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Winter Music Conference 2007 (WMC) A Review with Photo's
So here's the full rundown of Miami... it's going to be a long read and lots of pics. Hope you enjoy 
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Arrival to Miami / Checking our Bearings / Enjoying the Sun
Today started off at 6:30am from Ontario, Canada with waking up to a snowstorm. Now as much as I hate driving in the snow, there was a feeling of bliss knowing that in only a few hours I would be leaving it all behind.
We arrived around noon today to the sun and festivities that will be my first time in Miami, as well as WMC.
We’ve been settling into our hotel and preparing for the week by touring around the main strip (we’re right across from Cameo and down the street from Miami Ink). Elevation invited us out to a party he’s playing over in Hollywood at Passion in the Hard Rock Cafe, but seeing as it would be a $100 cab ride either way, we sadly declined on the offer.
After a tour down to the beach and a must needed alcohol run, we’re settling in for the night, taking things easy for what I’m sure will be a week of debauchery and excitement.
Photo's from March 19th (40 images) - HERE
Perfecto Night at Cameo with Kenneth Thomas, Hernan Cattaneo, Sandra Collins, and Paul Oakenfold
Today started with a casual stroll down Ocean Drive for some breakfast on a patio followed by a long morning walk on the beach as we continued to soak in the fact that we were in paradise in South Beach.
It was a long day on the beach full of sun and walking, which in hind-sight may not have been the best idea seeing as tonight was to be out first actual party night.
We attended the Perfecto Night at the former Crobar (now called Cameo) featuring Kenneth Thomas, Hernan Cattaneo, Sandra Collins, and Mr. Perfecto himself: Paul Oakenfold.
KT was playing as we arrived nice and early. His lovely wife invited us up into the DJ booth and passed us a few drink tickets. It was at this time I ran into one of the reasons I started DJing: Darude. Absolutely fantastic meeting him and we hope to hang out more during the rest of the conference.
KT’s set finished up and Hernan came on. I’m personally not a fan of Hernan’s groovy-house style, but the crowd seemed to enjoy the flow of the set.
Next up was Sandra Collins complete with her DVDJ’s and VJ crew for support. She started out with a great electro remix of “Float Away” but lost most of the energy from that point on. Again, I was disappointed as Sandra seemed more interested in other things instead of mixing. Oh well.
Oakenfold hit the stage by 3am to a completely rammed club. Not sure on the capacity, but it was full up. The ice cannon’s and lighting system were in full effect as well.
All in all, a great start to the week at hand.
Photo's from March 20th (152 images) - HERE
Dinner with Andy Moor and Elevation / Sander van Doorn at 5th
Day two started off as nice as the previous day: a walk down Ocean Drive and breakfast on the patio. Met up with the London crew and wandered down to the Wet Grooves party. There’s nothing like a day on the beach with sun and dance music coming from a hotel patio.
We met up with Andy Moor and his friends for sushi along with Elevation who joined us a little later. It’s always trouble when we all get into the same room (for the restaurant staff anyway) but always a great time for everyone. We decided to head back down to the Wet Grooves party to see what was up down there.
Later that night was a party I’d personally been looking forward to for quite some time: Sander van Doorn at 5th, hosted in conjunction with TranceAddict. Great opening set from Edgar V to really set the tone of the night. Sander came on a little after 1am opening with “By Any Demand” which I’ve got a feeling will be one of the major tracks talked about for the conference. Sander finished up a little after 4am with a still packed out house. Absolutely brilliant set with a great crowd full of excellent people. Fantastic night overall.
Photo's from March 21st (100 images) - HERE
Above and Beyond at Apple Store / Ferry Corsten at Cameo + VIP Shenanigans
Day three started slowly with a gigantic headache: proof the previous evening was a resounding success. Headed down to Ocean Drive for some breakfast and then off to get signed in at the National hotel for the Beatport Remix Hotel events. Had the pleasure of meeting Paul van Dyk for the first time before he did a lecture on Logic Pro at the Apple area.
Then it was off to the actual Apple store on Lincoln Drive for a short 1hr performance by Above and Beyond. Great hanging out with the boys in such an intimate and tiny ‘venue’ and seeing people who weren’t clubbers getting into the music and dancing around in the store.
Tonight was back at Cameo for a night of Ferry Corsten. It was great running into Edgar V and Arturo Amnesia backstage. Highlight of Ferry’s set for me personally was hearing Filo and Peri’s “Anthem” with not only the entire place singing along, but Bo and Dom standing there hands in the air the entire time, soaking it all in. A great moment, that’s for sure.
However the major highlight of the night for me was having Tiesto and BT show up for the party in the VIP. Partying it up with those guys and the Blackhole crew was totally the icing on the cake for such an already great event. I can’t wait to find out what the final nights here in Miami have in store.
Photo's from March 22nd (65 images) - HERE
Miami Ink / Beatport Party at Remix Hotel / Nikki Beach with Filo and Peri, Sander van Doorn, Christopher Lawrence, Andy Moor, Above and Beyond
Today’s festivities started earlier than usual. We headed down to Ocean Drive for some breakfast with the London crew to catch up on their stories of the week’s shenanigans.
On our way down we walked past Miami Ink’s studio and noticed that Darren Brass was sitting outside. We chatted for a bit and also noticed Chris Nunez sitting in the near-by restaurant. Apparently they were filming that day for the current season.
