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Ni-Cd's Review!
As per usual, CC'd to www.HOUSEADDICT.com!! It was such a great time. This is uber-late getting out...my apologies; hard to strike while the iron is hot sometimes...
It's been a pretty hectic week, so I haven't had an opportunity to complete this as soon as I wished...I usually reserve Wednesday nights for writing, but the (welcome) flip in temperature gave me a bummer of a headache. Whaa whaa whaa, on with life eh?? 
And with that, I present to you:
First and foremost... so that some of you don't waste your ENTIRE night reading this, I've introduced a fast-track method of reading my reviews. I call this... : The Lisa-Loo digest version of Ni-Cd's reviews. This will be like...the cole's notes of my reviews.
So enjoy:
Got there, danced in the liberation room, loved the music, saw the djs, met some cool people up in vip, danced in main room, heard vinyl junkies remix, got flat tire, went home happy anyways. Verdict: great time. /end Lisa-Loo notes. You can stop reading now!
And now for those who like a little more detail:
I didn't plan on attending this event... I had so much going on, and other things to commit the cashola to at the time, like my comic book collection (ahem, I mean, my graphic novel collection). The Walking Dead has a sweet story arch coming up that I truly did not want to miss. So I booked the weekend to spend at home.
With my expectations of not attending this event, imagine my ABSOLUTELY thrilled surprise to find in my email inbox two free tickets courtesy of SLURPY RADIO! I had entered a contest they advertised on Face Book a couple of weeks early--and my name had been selected. I was thrilled! I danced it up with my pet poodle, honey. She was happy for me, then immediately crashed to complete her all-day-nap. Unfortunately, my woman was still recovering from being el-sicko (uber-el sicko...she had to get a cat scan and everything...no worries, she's aok now). So I had two tickets, and needed a dancin' buddy. Cat had told me she probably wouldn't be going to this event, and I love dancin' it up with her, so I totally sweet talked her into being my 'date.' She graciously agreed, and we decided to meet up at the Docks around 10 pm, because we figured it would be super busy.
Talking to other peeps involved in this event, we heard that guestlist would be $35 (yeah...that's REDUCED people... i heard it got around $50 to get in the door!!). And that there'd be virtually NO vip access. VIP is one of those things I wishy wash on...i'll explain later.
So I arrived at 10:30ish after picking up Psiico. As usually, he was a mess from the get go, providing ample entertainment on the way down. I always plan in the back of my head too, that if the cops pull me over and find out my real identity, i can throw psiico at them and make my escape. So really, i'm not that nice of a guy for picking him up. See Psiico? *taps head* i'm always thinkin' buddy. Watch out for me. Dropped at birth was already in line...he gave me the heads up that the bridge was out, and we had to go around.
Ok, driving down the DVP with some fast house tunes pumping and talking to Dropped at birth on the phone...when he said 'the bridge was out' i immediately thought of the general-lee hitting a jump... that'd be SWEET!!
I looked at my Acura and tested the gas peddal, all hyped. Naw...i thought. I better not. So I played it cool. Like Ice-Man.
(I sooo wanna be like Val. Who doesn't??)
When we arrived, parked and looked around...I thought maybe we got the wrong night? The place was EMPTY!! a few cars, a few people in line. I expected huge hub-bub. Lots of cars, limos, full parking lots, etc etc. Nothing of the sort. I got ahold of cat and lined up. There were no cops, so Psiico was safe from me tossing him as a distraction. It all worked out.
When we got to the line up, I said that i had won the SLURPY RADIO / SCENESTER MAGAZINE contest -- and suddenly Cat and I were escorted away from the 'commoner' entrance to the vip entrance. Given special (ohhhh, "special") wrist bands, and welcomed up into the VIP lounge. To be honest, it was a really cool experience...i recommend everyone try it at least once.
When we got up into the VIP i couldn't believe how beautiful it was up there. I snagged a picture...
