REVIEW: Our very own Halo20 (jon) @ Elements night club in Kitchener w/ Vagrant

I arrived at the Elements nightclub after 11pm. The club looks pretty
nice
and the staff is friendly. There appeared to be 3 rooms, one of which
I did
not enter, the main room which was playing top 40, and the Air Lounge,
the
room located at the back of the club that Jon and the Vagrant boys were
playing.

The crowd in the main room was an interesting cross-section of people.
There were people that were obviously there for the Euro, people who
were
obviously there for the hip hop, and people who were obviously ‘just
there.’

The Air Lounge is quite a nice room. It’s kind of like a cul de sac at
the
back of the club. There are really comfortable couches and the décor
is
nice, but very dark. It’s not a small room at all, and there was
always
lots of room to dance. The sound system isn’t perfect though, you can
hear
the main room in certain parts of the lounge.

When I got to the Air Lounge, Vagrant was spinning. Vagrant consists
of two
guys named Matt and Eric, who have apparently been playing together for
four
years now. They are residents at the Air Lounge on Saturdays. They
aren’t
what you’d expect for a club like Elements at all. It’s apparent that
they
love what they do and are not willing to appeal to the lowest common
denominator (that’s what the main room is for). I enjoyed what they
played,
although I recognized very little. They were also layering a lot of
tracks,
so that may have played a role in my lack of recognition. Regardless,
they
certainly got me dancing, which is what I did for the better part of
the
night.

Jon’s set began at midnight. The beats he laid down were contagious.
Just
when I would sit down to rest, I would feel compelled to get up and
dance. I
hardly ever dance that much in a night when my only fuel is diet coke.
His
set contained more tracks that I was familiar with. All in all, it was
a
very good set - I was very impressed. His set just kept getting better
and
better as he worked up an amazing build. And then when all the momentum
reached its peak - he dropped Max Graham's legendary "Airtight", which
was
perfectly programmed.

Vagrant hit the decks again at 2. They really kept us going for the
final
hour. You don’t expect to hear this kind of slick mixing and impeccable
track selection at a club like Elements - a pleasant surprise indeed!

Misc: the only thing that was really missing from the night was a good
crowd. It was frustrating to see such talent w/o the presence of a
proper
crowd. The break-dancing glow-sticker, all the 'couch potatoes', and
the
girls w/ bad moves and even worse clothes were totally undeserving of
these
beats! Has anyone seen Joe Millionaire? You know when the trashy
American
women have no appreciation for the food that was being prepared by a
world-renowned French chef? Well Vagrant was Don Perignon and Jon was
crème
brulee.

I would suggest that any TA’s living in the area get a good crew
together
and take over the Air Lounge on a Saturday night to hear Vagrant. For 4
dollars, it’s a lot of bang (beats!) for your buck! I’m sure we will
be
hearing from these guys in TO in the future, so you should catch them
in K/W
while you still can.

Last edited by charmscars on Mar-29-2003 at 02:48