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Ni-Cd's Review: Jaxx House 4 @ Gallery
April 28, 2007 @ The Gallery in Toronto Ontario; Greating meeting a pile of you TranceAddicts at this event.
I'm pretty sure I'm not exaggerating when I say that Jaxx House events are some of the more anticipated events in the HouseAddict community. I think they are eagerly awaited for a few solid reasons: Tribal Music (who don't love tribal -- *cough except Davio cough*), great local DJs we know and love (Irgz, Nathan, DJ: TK, and more!), a family atmosphere (seems like SO many HAs make a commitment to come out to these...a little reunion of sorts), and held at a complex that has a variety of rooms to reset the audio palette throughout the night.
For those of you who don't know, Jaxx House events are designed to get back to the heart and soul of what this is all about : the music. With a tribal/jungle/vietnam theme that has carried since I've known about them, everyone dons camoflauge clothing to attend these events. Held at the gallery complex in Toronto, a room of the Guvernment complex, these Jaxx House events attract a lot of attention as an all-tribal night that allows people to enjoy the other rooms of the guv as well.
This is particularly good for those of us who want to bring friends who are new to the scene, and we can offer them other types of sounds while still exposing them to some sic tribal beats (a few of my friends spent some time in the center room of doom...aka, the orange room--small price to pay so they could be exposed to some real music).
One of the main reasons I wanted to hit this event up this time around (it was my turn to stay home at Jaxx House 3), was to hear this man right here spin:
I had heard SO much about Irgo's set from the last Jaxx House. I was totally pumped to hear his opening set. Arriving, the dance floor was far from crowded, but we all knew that it would only be a matter of time before the gallery turned into the pressure cooker it is well known for. I was loving the tribal beats (tribal being one of my fav. genres of EDM) and the vibe forming was incredible. Every time I turned around, I was seeing a familiar face! Let the reunion begin!
JoinT movin' to the rhythm nice and early on the dance floor...JennyPie in the background (NICE outfit...wowza!) Leap kept getting me mixed up with JoinT because he was wearing the traditional Ni-Cd outfit: ha tshirt and jeans, lol!
DaveS and Leap_frog and another house addict shirt. S-o-u-L
I caught a picture with JennyPie - this is our semi-serious picture...
I just noticed the shark tooth necklace. I should have asked her what kind of shark she wrestled to get that keepsake. Yeah, she wrestles sharks. Didn't you know that? Gosh.
Yes--the traditional decorations WERE indeed present!! We had a lot of fun with those decorations...heh heh heh... so we see snakes, army men, king-kong... wedding flowers... Some ivy, lilly pads. Clearly, all things you can find in the jungle. cue music: IN THE JUNGLE dun dun dun....dunnnn dun dun dun.
Hmm, an airplane. The only connection I can make here is to snakes, found in the jungle... snakes on a plane.
Which, by the way was a freakin' terrible movie. Even with the ol' samuel L Jackson in there, he couldn't save that movie. Rediculousoooo movie. 'Next' however, with Nicholas Cage, is a FANTASTIC movie. How that has anything to do with Jaxx house? Well...you DO believe in destiny, don't you? (two words: Jessica...Beil...)
One of the coolest dudes on the planet shows up... RobSt*r with his lovely fiance Jamiee (sp?)
Heard a cool story about these two; they got engaged in the gallery almost a year ago...Sydney Blu and Simon Jain were spinning. Now they are having a stag & doe in the gallery, with the same DJs spinning! Now that is COOL. That's one party I don't want to miss. Hope you are all there to celebrate with these two.
Anyone else think that in that picture up there RobSt*r looks like bill the cat? Man. that's cool.
Some folks were setting up a laptop and internet connection to interview people, ... I *think* it was blogTV...the same people who did the live to air stuff at C&C/DJ Vibe a month or two ago. KrisKool was giving an interview, and taunting me with a little goat figurine. Oh, the memories...and the pictures....that won't get posted.... bwahaha!
HouseGirl in da House--such good energy, and a hot dog tag dangling to boot.
The beats at this point were getting more and more sic, with Irgo dropping some awesome tribal tunes I had never heard before. I looked at the booth to see what was motivating this fantastic audio-assault we were all hearing...
Getting a drink was a great idea. JennyPie helped me to a Pepsi & Rye -- my favourite mixed drink (thanks babe!!)
It's at this point, dear reader, that I have to inform you, the dreaded time had come in the night...the abuse of the army guys. We all know how perverse and disturbed HAS can get when there's house music, girls, boys, and army figurines. Forming a lethal combination of lust, power and house music, the onslaught began...
(lucky little army dude!!)
Ops! how did that get in there?? 
You can see a bunch of sexy army outfits in this picture...basically, all the guys were wearing army pants with X t-shirt...and the girls were wearing all manor of eye-pleasing attire, all cleverly donned in camo.
Irgo's set wrapped up, and this guy stepped up to the decks...DJ: TJ I believe...
This guy spon the SIC'est tribal set I've heard outside of ZONE!! Seriously, I was knocked off my socks by this guy. I wasn't able to get in too close, because the gallery was getting PACKED to the max. In fact, unfortunately, it got so packed, and people were smoking, so i had to take a breather and went upstairs to The Drink.
