I know chinamon had a picture thread, so i'm not sure if it is proper etiquette to post this as a new thread or not. Ah what the hell:

Sorry for the delay folks... my weekend ended up being a real marathon (not planned!) and I'm still recovering. As a result, I have decided I need a personal trainer to give me more stamina to perform better in the future. I've now been awake for 56.28 hours. Leap says I'm a tiny bit grumpy. Well....I'M NOT.. OKAY?! SO BACK OFF! I'M TRAINING!

Now onto the review.



I have to say i was pretty tired on Saturday, and said to Leap, you know, I'm not sure I want to go out tonight. This brings up an important rule in our house hold... if we don't want to go out...we DON'T go out. We never go out for the sake of just...going. So I decided to stay in.

Then the clock hit 8 pm. And I felt my heart quicken a little. I heard some beats from the computer... adrenaline hit my body, and my foot started tapping. "Egad!" I exclaimed to myself... "how can I NOT go out?" Especially peering down my MSN list and seeing all the tag lines for MASTIKSOUL & CL beside so many names. I'm STILL kicking myself for missing Rene @ )(otel. I decided I wouldn't miss this one. Cat said she might go too, so there'd be some company

So I showered up, got dressed, donned a new swank top and hairdo, and was ready to kick it. Off I went to one of my favourite places of late, Footwork, to listen to the beats of Carlo Lio and Mastiksoul.

So I had done a little research (but not much) on Mastiksoul before heading down. He had a huge production list... being the n00b that I am, I didn't recognize anything, but tried to familiarize myself with the titles and styles. I heard he was into tribal, which is cool, because that's one of my favourite genres (Uhh... Eric Entrena @ the Zone on Feb 18th, anyone?!). And hey, all house music is good music, so I knew I wouldn't be disappointed.

I showed up at my usual arrival time of 10:30 ish. I really like hearing opening sets, and I hate arriving to the club when it is already packed--I like getting there early so I can chill, find my way around say hi to the DJs that are spinning without rudely interrupting them, etc. And, I really like to hear the slower beats of the opening sets to set the tone for the evening. Anyone else enjoy doing that? I'm still enjoying Nathan Barato's set from the Koolhaus..>I remember being the FIRST one in there. I'm not over eager--i just know what i like. I like those early sets as much as the hard pounding peak hour sets. Sue me.

So I went in and greeted the bartenders (guys name is Jamie--SUPER friendly guy, and the gals name i haven't gotten yet, but you know what--friendly bartenders are a MUST for clubs, don't you think?). Jamie even watched my drink (Had a rev....holy crap those taste brutal, when you start. better after a few) while I went to use the washroom. I think that all the staff are great people, but keep it professional and moving along enough to keep the night going good.

I saw Carlo on the decks and nabbed a picture of the setup:



3 x CDJs and 3 x Turntables. Very nice...it looked really impressive from the dance floor, and Carlo was warming them all up really good. You could tell he was really enjoying this party already and his happiness flowed right into his set.



I went back to the bar to grab my rev and saw Alina & Disco there! They posed for the cam with very natural expressions.

The crowd started to build and I started seeing a bunch of House Addicts and Trance Addicts appearing (some ppl were both races).

The floor started filling up quickly, and one of my fav. dancing partners was in on the party--Kriskool!! Dancin' it up already



I didn't even recognize House Gal with her new hair color!! She came up and gave me a hug, and once it clicked, i was like 'natasha!!' Nice tatoo too, wow. Love the eye of ra tatoo.



I got a picture with Disco and a super-nice chickeetah (didn't catch her name!). Disco does an awesome job of promoting for Footwork...one of those people who goes the extra mile to make sure everyone is having a good time, and he's earnest about it. Good job buddy.



Finding a spot near the back, I start to groove a bit, enjoying the beats. I have to admit, I wasn't super-hyper like I normally am when house music is on... and I figured it out why later. In the meantime, I looked around, and noticed that there were my favourite DJs, all around me, dancing with us all, on the dance floor!!

What a cool moment!! I was able to have lots of great conversations throughout with all these awesome d00ds.

Nathan and Val dancin' it up with Alina and Natasha... man, lucky sods. You LUCKY sods.



I think at this point Kriskool grabbed my camera, because I can't take credit for this picture, though it is one of my favourites.



