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I arrived at the Pepsi Forum around midnight and was greeted by a long line. We waited in this line for over an hour, while our extremeties slowly went numb.
After finally getting inside, my senses started taking in the sights and sound. I felt that familiar feeling I get with the first few steps into the venue of a big party: satisfaction and relief from the wait officially being over, mixed with anxiety, excitement and tension, knowing that something truly epic has the potential of happening. It's a hard feeling to describe, but it's a feeling that anyone who has been partying for a while knows exactly what I'm talking about. There's something about the way the big-room sound system's bass sounds when there's not many people in the room that will forever be associated with this feeling for me.
I was very impressed with the venue.. There was a decently sized, well shaped dancefloor in the middle with lots of room to dance and talk on the outskirts. Not only that, there was an upper level, which to me is such a key ingredient for a bigger party. Being on an upper level and witnessing a party in its peak gives you a different perspective on how epic it is (especially when the view of the party transitions from ground level to bird's eye view via escalator transport - that escalator gave the party such character!). The upper level and the outskirts of the main floor gave the party an unlimited amount of room - another big plus. Plus, with the way the venue was shaped, although it was quite large, the main dancefloor was always packed and rocking at any point in the night. In short, venue was quite unique, but worked perfectly. I sincerely hope that this venue is used again. I can think of very few venues that would work better for a that size.
The lighting for this party is the best lighting I have ever seen for a one off party (behind Daft Punk of course, but that was more of a concert). I usually don't care about lighting because it's usually cheesy or done wrong, but they really did it right this time. The mix of the moving ceiling, plus the lights at the front made for some really colossal builds. However, I don't know if it's just my sensitivity to strobes, but did anyone think that they went a *little* over board a few times? I had to leave the dancefloor on two different occassions because it was too much for me.
At 1:30am, the moment I had been waiting for years for had finally arrived. My excitement and especially my expectations for this party were the highest they could possibly be. Anyone who knows me knows that when my expectations are this high, they are very hard (re: almost impossible) to even meet. After the 2nd hour, when realizing that my expectations for them had actually been surpassed, I just looked up at the duo, shook my head and revered the best that dance music has to offer.
Sasha's first segment that he played built the party up so perfectly. Big, fat, slower, but groovy prog basslines with sinister trance synths scattered through out built up the crowd's anticipation level to a point of near-explosion. Digweed came on and played his newer druggy, twisted style which in my opinion was a bit too distinct of a change from Sasha's first segment. This is my only complaint about the set, but I'm just being picky here. A too-sudden transition from one amazing segment to another is not much of a complaint, lol.
The point of the night where Sasha droped "Who Killed Sparky" was definitely the highlight of the night for me. It was in the last 60-90 mins of the set, which was just bomb after bomb of epic, proggy trance, with trademark Sasha basslines. It's times like these that I think every partier chases. It's the reason we keep going out time and time again to parties like these, for that one small chance that we'll get even an hour, of when everything just comes together. When you're holding your head in your hands, pulling at your hair in disbelief. When it feels like the walls are reverberating inward, and that the ceiling is going to cave in at any moment. It's at moments like these where I usually go into the middle of the dancefloor by myself, distraction free, and just take it all in.
Every time I hear "Who Killed Sparky", it brings me back to that 90 minutes of magic, bringing with it that feeling of longing to go back to that moment. This is a feeling that is extremely rare for me after a party, and only happens after the very best.
Sasha & Digweed @ The Pepsi Forum is pretty much as close to party perfection as it gets IMO. The crowd, lights, music, energy, everything was just amazing. I remember at one point in the night walking up to malek and just saying, "You Montréalers really know how to do big parties right." This party gets 10/10 from me. I'm hesitant to give it a 10/10 because I've been to better parties (due mainly to circumstance), but I can't really think of anything that could have made this party better (save for S&D playing longer lol, but that's just being greedy). The rare 10/10 score has to be given out some time, and this party definitely deserves it.
As I said before, I sincerely hope to see another party in this venue done by Tribe Hyperclub.
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