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Montreal vs Toronto vs NA Electronica scene
Okay.. with all this debate going on on who has the better scene between Montreal and Toronto. I will give my two cents.
Give you some background on me. I am a Montreal and have been living here for the past 12 years, but, contrarely to most of you, I have been to a lot of other places and for a long period: Toronto (for 6 months: work and party), LA & San Diego (1 week: party), New York (1 week of partying), Boston, San Fran, Miami, Ibiza, London, Barcelona, Rimini, Rome, Madrid, Paris, Amsterdam and I could go on..
I camn honestly say that MTL has one of the best nightlifes in the world.. London has a great one too, but it is different.. same goes with Ibiza... It is hard to compare North America to Europe since european cities tend to have on a regular basis the best DJs and that the electronic scene has matured.. People tend to be older and classier at events.. Anyways, I could start a whole thread on a europe vs north america perception of electronica and clubbing scene.
Now, as far as North America is concerned, I would have to say that, the only cities that can compare (same if not better) to Montreal are NY City, San Fran and Miami.
Now, here is why Toronto is not better than Montreal (and trust me I wa sthere for 6 months, so I know the place really well).
1. Electronic music in MTL is a lifestyle, mainstream and is everywhere. Most bars, restaurants and clubs play electronica. St-Laurent street is, for me, reminiscent of Italy (where house music is huge too) and Ibiza. Everything everywhere is house/techno/etc. In Toronto, the more commercial and most popular sound is R&B and hip hop.
2. Toronbto does not have the same type of quality chill-out restaurant-bars that we have in Montreal.. The only other place you can find such a huge proportion of house bars (Im talking here about all St-lAurent bars) (not clubs) is in Europe
3. As far as DJ quality and number, I think that the scenbe is pretty comparable. You do have a comparable number of great DJs comming to Toronto. So, no real difference there!
4. I personnaly don't enjoy the TO crowd much (but, some people might prefer the TO crowd):
a) It is much more of a clubber crowd
b) There are lots of 50-year old cracked out asians at the Guvernment (one of the main TO afters)
c) There are not as many sexy people
d) People tend to be not as sociable
e) There are lots of really young people
BUT, I think that you can find better dancers (lots of liquid dancers), better lightshow people than in MTL
WHILE in MTL, it is more of a "Touch me and I want to touch you" crowd in afters/raves (in general)
5. The fact that clubs close at 2AM really sucks especially for someone used to going out later at night (12-1AM like me)
6. Venues:
a) The guvernment is probably one of the most beautiful complexes I have ever seen (it is even comparable to some Ibiza clubs; but the crowd just sucks (see above), the DJ is too far from the action... A great laser system though, and great side rooms (Charlies, Tanja, etc)
b) System is not bad.. it is sort of the TO sona.. even though the crowd, again, is not as fashionable and nice looking as at Sona
c) Turbo, Tonic and others are okay at best.
d) Industry, while it was open, was the shit. I must say that since the place has closed down, the TO nightscene has gone down a lot (especially the crowd)
e) Lack of variety... You only have 3-4 afters with a handful of descent clubs and bars for a city twice the size of Montreal..
So, anyways, I believe that MTL has one of the better nightlifes ine North America (even the world).
1) It is completely different that the European scene, so it is impossible to compare
2) Compared to other major NA cities, only NY, Miami, and San Fransisco are comparable
3) Toronto, without Industry, and with the subpar crowd, lackluster variety and quantity of good house/techno bars/clubs, etc, can not compare to Montreal's
Don't get me wrong. I've enjoyed myself in the past in TO and it is great and better than lots of cities' (for example, LA, Boston, Atlanta, etc), but Montreal, due to its European touch/influences and all points mentionned above, is, in my opinion, better!
Sorry for the long post.. but I had to give my two cents on that issue...
Moose
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madinetna a7sen men madinethoum 
