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OK so...
I got there with my friend Jordan around 10:30 and the place was pretty dead. Just chilled for a while; ran into Mada, Jackie, Stefan, and a few others.
Towards 11:30 or so, the place started filling up. Idunno who the warm-up DJs were, but they played some good tunes. They kept using these stupid filter/flage effects all the time, it was pretty annoying towards the end, but the tunes were good. One of them really was having trouble with his transitions too.
Anyways, Scumfrog got on around 12:15 or so, and he just killed it. I like his older, more progressive style, but he just played straight up, bassy, badass house. I'm not much of a fan of house music, but I thoroughly enjoyed his set from start to finish. I hardly recognized any of the tunes, but there were some WICKED tracks in there.
I actually liked the way he was doing the transitions... he'd mix through pretty fast, and he had a 3rd CDJ set up in vinyl mode that he did a bunch of FX with. He seemed like he was having a good time, though a few of the transitions did get a little tiny bit sloppy towards the end (I think he'd had quite a few drinks by then...) There was perhaps an occasion or five where something went wrong with one of the mixes, or the transition was 16 or 32 bars too loose. Oh well... it happens. And 90% of the mixing was flawless and well-timed, so meh. I can live with a few slip-ups here and there.
Jesse more than made up for the minor technical slips with his pure, raw energy. He was really having a great time; he went nuts behind the decks every time the beat dropped. There were a few breakdowns where he just leaned over the decks and yelled "YEAH BABY!!" What a guy.
Moment of the night for me was probably when he put on this really awesome track (it's stuck in my head now, but I have NO IDEA what it's called.) Anyways, the breakdown hit, and he screamed into the crowd "SERIOUSLY, THIS IS THE COOLEST LIVING ROOM I'VE EVER PLAYED AT!" What a guy. Yeah, the place did kinda look like a big living room.
After a good solid 3 hours of dancing front and centre, my body couldn't take any more. Wow. Kenny came on right after, and I know that must be a DJ's worst nightmare to have to follow a set like that and watch the place empty out after scumfrog, but man, he did a killer job. I only stayed for a bit, but he picked up right where scumfrog left off and played some serious tunes.
The venue was actually pretty good. Not many complaints there. The drink ticket system really helped the bar run smoothly, the bathrooms were clean, and there was a nice place to chill outside. The DnB room wasn't really much of my thing (the sound sucked in there), but some people seemed to enjoy it. In the main room, the sound was good, though it did sound kinda "high school dance-ish", since everything was just coming from 2 big stacks at the front. But where I was (front and centre), I ended up getting the bass from the main speakers, (which were pointed outwards, away from me), and a lotta the mids and highs from the monitors set up in the booth. It actually sounded pretty good (and I'm the kind of person who will walk all over the dancefloor, find the place that I like best acoustically, and dance there for the night.)
The only problem was that when somebody would run into the booth to talk to the DJ, he'd go and turn the monitors down to hear them, and this was really noticeable where I was standing on the dancefloor (the highs and mids would suddenly just die... LOL.) At first I thought the sound kept cutting out; then I realized why and it all made sense...
There were a few moments toward the end where scumfrog just went over and turned both monitor speakers toward the crowd. What a guy... sacrificing his own in-booth sound experience for the acoustic benefit of the patrons. Maybe that's why he screwed up a few transitions toward the end...
The other little complaint I had about the venue was the heat; it was a little bit hot and sticky toward the front, but I guess that was to be expected. And it wasn't unbearable at all; it just meant that I had to go for a short little breather outside every hour or so, which wasn't bad at all. There was not much lighting either... one big disco ball with 4 bulbs shone at it, and one other light. But meh, it didn't matter.
The crowd was really great. Nobody was pushy, nobody was sketchy, and there was plenty of room to dance. I recognized a few faces there from nights at Purple Room and The Rude Native; said hi to a few people. One guy even told me he recognized me from my TA display pic, but never posts... LOL.
But yeah, thanks so much to Jackie for being my hero and driving me home, and a big thanks to firebrush and everyone else who helped organize this event. K/W NEEDS more events like this.
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I am nobody. Nobody is perfect. Therefore I am perfect.
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