Shot of the dance DJ area
Nothing scheduled – thought I’d have a look at the new Friday event at Tao Lounge, which recently moved away from the always disappointing Pumphouse. Guestlists sent in and so here we go!
Babyface (Bubble party) @ Tao Ultra Lounge (Me B’s Hotel)
Assessment Time:12:15AM – 03:30AM
Opening Hours:10:00PM (?) – 04:00AM
Lockout: Possibly 3:30AM or just before it closes. You can come in anytime though.
Address: 396 Pitt St, Corner of Goulburn St and Pitt. Below Mr B’s Hotel, and opposite World Square
Venue Website: http://www.mrbshotel.com.au
Promoter Website: http://www.infinityoz.com
Occurrence: Every Friday
Outside Line: The line looked about 20 deep when we arrived at 12:15, and so we went to eat some pies at Pie Face across the road. BTW, Pie Face is a freaking rip off. Better to have just walked a few more metres went to the Asian supermarket downstairs at World Square and bought something there. Anyway, the line was gone at 12:30 and so that’s when we decided to go in.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Casual accepted but not encouraged. Collared shirts and dress attire for the men and girls. Korean/Honkie hairstyles optional but is seemingly what most people guys here have. Dressy for girls but casual also accepted.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: I can’t even remember anymore. I think it was $20 on guestlist and $25 for everyone else. I remember now – I remember being relieved it wasn’t $30 as a previous joint event by this promoter spruiked. Unsure on what early bird prices were.
Guestlist: Submitted guestlist 2 weeks prior to nicholas@infinityoz.com . You could also submit to nicholas@infinityproductionz.com – Didn’t receive any confirmation after a follow up email, so I sent my list to another promoter and I only got guestlist confirmation after a follow up message to the second promoter. 4 messages to get a confirmation.. really? Really. I had also queried about filming inside but no reply was given back about this. I can only say to you that if you are sending a guestlist, your guestlist was probably added.. just don’t be surprised if no reply comes back.
Inside: Nothing has changed at all since the last time I visited this venue. After paying, walk downstairs into the single room that is the Tao Ultra Lounge. The bar half is an open area of just woodfloor panels with the bar in the corner, with some stools to sit around on. About 100 people could stand around here. The other side is the DJ side. Half of the space is dedicated to the big fat lounges, and the middle section is for the DJ and direct dance area to hold 30-40 people.
Cloak Room: Available but I did not utilise tonight. Pricing unknown.
Bar Prices / Line: $5 (I think??) drinks offer before midnight , and afterwards standard club price pricing. 4 tequila shots for $20 something? My memory does not serve me well tonight. The bar does not take EFTPOS.
DJs: Unknown
Music Style: Primarily RnB tonight. There may have been some house mashup but I honestly cannot recall.
Crowd / Ratio: It is pretty much all Asian here tonight. A good majority are of the “fob” type, as you can tell from appearances, and the inclination to speak their local language, rather than english. Mostly these guys are hailing from China, and there are also some Koreans and other nationalities too. When we entered at 12:30 the ratio was probably 60:40 guys to girls but quickly dropped down to possibly 80:20 or worse from 1:30 onwards. I even spotted Eric Woo himself – head of Urban Agent promotions (Shanghai Nights, Bamboo, and the new QF nights) – Probably checking out the competition while he is on visit here tonight for whatever reason, and why not.
Entertainment: There are two podiums on either side of the dance area. Tonight is a bubble party, so there is an automatic bubble machine blowing hundreds upon hundreds of bubbles into the front of the dance area throughout the entire night. pretty cool.
Atmosphere: Dark in the dance half of the room, and to help in your quest to not be noticed, smoke machine directly spitting fumes of smoke into the crowd. People ended up staying directly away from the vicinity of the smoke machine, as everytime it blew out smoke, you were eventually unable to literally see in front of you. Smoke was also terrible for my camera shots. Oh well.
Video: Since the layout exactly the same, I’ll just post a better quality of another walkthrough when I was at Tao Lounge for another event. Just imagine the crowd to have more guys, less people and more smoke and a shitload of bubbles. Yes… do try your best: 
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Dance Floor area - Tao Nightclub
Just finished watching Mardi Gras. Time for a dance! A friend of a friend has a birthday at none other than Tao, where I had a good time last Saturday for their ‘Satisfaction’ grand opening, so let’s try it again – here we go!
