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Kandaio van Allen's Decedance and Bal en Blanc Experience 2005
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| [NFC]Wave |
First off I warn you; this is going to be a long one....
Kandaio and I had been planning for this little trip for quite some time now and as the days neared, I got increasingly excited and ready for everything to unfold. The greatest part about this trip (to Decedance anyway) was that my girlfriend was getting de-virginized for her clubbing experience; FIRST TIME at a superclub. She was getting pretty pumped as well. I had booked off the dates over a month in advance, but finally on the morning of the 24th, it was finally here; The Beginning.
I knew that everything was going to get off to a wonderful start because as I was pulling out of my driveway to go pick up Kandaio, the UPS truck dropped off my newly ordered set of vinyl. How great a way to start a trip when you've got a new stack of 25 vinyl to sift through.
We got to Jenna's (girlfriend) house without any issues (of course stopping off at Wendy's for our traditional dinner of fat and carbonation). Got ourselves ready and hustled down to Guv/Kool Haus by 10:45. It was lined up around the corner and even our guest list line was lined up. It took us about 15 minutes to get inside (Kool Haus guest list entrance [Thanks again Shaya] but as we passed through the doors we knew we were in for a night of excitement. Passing by the decorations, the man in gold paint, and just seeing the place filling up faster than I've ever seen, the excitement started to build right there. Nathan Barato was pumping up some good tunes to get the vibe going. I liked how they had the list of performers for the night on the video screens.
We checked the TA meetup spot but nobody was really around at that point so we decided to go and check out Guv as I needed to take Jenna on a tour of the club. LOVED the one-way tunnel to get from Kool Haus > Guv and vice versa; GREAT idea (the dude in there with the street meat must have made a killing). We got up to the DJ booth just as Mark was setting up; said our hello's and I snapped a few pics. Then we ran into RJ (Oh RJ, I think my g'f wants to date you now ;))
Then it was back over to Kool Haus. We headed up to the TA meetup as Nick Warren was spinning on the decks. Metup with all the crew; sorry for the lack in names, I'm writing this review a few days afterwards but I know all your faces.
We then moved our position just to the left of the DJ booth because I wanted some good pics and to be as close as possible. Nick Warren heated up the night with one hell of a great set; he was totally kicking. Then Nu-NRG started to setup and we had a nice little chat with them; awsome guys.
Nu-NRG were absolutely on fire. They had the whole crowd at their fingertips. The energy level just went on fire. People were moving with the beat and feeling everything. It was great because everyone knew what was on the way.
Then...I saw it through the crowd...
Armin arrived and headed straight to the stage to setup. Of course he had to sign a bunch of things for the lucky people up close. The energy level went to a suprising high as Armin began to start things up. Synergy - Hello Strings was exactly what I knew he would open with. The place lost it. Banging track after banging track Armin was just rocking. His interaction with the crowd was amazing; doing his little arse shake for the ladies over and over; jumping up and down so much he could hardly use vinyl; waving to the crowd; signing autographs.... pure class.
His set was just incredible. We danced just wild the entire night. Things started to drag though IMO the last hour and a half; he was playing what seemed to be too many songs with breakdowns so people thought things were over. A couple times doing that would be fine but it went on and on. Then things finished and it was encore time. OH ENCORE!!! NIRVANA - SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT. Now this I did not expect to hear, then again it was cranked so loud (pitched up too) that by the end I didn't think I was going to hear anyway. The crowd, at nearly 8am was like a newborn crowd again, it was amazing.
Then it was all over and we were out into the sun.
Please head to my website at http://chrisallen.kandaio.com for a full set of the pics taken from the night (118 in total).
And now to continue on with the Bal en Blanc experience....stay tuned. |
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| starsearcher |
| quote: | Originally posted by [NFC]Wave
And now to continue on with the Bal en Blanc experience....stay tuned. |
LOL was just about to ask...WHERE IS THE BEB PART? :happy2: :happy2:
Looks awesome, good pictars/review! :thepirate |
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| [NFC]Wave |
The next morning after Decedance we woke up to a wonderful breakfast from my girlfriends Mom. Best meal of my life; honestly. Just great.
After a quick shower, a call to Yankee_Baby (Kelly) to let her know what was up, and review of the pics, we were off.
