Day 1:
Drove to TO on friday afternoon to catch the Coach bus.....took me 2.5 hours to reach TO from Niagara :( and almost missed my bus. The bus ride sucked. The highway was not plowed at all, gridlock traffic.. 10 hours later, I was in MTL....just in time to hit stereo.
Got to stereo at 4ish and Jeff Fontaine was playing some nice tunes. Really enjoyed the saxophone player with him, was a nice touch. Stereo was dead, 1/4 full and stayed like that all night. And it thinned out quickly.
Lee came on at 430 or so. From reading the TO thread, I was hoping for a sick set...which didn't happen. Most of the tracks where slow or had not much for pple wanting to dance. There were too many moments where the crowd was standing up waiting for something to happen. Lee had a few peaks during his sets, but they only last 3 tracks at most. I enjoyed the techish tracks he dropped, but there werent enough of em..
I ended up leaving at 730.
Day 2:
After little sleep, I was able to meet a friend who I havent seen in years and got to see my high school sweetheart whom Im still very close to, so it was a bonus for my weekend.
After walking close to the Bell Center....I really wanted to grabs tickets to the hockey game being a Habs fan...but decided against cuz I had too much going already during the wkend.
Met up with Gera, Vince, Jenn, and Cribs at the hotel. Was nice to meet Gera for the first time. Got to see a bit of Veronica and Julio :)
The quest to find a restaurant was a pain when cabs dont take 5 pple! We ended up in some greek restaurant that ended up being mediocre (at least for me)!
We got to Metropolis around 11:45 and got right in. That was kinda nice not having to wait. I was very surprised that there were no security checks nor ID'ing. This lead to a crowd filled with in underage kids :(
The first DJ was pretty good and lining up well for Ricardo to take the decks. Ricardo started very minimal for his first hour. Made the QC girls move their sweet bodies :) By the end of the first hour, the floor was packed and the crowd was getting pushy and on my nerves :( (partly because of the bunch of kids). Dandy Jack came on and the first 45 mins were banging and got the crowd going. At first, I enjoyed the synth/keyboard thingy he was using, but after an hour, it got repetitive and almost annoying. It was pretty ear piercing!
After 2 am, the sounds was pretty loud, yet crisp (in the areas I was in). The balcony was nice, like the 2nd level at sasha n digweed.
The venue was pretty cool. Lighting wasnt too bad. A bit too bright imo. I like it dark n dirty. Mind you the lights behind the DJ's were cool. The video imagery was pretty cool too.
Unfortunately, because of my lack of sleep and headache, I ended up packing at 430ish. Then I found myself in a chaotic downtown MTL because of the Nuit Blanche, it was impossible to find a cab! I wish I had skipped Lee Burridge@stereo and be more energized to enjoy Ricardo more.
Glad to meet Malek, Collin and Sarah.
Music: 8/10
Crowd: 5/10
Sound: 8/10
Day 3:
The bus trip home......was fun and filled with drama lol
Skipper
Yanking this from my review in the mtl forum --
I really enjoyed the music - the live stuff, the joint and solo DJ sets as well! I really liked getting there early and getting into the whole night slowly. I believe my coat check ticket # was 10. We had a few drinks and really liked the opening DJ.
Ricardo's set from 12-1 was super minimal but really groovy - perfect for me, as I had been at stereo the night before and wasn't really wanting to hear pounding music right away. By about 1, the dancefloor was waaaayyyy too packed - the elevated parts behind the dancefloor would have been great for people to spread out and dance on if the sound wasn't so bad! the delay in the back speaker stacks meant that there was this huge portion of downstairs that constantly sounded like a train wreck! No wonder people were all up front. I found even til 6am, there were so many people or maybe it felt like so many people because they were rude about pushing through or dancing without any consideration for those around them because they were so messed up.
I heard later on in the day that Ricardo went to stereo and then to someone's house, but after 2 nights out there's no way I could have done it, even if I was still in town. Who's house was it, a promoters?
Music: excellent, exactly what I wanted
People: great to see those I knew, but the rudeness of others was annoying
Sound: great in places, awful in others
Venue: perfect, except for those winding stairs - as evidenced by the pile of people who fell down them around 7am and landed in a heap at the bottom
Inside jokes and general ridiculousness among the Toronto crew: excellent
Overall: 8/10, definitely worth $40
Sunday I shook my head at those of you taking the greyhound bus back. that extra $150 for the 1hr 15 min flight was SO worth it. Colin and I missed the boarding because we were in the airport bar - the airline called my cell phone and told us we were about to miss the flight! We made it though, then we drank more than our fair share of the free wine on the way back to TO. Was home and scarfing thai food by 5pm. <3
jon jon
nice review Sarah, I heard the tunes were out of this world...
CODE
Taken from my tribe review.
What a crazy night of great music.
Metropolis is always a great venue and Mutek and Piknic did it up proper...Quite a few people out from Toronto and almost everyone having a great time and smilling. All the artists pretty much played quite good especially Dandy Jack who was having a blast. Got quite rocked with Villalobos and Martin backstage and then headed with them in a cab to the afterparty....which was quite interesting event in some Chicago promoters rented house Crazy Picks to follow What a nite.....Villalobos is a Madman!!!
Respect to all involved for putting that show together
Big Boss
Skipper what did you think of the Stereo sound system?
Skipper
I've been to Stereo before and it was exactly as I remembered it - amazing.
Unfortunately that doesn't really help if you're not into the tunes being played!
Cribby
The whole experienced surpassed my high expectations. Completely awed and floored by it all.
Music sounded like sounds taken out of someone's warped nightmare. Eerie! I think I got lost every other song. Damn that trippy display board! :p
TBC
Skipper
Beginning of night: slower, groovy minimal
End of night (This was the last track I was there for, around 6am, though he played it at the beginning of the night too)
The second one is one of his own - he started to mix it with rose rouge but only teased us, we didn't get the whole thing :(
Another good one: Cribby and I were trying to figure out the little vocal sample, I think it's from something old
The Highroller
I heard Ricardo played at Stereo, and then after that at someone's house. That would have been crazy to see! I wonder how often he does something like this when he plays...
CODE
He did not play Stereo. He just played at someones private house afterparty. Trust that I know :) House party was okay...ill post some
pics soon.
magikb
wow, what a weekend filled with fun, friends and good tunes.
I will have to continue this later though, I need more sleep.
