The Met Nightclub Fortitude Valley
The Met Nightclub opened up late last year and ever since the opening weekend, I’ve been meaning to write a review, however I have always put it off, continued to think of an excuse not to write this review, not because I am lazy, but because I was hoping that my next experience at the Met would be better, and so with every visit I kept saying “next time it’ll be better”. Months passed and the experience got gradually worse.
The Met Brisbane
256 Wickham St Fortitude Valley QLD 4006
Phone 3257 2557
Fax 3252 5324
info@themet.com.au
Nonetheless, being the optimistic person that I am and a huge fan of Deep Dish (country men and all), when the Met announced that they had secured Deep Dish’s Sharam, I was amazed. I was amazed because somehow The Family had let this slip (more on that later) and that the Met of all places had managed to secure one of the worlds most famous DJs.
So with that mind, my girlfriend and I anxiously bought our tickets prior to the event from HMV in the city. Now before I continue, I would like to point out that, we paid $38 per ticket, and The Met had reduced the price to $15 a few days prior to the main event. Unfortunately for us and a few others who bought their tickets from HMV, the Met had forgotten to call up and inform HMV of this change. So we paid double the price.
Having previously seen Deep Dish (the both of them) at The Family, I knew it was going to be a good night. We arrived at the Met at 11pm, hoping that Deep Dish would start by 1am at the latest (but secretly hoping for midnight). The Queue was long, but as we had previously bought tickets, this wasn’t an issue. When we got to the door, I asked the door girl why our tickets were $38 and our friends (whom bought tickets from Rocking Horse records an hour before us) were only $15? She completely ignored me, and pretended I didn’t even ask the question. I was trying hard not to let that ruin our night, but it wasn’t the best start and things only got worse.
Once we got it, we chilled out for a while as we waited for Deep Dish to start. It’s important to point out that the Met is an awesome venue as far as Venues go. With a massive dance floor and a bar in every corner, the Met does tend to produce that sort of “wow” response upon first visit. The VIP area (which isn’t much of a VIP area given that anyone tends to be able to go up there as long as they look the part) overlooks the entirety of the second floor whilst two surrounding balconies stand tall side by side encompassing the dance floor. At the same time the downstairs area gives heaps of room to sit around a nice lounge and chill out with your mates, and if smoking is your thing, than the upstairs area in the smoking section overlooking Wickham
I would rather be stuck in a closet watching the same episode of Neighbours for 72hrs straight than to go to the met again…
There are at least 6 bars in the Met (as far as I could count). The service is generally fast and the crew (apart from the tatooed door staff) are pretty reasonable and friendly. One of the rather peculiar themes to the met is a room about the size of large bedroom hosting a rather large fish tank. Now as much as I hate fish, I do tend to feel sorry for the poor fish stuck inside since the glass tends to vibrate to the music and the hordes of drunken patrons tend to tap on the glass as if it was a zoo.
Nonetheless, a good venue doesn’t make a good nightclub. Even more so, although the Met as a venue is better laid out and thought out than the family, it is not anywhere near Family quality in all other respects. In fact, I am going to go out on a limb here and say after my experience on Saturday night, I would rather be stuck in a closet watching the same episode of Neighbours for 72hrs straight than to go to the met again. For all the hardcore met fans, I am sorry to say this, but the Met is an awful nightclub.
Firstly, I’ll start with the patrons. Back when The Family first started, the dress code was enforced and those who didn’t fit the part weren’t allowed in, whilst this sounds snobby and pretentious, the difference was that idiots weren’t allowed in and the rest of us had a great time. Whilst Family has relaxed their dress code over the years, there is still some sort of quality control.
Now the Met has this brilliant idea of not allowing anyone in who is below 20, making them the first 20+ nightclub in Brisbane. Does it work? No, the venue is filled with drunken morons and over zealous and angry patrons. At one stage my girlfriend got deliberately pushed in the back for no apparent reason and numerous times throughout the night fights broke out and the bouncers simply stood around and watched.