We hit up Kingston quickly as we had to drop off our buddy Scott at his girlfriends place. Then the long haul to Montreal began.
We passed ths sign into Quebec and I feel it necessary to point out it was my first time in another province. ;) I know, shamefull isnt' it.
Didn't take us too long and we had some good tunes to our renewed sense of hearing. We arrived and picked up our key from out good friend Karl who was nice enough to let us crash at his place. Then it was downtown for some much needed food. The amazing part about Montreal this weekend was that every single store was done up in white. All the models had white on, posters for Bal en Blanc, everything. It was 2 days away but we were getting stoked already.
I got a call from Kelly at that point saying she had managed to find a ticket from the Montreal forum and was ready to arrive the next day!
On the way back to Karl's I was "dragged" into a strip club by Kandaio. Yes, dragged....I had no intention of experiencing MTL strip clubs at all....none.....right. We sat down and to amazement what did we hear? None other than Tiesto playing to the girl on stage. It was just amazing. I had a dance bought for me with this girl whome I found out was going to BeB as well. Secretely hoping I'd see her again we took off back to Karl's for some much needed sleep.
The next day was pretty chill; good food, lounging, little cigar smoking, and relaxing. We picked up out white gear (last minute eh?) and headed back to Karl's. On the way we made a little de-tour to check out Montreal as I hadn't really seen much. We headed to Old Montreal, down to the harbour, did a nice little tour (great prep for the lady Karl ;)). Then we headed to the convention center to see about tickets (no, we didn't have any :rolleyes: but that's too long of a story anyway to get into). We turned the corner and saw all the colored mirrors and I just about my pants; 4 city blocks this building takes up. We were in for one hell of an experience. We wandered inside and up to the second level (after checking out the pink forest of course). We managed to get all the way up to the doors and peak inside before security asked us what the hell we were doing. We saw the setup with the giant flowers and everything.... let me tell you, the reaction for seeing how big this place was for the first time was pretty incredible. Just huge... we couldn't wait.
When we got back I noticed a NY license plate in his parking spot. I said to Kandaio "Wouldn't it be funny if this was Kelly right he..." and then she stepped out of the car. Hell of a coincidence.
That night we just had more good food, and then drank ourselves stupid watching dumb movies that we could sing along to. It was great to just relax and drink for once.
Then it was to bed in preperation for the next night.... |
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| starsearcher |
dude...the suspense!!! :nervous:
Speaking of strip clubs :stongue: :haha: I hear Mtl is notorious for some good ones |
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| rabbitjoker |
POINTIN' AT THE GOODS! |
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| Euphorica |
you guys dont travel much, do you?
great review so far |
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| rabbitjoker |
| Just finished reading so far. This is an uber-review. ^5. |
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| VERTiG0 |
| Yeah, this is great so far. Keep it comin! |
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| [NFC]Wave |
I woke up and hopped in the shower and put on my white sweater; not anything I was wearing for that night, I just felt the need to start the festivites early.
I picked up Scott and his girlfriend from the Metro and we chilled for a bit. Most of the day was really a blur as we didn't really do anything.
We did however hit up Schwartz for dinner. Let me tell you, INCREDIBLE. Just amazing. 100% recommend this place to anyone visiting Montreal. Then we metup with Kelly's friends from TO who were going as well. We did some ticket hunting (still last minute) to no avail and then Karl took us up to Mount Royal for a peak at Montreal at night. It was breathtaking how beautiful it was. Just amazing. Being from London where the only way to see something like that is to low-fly a plane, this was just great.
Then it was back to Karl's to get ready. We threw on Tiesto in Concert on the TV and made good use of his surround sound system as we got set to leave.
We arrived at the convention center by about 9:30 as we still needed tickets. Just as we walked in I spied Malek running around. I caught up to him and introduced myself. He looked pretty suprised that we had travelled from London for this show.
We slowly made it through the line to find out that ticket prices had jumped up a bit for us; $100 per person later and we were inside. The coat check was IMMESE and 100% organized (a hell of a lot better than the Docks for Tiesto that's for sure).