Satisfaction @ Tao Ultra Lounge
Assessment Time: 11:00 – 03:00am
Website: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=288588253950
Address: 396 Pitt St, CNR Goulburn St (Old Mandarin Club)
Dress Code / Door Policy: Dress nice. Tonight even crossdressing asians were allowed. On entering, the security guard warned me to keep my hat off inside. I managed to keep it on inside without being told off.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Free for ladies before 11. $10 before midnight on guestlist. $20 full cover charge fee.
Guestlist: Email Satisfaction.saturdays@gmail.com or SMS 0438 889 892
Inside: Beneath the former Mandarin Club (Now Mr B’s Hotel), Tao Ultra Lounge/Bar is a small area split into even smaller areas – A carpeted area where most dancing occurs. It holds 50-80 people. There are two lounge areas on either side of the dancefloor. A DJ is along the wall next to the bar on the wooden area. The wooden floor area is the general ‘lets stand around and chat each other up’ area with bar and some tables and stools.
Cloak Room: $4 per item
Bar: $19 for 2 Carlton Draughts and a Corona. Current promotion is $5 drinks and $16 jugs of beer before midnight.
DJs: Xcentrik, R*One, Normz, Edo, Day-Day
Music: RnB and some house. DJs tonight are MASSIVELY guilty of repeating songs twice over. Even some house songs such as ‘Riverside’ got repeated later in the night. I like that song, but you can see whoever was here earlier for the first iteration of the song stop dancing, and silently groan that they’ve heard this song before.
Crowd: Almost entirely asian. There were handful of white guys with yellow fever (disgusting) and a white girl looking a bit lost, but that was all from what I could see. Asians were all English speaking Australians.
Entertainment: No extra entertainment, just the MC.
Atmosphere: Overall it was a pretty good atmosphere. People are dancing on the carpeted area, and its dark enough to be a bit private. Lounge areas are dark, and the bar is bright for people who just want to mill around. Most importantly its busy, but not sardine packed. It’s a good balance.
360 Video
Keep reading for my encounters with the various girls in here
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Tao Nightclub Sydney - Grand opening night : 2:30am / Bar Area
Just left a house party and I still want my dancing fix. Melly is at the Grand Opening of a new nightclub where the old Mandarin Club once stood. So here we go!
Satisfaction Saturdays @ Tao Nightclub
Assessment Time: 2:30am – 4:00am
Website: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=288588253950
Address: 396 Pitt St, CNR Goulburn St (Old Mandarin Club)
Dress Code / Door Policy: Advertised as “dress to impress”, but seemingly more relaxed about it at the door. Every guy inside though had a collared shirt, and the girls were all in dresses.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Free for ladies before 11, $10 on birthday guestlist before midnight. $20 for all others.
Guestlist: See facebook page for details
Inside: Beneath the now Mr B’s Hotel, Tao Bar/Nightclub is a small area split into even smaller areas – A carpeted area where most dancing occurs. It holds 50-80 people. There are two lounge areas on either side of the dancefloor. A DJ is along the wall. The wooden floor area is the general ‘lets stand around and chat each other up’ area with bar and some tables and stools. This particular area has a green and red spotted light thing dotting the area. It’s trippy.
Cloak Room: $5 per item.
Bar: $19 for 2 carlton draughts and a pure blonde. $16 jugs of beer before midnight
DJs: Xcentrik, R*One, Normz, Edo, Day-Day
Music: RnB most of the night, with the occasional commercial house song thrown in. If you have never been to an RnB asian club.. usually the RNB songs each get about 30 to 60 seconds of airplay before being mixed to another song, so its an anthology of choruses.. its sad if you want to hear the whole song, but with this format, it keeps the crowd going.. and going.
Crowd: Asian, the clean classy types. Not many teeny boppers. If there were any, they were cleverly disguised.
Entertainment: No extra entertainment besdies the MC. There was air conditioning though
Atmosphere: Small atmosphere, but a classy crowd with a “clean” venue keeps it viable to stay inside. By clean, I mean they have air conditioning in the standing area. However on the dancefloor there isn’t much air con and it may get a little stuffy.. but only a little as its not too packed when we got inside.
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