Second, the nightclub part of the Met, isn’t that great. Sure the venue is great, but the actual nightclub aspect is not up to scratch. The sound system is awful, and the Family’s laser and light system leaves the Met for dead. The atmosphere of The Family (and hell, even the Monastery) is one filled with happy patrons dancing to great tunes, whilst at the Met its one filled with those more accustomed to The Victory, jumping up and down like a bunch of Neanderthals. There really isn’t much in the Met for me to call it a nightclub, I am sure after a while they will put some permanent LaserPro 1000s (same system in the family) on the dance floor, but at the moment, they have a temporary setup disco ball that wouldn’t even light up my room, and speaking of light, its simply just too bright.
Third, and most important problem is the Music. It is horrible - I can’t think of a better word. I haven’t been to a nightclub that has played such god-awful music in years. Everything from Will Smiths “Shake the room” to the worse remix of “Sweet Dreams” in a decade is at hand. This is the biggest problem with the Met, either they are too stupid to find good DJs or The Family and Monastery has got all the good ones locked into contract. Either way, the worse resident DJs at family are still leaps and bounds ahead of the best that the Met has to offer.
Who is the history of Nightclubs has the audacity to charge $38 for a ticket, then drop the prices to $15 at the door, then plan the main act to start at 3am and lie about it all through the night! The Met does!
So back to saturday night. I wouldn’t have come back to the Met after my last visit had it not been for Deep Dish, and needless to say, I never got to see Deep Dish! For those of you who actually made it out on Saturday, you would have noticed (at least I hope you did) that Deep Dish didn’t show up till about 2:30am-3am (after we’d left). The reason? I am glad you asked. Remember how I mentioned that I was amazed the Family didn’t get to host Deep Dish? Well there was a good reason for that!
Deep Dish was playing in Sydney the same night, and the plan was to catch a plane up to Brisbane after that gig and start at the Met. Yep, finished in Sydney around midnight, drive to the airport, wait at the terminal, catch a plane, drive from the airport to the met, unload all equipment and start. Of course the crew at the Met never mentioned this (would have been great on the ticket - Main event starts at 3am - maybe) .
Who is the history of Nightclubs has the audacity to charge $38 for a ticket, then drop the prices to $15 at the door, then plan the main act to start at 3am and lie about it all through the night! The Met does! I asked the door staff 3 times through out the night when Deep Dish was set to start:
12:30am “Aw mate, it’ll be around 1 for sure”
1:15am “Absolutely at 2am”
2:15 “He’ll be here soon, he is coming from Sydney don’t you know?”
No I didn’t know, and nor did 99% of people in there waiting and waiting for Deep Dish to start. Towards 2:30 am (when I was assured once again that Deep Dish was set to start) we gave up, none of us were in the mood anymore and we were not the only ones. We sat upstairs near the smoking area and as we sat and chilled out, countless others walked past us describing their utter disappointment to their friends.
There is only one real nightclub in the valley and its The Family.
I can’t think of words to describe my anger over Saturday night. $40 per ticket to see perhaps the worse DJ in Brisbane and then have to wait till 2:30am and still be disappointed over a no show by Deep Dish (although the blame is absolutely on the hands on the Met as they were the organizers). What annoys me the most is that organizers failed to mention the “flying up from Sydney” situation. Even if they had simply said “Deep Dish Starts at 3am” then we would’ve got there at 2am and possibly had a great night, but the greed to firstly charge those of us who decided to buy tickets early 2x the price and then not even mention that Deep Dish was going to be a no show till about 3am was simply unacceptable.
I am writing this review, knowing full well that I am not going back to the Met for a very long time. This was my 6th visit to the Met and I had given it as much chance of changing my mind as possible. There is only one real nightclub in the valley and its The Family. To the organisers and managers of the Met and those who were responsible for Deep Dish’s gig on Saturday night, I can honestly say that Saturday night at the Met was the worse night out in the valley I’ve had in the last 5 years. Oh, and I want a refund!
