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Review: Bal en Blanc @ Palais de Congres, Montreal - Apr. 8/07 (pg. 5)
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| malek |
| quote: | Originally posted by Provocative_boi
Thats not fahad :mad:
Theres no towel!!!!!!!!!LOL |
there's a towel pic too!! i have to find it :D |
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| iLLnaDa |
| quote: | Originally posted by malek
there's a towel pic too!! i have to find it :D |
ahhhhh awesome :D |
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| ChemEnhanced |
| quote: | Originally posted by jon jon
holy these two are super nerds... |
EDM DJs are typically former members of the high school AV club. |
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| Angx |
Overall the event was amazing. Svd was great , Armin was on fire as always. I didn't really like some of the remixes he chose, but the flow was great. Above and Beyond were still good regardless of them playing all their OLD!!! productions....They could have played so many of their new ones, i was llooking forward on hearing soem new tracks that they have released under their label.
Other than that GREAT FRIENDS, GREAT VENUE = GREAT PARTY. |
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| Invasionmix |
| quote: | Originally posted by Angx
Overall the event was amazing. Svd was great , Armin was on fire as always. I didn't really like some of the remixes he chose, but the flow was great. Above and Beyond were still good regardless of them playing all their OLD!!! productions....They could have played so many of their new ones, i was llooking forward on hearing soem new tracks that they have released under their label.
Other than that GREAT FRIENDS, GREAT VENUE = GREAT PARTY. |
I requested Satellite, sorry lol that song touches me everytime. Last year they opened at Guv playing Air for Life too. And there's no problem playing old songs if their good, Eddie Halliwell always plays Traffic. |
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| adi26 |
| quote: | Originally posted by Invasionmix
I requested Satellite, sorry lol that song touches me everytime. Last year they opened at Guv playing Air for Life too. And there's no problem playing old songs if their good, Eddie Halliwell always plays Traffic. |
Thanks for the Satellite request. Made my Night!! I love that track - always will. |
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| yankeeBaby |
| quote: | Originally posted by iLLnaDa
ahhhhh awesome :D |
hahah fahad brought a STACK of towels and hid them in the corner!! :haha: :haha: :haha: and a stack of t-shirts!
about to write my review right now. I have about...ohhh....5 BILLION people who texted/emailed/voicemailed/myspaced/facebooked me about every little detail....... so I am gonna write a long one so I dont have to repeat all the stories a million times. Might take a few. |
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| zoogla |
This was easily the best EDM experience I have had in my 9 yrs of
listening and 3 yrs of attendance!!!!!
PEOPLE
Firstly I want to thank Kelly (yankeebaby) for making this experience
happen for me. You single handedly convinced me to come. I can't believe I
ever had any doubts. If future lineups are anything like last night's (I
have a feeling they will be--dont worry Nada ;)) I will never miss it. You
and Y were awesome roommates and made the whole experience so much fun.
Thanks again for pushing my lazy ass and for all your generosity!!! I
*heart* u forever, Kelly.
Malek, akhee, u are the greatest u mofo. I have several friends in Mtl but
no one can single categorically ensure how great of a time I have the way
you can. Thanks again for the ticket. You are a brother for life *heart*. I
will be personally insulted if u don't allow me to reciprocate when you
visit Toronto. Which better be soon, BITCH! :whip:
Y, it was so cool to meet u and spend some quality time getting to know u.
EXCELLENT convos and had tons of fun going out for brunch and dinner with
you and Kelly. Can't wait for u to show me that cupcake place in NYC! ;)
Best of luck with your interesting field of study at NYU.
Linzie and Adi good times in the hotel room?lmfao at some of the pics. Adi
awesome moments with u on the dance floor, buddy, so good to see u. Linzie
loved ur new hair and the lashes, see how the extra layer of glue on top
was key? lol :p
Angelo, Peter, Peter, and Dave (is it Dave or Steve? I took your number at
the Docks on my old phone and I can't find it--sorry dude! :() it's always
cool to see you four at all the parties. It makes every event feel like
home! :) Angelo, you're a brother AND you're one of the hottest men on
facebook ;) :p lol and Peter, Mr. Souvlaki, I <3ed the outfit, you Greek
God you!!!! All those wikked experiences throughout each set were awesome!
Seeing you pumping it and get excited each time a bomb was dropped raised
my energy level several notches!!!! Parties aren't the same without you
boys...and the hot girls you bring! ;) :p *cough*Francis*cough* lol :p
(feel free to pass the message, "omghi2ubbq" to her ;)) Nice to meet all
your other friends, also.
