I have been a fan of electronica for a long long time. I've mixed countless cds, played for groups as often as possible, and won over numerous converts.
I had hoped at one point to actually dj somewhere in a club - not that I would get rich doing it, but it would be something I loved. I told myself that I would also never sell out in order to get into the club. I would never play something I didn't enjoy, would never go with the disposable urban scene which seems to make up so much of Calgary's bar playlists.
Now though, I doubt that that could ever happen. As much as I love the music, I don't think Calgary's scene will change much over the next few years. I thought that it was getting better, with a ton of big name dj's coming and fair support for electronica in clubs.
It was a post on a different message board (Calgary based) that really opened my eyes - for the better or the worse. I don't really know what to think about it, and don't really have a lot to add above and beyond it - but I will include it here so you guys have an idea of where my pessimistic thoughts stem from :

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quote from calgary mesg. board
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Ok, I am not going to dis the music, but from a business standpoint, it is not the greatest in a club atmosphere. I know first hand from the financial end. We put on the shows and we or the clubs lose the money. If you don't like it, you can call Marco V and try doing the show yourself.

Part of the problem is that these fucking trance DJs ask for way too much money. Unless Armin reduces his fee by a couple thousand bucks and flies coach instead of asking for 2 business flights, it will be a cold day in hell before we bring him out.

1. Ferry Corsten would have lost huge money had it not been for Goldclub Series sponsorship

2. The first Armin show broke even. And that was with Goldclub Series sponsorship. I don't do shows to break even.

3. The first Tiesto show was off the hook, a huge party at Max Bell, lots of hype, our biggest event of the year. Trance does work at a bigger party. Nothing else needs to be said about that.

4. We lost over $9000 on the last Armin show. It was a sausage-fest and everyone was tweaked out. Sorry trance kids, but bars need to make money on bar sales, and having a 80% male crowd all worshipping the DJ is not good for business and didn't help our club night. We have to do club events that attract females, sex sells and have found that more times than not, girls aren't really into trance. If we do another club night, its going to be majority house with prog. Sorry if you don't like it.

5. Anything that is progressive-trance-like will be supported. Ie : Christopher Lawrence, maybe a bit of Sander Kleinenberg.

I maintain my stance that unless it is a special circumstance or the right now, my interests are not in hard house or trance. People dont want it in their club nights unless they are fucked up.

Bottom line is that we'll do anything that kicks ass and sells tickets for a special event, but for a club night, trance just won't cut it unless there is odd exception for a more prog trance act.

That's all I have to say about that.
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This does not bode well for us trance fans in and around Calgary. The general message here is that the only coming events will be huge rave like events (as Tiesto's first show was) set up for thousands of hopped up kids. Bar shows just don't make money, and I'm not really holding my breath for anything like what we saw this year. Seeing Armin in a small club like Area 51 was amazing - but knowing that the show lost 9000 also guarantees that it won't be happening again anytime soon.
Sorry for my rant, I just felt as if the post I included here had some relevance to the Calgary scene (and more generally to the scene a lot of cities find themselves in). Its just the biggest shame because I for one have found the year of 2002 to be absolutely smashing for trance and also for other forms of EDM. Well shit.

~Azareal

calgary has a scene.....wow...that's news to me

shut your trap torontotrance...calgary actually has a really good scene compared to cities its size. look at winnipeg, its a piece of shit scene.

i dont care what any promoter says, i know trance is the best both in clubnights as well as large parties

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Infinite Square : hell everyone knows that trance is best for clubs and parties! Heh okie - everyone that listens to trance knows

Calgary, like many other big cities in Canada has absolute shit for musical taste and variety. One rock station (half classic), one pop station, one urban station, one lite station, two country stations, one talk station... and a colledge radio station that granted plays everything - EVERYTHING - from multicultural music to indie-alternative-modern-underground-hard-hop (that must be a music style by now).

In Calgary clubs, Thur - Sat, you get urban. And thats about it. I don't really care what promoters think about trance anyways - but I do realize that the money trance shows make (or lose) directly influences what type of shows and club nights we can come to expect in CowTown.

We have some electronic music support - but the little we have now I expect will only get worse if the numbers from the trance shows are any indication. I love seeing dj's in a club - a tightly packed dense mob of energetic gals and guys.

The missing factor from a lot of these events are the girls. It isn't a big secret that more guys then girls post here, and more guys are fans of trance then are girls. It just seems to be an even _greater_ disparity between guys and gals tastes for electronic music in Calgary. And that - that is a bloody shame.

Who knows, maybe the club crown here will tire of the same urban r&b, hip-hop, rap and pop schtick one of these days. But I'm not holding my breath.

What can I say? I still love the music. Driving, dancing, painting, ... er vertically oriented escapades ... I listen to it all the time.
I just don't expect it to revolutionize the club scene here anymore. NOT that its effects aren't noticable - almost every genre of music have taken something from the electronic genre. The back beats and mids for all urban music is computer generated, a ton of rock bands have turntablists and scratch djs creating sounds, and pop bands will continue to offload more and more of the music making onto computers so the performers will need less and less immediate talent. Unfortunetely, its always going to be all about money. And trance just doensn't make money in this town. Well Shit.