The ambiance was absolutely captivating. Only problem was...no one was up there yet!! We had the entire floor to ourselves. All the security and bartenders were super nice... talking to us as if we were big-tipping celebs or something.  No...uh, i just won a contest. Thanks. haha... the sound up there was sweet too, very clear and pumping. The lighting was sic in that small area. Very intimate lounge feel; great environment if you are looking for it. Too bad it is SO exclusive... given that I like to show up early to shows, and i guess the VIP crowd shows up 'fashionably late' ... we figured we should go downstairs... where our friends and PEOPLE were. heh. But right before heading down, i got a quick picture of Cat and I sitting in the lounge. Brutal picture...but hey, its for the memories, right?
Check out the view of the dance floor from the top....
See how empty the dance floor is? That's because everyone was in the liberation lounge for Irgo & Korhan's set!!!!
After finding out how we went down to the lower level, we found a Herbal Essences booth that was pretty decked out! They had guys and gals filling out a questionnaire, getting their hair sprayed, and then getting their picture taken and displayed throughout the night on a big LCD panel. It was a very cool setup... however, it seemed very tucked away and at the back corner; i'm sure it didn't get nearly the attention it should have...but it was great having that extra excitement back there. It was tastefully done, and fun to get involved with. Me against shameless product placement? Never! *cough, PEPSI, cough*
We then quickly proceeded over to the liberation lounge to hear Irgo & Korhan's set. Jeff Button's set was coming up after, and NOT to be missed either. These guys are one of the major reasons I was so looking forward to this night. They did not disappoint, and the energy was HAMMERING in that room! It was packed!
Love the shirt... Borat! Borat! Borat! I can't say enough about these two guys. Irgo works so hard putting together intimate venues (check out the bus trip coming up!!!) and k-man has some SERIOUS insight into the real mechanics of house music, mixing, and the whole scene. Their experience is priceless in my house music education. Oh yeah...and they can spin too:
Dance dance dance
Even Psiico hit the dance floor dancing hard. I call this move he often breaks out "The suspecting stranger (tm)". No copying folks...that's trade mark infringement.
All too soon, Korhan and Irgo's set was over... then fan-favourite JEFF BUTTON hit the decks!!
We were all sorry to see Sonic go--and I'm sure a part of that is because this guy worked so hard promoting that awesome venue. We all look forward to whats in store in the future. I don't recall who was spinning with Jeff--i could look it up, but my vista-laboured computer is already chugging with enough windows, photoshop, Victor Calderone (evolve) on media player and various MSN windows.... so i'll let you guys look it up.
It was a great TA and HA reunion in the liberation lounge, and I met up with forum sh*t-disturber, JennyPie!! We gabbed it up for quite a while about the lovely ferocious nature of the message boards...
I never mind hanging with Jenny because she has such indepth knowledge of music generally, let alone EDM. It doesn't hurt that she's a hottie, and very Pervvvy to boot either. In true House Addict style. w00t!
Around 1 am, we heard that Chus & Ceballos were coming on, so I headed out to the main room to see what was up...
Hol-ee-cow!! The lighting was INCREDIBLE. The stretched out fabric looked very cool, and later in the night, sort of reminded me of (warning, geek statement) Lt. Commander Data's skin in that star trek movie with the Borg queen. Remember??? (end geek statement). The lights were simply awesome... some of the best lighting I've seen employed at any club. Ku-DOS!
Panning around the room, i spot this giant sparkling object...
I rushed back up stairs to get a better look...
Then I realized I had to go pee. Yeah, i know TMI!! But how often do we talk about the bathrooms? What usually is there to talk about with the bathrooms? Well, I thought there wasn't anything, until I went in the bathrooms in the vip lounge ... these sinks tottaly tripped me out...
See where the drains are? Yeah! They are on the left side of each sink... and each one is slanted... it sort of freaked me out...because it looks more like a slaughter table then a nice cozy place to wash your hands. Like a post-mortem table you see in CSI. :blueeek: So i quickly washed my hands and left--but not before grabbing a picture of myself in the mirror to freak out the two dudes behind me.
(see how freaked i was? My hair is on end. Or...that might just be a bad gel-job. doggnabbit)
Heading back out to the vip lounge, I saw a familiar face and had to say hi...
