Fabric Nightclub

My friends and I were visiting Vancouver the weekend of June 2^nd 2012 and we decided to checkout Fabric nightclub. It was the worse clubbing experience of my life. We arrived around 11:45pm and there was no lineup… This should’ve been the red flag for us but we went in anyways. The whole club was pretty much dead and this was very disappointing for a club in Vancouver, especially on a Saturday night. We thought it would pick up after midnight and decided to give the club a chance and stay until 12:30am — we were wrong. People started leaving and we did too to go to another club even though we forked out $ 20 each for cover already.
Drinks are overpriced — $ 7 for domestic beers and jaggerbombs were $ 11 each which used red rain energy drink instead of red bull!
Overall do not go to this club, the good days are probably long gone.

What a shithole! Bouncers are the worst!

Fabric is known as the asian club to go to in Gastown. Probably the other club with a similar reputation would be Boss in Yaletown. Its ok, though not really that great. The girls are pretty in the standard mini-​skirts and all made up. Unfortunately, the male: female ratio was in the range of 5 guys to 1 girl when I went. The girls just dance with their girlfriends, and with occasional boyfriend or friend they know already.
The club does have VIP and private seating areas. I felt like the place just caters to the promoting staff. Music was typical top-​40 stuff. Drinks were expensive, so I didn’t see anyone get drunk there. Party starts to climax around midnight imo. Door opens at 10:30, and the place stays empty and deserted until about 11:30. I don’t know why they force you to line up outside when its so empty inside still with so much space. I would probably go party somewhere else, like the pub next door where there are already tons of people by 10pm, and then maybe swing by after midnight if I really needed to get into an «asian» club.
It felt like a high school dance to me. Except I think high school parties are probably more crazy nowadays. I can’t imagine gangsters and posers actually showing up at this place. It would just seem pathetic. The security staff are far too numerous and situated at every corner. Even a mild appearance of intoxication with alcohol or drugs will get you evicted and banned for the night.

It’s always a big turn-​off to be forced into line by a meathead working the door who only lets you in to an empty bar after a half hour wait. I’ll honestly say I wouldn’t go to this hole unless it were free for our group before 10:30; they tried to charge us all anyway after forcing us to wait until after the ‘deadline’. We were able to get in finally after threatening leave.
Once inside it was nothing special. If you’re forced to listen to Virgin radio all day, you’ll hate the music because I would swear it was a no commercial dub.
Drinks were their usual speedy but nothing special self. Seven dollars for a Corona in a bar with nothing but black walls and a couple cages don’t merit such a price, unless they’re honestly paying those gogo dancers more than a bill a night.
If you go, don’t expect much, go in a giant group so you don’t notice the bull, or the 95% all Asian crowd. Girls, be ready to be walking in vomit in the washroom, who can’t handle their liquor???
Ma copine a dû nager en vomit en allant à la toilette! On m’a dit que les Asiatique né pouvaient pas boire mais je n’aurai jamais imaginé!
Nous avons dû attendre 30 minutes avant d’entrer juste pour voir que la boîte a été vide. Ce n’était pas nécessaire de payer seulement après que nous avons disputé et menacé de s’en aller (c’était auparavant gratuit avant 10:30 pour notre groupe). À l’intérieure il n’y a rien de spectaculaire. Alors, si vous allez avec beaucoup d’amis, il sera possible de s’amuser, peut-​être…

This is probably the hot Asian club at the moment — think Atlantis back in the day. However, this place sucks. Scowled faced tough guy wannabes on the walls hovering around young Asian teens in all black travelling in tight herds all in a overpacked, sweaty nightclub. The crowd is 90% Asian. I’ve been dragged here a few times and I’ve seen at least two fights break out everytime. With the shady characters they let in, this is my top pick for the next nightclub shooting.
Then again, maybe I’m getting old — how can this place be popular and suck? Well — I haven’t gotten to the worst part: the corrupt staff. Cover is whatever the bouncers decide to charge — even if you stood in line for an hour. Okay, so you take care of the bouncer to get in, the admission staff will try to hit you up for more money on top of cover (‘Oh, there are no hats allowed — I’ll watch it for $ 10′). Then the coat check girl will try to charge you $ 20 to check two jackets (and they have ‘lost’ jackets before). You can easily be out $ 80 before you buy a single drink — I’ve had cheaper (and way better) nights at upscale Vegas clubs. This shitty club even has washroom attendant doing nothing but handing you the paper towels to get every last cent out of you. Want to go outside to have a smoke or get some fresh air and cool down? Well — line up again to get back inside.
If you want to replicate the Fabric experience: blare The Beat in a overcrowded sauna, set a couple hundred bucks on fire while being sodomized by a roided-​out bouncer. At least you don’t have to stand in a line this way.
Go down the street further and you’ll have a much better time at Shine.

My friends and I came here while visiting Vancouver on a Saturday night, and it was a decent experience. The music was a fun mix, and the cages and fog machines were a treat! The crowd was very mixed, and we met some interesting people.
Then again, the drinks were watered down, and the bar only accepted cash. The ATM machine was acting up and that made things a bit more complicated. They didn’t open up the smoking area until after midnight, which didn’t make sense to me because there wasn’t much of a line outside.
Overall it was okay. If I could do it again, I would have chosen a more trendy, upscale club to spend my Vancouver Saturday at.

Way too many posers and wannabes, not my crowd at all. It feels like a freakin sauna in there. They admit more people than the tiny little space can accomodate, which leads to sweat galore (girls, waterproof makeup is a must), repulsive body odors, not to mention guys who oooops dance a little too close for comfort. by accident of course. egh! yes i am aware that i come off as a snooty pretentious vancouver female that vancouver clubs are so notorious for but i dont’ care, and yes i am picky when it comes to clubs!
**EDIT** I uploaded a pic that shows exactly just how annoyingly crowded and gross Fabric is — it’s a freakin mosh pit I tell ya. check it out.

The Basics:
*open until 3am most nights
*cover is at least $ 10 and often more
*crowd is hard partying — gangsters are likely to show up, but it’s really not as bad as some clubs
*multi-​ethnic, mixed scene (usually very asian heavy)
*age group varies, but usually 19 – 28
*average priced drinks
*no VIP area/​bottle service
*staff is not friendly as far as my experience
*3 bars downstairs, 2 dance floors separated by stairs, booths and ample seating areas, another dj upstairs with another dancefloor another bar and more seating
The wordy review:
Fabric is the perfect place to go for an amped up night to get the party out of your system. Most nights they are either playing rap or electronica, but it’s always super energetic. It attracts pretty much the same crowd as Sonar did. If you need me to elaborate, everyone seems a little on edge and all but if you don’t start anything you’ll just feed off the energy and enjoy it. The stairs that go up to the second room are hell for high heels (steep and plentiful), so say a quick prayer before every descent. I actually like to stay up there most of the night because you can watch the dance floor and it’s always more chill up there, both literally and figuratively speaking.