Selma, you are such a sweetie!!!! It was so nice to finally meet you, Ali,
and your sister. I think I'm going to take my younger sister to BeB too...
Dancing it up with you throughout the night was truly awesome. LMFAO at
the autograph you got from Armin--so glad you took my advice! ;) :p LOL!!!!
You kinda reminded me of Nada (iLLnaDa on TA), who I absolutely love to
death. Right down to the detail that your fiances' names are ALI!!!!
LOL!!! Message to Ali (Selma's Ali): dude, you better have those Red Bulls
ready for her ON TIME!!!! Lol :p
Sylvie, LMFAO you recognized me in the men's room as I was adjusting my
towel in front of the mirror :haha:. What an effing coincidence that you
used the same exact sink at the same time, and you're like, "I know you
from TA". That was hilarious and cool. Bathroom convos ftw lol. And then
you say you promised Peter (Coxx) that you'd meet him, right after I was
just with the whole group of them. The whole thing worked out perfectly.
:)
Markesss, brief moment but always good to see you! Dan, nice to have
finally met you as well. Also randomly caught Erika (sp?) a couple of
times. I was in the house room for a while to check it out but didn't see
you anywhere. Monika, pleasure to finally have met you! Man, had I known
what you had just gone through, I would have bought you a drink or
something...so sorry to hear all that about waiting in line for
several hours! :(
LMAO at Zeidoo!!!! Dude, you are so hilarious!!! You just jumped right up
on the side of the stage and we had a whole conversation!!! Really cool to
have met you and around the time you wanted to take a picture from Malek,
Preach dropped "Broken Inside" which has been an anthem for me since I
first heard it--really sorry I was in another zone. We'll get a proper
picture taken next time! You should come to Toronto for AVB on Apr. 21!!!
;) I was shocked at how many ppl just approached me and said they
recognized me from TA. What a rush that is, everytime! Thanks, Swamper :)
Bertuzz, you theez, always a pleasure to meet you. LMAO at shouting "GO
LEAFS GO!!!" at A&B!!! LOL!!!! Oreo the Cookie, finally got to meet you.
Legendary Waz, so sorry to hear about the car issues on the way. Nice that
you finally made it. There was something missing ? COURTNEY!!! Where the
hell were you?!?! I was so looking forward to meeting you! :(
I will be adding more shout outs as I remember more people from their
reviews...sorry if I missed you this round! ;) I also met this non-TA, a
HUGE guy I was standing next to on the VIP stage named Steven. He was with
his girl, Janice, and they were visiting from Toronto. He's a crazy AVB
fan that has flown all over the world to hear him. I'm planning on
catching up with him on Apr. 21 at front and right. :D lol plan is totally
organized.
The music was so awesome I almost wanted to rank it higher than the TAs but
without TAs its technically not a party for me. :p So on to music...
MUSIC
The actual set times in the trance room were as follows:
Sander Van Doorn - 12 am - 3 am
Second Sun - 3 am - 4 am
Armin Van Buuren - 4 am - 8 am
Above and Beyond - 8 am - 10 am
Preach - 10 am - 12 pm
Sander - WOW. Just, WOW. First time seeing him perform live. I've only
heard one set of his, which is now one of my essential CDs for the car. I
was impressed with all the energy from him. I was speaking to Nada and we
both agreed that he's like a miniature version of Armin! lol same feet
movements and clapping and stuff. Always smiling and looked like he was
having a great time. His set was beginning to sound very trancey with
tracks like Megashira and then all of a sudden he dropped Smack My Bitch
and a crazy remix of Are You Fine. I suck at IDing so I can't remember his
other tracks atm.
Second Sun - lots of energy as usual, but I'm not into the whole EDM
rockstar thing so I left during their set to check out the house room. I
think this was my 3rd time seeing them.
Armin - This guy stole the show. His recent ASOTs have been keeping me up
at night so I was really excited to hear him for my 4th time (although I
normally thought I'd be tired by now). His energy was SOOOOOOOOOO awesome.
I?ve never seen him smile or jump as much, it felt like it was his first
time playing!!!! He was totally into the crowd and everyone in the packed
house was feeding off his quality track selection and probably more so his
energy. I think hundreds more people came in to hear his set because it
was a lot tighter. When he would go around the stage to shake people's
hands, I felt like some of the girls in the front row were going to be
crushed because everyone was clamouring to touch him!!! :wtf: He's good,
but not worth it to hurt yourself to touch him! LOL! He played some real
classics...I can't remember their names right now but they will come to me.
