quote:

Originally posted by dEsidEL lots of scenesters with their fedoras, scarves, and bikes on Queen West-West

no kidding!
I took a trip there last week for haircut, holy-moly-batman-bad-fashion-sense!

___________________
Just surrender yourself to the rhythm,
With your hands up in the sky,
Feel the energy deep inside your system
And leave this world behind...

quote:

quote: Originally posted by Skipper :| He's pretty much the most talented Canadian DJ ever. Originally posted by dEsidEL +1 former DMC World Champion at the age of 15 as well .. surprised more ppl here don't know him.

I know WHO he is...just never HEARD him dj live. it was definately a treat.

___________________

nightdreamer

quote:

Originally posted by 1dawoman fixed.

Hahaha. Thanks.. that's what I meant.

___________________
"House music is the soundtrack to the more deviant, exciting, rebellious side of life." -Lawler

Was really looking forward to this event since it was announced and ended up having a great time. Turn out was a bit light at the start (don't know why people get so scared of a bit of water) but picked up near the end but Toronto needs to support these events better if we want more of them.

The crowd and the mix of music was different, interesting, and definetly a nice change. Friends as always made this a great party.

Heidi was the set of the day for me but it was frustrating that they had so many technical problems having to set up the turntables for her. Here's hoping for some more events at Sunnyside.

___________________

The day started off pretty slow, especially upstairs. I found it took until about 7:30pm for the party to get started, which was pretty unfortunate, but was probably due to the weather. During the day time downstairs, although it was kind of empty, it was great times when the sun was out. The main floor of the venue is absolutely beautiful, and is IMO the best place to have a party during the day in the summer.

The DJs on the main floor are of a genre/scene that I'm just getting used to. So, I'm not going to make any attempt to give a proper review on the sets that were played there. All I know is that the sets were generally pretty hard electro sounding, featured many genres and mash-ups. I found that 2/3 of every track I heard was either good or really good, but every 1/3 track made me say "WTF is this guy doing?" A-Track did impress me though, and I regret leaving halfway through his set.

Heidi played a nice and groovy set. The first half was pretty housey, and even tribally at times. It was just a constant flow, with very few ups or downs. Towards the latter half of her set though, she slowly started picking the set up several notches. By the end she was playing ripping techno. Heidi played my favourite set of the day. Every time I've seen her, I've liked her performance. Her ability to build a set is impressive.

Matthew Dear/Audion was after Heidi. The first 20 minutes of his set was way too emotionless, dark and somber for me. Quite uninspiring. After 20 minutes though, he started banging out really warped, twisted and druggy techno. I loved the stuff he was playing, but would have liked it a lot more at a party past 5am. This guy would be the ultimate DJ to hear at that time.

The crowd/scene downstairs on the main floor was interesting. I actually enjoyed myself down there way more than I did upstairs even though the music was more my thing upstairs. I think this is a scene that I'd like to check out a little more. I certainly hope Embrace continues to do these dance music/hipster events.

It really is too bad the weather worked out the way it did at this party. It had a lot of potential, but I think the weather really messed things up, given that there were a lot of people on guestlist. I certainly hope that Embrace doesn't get discouraged from doing an event like this next year because of the poor turn out, because it's "different" parties like this that keeps partying interesting for me.

Btw, don't be hating on Queen W. hipster/scenester fashion. I think it's a creative and fun new fashion fad that is a refreshing change from the inhomogeneity of recent-past fads.

quote:

Originally posted by flavor OMG its A-Trak! I was telling people Akon was playing there and didnt understand why they were looking at me funny! FAIL

AKON!


and then they did play AKON!

LOL!

___________________
It is time

sounds like a good time.

must check it out next time.

___________________
Samhouse on Facebook

quote:

Originally posted by Intangible And the next person I see wearing 'shutter glasses' will have his/her eyes poked out.

What if it's you??


Anyway... here's my review:

Venue - perfect. I really hope I get to go to a good, well-attended party there when it's nice and sunny out, even if it's just for some locals. Lots of space to dance, socialize, or just chill out, whatever it is you're there for. The sound was acceptable, maybe even a little better than most club venues because they didn't overdo the bass. A little loud perhaps, but the nice thing about Sunnyside is that you can escape if you want and give your eardrums a rest. Oh, and great view from the little bridge up top.

