A birthday! At the Retro. It’s been a long time since I’ve been. Let’s go!!
Saturdays @ The Retro Bristol Arms Hotel
This review incorporates elements from tonight and a prior visit in 2010.
Assessment Time:
11:30ish – 02:30AM
Opening Hours:
Open during the day until 3:00AM (Possibly later?)
Lockout: 1:30AM at time of writing
Address: 51 Sussex St , Sydney
Venue Website: http://www.theretro.com.au
Promoter Website: Self Promoted by the venue
Occurrence: Every Saturday are the themed nights, Friday does not seem to have themed nights
Dress Code / Door Policy: Anything goes. Half the crowd wear casual while the other half, are wearing costumes and outfits. It’s pretty cool.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Free if you dress up in the weekly them. $20 Standard cover charge between 9PM and midnightDiscount on guestlist. Tonight’s theme is bikies or something. Some of our friends are of those who are like ‘I hate dressing up’ types – you know exactly EXACTLY what kind of friends I am talking about. They rather cough up money than dress up. The closest phobia is masqueradeaphobia. No line upon lining up
Guestlist: See website.
Inside: The retro is attracting a smaller crowd as opposed to a few years ago. Not sure if due to lockout laws or due to other factors. The ground floor is no longer a dance area.
Level 1
Walk inside to directly enter the stairway upstairs to level 1. It’s the 80’s and 90’s level, split into two areas – Chill out lounge room on the right – where there are sofas a pool table and small bar. On the left is the dancefloor area where there is a bar on the left, a the DJ in the far middle centre, with a podium in front to hold about 10 people. There are sofas spotted to the right along the walls and a private taped off VIP area to the left corner. The middle is dancefloor space dotted with the holding colums.
Level 2
Up to the top 90’s level where you walk through to a carpeted dancefloor room. Bar and VIP/sofas to the right. DJ on the far left corner. Coloured flourescent retro lights flash in sequence. Two podiums on the left to hold about 8 people each, and dancefloor space left to hold about 100-150 people. There are also some beer pong tables.
Cloak Room: Couldn’t find it.
Bar Prices / Line: Didn’t drink tonight. Line at the bar was quite the wait – it’s tragic on level 1 as there is like 1 bartender – the wait is 10-15 minutes. Level 2 there is 2 or 3 bartenders with the wait being approx 5 minutes.
DJs:
Unknown – Level 2 was pretty good, friendly, joking and mixed well
Level 1 DJ was pretty bad. Played songs in their entirety and quite a few songs even I didn’t know and/or the crowd didn’t seemingly were into. It was truly retro.
Music Style:
Level 1 was dedicated to 80’s and 90’s retro dance and rock music, while the top level was dedicated to 2000’s retro rnb, pop, whatever was well known.
Crowd:
Wildly varied ages from early 20’s to probable late 40’s and 50’s. However dominantly were people in their 30’s as evident by the birthdays and hen’s nights. Dominantly white crowd of Ausises and Euros. Only some Asians were here.
Entertainment:
Beer pong competition on level 2
Atmosphere:
Level 1 1980’s retro was a bit dirty and crowded, but people were enjoying themselves. Like an older version of a backpackers bar. It’s quite a happy vibe with happy tunes playing. Much the same can be said for the top level, but not as ‘happy’ as the middle level. Upstairs was more of a dancing atmosphere due to the younger crowd, smoke machines and less lightingIt is really the upper levels that are the highlight of the venue, and where most of my night was spent.
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Prologue
A friend wouldnt mind going to Bondi Beach. I heard of a Hotel that goes off down there, so let’s go down! Well, we did find a Hotel, but there was no dancefloor. It was just a classy pub with lots of people drinking. (12/01/2011: This was the wrong Hotel – we were meant to go to Beach Road Hotel, which is the place to be before it’s early closing time)
But look across the road, for a mysterious place called “Thru the grapevine” is found. A local has told us this is where White Revolver is. I read an article that it was extremely difficult to get in! I have M, and 2 chicks with me. They are pretty good looking, but would it be enough? We are immediately let in past security without question Ok, here we go!