Related Posts:
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Monastery Nightclub Fortitude Valley
Last weekend was really big, I was at The Family Nightclub on Friday night, listening to the great sounds of
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March 5th, 2007 @ 11:10 am
I couldn’t agree more. We were also out on Saturday night at the Met and we left much earlier than you as the music was making me feel ill.
I think the Met has a lot of potential but who ever is in charge is an absolute f%#king retard. Specially the idiots that organized the Deep Dish event.
Thankfully though we only paid $15 to get in, I would be really pi$$ed if I’d paid $40 like you!
March 5th, 2007 @ 11:19 am
Haha! Great review, I was really peaved I missed Deep Dish on saturday, but by the sounds of it, I only saved some money and heartache!
I’ve only been to the met once before and I thought the music was worse than a Christina Aguilera concert.
March 5th, 2007 @ 7:14 pm
You couldn’t have said it better Alborz! It was my worst night out in the Valley too! (Watching Chicken Little at Eldorado was a blast compared to Saturday night) That ‘girl’ working at the door was so rude to me! It’s full of Best’n'Less wankers, people who should be arrested for attempting to dance and have never heard of class or antiperspirant. Apart from that guy pushing me, there was another one who wanted to start a fight because he was in MY way. And I’m sure if I hadn’t moved for him he would’ve hit me. Oh and the drink that fell on us from the balcony when we were on the dance floor was classy stuff! As for the music, they might as well play Nova, you could dance to it and it’s less repetitive. I also think an under 40 rule would be more efficient than the current over 20 rule. I will never be wasting my time at The Met again! Management is dodgy (who opens a club when it’s half built?), staff are disrespectful, music is repulsive and 99% of the patrons are scum. On a positive note, all the city morons now have somewhere to congregate and stay the hell away from the rest of us.
The Met is the RE with a smoke machine and a fish tank.
March 19th, 2007 @ 11:00 pm
Haven’t been to The Met, but had similar experiences elsewhere. The main act was one and a half hours late. We had to wait in the lobby. No announcement from the staff at all. When the main act turned up, then the backup act started their 45 minute set. Why they couldn’t have done their set while we waited is beyond me. Once they finished, they announced a half hour break before the main act was to begin. I gave up and left. I’m sure they would have stretched that half hour out in order to sell more drinks.
April 23rd, 2007 @ 9:47 am
“The Met is the RE with a smoke machine and a fish tank.”
Hahahaha - I looove that quote… classic…
Yeah, I finally went to checkout The Met the other night. Rubbish. I don’t know what game others play but when it comes to a night out its all about the music… I don’t think The Met played anything I would really consider music the entire 4 hours that I was there for. All I saw was a bunch of dirty old men and tossers, leering over anything with a skirt and a pulse to the pumpin’ beats of 105.3 …
April 23rd, 2007 @ 5:14 pm
Ok ok. hands up someone who can say something NICE.
I challenge you to find one NICE thing about the place. c’mon. u can do it. tell me one good thing about The Met.
April 28th, 2007 @ 7:57 pm
Okay, I can say something nice about The Met.
One day I was shopping in the valley and came across a 5 inch thick stack of postcards sitting on a shelf in a clothing store. I asked one of the staff what they were (all the same print) and what this ‘The Met’ thing was. She tells me it’s a nightclub opening soon but they’ve been building it for bloody ages and they were given the stack of postcards (thousands of them) about 5 months ago. Okay. I took my postcard home and looked up the URL on the card. Hrm, nightclub thing. Dodgy spot for it, but okay. I joined the mailing list. It seemed shiny, and regular emails came. 2 weeks til opening! One week! Then they started a countdown timer on the website that told us it would be opening at 8pm on the first night. Excellent, new club with 24carat gold wall tiles (the emails laid it on thick) and telling us that it is better than Family? Okay, I’ll have a look.
