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I woke up and hopped in the shower and put on my white sweater; not anything I was wearing for that night, I just felt the need to start the festivites early.
I picked up Scott and his girlfriend from the Metro and we chilled for a bit. Most of the day was really a blur as we didn't really do anything.
We did however hit up Schwartz for dinner. Let me tell you, INCREDIBLE. Just amazing. 100% recommend this place to anyone visiting Montreal. Then we metup with Kelly's friends from TO who were going as well. We did some ticket hunting (still last minute) to no avail and then Karl took us up to Mount Royal for a peak at Montreal at night. It was breathtaking how beautiful it was. Just amazing. Being from London where the only way to see something like that is to low-fly a plane, this was just great.
Then it was back to Karl's to get ready. We threw on Tiesto in Concert on the TV and made good use of his surround sound system as we got set to leave.
We arrived at the convention center by about 9:30 as we still needed tickets. Just as we walked in I spied Malek running around. I caught up to him and introduced myself. He looked pretty suprised that we had travelled from London for this show.
We slowly made it through the line to find out that ticket prices had jumped up a bit for us; $100 per person later and we were inside. The coat check was IMMESE and 100% organized (a hell of a lot better than the Docks for Tiesto that's for sure).
We turned the corner and there it was *WOOMPH WOOMPH WOOMPH* in your stomach, the feel of bass in your feet.... it was beginning. After a grope fest of a search we walked into the first room on our right. We walk in and it was just this immense sized room. Holy hell it was big. We wandered around surveying the place and then made our way to the other room. Inside this one they had a huge stage in the middle of the room. Pretty slick. We met up with Malek inside here again and chatted for a bit as he snapped some pics. Then we headed back over to the Trance room.
Preach was kicking pretty well. The place started to fill up and he started playing some higher energy tunes. Then he started dropping some pretty popular tunes; enough for Kandaio and I to look at one another and wonder if Tiesto had approved his choices. He was going really hard and I wondered if he realized he was opening or what because it really felt like he thought he was headlining up there.
By about 1:45am we saw Tiesto's manager come in with his vinyl case and start unravelling his headphones. By this point we had pushed ourselves to about 20 feet away from dead center; prime position (we thought). Then he walked out from behind the VIP crowd and here he was for me again not 3 months after seeing him in Toronto in December; TIESTO.
With a quick and odd look to Preach he started off nice and light. The crowd was surging and it was becoming increasingly annoying. All of a sudden I saw Tiesto starting to freak out to one of the tech guys...he was having some serious trouble. I noticed him pointing to his vinyl and jumping around not in normal Tiesto fashion at all. From what it looked like, the vinyl was skipping so much he couldn't use it; so from that point on it was all (what looked to be anyway) just CD's. This presented quite the show for us experienced Tiesto listeners. His set was filled with unknown tracks and what seemed to be promo's and new releases. It was f'n INCREDIBLE.
I did have a little problem though; I had to use the washroom. What seemed to be a regular challenge through a crowd of people turned out to be a HELL of a problem. I had to go all the way upstairs, around a bunch of corners, and then wait in a friggin' line to use it. Co-ed was cool, except for the guy who TRIED TO GRAB MY FUCKING BALLS while I was taking a leak; hope he enjoys the punch to the gut I gave him.
Anyway, back downstairs I ran and found Kandaio and the crew again...which wasn't easy. On and on Tiesto went with these unknown tracks with such melodic flow that it was like I was in another place. Then it hit; TRAFFIC...the place went ballistic. He followed that up with a new remix of Love Comes Again. The place had a new found energy level when these were dropped; it was amazing.
I loved the balloons through the air as well; especially the ones that made it up to Tiesto and he playfully hit them back to the crowd; that was awsome.
He finished up and started the Encore though and I was lost in everything he brought me; his remix of Push - Universal Nation was great (played it at De Dam benefit concert), and then when he dropped Adagio for Strings I just lost control.
Then it was all over once again and Benny Bennasi dropped onto the decks starting with "Love is Gonna Save Us" as Tiesto was signing people's stuff.
We had to get out of there though; it was UBER loud. My ears have never hurt like that before.
After wandering around we decided we needed to actually leave; it was just literlally painful for the ears.
Headed home, and off to sleep until mid-day the next day.
Problems with Bal en Blanc though....
1. I knew I woudln't fit it well with all the french speaking people, but I didn't realize I had to be a muscle-bound, tanned, shaved head, big hoop pierced, heavily tatto's and sweaty guy as well. That was rediculous how many of those guys there were; all rude, all sweaty, and all f'n huge.
2. I'm used to Toronto crowds where they push politely; Montreal was just f'n throwing you around. Quite uncool.
3. It was WAY too loud; I'm a DJ I like it loud but physical pain from how loud that was and still not being able to hear correctly 2 days later isn't cool at all; I'm kind of worried actually.
4. I WASN"T ALLOWED TO BRING MY CAMERA!!!!! 
But all in all.... a trip of a lifetime!
THANK YOU ALL FOR READING!!!
http://chrisallen.kandaio.com for pics of Decedance, PM me if you want anything fullsize!
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)
but that's too long of a story anyway to get into). We turned the corner and saw all the colored mirrors and I just about shit my pants; 4 city blocks this building takes up. We were in for one hell of an experience. We wandered inside and up to the second level (after checking out the pink forest of course). We managed to get all the way up to the doors and peak inside before security asked us what the hell we were doing. We saw the setup with the giant flowers and everything.... let me tell you, the reaction for seeing how big this place was for the first time was pretty incredible. Just huge... we couldn't wait.
I hear Mtl is notorious for some good ones
POINTIN' AT THE GOODS!