I managed to get my camera back some time later, and noticed MastikSoul was on the decks, so I went up to get some pictures:



Yeah--they were taking video! Does anyone know if we get to see the product of that video? Also, this reminds me... FrankieT, and other Summer's End Boat Cruise people--remember there was video on that cruise?? Can we see it?!



Nathan and Carlo behind the decks with Mastiksoul--and my favourite lights man on the lights, Stephan! Stephan--thanks for the warm welcome at the beginning of the night. I'm really starting to think of footwork as my second home. The vibe was banging at this point, drops coming, Mastiksoul ripping it up.

Nathan asked me what I thought of it as this point, and I used the term "progressive." He quickly gave me the rundown that there's a genre of house known as progressive house, and what was being played wasn't it--but he knew what i meant. It was very experimental stuff, and I couldn't really describe it. I asked Nathan if he could trade shifts with someone for spinning at the zone the next day, cause i really didn't want to wait until 11 pm to hear his sic set, no matter his skill. He told me he likes night time sets. Yeah, well, what about MY needs Nathan?! Huh?! It's always about you and your insanely wicked sets that make girls bonkers and men doubt their manhoods. *sigh*

One thing I did know, dancing to it was FUN. Getting down near the back, and SLAM on this guy's foot, and I thought for sure I was going to be in trouble, because i like JUMPED up to a beat, and came down hard on his foot with my heel, wheeling around to exclaim my apologies, I see...:



Addy!! Among my favourite DJs. DAMN I wish he was still spinning. Addy, when the holy heck are you gonna come back to the decks?! His distinct style, loved (and hated, haha) by many is surely missed. I think we should start a petition for him to come back. Then again, we don't want to inflate any egos, do we. Ok, at any rate, I flattened his foot, and he was gracious in accepting my apology and giving me this shot. I asked him about Mastiksoul's music, and he described a lot of the underlining old skool tunes with some new funkiness wrapped very nicely over top. It was great to see these DJs dancing it up with the rest of us on the floor--almost a surreal experience!



Manzone & Strong were there, along with Chinamon...i was able to get this neat shot of 'who takes a picture of the picture-taker?'



With Mastiksoul on the decks, Carlo had the chance to come out and enjoy the party he had put together (had I mentioned that yet? Carlo Lio put this party together, and what a party it was--the place was JAMMED!!)



I didn't get a chance to thank him--but it was certainly a great night over all. I spent a good chunk of time near the back, feeling the bass in the back lounge area... Nathan saw me sitting there and said 'What's up, you not feeling the tunes?' and i replied that I was analyzing it... hahaha, thinking tooo hard about the music. I told Leap about that hour or two later, saying i was just sort mellow, listening to the beats... then she reminded me i took some sleepy decongestants when i left. DOGNABBIT. Be WARNED my friends: Drugs are bad, mmmmkay? Decongestants make you mellow. Maybe they'd be good to listen with peaceful euphoric trance tracks. So that's why I was so munged out!

Sitting back there, Fabian Strong comes by and gets a picture... "I don't know who you are man, but get into this picture with us!!" Chinamon nabbed the pic:



So hopefully Manzone & Strong read my review so i can say "Hey, i'm the guy who writes those annoyingly long reviews!!" lol. Very cool guys, super friendly, and hey, they're the king of stringing-you-out-drops, right? Gotta love em.



I really like this picture of Kris & Cat... it's washed out in just such a way it looks artsy. You know, cause I'm all about art.

Mastiksoul ended his set, and the man Carlo stepped up to the decks again to close the night up...I love the shirt 'too raw for rap" Addy, Nathan and Chinamon behind the decks.




You'll notice I caught Chinamon just as he was being teleported up...that's what that glowing ring thing around him is. A transporter. Honest.

I decided with Cat to wrap up the night early because I was munged from the drugz (aka decongestants) and Leap wanted to hit Zone later Sunday, so i knew i'd need some rest in order to be her body-guard. So we bid our farewells to our party-friends and thanked Carlo across the decks for an awesome party. The club was still packed when we left around 4:30.

Carlo--great job in throwing this together, and overall fantastic beats.

In the future, I'll be careful not to take drowsy medicine. The next day @ zone, i saw several older asian gentlemen seemingly asleep, so I woke them up yelling 'don't take decongestants!!!!' they seemed appreciative.

-Shel

Last edited by Ni-Cd on Jan-26-2007 at 02:00