I organised a friend we turned up at about 10pm opening night. All spunktacular, gorgeous and pockets full of money they turned us away at the door and were quite rude about it. ‘INVITATION ONLY TIL MIDNIGHT!’ the security barked. What? The emails had been telling us it was open to the public from 8? Having been a valley-dweller for several years I knew there was no reason to shaft us at the door, but they were having an ego trip.
So where’s the good bit in this story? Because we’d been turned away we decided to spend a few hours somewhere else and head back after midnight.
We wandered up the Valley Mall and found ourself at what used to be Manfreds but is now Bar Burlesque. Six hours later we stumbled out of Bar Burlesque after one of the best nights we’d ever had, having forgotten all about the Met. I have a new favorite bar, complete with pretty non-nude girls and energetic rockabilly bands. HURRAH!
April 28th, 2007 @ 10:18 pm
something nice about the met?? I went there a couple of weeks ago for a friend’s birthday, and because we got there quite early it was not too busy, and scored a nice booth with curtains and cushions etc… that was nice! As the night progressed though, too many agro patrons arrived and drank far too many jager-bombs etc, the music was terrible, and I saw a guy power-spew on the stairs coming down from the dance floor to the booth area, so I decided to go home. The only line bigger than the cab line was the line waiting to get into the met - I’m not quite sure why its so popular?
April 29th, 2007 @ 12:57 am
hahaha!!
Sarah - that was the most awesome story!
Gold star goes to u!
haha…
April 29th, 2007 @ 10:03 am
Well, there is a school of thought as to whether Deep Dish can be classified as music at all, but, hey I won’t bring that up!
Your review is well written. Not that I was ever going to go there anyway, but you get that. Personally, I can only stand going to Rics Cafe and the Troubadour, and there seems to be a dire lack of venues that have live original acts and a friendly atmosphere.
Eh, the Valley is going to hell.
April 29th, 2007 @ 5:45 pm
Somehow I think the rough crowd from Future Music Festival who went there for the FMF after-party now have a new home!
June 18th, 2007 @ 4:49 pm
Hi Guys
great blog here! I’ve come up from Sydney, wide eyed and out of my element!
I went to the Met on Saturday and didnt really find fault. Maybe they’ve lifted their game the past 3 or so months since opening. The crowd were generally well behaved, didnt witness any ‘power pukes’, and was mighty impressed with the venue. Very big, and had these hidden nooks and crannies which made it ‘mysterious’ I suppose.
Although if I were to make a neg obs, i’d say that the guys there gave off strong pongs of desperation. ie was a meat market, kinda what you’d expect in an rnb club
Can’t wait till the weekend where I will def try “the family”.
June 18th, 2007 @ 7:48 pm
HI Henry,
Welcome to Bris. That was a very diplomatic assessment of the Met - nice to know. Hope you’re enjoying Bris and if you ever want to make any observations at length - let us know - we’ll post it up.
July 6th, 2007 @ 8:49 pm
The price thing does suck, but I think you need to qualify why you think the sound system sucks. I heard Sneaky along with a studio engineer from ABC and both agreed it was the best we’d heard, better that MOS in London. Are sure the DJ just was just crap with crappy cd, mp3’s etc.
I think the price has affected your ears
October 4th, 2007 @ 11:18 am
ok i went to the met wit my sis friends b’day party i hate it that place since i put my foot in it. i was walking up the stairs and my shoe got stuck and pplz where pushing up and i ended up with a broken shoe! so i could not dance so.. my sis friend friend he was nice to buy me drinks and so i got a bit tipsy wit him, my sis and b’day gurl. then this man stared hangin around us kissin b’day gurl so she rejected him and went for me and so i rejected him but he kept on comin back so i just set next to the guy that kept on buyin drinks and they nearly ended up in a fight so we left but the point of the story is that b’day gurl did not remember much about the night but she remember that she had fun! the family is better!
January 28th, 2008 @ 10:51 pm
Its almost been a year since this review was written and i do think it is time for an update.