All I can remember right now is Megashira. I also remember his creepy
manager hovering around the stage flashing dirty smiles at the gorgeous
girls. :nervous:
A&B - After Armin physically ruined the crowd, it seems like most of the
energy was drained when A&B came on. When they started with Air for Life,
people went nuts. Honestly, people danced so hard for so long, it seems
the police aren't even scratching the surface in the ecstasy trade with
their blockbuster raids lol. j/k, I'm sure a lot of people go sober ;)
Right, RJ? :D I did feel at times in the beginning of A&B's set that they
were really going high on the crowd interaction for the lack of clapping
and jumping and hands in the air from the audience (at least from my
viewpoint on the stage)---there was SOOO much of that going on during AVB's
set that I'm sure people were very tired by 8 am. But the two of them kept
coming up to the crowd and trying to raise the energy level. Little did
they know all they had to do was drop No One On Earth to electrocute the
crowd. That track got me going like the crazy Paki I am and I was totally
thinking of Lisa and Nikki, and our first time hearing A&B drop it at
Guv!!!! *heart* My fave track these days is Dangerous Power and by
playing it, I was officially in disbelief about how awesome the night was.
They also played Megashira. I'm sure I'll remember more as I read other
posts.
Preach - lol I remember thinking how silly it was that after 11 hours of
dancing, Preach is going to come on with his dirty basslines and just crack
some spines. That's exactly what happened. I broke my vertebrae in 3
places and have been writing the rest of this review in a hospital room.
lol :p Before I comment on his performance, I'd like to say omfg I realize
why Jenn thinks so highly of him. He is such a stellar individual.
Extremely friendly and generous in spending his time with the fans who love
him. It was Kelly's bday yesterday and she told me that she had previously
been in touch with Preach who was looking forward to seeing her out from
NYC. I went to the DJ area and saw him come downstairs just to talk to
this fan in a wheelchair, and while I waited I saw how genuinely Preach was
talking and joking with him. It was really rewarding to see that type of
plur coming from such a huge success. Then, to top it off, he came all the
way out on the main dance floor to meet Kelly and wish her a happy
birthday, and the two chatted for about 15 minutes, right before he was
about to go on. :toocool: When he hit us with "Broken Inside" all hell
broke loose. People went absolutely nuts (present company included). It
was seriously becoming difficult to dance at that point but I couldn't back
down...had to represent T.O.!!! lol He played a remix of Smack My Bitch as
well. Can't remember much else except that when I cheered "one more track"
with everyone I was really wishing he wouldn't lol :p I have never stayed
at a location so close to the venue (hotel was on the opposite street
corner of the club?AWESOME find, Kels!) but I mainly blame Preach for
making me dance so hard at the end that even the short walk home was the
most painful experience all night. LMAO at all the professional people
looking at us like we were complete sketchbags! I mean, I can understand
them thinking that about Kelly, but why me?! LOL!!! O SNAP!! :p
House room -
omfgwtfshirtlessjuicemonkeyswithleatherchapskissingandfondlingeachotherbbq!!!
Luckily the VIP stage was relatively spacious so got to dance it up
properly. HUGE, packed crowd; seemed the room was smaller than the trance
room. Have no idea who was playing between 3-4 am but it wasn't anything
truly inspiring for me. Nothing like Lawler or C+C omfg :eyespop: still
buzzing about them. Malek saw me at 4 and told me that AVB was onstage so
I got the outta dodge! lol
VENUE
VIP - So many people said that it's not really worth it but that is SO NOT
TRUE!!!! If you can keep track of the availability dates and buy it for
$25, it's a friggin STEAL!!! I paid $50 for mine. The convenience factor
was soooooo awesome, that I will never attend another event without VIP
access. To be honest, it wasn't really necessary for the Together As One
at the Docks because the floor was laid out really well and there was
plenty of room to dance with ample bathrooms everywhere, but that was a
challenge at BeB due to sheer numbers so it is almost necessary to buy the
VIP if you want to save yourself the extra line-up times (especially with
the amount of water I was drinking). VIP also had its own 2 water
fountains so it was extremely convenient to go there, just a few seconds
away from the stage to refill everyone's bottles.