Atmosphere - didn't really pick up until 7ish. Although the attendance early on wasn't too bad, I'm sure that it suffered due to the thunderstorm warnings which as usual turned out to be bunk. Queen St crowd was definitely there, and personally I thought it was fun watching the fashion show, even though a few outfits where wholly inappropriate, haha. That crowd is fairly typical of any Erol Alkan or Soulwax following, and although they're a little on the emo side, it's a refreshing change from the uberdrunks on boat cruises and sketchbags in nightclubs.

Music - mixed. It was kinda the same minimalish stuff everywhere (although we did arrive a little late) until the big guns came on. Individually:

A-Trak was beyond words; last time I heard him it was all hip-hop and breaks and I loved him even then, but this was a real treat. It was all house and breaks, mangled and shuffled beyond recognition of course. It was funky, groovy, hard and uplifting all at the same time. I think I may have actually shed a tear during his wacky Daft Punk chop-up. That was, without question, the best set I've heard live this summer, possibly ever, and if I hadn't had work the next day I would have hit the after-party without hesitation (anyone go?).

Erol Alkan was decent. I was kind of disappointed that for all the effort I spent talking him up, he didn't play even one single retro mashup or rock edit (he almost did one, but it fizzled out pretty fast). Having said that, there was plenty of hard, clippy, glitchy, fully danceable material in his set, and I didn't find myself bored, just a little let down. Given that he did so much better at the Social a few months back, I'd give him another chance. In all fairness, he had a really tough act to follow yesterday.

Soulwax were just okay, although we didn't stay for very much of them. I love the idea of what they do, but as I suspected, there was just something missing in the execution. It wasn't quite tight enough to bust any serious moves to, nor was it "loose" enough in the disco/funk sense of the word to make things really fun. While their sound is totally unique as a live act, it's sort of generic if you try to put it under the electronic music umbrella, and many of us I think were simply not prepared for a concert, especially so late into the party.

I caught various bits and pieces of the music upstairs (Dear etc.) but nothing really caught my fancy. Spent most of the time on the main floor.

So to wrap it up - circumstances unfortunately made this event less excellent than it could have been, but in spite of that, it was still well worth spending the afternoon and the $25 at. I really hope they do it again and get better weather next time.

___________________
My party schedule:
2009-02-21 - DJ Attention @ I'm So Popular
2009-06-18 - DJ Annoying @ People Need To Know Where I'll Be
2012-11-32 - DJ Insufferable ɸ Or At Least the Stalkers I Complain About
2048-06-66 - Spastic & Whocares ¶ Although I'm Actually Flattered
9999-45-81 - Tweaker Gimp ☼ I Probably Won't Even Go To This But I Have To Make Sure I Fill Up All The Available Space Here

Fun times, I just wish the weather behaved better.

Got there by 6 and the sunshine was just breaking through. Spent more of my time upstairs than down but liked what I heard from Jokers of the Scene and really liked Erol Alkan. Enjoyed Eli Wilkie and Matthew Dear but the highlight of upstairs had to be Heidi, such a fun housey hip-shaking set and she's an entertaining dj to watch too (in uber-stilettos no less!).

Great friends to enjoy the party with and I loved the venue, I def have to attend more events there. And the hipster fashion parade was entertaining to watch although it did make me wince a few times.

Kudos to the Embrace crew!

lol. i was getting myself sick at beer fest.

Highlight of the day, of a day filled with many highlights: Early in the afternoon, around 3pm, Evan (Activate) is playing to a sparse room and banging out some seriously intense tunes.....when all of the sudden a HUGE gust of wind blows this GIANT (6-7 foot tall) PLANT that was positioned right behind the dj booth onto Evan's back. Smokes him. He didn't see it coming, and never had a chance. Rather than laugh and calmly pick the plant back up and place it where it was, Evan freaks and swats the plant off his back, whips around, then proceeds to CHUCK the pant against the back fence. LOL. Priceless.