A small wall in the chillout room. That's a spare door on the left for dramatic effect
Fridays @ White Revolver Nightclub, Bondi Beach, Sydney
Assessment Time:12:30AM-01:15AM
Opening Hours: Unknown
Lockout: Unknown
Address: Entrance is in the side road through the “Thru the Grapevine”. There is no signage indicating that there was a club named White Revolver inside. From the outside, it just looks like a very small chillout bar, with a blue light highlighting the open room. Kind of like looking into a small house party.
Venue Website: http://www.whiterevolver.com
Promoter Website: Self Promoted
Occurrence: Every weekend.
Outside Line: No line outside as we approached.
Dress Code / Door Policy: When we were told this place was White Revolver, Instantly my memory recalls reading an article of a reporter getting into White Revolver’s underground club only by having two hot chicks by his side (Inside sydney’s secret nightclubs: Link). My fears of a classy snotty crowd run through my mind.Casual is allowed. We were all wearing pretty casual clothing. I had a collared shirt. M had a t-shirt on with big bright white basketball-like sneakers. (It appears that White Revolver has undergone some transformations/renovations since the aforementioned article, allowing more casual patrons inside the unique venue)
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $10 flat entry fee all night
Guestlist: no
Inside: Walk inside the door through to the blue-light lit drinking / smoking area for 15 or so people. Turn left through the door frame into the bar area – about triple the size of the blue-lit area. It’s a dark bar with lounges/seating at the back. Turn left again through another door frame into the dancefloor to hold roughly 50 or so patrons. It’s in a kind of wide wedge shape, with the DJ in the pointy corner bit of it. See walkthrough video below for an idea on what’s up. The whole place looks like it’s from a time bygone, with various furnishings and furniture items from an old period. The website says it has a 1920’s feel to it.
Cloak Room: none
Bar Prices / Line: I didn’t drink tonight, but it was quite easy to get a drink. Either no line or one person in front of you ordering something.
DJs: Unknown
Music Style: Classic retro remixed in a house fashion, then later after 1AM they played much more RnB. It may have been a DJ changeover, I do not know. Listen to the short music sample I took below.
Music Sample Compilation Video: (My first time doing this – its to give you a better indication of what music to expect)
Crowd & Ratio: Mostly older, local Australian crowd. Aged from late 20’s and above. The ratio was pretty even here.
Entertainment: No extra entertainment.
Atmosphere: In the dancefloor area, the place was pretty dark, and first impressions were that it was pretty warm, physically. Then it was pretty dark. Like this is the kind of dark that is just enough light to see the other person you are making out with. . We ended up hanging out near the 2 reverse cycle air-conditioners that were installed at one wall. There was also a fan here blowing warm air. On the other side of the club, there was no such devices to help cool you down. Guys are making out with girls here non stop inside thanks to the dark nature of the club. Yup, its this kind of relaxed club. People are allowed to dance with drinks in their hand.
Walkthrough Video: With captions!
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Took a break from Primary venue Sienna @ Establishment tonight to visit Brooklyn Hotel. It was dead, so I decided to came here.
Shameful, that I keep returning to this place. I can’t help it – its free. I am surprised though, that the upstairs club floor is actually packed! It really must be schoolies.. the poor kids.
Here’s a video of upstairs:
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Saturday Nights @ The Mean Fiddler
Walkthrough video:
- How can you NOT let us into The Mean Fiddler??
We were smashed, and just left a 21st Halloween party. Looking for a place to go.. Oh look what’s around the corner – the Retro! Here we go!
Outside line at The Retro Hotel Sydney
Saturdays @ The Retro Bristol Arms Hotel
Assessment Time: Midnight – 1am
Website: http://www.theretro.com.au
Address: 66 Sussex st Sydney ?
Dress Code: anything goes. Every weekend is a theme night.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Free if you are dressed in theme. Otherwise it’s $20 (or $25)
Guestlist: guestlist@theretro.com.au
Inside: 3 levels of dance. Contemporary at the bottom, Retro in the middle, and old school rnb at th etop. We were only on the rnb floor most of the night so there wasn’t much to review about.