Miss Raquel of Scenester magazine--and for that night, my sponsor! We had a fantastic chat about the scene, the his, the lows, the critics, the appreciators and on and on. I truly enjoyed the pure energy she brought with a bright out look. She truly has the right people in mind while running Scenester Magazine...those on the dance floor. We danced it up for a bit, when I saw a familiar face trying to get through the crowd, without much success--everyone was stopping him to say hi!
I felt bad taking this guy away from chillin' just to say hi--but he was so gracious giving me a huge hug and asking how everything was going, making the time to talk. I wanted to ask him what he thought to all the crap slammin' going on with his DVD, but never got a chance. He wasn't there to talk shop anyways, it was time to party. I introduced him to my crew. Addy graciously helped me out with some door trouble too--what whhhaaaat. Awesomely gracious of him. BTW, I saw a mix posted on HA overlaying tracks, saying it was inspired by Addy's DVD...i'm glad to see people getting inspired by others passionate in the industry. That's what it should be about!! I wish more people would spend time hyping up the good, then making themselves feel better by being unconstructively critical of others, the scene and the things in the scene. Anyways, on with it--we danced it up, and Kaya Bongo showed up to rap along with the beats!
It's ironic, but I met Kaya bongo the very first time I heard Addy spin @ Guv 10 (I'm such a n00b). And here they were in the same ten square feet again! Full circle people, full circle. I checked for a full moon too. Kaya is a very tasteful Djembe player, and complemented the music nicely--didn't over power it, as so many other hand-drummers tend to do at events.
At that point, Miss Raquel asked if I would be interested in doing an online (internet) interview for a live stream that was pumping from the docks to cyber space. COOOOL! I was game for that! So we headed out side to a hummer that had the feed. However...the hummer's batteries were dead and we had to go back inside to find wifi to get the plan going. Speaking of batteries, mine were dead too--in my CAMERA! I asked security if i could go to my car to nab some new ones... so off i went to my car... I changed the batteries and took this sweet picture of the sky line. Sweet....uber-unfocused sweet. :P
Then I looked down at my car tire...it looked funny. No, not funny. It looked FLAT. SON OF A---!! Maaaaannnnn. Same tire that went flat during decadence, i think. Front left. What is my luck? I hoped that someone had played a joke and let the air out. Well, nothing for it, i had to worry about it later...back inside.
I found the crew dancing it up in a corner of the upper lounge near a huge speaker and danced it up with them. There's this guy, selling flowers. You know, I can't really stand that guy. He's selling flowers, RIGHT THERE. how much trouble is it for some boyfriend to buy their gal a flower right on the spot there? Not much THOUGHT going into it, is there?? Then i looked at Kris & Korhan...
On with our story. At this point, socializing was over for a while, time to DANCE IT UP!!!
So i headed down to the main floor, front left, where a pile of HAs and TAs were gathered to hit the mayhem with their feet.
Seductions Girl, Jen!
Cribby, DJ Sketchbag
2famous4u was up front pretty much the whole night! GREAT energy!
The dancers up front were VERY kewl.... uber-hotness, knew how to move and get the crowd going:
Then my phone buzzed, and it was Miss Raquel, seeing if i was still game for that interview. Sweeet!! I headed over to the right side of the dance floor, and we went up to the lighting control booth. *interest piqued!* I gave a quick hypa review of the BLAST we were all having at the docks, and got a picture...
While i was up there, i had to get some pictures of the lighting control systems (LCS (TM) )
It's sorta funny to be up there, these people have their fingers flying over the controls, while the mayhem of dancers hype it up below...
From this point on, I put the camera away and concentrated on dancing hard... the tunes were pumping, and C&C dropped Vinyl Junkies remix, which I SWEAR had half the crowd go temporarily insane, including myself. The next few hours were a blur of dancing, hugging friends, and grabbing energy drinks... all too soon it was time to go home... there were rumours of zone, but at this point, a memory came flooding back.... my flat tire!!!!
And with that thought, dear readers, I close this review.... there are more thoughts borne out of this... due to the labour efforts of slurpy radio (Samhouse, Lauren Tully) Scenester Magazine (Miss Raquel) and other promotional leaders... there's a whole other world there I hope to explore soon and find out how these people work; they sure bring us some great parties.
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But they definitely turned it up a few notches and played a really good set.
