Friday night was host to the opening night of Perth’s newest club night “Club Trafik” at the formerly Zanadu nightclub now called HEAT in Stirling St Northbridge. TRAFIK is being promoted as Perth’s ultimate weekly dance experience in Hip Hop, Breaks, Drum & Bass and all things funky.

My friends and I rocked up around 10:30pm and there was a small line out the front as the friendly staff were checking ID and names on the door. The line moved quickly and it wasn’t long until we were wandering around the venue getting our bearings.

The club layout is pretty much the same as it used to be in its early days. There is a bar in the middle of the downstairs area with some tables around the edges. There is a sunken dance floor in front of a huge raised stage, which sported the DJ booth at the back and some dancing girls on the stage. Yes dancing girls. A couple of club dancers grooving away to tunes full of energy and smiles.

But at this time of the night the downstairs area was pretty empty as the real party was going on upstairs. Upstairs also has a bar in the center which opens out into a balcony area which overlooks the dance floor below. The club layout is great there is enough room to hang back and chat or hit the dance floor hard. There is even a small courtyard area outside near the front entrance of the club which is perfect for getting some fresh air and chilling out. It wasn’t long until the downstairs area began to fill up and the party moved down to the dance floor.

The lighting overall is fairly dark with the some UV and coloured roboscan type lighting over the dance floor. There was some interesting flickering strobe like lines of lighting around the edge of the balcony overlooking the dance floor which light up sequentially forward then back. The club lighting seems set for some big dance floor clubbing action.
The sound gear is big and loud yet still fairly clear and crisp as DJ Armee demonstrated putting the audio gear to the test with some awesome scratching and a great mix of a fast groove hip-hop track into the deep throbbing intro of an old Prodigy track and back and forth before dropping right into the full force of the Prodigy’s phat bass and big snares. There was a range of styles played that night and some swapping back and forth with Dazz K playing some great breaks, Armee cranking the Hip Hop before Joby came on with some funky breaks that soon became some funky hard house tracks. The dance floor was soon pumping and the night was in full swing.

With Friday nights set to have residencies from Echoic, Gully & Joby and Regular Guests: Dazz K, Dan the Man, Doug Disco, Armee, Skelly, Smoulder & Saul Bliss, Club Trafik looks set to be a great Friday night out. And the venue already has a big line up of events on the way. Finally Perth has a new place for punters, which isn’t just commercial dance and glow-stick crew.