~Azareal

It's because of advertising. Really, the only way I find out about other events is by coming on here, or going to raves and getting a flyer for the next one. When it comes to all that hip hop/rnb club events, they advertise it like crazy, radio, flyers, all over. If there was more advertising for the big name dj's there'd be alot more people showing up. Like when Tiesto came to town, I convinced a few of my buddies who are (deep) into hip hop to come because they knew who tiesto was, and they wanted to see what a rave was like. Granted that it may have been a coincidence that they came and would never go again...but there was quite a bit of advertising for Magik (at my school even). All Im saying is that it is kind of difficult to get into the calgary scene unless you know someone or know the right places to look, and it all comes down to the fact that the majority of the public DONT know when big dj's come to town.

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quote:

Originally posted by torontotrance calgary has a scene.....wow...that's news to me

HAHAHAHA DUDE that was funny thing to say....

One thing we have to cope with is the fact we live in North America, and ecpecially Canada. Every city, yes including Toronto fails in comparison to the UK or the Netherlands. I mean shit, we live in Canada. It may be more beautiful then alot of countries but our money isn't worth shit so it costs alot to bring in good talent. All we can do is deal with it or move.

quote:

Originally posted by Azareal In Calgary clubs, Thur - Sat, you get urban. And thats about it. I don't really care what promoters think about trance anyways - but I do realize that the money trance shows make (or lose) directly influences what type of shows and club nights we can come to expect in CowTown. ~Azareal

Whoah...Either you are not paying attention to Calgary or just dont know. There are tonnes of nights for well..mostly house, but almost every night of the week you can go party.
Mon-?
Tue-Sals on 17th*pub w/ funky house, breaks, DnB and 2 step, Ara de Lei, Pete Wilde, Kevin the Kingpin and Jonas Jordan
Wed-Farenheit @ Shadow
Thu-Disco House in the lounge @ Metro, Hai Karate @ Night Gallery, No more breaks @ shadow, its urban now.
Fri-Area 51, Warehouse, Embassy, Night Gallery, Shadow, all host an electronic night
Sat-warehouse afterhours
Sun- In the tonic, local mostly unknown DJs battling it out.

Now while im sure there are others as well, that would seem to be enuf electronic music for myself. Hell I hit up those events on Tue, Thu, Fri and Sun most weeks.

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quote:

Originally posted by j_spot Whoah...Either you are not paying attention to Calgary or just dont know. There are tonnes of nights for well..mostly house, but almost every night of the week you can go party. Mon-? Tue-Sals on 17th*pub w/ funky house, breaks, DnB and 2 step, Ara de Lei, Pete Wilde, Kevin the Kingpin and Jonas Jordan Wed-Farenheit @ Shadow Thu-Disco House in the lounge @ Metro, Hai Karate @ Night Gallery, No more breaks @ shadow, its urban now. Fri-Area 51, Warehouse, Embassy, Night Gallery, Shadow, all host an electronic night Sat-warehouse afterhours Sun- In the tonic, local mostly unknown DJs battling it out. Now while im sure there are others as well, that would seem to be enuf electronic music for myself. Hell I hit up those events on Tue, Thu, Fri and Sun most weeks.

thursdays at metro are most likely over now

and there's also the auxillary on friday and saturday night after hours

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thx for da info j_spot.. i'm vacationin in calgary and i haven't hit up the clubs there yet...

well, i'm in e-town @ the moment for one week, and i'm headin down this weekend so i gotta find those good clubs w/ trance and shiet hehe

that long rant about trance being wack in calgary is just keith being stupid. what he did'nt mention is that his armin show at area 51 was his best one, how much other money did he lose on other events?? girls don't like trance cuz they can't dance to it, girls like grinding not waving there hands in the air to some synth as the dj claps his hands, but for the most part girls don't understand trance cuz they're too busy trying to get a black cock in thier mouth cuz r&b is a chicks musical dildo, even though 80% of it is just dissing chicks anyways they are mindless media lovers and the only music they know is what's on the radio and t.v., that's where our scene in canada as a whole needs to be improved. look at where you get, i bet, 75% of your music. from european or english radio stations, shit id-t, kiss 100, radio 1, galaxy fm, jjj mix up, i could go on, but that's my point, why do i know of all these stations?? cuz i like the music. if you live in calgary you'll know what im talking about here, how many of you have listened to kiss96.9? it's total bullshit but everyone listens to it (even me for fucks sake) then i go out at night to get ripped at the club and whhhoooooooaaaa shit! there's nelly again tellin me to take my clothes off, i bet you any money that if an electronic music staion on the radio playing shit like prog. house trance, house, breaks and shit like that that you would see an enormous response in the scene after awhile, especially in the clubs (where your supposed to dance!) and oh my god electronic music is made for dancing! what a coincidence. girls think they have to do that whole e-tarded trance prance like the guy in the corner who looks like he's running away from someone but is'nt going anywhere. that dance is played out, that's where house comes in handy, it teaches a girl to shake her ass to a 4-4 beat, instead of wiggling her knees to a gucci'd iced out playa ballin out of control. it's all in the media, take it mainstream and voila there you go, bitches at every party cuz it's all they'll know. and don't worry you'll be seeing more trance in calgary, pvd actually, look out for him soon sometime in late 2002 or early 2003. that's my $10 on the topic here.

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quote:

Originally posted by for the most part girls don't understand trance cuz they're too busy trying to get a black cock in their mouth cuz r&b is a chicks musical dildo, even though 80% of it is just dissing chicks anyways they are mindless media lovers and the only music they know is what's on the radio and t.v., that's where our scene in canada as a whole needs to be improved

so true.
that's the best, most hilarious anti hiphop statement ive ever heard. wish i had the balls to say that to every girls who 'hates techno' and loves nelly. and f******* ja rule.

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