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Official review : Bal en Blanc 13th Edition, April 8 2007 (pg. 5)
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| Neo Hacker |
My turn now :)
I arrived at 10h30 in the Tech room and Wizz was already killing it. I really like this guy. Of course he spins Trance and I like Trance, but he's very talented and seems very down to Earth. I heard many great songs from his set, and he did an awesome job before Sander Van Doorn.
SvD...I told all my friends that this guy would kill Montréal and he did. His whole set was bomb, I was on the floor all the time. What I loved about this guy is how he seems to like being a DJ. All the time he was laughing, smiling and interacting with the crowd. I think it was his first time in Montreal right ? IMO, he did an awesome impression and will be back soon (hopefuly) ;)
I took a 30 minutes break during Second Sun. My legs were so dead and I had to take a break before Armin's set. There were good, but not my kind. For live performances, I prefered Infected Mushroom last year.
And then, Armin went on the decks...I've seen Armin 3 times (Swirl, BeB 2006 and BeB 2007). One of the best, if not the best, set of Armin I've heard. The first 1h30 was sooooo melodic and trancy. Not too cheesy, but awesome. I wasn't jumping around, I was just listening to the music and dreaming. I could have sit down and listen to the set, it would have done the same thing. This part was awesome. My friends felt in love with Armin. Armin then went a big harder and it was time for jumping ;) I took a break at 6h30 for another 30 minutes. When I went back, Armin was harder and spun some very nice classics for the last 30 minutes. Moment of his set : Children at the end of the set (L). Armin was much better than last year and seemed more into it. He did an awesome job and was my favorite.
Above and Beyond then came on the deck. Paavo was on fire ! I never saw a DJ like that haha ! But man it was good. More cheesy than Armin, but cheesy or not, if the music is good, then I'm fine with that. They played many of their tracks, many classics and IMO did an awesome job after Armin. I noticed BeB announced the 3 guys of Above and Beyond but only Jono and Paavo were there...Paavo seems so geek/nerd. I was laughting with Cyberflow about that but how cares, he does an awesome job by spinning and interacting with the crowd.
I had big expectations for A&B and SvD, and I could say VERY HIGH expectations...and they were better than I expected. I love these guys, I want them back in Montreal.
I left after Above and Beyond, just before Preach started. Not that I didn't want to see Preach again, but my friend Julie was dead. It was her second event (Silver was the first) and she did 12h non-stop ;) Note that both of us weren't on drugs or anything ;)
About Bal en Blanc setup and administration, it was ok. It took me about 15minutes to enter in the rooms after the coat check (which was 30 seconds). But I arrived at 10h15 so...I don't understand people arriving at 4h-6h, but that's their choice.
The decor was ok. I liked the screens but overall, last year was better. The lights were pretty good I think. Honestly, I don't really care about that. I care about the music and the DJs.
Overall, Bal en Blanc 2007 was the best event in my whole nightlife. The best before was Swirl 2005 with Armin, CL, Liebing and Blank and Jones, but from now on : Bal en Blanc 2007 >>>> Swirl 2005.
I don't think we'll get another lineup like yesterday soon. Tech lineup was very impressive with new talents (SvD, Wizz and A&B) and that's exactly what I wanted. Maybe next year we could get Thomas Bronzwaer, Ferry Corsten or Airwave (which was awesome at Silver by the way!) ?
For me, Bal en Blanc 2007 was worth 200$ and I wasn't not VIP :)
Cheers to Cyberflow (which I spent a big part of the night with) and Summerwolf (which was TOO BUSY to talk with me haha) ;) Saw Malek of course, which seemed tired just like last year ;) I don't remember his nickname but I'm pretty sure I was beside a peurf squad guy. He was with a girl (the_devil?) and the guy had sunglasses. Well, when A&B was spinning, we were right at the left corner of the stage...anyway
Have a good night guys, we all deserve it ;)
Neo :) |
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| SummerWolf |
| quote: | Originally posted by Neo Hacker
Summerwolf (which was TOO BUSY to talk with me haha) ;) |
pffft... i cant remember why but i know i was rushing somewhere for a reason.... im sure i had a good...reason...
ok fine... not nice from me...hahahah....that is for choking on Christopher Lawrence...:toothless |
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| Neo Hacker |
| quote: | Originally posted by SummerWolf
pffft... i cant remember why but i know i was rushing somewhere for a reason.... im sure i had a good...reason...
ok fine... not nice from me...hahahah....that is for choking on Christopher Lawrence...:toothless |
lol ok we're even :p but you were kind enough to call me while CL was on the decks ;) haha If next year you need another photograph, call me :p |
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| chimera66 |
arrived at about 11:00 and was on the dance floor withing 30min. yankeebaby and i stayed at the holiday inn across the street so didn't do that whole coat check thing which was awesome cause i didn't want to miss much of sander's set.
Sander - Brilliant as expected with the exception of the last 30min or so, for some reason or another I wasn't really feeling it...not the point where I wasn't dancing though :). He spun a hard tech trance set which I LOVED...wanted to hear Mr. White but I missed the very beginning of his set so who knows he might have.
Second Sun - Fully expected them to bore me but boy was I surprised. I mean they were awesome and I wouldn't hesitate to hear them live again. Very impressed.
