues, mists of water are sprayed down on the crowd occasionally, which is pretty cool (ha!)
Video: Walkthrough and music montage
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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.

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