Heading upstairs, I felt a little out of place. There were some couples...ok, a lot of couples...up there, dressed to the nines. Had I missed something? I found out later that this is regular fare for The Drink. It's a top-40 bar at a house music club, type thing... the girls are dressed in extreme club gear, skinny little outfits on 2"+ heels, and the guys are in swank dress pants, shoes, and a sports jacket. Nice. So. I decided to meet one of these couples.
Meet Drew and Debra.
There were some nice progressive house beats being belted out by Manzone And Strong, and these two snuck behind me and stole my seat--when i caught them we laughed about it and introduced ourselves. I asked them if they liked house music "Yeah, we love house music!" So then I asked who was spinning (I knew it was M&S), Drew says sadly "just a local, not a big name, i don't think. A regular night." I complimented Drew on his woman's choice of attire (It was a great dress, really, wow) and headed in to dance to M&S for a while. Lauren was tailing with a few friends, probably making sure I didn't get into too much trouble, heh heh heh. I came back some time later and saw Drew and Debra still on the couch, and said to Drew "It's mazone and strong spinning!!" with a grin.
He replied "oh--never heard of him!" lol. OK!
At that time, Davio and Lyndsay happened by... they favoured the progressive beats over the tribal beats downstairs, and had been searching out other rooms. Great couple, lots of energy, and completely in camo gear for the occasion.
I spotted Carolina dancing by and asked Drew and Debra to take a picture of us for me... not a bad shot!
While working on this picture, i noticed the dude's tatoo on the arm to the left... hmm. I wonder if i can CSI that shiznit. And yes, that's my hair starting to explode in that picture. Sweet hair of self-awareness and anti-gel defenses!
Anyone know what that is in reference to?
Time to head back down stairs, I decided. My lungs had settled down, and I knew Nathan would be spinning soon. Can't mis Mr. Barato's set, right?
I've always said that I've not yet heard a Nathan Barato set that sucked. One that I didn't like. To this DAY, it remains true. Aboslutely freakin' true. However. HOWEVER. It seems that Jaxx house took a stiff departure, somewhere during Nathan's set... the tribal elements seemed to flee from the decks like so much water from a roof, and though the room, the crowd and the energy were still banging hard...i felt a little empty at the departure from tribal. The tribal themed night seemed to be only until 1 or 2 am, after that, all bets were off, and the DJs were off to the races along whichever path they wished. It's too bad, I really wanted to hear what kind of hard core tribal stuff Nathan would have pounded out. Regardless of my hearts most deepest desires (like a chocolate bar and a tub of peanut butter), Nathan STILL killed it. As usual. I seriously think that this guy has a deal with the devil to be the best DJ on earth. Lucifer's price was for Nathan to be the DJ for the "hottest" party around. w00t!
And it is at this point in my review that i have to take a break from the silliness and the smirking commentary to put out a heart felt note... many of us found out during this time that Ace's mom was expected to pass away any day, perhaps even hour now. Ace, the founder of Dance 2 The Beat, and a source of so much passion and energy that we ALL benefit from in this house music scene. All of our thoughts were with you then, Ace, and still are now, my friend. Much love, my friend.
Nathan Barato, David Ace, Ni-Cd @ Decadence
DavidA winning the sketch olympics!
Back to our story. I saw some really cool shirts at Jaxx House... let's break down the shirt wars here...
hahaha!
Mr. Glow in the background; the pattern of the black blouse in the foreground next to irgo is REALLY cool though!
No...no, i don't like that shirt....
And the winner, in my mind, of funny shirts:
I then hung out at the back of the club for a bit, with a bunch of HAs, and met I.E.! Masih!
JennyPie, her tongue, Nathan Barato and I.E.
Ni-Cd, Masih & KevinT (Jenny & Nay-ton in BG!)
The next DJ on the decks at this point was DJ: TK. I LOVE this girl's energy. She is a LOT of fun, and will take the time to talk to anyone who wants to chat. Leap and I have had some great chats with her, and she sure brings a bundle of energy to the decks.
She carried on in a tech-house vein, and didn't seem to have a lot of tribal flowing through her set, but the energy she carried, jumping up and down with the crowd with this huge grin on her face, made up for any lack in conformity. Wow, did I just say that? About an underground house dj? That I expected them to conform? LoL!
My overall impression: I would have really liked to see what Nathan and TK would have done with tribal, and was genuinely disappointed I didn't hear more of it from them; As a result, Irgo and TJ's sets were my favourites, for sure, for this theme night. That being said, the energy was HUGE, and with the koolhaus being used instead of the guv (mark oliver spun a set ALL night), it felt like it was an all-access night--and I love the energy of those types of events. Special thanks to Ms. Raquel, Slurpy radio (Lauren Tully, Samhouse, et al.) who put so much work into making these things all work!
Special hello out to Cenik whom I met in the koolhaus that night dancing to the super-extended Mark Oliver Set. It was great to find some like minded people in that room; i found the room to be over occupied by a certain group of people who had no time for anyone outside their sphere of clique-ness (if you know what i mean). Great to meet you, buddy.
edit: event spam removed
Until next time...
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