I agree that the met is a good venue and well set up, Including the sound system. As any club around Brisbane you are going to get the idiots for lack of a better term. You cant stop that, its fueled by alcohol which funds the club.
I think you should go there again, maybe even to see Dirty South DJing on the 15th of febuary and have another listen. You said some pretty good things about the place, some bad things and only went into detail about the good things. It was bad is a pretty poor summary, because i and numerous others that frequent the met think it is ‘Really GOOOD’
March 16th, 2008 @ 9:50 pm
My Valley experiences have given me a great insight into the difference between the 3 major clubs in the Valley (Family, Moantery and Met). My first Valley experience was at the met, having nothing to compare it to, I thought the place was off the hook. I was back then however, one of the drunken city crowd. After a while I began to venture around the Valley, learning to dance gave me good reason to leave the met. I was sick and tired of slutty arrogant chicks pushing through the dance floor to get back to what ever penis they were rubbing themselves against in what they refer to as ‘dancing’. I was introduced to the rave section of the beat, which was great, good happy hardcore music, perfect for dancing to. I was however mistaken. The other ‘ravers’ at the beat have a very different idea. Unlike the true raver spirit, they dance their one way, stomp, and when you go in there and dance differently (I dance melbourne shuffle), prefare yourself for the cold shoulder and ridicule. I have never been made to feel so embarased even though I am a really great shuffle dancer. Then the family. Ahh finaly…..BLISS. Great music, great people, Great venue. f4@k the Met and it’s arrogant, drunk, abusive, ‘uper class’ crowd. They can keep there high heels and there smirnoff blacks. The can keep there button up collar shirts and their jager-bombs. F@%k the beat with its ‘PLUR’ (yeah right), real ravers are there for the music, not to show off, dance to express not impress. LONG LIVE THE FAMILY!
June 17th, 2008 @ 7:49 pm
I know it has been a while since this thread has started but as someone who frequents the met, I think it’s time someone said something nice!
The club has been open almost 2 years now, they must be doing something right as it’s still the busiest place in town including Family. They are more accepting on the dress code which is generally something that would be bitched about. The acts that have come through have been amazing such as Carl Cox, Eric Morillo etc. and are at a pretty bargain basement price of $15!! I have never been able to see these acts at these prices elsewhere!
Now back to that guy from Deep Dish, are you 100% sure that it was the mets fault he was later than anticipated? From what I heard from a friend that knows someone there, there were complications with the actual artist and not the venue.
The DJs there may not play whats classified in everyones mind as ‘cool’ or all about the music but pull the pole from you keaster as they play to the masses, that my friends is the way of the new generation. It just seems to me like the gent who wrote this ‘review’ started with a bad taste due to him actually being allowed in Family and that caused a bias opinion.
I have been going out for 10 years and it’s usually these types of people that want free entry & special treatment so that can be a chin stroker. Look around people… the new generation is loving the met and I think this was proved with such catastrophes as We love sounds, Tiesto, Armin Van Helden at family…dead quiet!
So what do I have to say about the met? They are the only club that is about the whole experience and not just about the music, it makes you dance with your friends, try new cocktails, the aircon is good, you can get to the loo no probs and the DJs there do not play radio station music but the stuff I download from beatport and the big tracks you all dance to at festivals! The price is cheap and girls are pretty, there are dancers and performers and visual screens, the staff are great if you dont act like a wanker or if you dont make out you deserve something!
Get with it guys.. you all talk about the RE and crap places I’m sure genuine music lovers would not have been to. It’s all good to write a bad review and blame everything on the venue that so many people enjoy.. maybe you should not write a review on a come down!!
September 19th, 2008 @ 7:09 pm
My little cent contribution: best clubs I’ve ever been to have been small ones, more underground and for ‘those in the know’. Never been to Aus so can’t comment. But as far as the UK it was more those outdoor raves, indoor squat parties, clubs specialising in various alternative forms of dance etc. South Africa it’s the outdoor parties. Big, corporate clubs are just like the Levi’s and McDonald’s of this world: they see you as little more than a revenue stream. Hope you find something better in future, where true fans embracing the essense of what dance music is all about, abound! (PS: reason for landing on this page is my investigation into a possible emmigration to Oz / Brisbane).
