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Fumasa
My last trip to Montreal consisted of popping my Stereo cherry and experiencing the best tribal influenced set by none other than DJ Vibe. Only something next level would be able to top that off.... so here's the rundown:
Beach Club
After a lengthy but enjoyable drive down to the outskirts of Quebec we finally arrived at what we thought was our destination. Our GPS guide, Ms. Tom Tom confidently led us to the address, only to realize that we had stopped at an elementary school and playground. Wow! Perhaps the beach was really an artificial one located inside? lol. Can't always trust machines.. We managed to find our way to the real location after the confirmation of a beach club sign. The parking organization was excellent; managed to park for free outside of the main lot.
It was approximately 2:30ish and we were stoked as Beach Club was in sight! The venue was a lot wider than I had anticipated, with a lot more activities to offer. Didn't have time to check any of them out sadly, but will try to come earlier next year. After a bit of a walk along the beach we came across the central party area. The videos that I had seen of past Ibiza parties were a little bit misleading; they made the party look much bigger. Even the pool looked minuscule compared to what I imagined. But these things were unimportant. Setup was pretty cool. I found that the only place I ever wanted to be was in the heart of the patio dance floor. It was the only spot where I felt a real vibe, which made sense, considering it was pretty much the only place that had people dancing. Lots of fun tiki decorations, masks, coconuts, surfboards, huts and palm trees. Not to mention boobies... oh wait... those weren't decorations. The diversity of the crowd was definately lacking. I would say about 80% were cookie cutter plastic and roid people. We felt so out of place, and I found that I wasn't really turned on by anything... this changed later on in the day when so many gorgeous women populated my view  . There were people wearing costumes and masks, and of course the bongo dudes! Didn't quite like the positioning of the deejay booth, but then at times it looked like the crowd was performing a dance ritual honouring their deejay gods above which gave more life to the theme of the party. Sound system was good only on the dance floor.
It took a long time trying to get into the vibe of the party and I couldn't quite put my finger on why that was. I came to the conclusion that I didn't feel like myself, and my hat had to go. I went back to the car, fixed my fauxhawk and came back to the party as a dinosaur; that's what the party needed! As soon as I came back the total vibe of the party had changed drastically. I felt like I was in Miami... It got more crowded but the party had shifted gears in all areas. There was a live performance of a tribal influenced latin band, a couple of acrobat shows (one in which revolved around pirates. Yarrrr!), and the tunes became ridiculous! Had a blast loving my life 2008 until about 8:30 when we left.
And now for the sets! Vivie-Ann was playing when we had initially arrived. She played electro and tech that was actually bearable. Nice warm up set. Manzone & Strong played decently too. I thought Calderone was taking the 3pm slot but I was glad that M&S played as early as they did. They got a bit too serious at times, but I enjoyed the tech that was played. After the live band performance I finally clued in that the man had taken his position at the booth. It's been forever since I had last seen him, and I got flashbacks of his great set back in 2006 @ Sonic. I knew it would be a fresher and changed sound this time around but I had a big grin.
Victor Calderone started to tease us with warmup filler. At this time the crowd was already going bananas. I decided to dance barefoot to get the real Fumasa experience. Ducklet couldn't stop beaking around either. Definately the highlight of Ibiza 2008 which was expected. It wasn't the best I've heard Calderone, since he's taken a step forward from tribal, but it was damn good. Lots of tech house, a bit of minimal sped up, oh and, did I mention that tribal was actually played too?  Sure, it wasn't a tribal set, but it wasn't absent. A lot of the set was tech tribal and I was happy to catch those moments on camera. I thought the crowd was retarded before, but at the peak moments of his set it definately was a zoo as Patrick had stated. Holy! I was expecting people to climb the steel bars and rafters. Who are these people?!  Montrealers bring something extra to the party that Toronto hasn't quite yet (Although I did find that MTL was a lot ruder than Toronto this time around.) The word Fumasa had been screamed way too much, which was a good thing. Although I'm sick of hearing Grindhouse, it fit the peak of his set perfectly; The breakdown left us all insane.
We were pretty tired after the madness, but we caught some of Danny Torrence who was a doing a hell of a job maintaining the same vibe after Calderone had finished.
Looking forward to next years!
Stereo-Bar
We checked into our hotel, took a break and had a hard time deciding whether or not we would continue or adventures. Just after 12 am we came to the conclusion that Stereo-bar was the place to be. We had no clue that Montreal Pride had taken place this weekend, but we were happy to see the roads blocked and a few people still on the streets. Arrived at the outdoor patio of Stereo which I didn't know existed. We went inside and it was fairly empty up until we left at 3am. This was a bit surprising considering how this was the official after party of Ibiza 2008. The vibe was awesome though. I had equally as good of a time as I did on the beach. There was something magical about this place that just seemed to fill every party void I had.. even one 'college & spadina' one. There was quite a bit of craziness in there... felt like I was in a circus at times. Whoa. And the tunes were proper old school tribal. Heard so many of my older favourites and bombers. No clue who was playing, but even our MTL Stereo-bar friend Melanie was loving it. She made it well known that she loved the deejays' tunes, and wanted to dance for them. LOL. tribal tribal tribal!
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GWARTQZ!!!!
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