Cloak Room: None
Music: Dance and rnb, Retro from the 90s, 80s and early 2000s
Crowd: 20’s and 30’s crowd
Atmosphere: Most saturdays they have themed nights where people come in dressed up, and it adds to the atmosphere. Atmosphere is pretty party vibe like, and the nostalgic music gets you going.
360 video: This is of the top level.
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We finished a wedding out west. I am in my tuxedo and I feel awesome. I was also smashed. The city was 1 hour away. I didn’t care. I was in a tux – We were going clubbing!! Luckily I had some friends at Home Nightclub…
About Home Nightclub:
Location: Cockle Bay wharf, Darling Habour
Website: http://www.homesydney.com
Inside: All rooms except the mid-wall room was open. Main room on the floor, with upstairs balcony area and 2nd bar. Outdoor smoking area connected to this. A 2nd smaller room on the 2nd level. 3rd level are 2 extra rooms. This place is a maze of rooms.
About Homemade Saturdays:
Assessment Time: 1.30am-3.30am
Dress Code: Casual ok. I was wearing my tuxedo from the wedding. You also get fingerprinted and photo scanned on the way in.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $25
Guestlist: See website
Cloakroom: Yes, at the bar near at the DJ eng.
Bar: $12 yaberbombs.
Music: House in the main room. Can’t complain, all the commercial house tunes were being played. Actually it was executed quite well here. There was also a saxophone player to add another dimension to the music – much like the Bongo players at Bungalow and Cargo Bar.
Supporting saxaphone player used to great effect with the music
RNB room – RNB of course – but I wasn’t there long enough.
Party tunes and retro at the top level. They seemed to have combined all the rooms into one major huge event.
Crowd: Mixed – Asians, Euros
Atmosphere: Party and vibing in the main room. However the other rooms seemed pretty dead. Especially the RNB room as nobody was there – it was the most dead room of them all. There were a hundred other places where you could have your proper rnb fix – and Home Nightclub doesn’t seem to be popular right now as the place to be for it.
360 from the main podium
Timeline:
Kicked off the podium by the sexist DJ
There are girls up at the front dancing. Drunk old me wants a dance too! I went up and danced for a good 50 seconds. Then I hear a:
DJ: “OI!”
James: (turns around)
DJ: “GET OFF THE STAGE – NOW!!!”
James: (jumps off stage)
Man.. what a cold DJ. Given, he probably has a lot of drunk guys coming up onto his stage, but fuck you anyway Mr DJ, even if you played really good beats. A minute later I have my female friend go up and dance, and there was no objections. Total sexism!!!
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Ly and I are visitng the Gold Coast. We just left The Bedroom nightclub, and we are following girls, being the single men that we are. Somehow, we ended up outside Melbas.. so here we go!
Melbas Nightclub
Assessment Time: 02:40am-04:30am
Website: http://www.melbas.com.au
Address: 46 Cavill Avenue, Surfers Paradise QLD
Door Policy / Dress Code: Casual OK
Cover Charge / Entry Fee: $10. Free if a guestlist was organised
Guestlist: Email info@melbas.com.au
Inside: Two levels. Ground has lengthy bar in the middle. Stools / tables everywhere. an outdoor seating area. Out the back is a dancefloor. Upstairs is more cosy. VIP area at back for private functions (?), 3 large podiums at the front dance area. 2 Poles to dance with. I can’t think of any place in Sydney that has poles! (The retro might have some but I can’t recall). Long bar on the side wall
Bar: Short to no lines, thanks to the huge bar. Pricing unknown as we scored free drinks all night.
Music: Downstairs is Retro / Classic music, while upstairs is primarily house but the occasional rnb/pop mashup as well.
Crowd: Dominantly White Aussie. I think me and Ly were the only asians here. No problem, as everyone was friendly here. People of all ages were about. It does remind me of The Retro Bristol Arms back in Sydney, but it seemed cooler here.
Melbas Nightclub - Upper Level
Video Tour:
Right after we got inside. Ground level and moving upstairs:
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