We decided to head back up to our hotel after dinner and do some shopping before heading over to the Beatport party at the Remix Hotel. We ran into Paris Hilton on our travels, which was quite the spectacle to be seen. You never get a true showing of the paparazzi until you see them in their prime as they were definitely out in full force.
After some quick shopping we headed down to the Beatport party. Our goal was to catch some of fellow Canadian DJ Richie Hawtin as he is always on fire during his WMC events. We ran into Greg Benz and his wife and friends and a slew of other people, so the party vibe was top notch. Sadly his set was delayed and we had already planned to meet with Josh Gabriel for a lecture on Logic Pro. Following Josh’s demonstration was a lecture by BT himself on Logic as well as a private 5.1 surround screening of This Binary Universe. Again, sad we had to miss this but we needed to head back to the hotel to grab some dinner and prepare for the night’s events down at Nikki Beach.
We arrived to Nikki Beach with Filo and Peri on the decks rocking out to a decent sized crowd. The club is very dark in the evening as there is no lighting system on the dance floor so that was sort of a surprise. As far as we knew, the lineup was to include Andy Moor, Cosmic Gate, Blank and Jones, and Talla 2XLC. However when we arrived the bill had nearly pulled a complete 180. Now the lineup read Filo and Peri, Sander van Doorn, Christopher Lawrence, Above and Beyond, and Andy Moor; so for me this was better than expected.
Sander and crew arrived and he hit the decks with “By Any Demand” just as he did on Wednesday. The place was on fire and really receptive to his banging tech-trance style.
Chris Lawrence came on after SVD but the club wasn’t too interested in his style and the vibe started to drain and the dance floor began to thin.
Above and Beyond arrived a little while later with quite a surprised expression on their face to how dark the club looked. The sound was also pretty mediocre (the VIP didn’t even have any speakers at all and the roof was leaking). After a lot of discussion and waiting around, Jono and Paavo decided to try and get Andy to switch timeslots as he plays a bit higher energy set to try and bring the vibe back up.
Andy arrived and started on the decks with a more housey-trance feel to which the crowd loved: the vibe was restored. Pounding out tracks from his AVA Recordings label along with quite a few new gems, the dance floor quickly returned to its capacity. However, after about 45 minutes he had lost his patience with the monitor cutting in and out and handed the stage over to A&B.
The lads came out with “Black is the Colour” to quite a receptive crowd. They were all ready for a full-on hands-in-the-air evening. As always, the tune of the night for me from A&B was “Good For Me”. We met up with Kristina Sky and Topher Jones out on the patio which was fantastic. Everyone seemed to be in a great mood and happy to party on the beach.
All in all it was a night of events and a lot of confusion, but I think things ended up pretty well. Now to rest up for the final evening of shenanigans for the conference.
Photo's from March 23rd (138 images) - HERE
Armada Party at Twilo with Matthew Dekay, Armin van Buuren, Markus Schulz, and Rank 1 / Party at Karu with Sander van Doorn, Blank and Jones, Sean Miller, and Tiesto
Today we decided to take things easy because in the evening it was to be our last major day of partying and we wanted to be fully rested up. Most of the day was spent lounging around and doing some local shopping around the hotel.
We hit up the Armada party first in the evening at Twilo walking in with Matthew Dekay hammering away on the decks. I’ve always been a major fan of Dekay, so to see him flawlessly working a crowd here in Miami was something very special. Great seeing Blake Jarrell and Topher Jones out again up near the front. We headed down to the VIP and chatted with Armin for a bit and a few minutes later Ferry showed up to join in with the partying.
Elevation arrived a few minutes later as did Markus Schulz: the night was quickly becoming a star-studded time. Armin came on around 12:45 and was banging out until about 3:30. His set was alright, but in all honesty he seems to play a lot different and more exciting in Toronto than he did this evening. Markus came on at about 3:30an with a great new intro track and was holding the crowd very well.
We headed over to Karu Nightclub for around 5am and Sander van Doorn was just finishing up. Blank and Jones were up next and they started throwing down their mix of old and new trance. They weren’t bad, but again they play a better set in Toronto.
We headed out to the back terrace a little after 6:00am and Torontonian DJ Sean Miller was ripping on the decks. Great to see him once again as he’s always one of my favorite local DJ’s. The reason we were at Karu though was for the “Special Guest” known to the public as “The King and his Friends”; it was pretty obvious though that it was Tiesto.
He arrived in the VIP and grabbed some food before hitting the decks for 7am. His set was very housey but it was amazing to see Tiesto play in Miami as the sun rose up to an exclusive and small crowd. Special thanks to Craig and Julie for letting us know about the party.
Photo's from March 24th (100 images) - HERE
Recovery / Relaxation / Soaking it All in
Today was to be a relaxing and a “take-it-all-in” style of day. We lounged around the beach, walked up and down the strip, grabbed some nice food.
We had planned to head back down to the Beatport hotel for a quick set from Gabriel and Dresden, but unfortunately they weren’t letting people in anymore so that didn’t end up working out for us.
It was our final night in Miami, so we just relaxed and thought about the craziness of the previous 5 days.
Photo's from March 25th (25 images) - HERE
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