Food - lol Lindsay you're the best gym buddy ever!!!! She texted me before
BeB to ensure that I snack as part of my diet routine, so as not to mess up
my metabolism by not eating for 12 hours. Every 3-4 hours, I had
something, and it was FRIGGIN INCREDIBLE that there was a full service
cafeteria right in the club...with sandwiches, cookies, fruit, any drink,
chips, brownies, granola, cereal, milk...damn that place had everything
that I could possibly want!!!! lol (Don't worry, Lindsay--no refined
sugar, nothing oily and zero carbs! ;) :p)
Lighting - although the theme of "Super Heroes" wasn't THAT brilliantly
laid out in the decor (you had images of Spiderman, Catwoman, etc. here and
there), the best part for me was the MASSIVE Superman "S" pentagon right
behind the DJ (maybe 40 feet high) and the letters, "SH" for Super Heroes
in the centre. They lit up with such brilliant colours and with the other
lights flashing around it made for some surreal moments when I was front
and centre. Especially during Preach's set during the late morning, when
they would glow red and seeing Preach's silhouette at that point with a
sexy Monika (:p) dancing nearby on stage, it was a perfect cap to the
night!
Organization - aside from that fiasco I've been reading about re: the late
entries, the organization was superb. I felt like I was entering a U.S.
airport travelling from Saudi Arabia after not shaving for 2 weeks lol.
Security was up the yin-yang, only stopping short of a full cavity search!
LOL! Shoes off, feeling your socks and , and with all the extra towels
and t-shirts I was packing, I got the 3rd degree. But it was good to see
all the security and staff moving people a long as quickly as possible.
Security never made any exceptions for anyone when going to any of the VIP
locations and every area was staffed right till the bitter end. The only
scary moment was when there was this rush of activity and a girl who looked
completely unconscious was being rushed out on a stretcher with like 15
security and paramedic staff running around her. Hope that girl is okay.
:(
The sound got a 6 out of 10 from me only because of where I was standing;
when I passed the massive speakers I heard the awesome quality but even
then it seemed some of the speakers were rattling with the bass turned up
so high. The room is bigger than any venue I've seen (think main room at
the Toronto Convention Centre) so I guess that's necessary. Also, at the
front, we were too dependent on the speakers on each side of the DJ and he
would turn them down each time someone behind him wanted to speak with him.
There were numerous buzz kills when ur just about to get ready for the drop
after an awesome build-up and then suddenly the sound goes and you have to
rely on the sound being echoed from the opposite side of the huge room.
That happened every 15-20 min all night except when Second Sun came on cuz
of their style.
Oh, and the sketched out Asians were in full force. Nice to see we're not
the only ones with that problem in Toronto. LOL :p |
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| malek |
| calisse thats a good read for my train commute! |
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| smuncky |
wow.
now thats wat i call a PROPER review.
glad u had fun fahad! |
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| EvilTree |
Awesome review Fahad. Good to know that you had a great time.
Just how many towels and t shirts did you bring? :p |
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| JPinCanada |
I thought Bal en Blanc was amazing! The entire night was filled with great vibe and amazing people. The customs that some people came up with looked so good. I myself didn't do much for a custom so I was the your typical guy with out a shirt on...but I did have a white belt, shoes, and hat on!!!
The music was soo good! Although there had been some technical sound difficulties through out the night in the one room where AVB was I had no other issues with the place. I got in around 1 through the VIP entrance and that was nice to...I liked how the bathrooms where so close for us and we had the option of being able to go hang out by the DJ's.
SVD is awesome! Someone pointed out to me that Markus Schulz was standing in behind Sander, on the stage and it did kinda look like him. I didn't want to leave the front because the sound in behind the DJ booth wasn't that great because of the DJ Monitors.
But SVD was really good and he's got my vote for 2007 so far.
Petter Rauhofer killed it, what an awesome DJ...dirty beats!!! I wasn't expecting anything from this guy but whoa...I was thoroughly impressed!!! My only issue with the house room was that it was over whelmed with sooo many dudes, who where probably gay. I'm so glad I had a female with me. She was my shield. LoL
AVB was in such an amazing mood...I love seeing him jump around and get excited from start to end.
Second sun...Meh! He was alright.
I made my exit during Dubfires set which I think sucked. Who cares that there was problems with the sound it wouldn't have made a difference. I thought that for sure the Dynamic Duo would have been playing side by side, not, One after the other!!! :confused:
Can I get a whooooooaaa HOTTIES all over the place!!!! My neck is sore from checking out all the hot woman. Not to mention that it was a zoo of Friendly woman!!! I couldn't turn away from one girl and not talk to another. It was almost harassing, but I liked it!! I like Montreal woman Lots!!!! LOL
On my way out I was interviewed by CTV, I saw the broadcast that night on the local station in Montreal and I hope it didn't air in Ontario. I didn't look very sober :eyespop: LoL
All in All Bal en Blanc WAS everything I hoped to have expected it to be like, and WASN'T at all what I had heard it would be like.
I got recognized by a few TA's, and I saw you guys too but we where all in the midsts of having some good times. Nice to see you though ;) . |
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