Spent a week in Melbourne recently and was looking for a good place to party it up Jersey style on a Friday night. Walked around Southbank for awhile and none of the bars really seemed to have anything going on, which was weird because the whole area seemed ripe for a grand ole time.
Eventually made it all the way over the Crown casino, and I remembered Fusion was one of the places I had googled as a potential stop on my Melbourne bar/club hopping evening. Made my way over around midnight - very short line and $15 cover for boys and for girls. Not too bad, and despite the TSA style security (bouncer + they take everyone's picture as you walk in - what is this, customs?), I wandered on in.
Inside the place is a lot smaller than I expected. There's two main levels - the bottom level had all the house music, and the dance floor was flanked by 2 bars (easy to get a drink, but apparently if you want shots after 1am you are out of luck. weird). House music was consistently good, even though the crowd was a bit sparse (although it picked up a little around 1am).
Upstairs was a hip hop (current and 90's) room along with another bar. Equally sparse crowd, although this helped if you wanted to just stand by the balcony area and admire the crowd in the main room below.
Honestly I could have gone either way with this review. The club didn't stand out in any way and I was wavering between a 3 and a 4. However, I upped it due to:
a) pretty good light / laser system on the main floor
b) DJ upstairs played "Pony" by Ginuwine
c) when it comes down to it, I'd rather have more space to walk around in than less.
3.5 stars, rounded up. Good show Aussies read more