We turned the corner and there it was *WOOMPH WOOMPH WOOMPH* in your stomach, the feel of bass in your feet.... it was beginning. After a grope fest of a search we walked into the first room on our right. We walk in and it was just this immense sized room. Holy hell it was big. We wandered around surveying the place and then made our way to the other room. Inside this one they had a huge stage in the middle of the room. Pretty slick. We met up with Malek inside here again and chatted for a bit as he snapped some pics. Then we headed back over to the Trance room.
Preach was kicking pretty well. The place started to fill up and he started playing some higher energy tunes. Then he started dropping some pretty popular tunes; enough for Kandaio and I to look at one another and wonder if Tiesto had approved his choices. He was going really hard and I wondered if he realized he was opening or what because it really felt like he thought he was headlining up there.
By about 1:45am we saw Tiesto's manager come in with his vinyl case and start unravelling his headphones. By this point we had pushed ourselves to about 20 feet away from dead center; prime position (we thought). Then he walked out from behind the VIP crowd and here he was for me again not 3 months after seeing him in Toronto in December; TIESTO.
With a quick and odd look to Preach he started off nice and light. The crowd was surging and it was becoming increasingly annoying. All of a sudden I saw Tiesto starting to freak out to one of the tech guys...he was having some serious trouble. I noticed him pointing to his vinyl and jumping around not in normal Tiesto fashion at all. From what it looked like, the vinyl was skipping so much he couldn't use it; so from that point on it was all (what looked to be anyway) just CD's. This presented quite the show for us experienced Tiesto listeners. His set was filled with unknown tracks and what seemed to be promo's and new releases. It was f'n INCREDIBLE.
I did have a little problem though; I had to use the washroom. What seemed to be a regular challenge through a crowd of people turned out to be a HELL of a problem. I had to go all the way upstairs, around a bunch of corners, and then wait in a friggin' line to use it. Co-ed was cool, except for the guy who TRIED TO GRAB MY ING BALLS while I was taking a leak; hope he enjoys the punch to the gut I gave him.
Anyway, back downstairs I ran and found Kandaio and the crew again...which wasn't easy. On and on Tiesto went with these unknown tracks with such melodic flow that it was like I was in another place. Then it hit; TRAFFIC...the place went ballistic. He followed that up with a new remix of Love Comes Again. The place had a new found energy level when these were dropped; it was amazing.
I loved the balloons through the air as well; especially the ones that made it up to Tiesto and he playfully hit them back to the crowd; that was awsome.
He finished up and started the Encore though and I was lost in everything he brought me; his remix of Push - Universal Nation was great (played it at De Dam benefit concert), and then when he dropped Adagio for Strings I just lost control.
Then it was all over once again and Benny Bennasi dropped onto the decks starting with "Love is Gonna Save Us" as Tiesto was signing people's stuff.
We had to get out of there though; it was UBER loud. My ears have never hurt like that before.
After wandering around we decided we needed to actually leave; it was just literlally painful for the ears.
Headed home, and off to sleep until mid-day the next day.
Problems with Bal en Blanc though....
1. I knew I woudln't fit it well with all the french speaking people, but I didn't realize I had to be a muscle-bound, tanned, shaved head, big hoop pierced, heavily tatto's and sweaty guy as well. That was rediculous how many of those guys there were; all rude, all sweaty, and all f'n huge.
2. I'm used to Toronto crowds where they push politely; Montreal was just f'n throwing you around. Quite uncool.
3. It was WAY too loud; I'm a DJ I like it loud but physical pain from how loud that was and still not being able to hear correctly 2 days later isn't cool at all; I'm kind of worried actually.
4. I WASN"T ALLOWED TO BRING MY CAMERA!!!!! :(
But all in all.... a trip of a lifetime!
THANK YOU ALL FOR READING!!!
http://chrisallen.kandaio.com for pics of Decedance, PM me if you want anything fullsize! |
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| starsearcher |
| craaaaaaaaaaaazy... :D:D:D sounds amazing...too bad about not bringing the camera though :( guess Malek's the only with the pictures :( |
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| rabbitjoker |
| Mr. Allen is top notch. |
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| [NFC]Wave |
Oh yeah, forgot. I also got this pic signed (as well as my '24' and 'Blue Fear' albums) signed by Armin.
I really wanted to get it signed by Tiesto too, but it would have been crushed in the crowd so I'll get it done later; but onto Ferry for sure :D
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