Bars and Nightclubs
Oxford Street, Sydney

The Coven

34B Oxford St
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The lunar cycle conjures up monthly on a Friday when the moon will shine it's brightest on a place where the people feel the filthy bass, possess the dance floor and drown their weekly problems in spirits and other potions. Dark and dirty beats weave throughout this cave of beautiful people and mysterious energy. The festivities begin at 9.00pm and are damned by 5.00am So come fall under our spell and gather at The Coven.

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The Coven Review


Review by Matthew Harden

A dictionary's definition for the word 'coven' can describe a "secret group of associates that meet regularly". In the case of Q Bar's 34B hosting a party, indeed titled The Coven, it's as regularly as one special Friday every month. Although it seems the party might need a change of name, considering there's nothing secret about its growing popularity on the Oxford Street club-scene.

The Coven was created and patronised in its early days by jaded regulars of Club 77 branching off their family tree. A rivalry was forged with the notorious Kings Cross rave, titled Starfuckers, particularly when both parties pinned their dates on the same calendar square. But with its bitter beginnings on the back burner, 'The Coven' seems to be defining it's own club culture, with its own set of sinister scenesters.

The crowd are typically twenty-somthings, looking for an undignified time in their grunge get-ups that defy sophistication. Gentleman are usually clad in their beanies and sloppy joe-chic, and it's here you'd most likely meet Avril Lavigne's Sk8er Boi, who's now grown up to enjoy electronica. The ladies are usually (quite literally) open for contribution to the "side boob" movement, but all this rough-trade fashion compliments the sub-metropolitan atmosphere 'The Coven' contains within.

After coughing up a cover charge at street level (usually $10/15), to reach this beneath the gutters grotto, ironically, you need to conquer a few flights of stairs upwards. I can vouch for this effort's exhaustion but can assure you that crannies exist in the club, cushioned with oversized leather-upholstery, that await your tush for recovery before taking pride of place on the dance floor. If you're feeling particularly proud, there's a widespread stage to hurl your hippest moves upon. It's a platform in the club's centre that's perhaps a little too high to manage, stepping up and down from gracefully, after a "few too many". These "too many" I speak of are the preferred beverage of choice here, an inexpensive vodka with mixer, consumed from a plastic bucket. Did I already mention sophistication isn't on anyone's agenda?

Even if you are striving to keep composure, no matter how badly you're failing at it, your vices will be cloaked beneath the club's lack of lighting that creates the illusion of invincible freshness. A fallacy of giving good face that remains even if you're snapped by The Coven's regular photographer, as he uses such an exposure that it whites out any trace of imperfection. I promise, you'll be loving yourself sick even after the Facebook tags are made.

There's an industrial, wire-mesh wall that's a particularly perfect place to have your photo taken in front of, which fences off the DJ. It's behind here that your evening's soundtrack will blast off from. The music is heavy and hard-hitting techno that's often interspersed with hip-hop samples to liven up your repetitious routines, these booms of bass are always fun to break the monotony of hearing never ending beats. The end results are always too loud to hear over, so expect to be shout-chatting in people's ears in an effort to communicate all night long. But in the act of doing so you're really summarising what a night spent at The Coven is really like. It's a scream.



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