New Brisbane

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 st is always available.

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!