November 10th, 2008 @ 2:12 pm
i have only been to the Met a couple of time only because i was pretty much dragged there by my ear. My first experiance was enough to throw me off forever… It gets far to cold down stairs where you sit in the seating areas which most of them either smell like piss, vomit or like someones tipped a whole bottle of vodka over the tables and chairs…. Yuk! i dont enjoy putting up with that smell while im trying to stop shaking from the cold also trying to get some sleazebag to stop cracking on to my friends and i… the amount of times i have had to ask sercurity to get some drunk Horney guy away from me is unbelievable and only once has it resulted in the guy being thrown out of the club every other time the guy gets to stay and move on to the next bunch of chicks untill you come across him again only to have him try and feel u up which gets our guy friends involved which leads to a fight…. and still the sleazebag gets to stay in the Met and harass another girl!!! the music has its moments but i enjoy dancing more to the buskers on the streets. Also the fact they dont have red bull pisses me off! my belly and i are not big fans of jager and V!! i think the Met needs to jump off there high horses and lower their cover charge coz they aint all that and a bag of chips!!!
March 24th, 2009 @ 1:27 am
Yes the staff are lovely at The Met!
My sister lost a $200 earing to which i proceeded to tell a staff member (i know it might be stupid in a club but there is a chance that someone had handed it in) in which he replies “I dont give a f**k!”
Charming.
June 22nd, 2009 @ 5:23 pm
I just turned 18 and a bunch of us wanted to go to a nightclub since it was a few of us that have just turned 18 we were really excited about going so we went to the Met. When we got there we went up to the place to be let in and my boyfriend was rejected because he was wearing boots (as he said they werent steelcaped) he was still refused and told to “move along” I felt bad about leaving him behind but he said i should go and so when i got up to go pay i pulled out money and my ID and i accidently dropped my ID and thinking of crap i better pick this up seeing as it is my drivers license i bent over and picked it up and one of the staffed yelled out to me “Did you just come under that rope” in a very rude tone and i said no i dropped my ID. When paying no one gave us a smile or anything, i ended up missing a step later on in the night and falling on my knees and i thought wow this sucks, Ill give the met probably 1 more go. Also when we left to go outside my feet were killing and all the bouncer could say to everyone standing in the one place for more than a second move along move along…a friend of mine turned to me and said if i here move along one more time…
June 23rd, 2009 @ 4:22 pm
Haha, I think I met you out that night Kendall.
I seem to remember you saying how your boyfriend bought those boots especially to come out and then he couldn’t get in with them on
June 5th, 2010 @ 2:00 pm
Wow I never knew the Met was once 20+. I’ve been going since I was 16. Yes, the big buff tattooed bouncers looked at my drivers license with my real date of birth and the idiots still let me in. I’m 18 and I still love it. Everything is top of the price range. Cover charge, drinks, events. So you wanna get drunk first and arrive early. I love that its huge and if you don’t wanna talk to someone you can disappear and you probably wont see them again. The music can be boring at times. There’s no really good techno floor like at the monastery, the family and the beat, and the floor right at the front that plays recognizable songs is way too small. The atmosphere is what I go for. Whether you go with one person or 10 there’s always something to do! Its always packed, which is awesome. And when you do bump into someone that isn’t disgusting, old, vomiting, violent, blind drunk, or high as a kite; you can make some great friends! I suppose if you go, its good to b warned of what can b not so great, but b in the state of mind to not care or let it ruin your night
Oh and yeah I agree, Family and the Beat are better. But what I don’t get about the beat is why its always empty downstairs? Is it cuz that’s where all the straight people are but not a lot of straight people go cuz they’re afraid of the gay people?