Armin - I think Armin is fabulous but I don't expect him to be perfect...he started out crazy strong but somewhere in the middle got too fluffy or something and I got "bored" to make up for that though he banged the sh*t out of le Palais at the end of his set. Too bad for the technical difficulties cause you could visually tell he was annoyed with the equiptment, the damn speaker going out and whatever else was going wrong on the decks. On a positive not, loved that he had his entire crew dancing behidng him (Sander, Markus, Second Sun, his manager & everyone else).
Above & Beyond - AIR FOR LIFE :eyespop:!!! I love A&B and was sooooooo happy to see Paavo there cause I've only seen Jono & Tony in NYC. They spun some beautiful tunes and had me singing along with them for their entire set. Paavo was ridiculous!!! The energy he had was crazy nuts, great great great fan interaction. He mentioned that BeB was one of his favorite parties which I thought was awesome and quickly chit chatted with fans like YankeeBaby and I which was nice. Either way the music selection was :crazy:; if it wasn't for them I would have seriously left right after Armin.
Preach - YankeeBaby has talked about him for a while and I promised I would stay awake until he came on. Oh SH*T Preach spun a nasty hard tech trance set. I was so tired and had a flight to catch but I couldn't tear myself away until 11:20 cause by then I HAD to leave but I soooooo didn't want to. I went wild to Smack My Bitch Up...craziness. I hope to see more of him
Finally, great meeting all the TAs :D, this was a great event and I can't wait to go back again...hopefully better speakers and decorations though :) |
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| djlemeir |
| did anyone step in the house room? |
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| Marcus007 |
| quote: | Originally posted by djlemeir
did anyone step in the house room? |
rauhofer: why doesn't this guy interact with his crowd? His music is great albeit repetitive but wtf is with his SUPER FOCUSED FACE while mixing... like... u arent recording a cd mix, YOURE PLAYING LIVE!!!
dirty choons either way if u could avoid the homo-pits |
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| brightnights |
Hate to be a downer on the house room, but...
Got there around 3ish.
Rauhofer: boooo-o-o-o-ring. Sorry, I just wasn't feeling the style, I guess. Very pulsing, throbby, tribal with lots of protracted buildups and build-up/pause/build-up some more that left me blue-balls'd. Just sounded to me like, "boom-boom-boom-boom, flanger, more flanger, pause, boom-boom-boom-boom."
Maya: Poor girl! Live house diva performances are a bit of a sketchy idea to begin with, seeing as the live act is subject to the pre-recorded track, and you risk amateur karaoke-style capers. In grand Offer Nissim style, the first in' CD on was a disaster. Screwed-up bass levels on Perfect Love (which may have been the system as far as I understand, it looked like some technicians were doing mad damage control). However, NOTHING can excuse that the track started skipping as if the disc was scratched. She dealt with it, but it was just a totally tense moment. The rest of her songs were cool.
Offer Nissim: The man is a remixing genius. End of story. He's got a great, unique sound, and produces it really well. Someone should teach him to beat-mix, though, at the very least. He tends to loop the ends of tracks--or brings in a drone/distortion effect--then just cues up the next one. They're the same 15 tracks as always, in the same order, mixed exactly the same (as on Live @ Roxy 5, or his 2006 Remixes compilation). Then there's the theatrics... Whatever. At least his one-trick pony is a prize-winner :P The tracks are good, and he picked up the energy in the room.
Sultan: Wow. I mean wow. Great stuff. Most original music from the sets that I heard, and lots of variety for a 1h set! Props.
Deep Dish: what's with the 2h warm-up? I almost fell asleep on my feet. Last 2 hours were classic Deep Dish stuff, disco-y progressive, lots of fun once they got around to it. Loved the new rework of Bucci Bag, and though it was like the 2nd or 3rd time the new Tainted Love mix came out over the night, they did the best job of it hands down.
Preach: Wow. Stopped in for 'bout 40 minutes while Deep Dish were masturbating. My first real encounter with trance since developing a taste for EDM. That was some cool . Not my style overall, but it definitely moved my ass. |
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| SummerWolf |
| quote: | Originally posted by djlemeir
did anyone step in the house room? |
i went at the start... then i tried again when offer nissim was playing... to make it to the VIP must have taken me a good 15 minutes...
then i was dumb and didnt look where i was going and without knowing it i stepped into the redlite vip zone... i think i almost got my head ripped off... i totally didnt look at the sign... lol i know better....
The Godskitchen area was nice with all the couches....
But it was impossible to make it through in the house room... it was PACKED to the titties... well in this case to the dickies... |
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| Marcus007 |
can anyone id the track svd dropped
"it must be why im the king of my castle"
DIRTY BASS DROP |
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| Neo Hacker |
| quote: | Originally posted by Marcus007
can anyone id the track svd dropped
"it must be why im the king of my castle"
DIRTY BASS DROP |
OMG I got crazy on this one !!!!!!! |
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| chimera66 |
| quote: | Originally posted by Marcus007
can anyone id the track svd dropped
"it must be why im the king of my castle"
DIRTY BASS DROP |
King Of My Castle (SvD remix)...old track reworked |
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| Marcus007 |
i loved dancing on the vip stands
when the bass would drop after a build
everyone was jumping up and down on the stands and it was like i was dancing on air
dirttayyyy |
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