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review of Guv and System Soundbar
basically i went to the slowest weekend of the year because its right after NYE. I knew that before hand, so keep that in mind too.
System Sound Bar on a Friday, first and foremost, sound is really horrible, my ears were bleeding, and I am not joking. Forget the Dome and extreme and other top40 clubs in town, the sound at systems is really worst. That thing only completely turned me off, really annoying. The crowd was a bit on the weird side but nothing i never witnessed in Montreal. I kind liked the setup, dark and underground, ceiling a bit too low but it was ok. The dance floor is about the size as Aria's if you need to compare things. Bouncers not really friendly by my standard, barmaid were cool tho 
Saturday: The Guvernment complex is huge. My second time at that club. The guvernement room by itself is about 1.5 times the size of Aria's dancefloor at least and its not the biggest room , theres 8 rooms in total. The place was packed, the crowd mainly composed with cracked out asians, not 20 yrs old asians, we're talking about 40+ yrs couples tripping out in family its kinda cool to see at first, but it turns out really weird after one hour. Crowd is also rude pushing their way around
Some of you guys complain about lightsticks at Aria or other clubs, wait till you see the Guv... they have lots of gadgets that makes lights and having a light show with 15 people watching in the middle of the dance floor is nothing extraordinary. Drug use was really generalized, some Torontians make fun of the Montreal crowd and their usage, well over there its not better if not worse.
One thing you gotta hand to the guv complex is its looks and the effort put in the decoration. The place is really beautiful and there's nothing that could be compared to it over here in the afterhours scene. So big thumbs up to them.
About the sound, I know MTL afterhours regulars mostly care about the sound quality and music and not really about the crowd. Well, if some of you think that Aria's sound system is not the best in town, well its way better than what I heard in the guv main room. So imagine comparing Stereo's or the new Gravity sound system. The sound has too much bass and not enough mid and highs. So you can only hear the "boom boom". For example As the rush comes was played and you could barely hear the melody which was drowned in the bass. To be fair, my ears weren't ringing tho and it wasn't much distorted, just no mids or highs. I believe that the sound at the room called "the drinks" was better in overall sound quality than what you could hear in the main room.
Also, no dissrespect to Mark Oliver, I don't know if its the management that asks you to play only "banging" tracks, you were all over the place man. Playing trance then hard house then hard trance and some tech isn't cool in my book. A real turn off for me, but not the crowd which was really enjoying the beats. I sometimes wonder why the Toronto crowd praises you so much if you do only play that way.
When I look back at my experience at the guv, that place is as cheezy as the dome and more, with only one difference which is that electronica music being played. Even tho it might disappoint most music affecionados ( I can't for example be there every weekend) the place is working from a buisness perspective because it is packed on a regular day with ONE dj resident playing. So hands off to the Guv management for pulling this one off.
We people in MTL are too spoiled to enjoy this kind of treatment and aren't even happy when 3-4 amazing resident djs play in one night, heck most of the time our clubs are half full only.
To Torontians who are reading this, beleive the hype when such clubs as stereo and aria are described to you guys. Also you guys have a new place called Boa which looks really promising to the more demanding crowds, I hope that other clubs like that one will open up and deliver the goods.
also, be easy on the flaming.
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