Well. I went in with the normal, I’m ready to hear Carl rip this club apart. I ordered a drink from the stand alone bar and mentioned to the bartender if she’d heard Carl play before. She said no. My reply was “He will turn this club into a zoo.” ½ Later… I go back. The animals had come out. She looked in awe. I told her “See what I mean about Carl....Zoo.” He played the banging tunes all night…and when he got on that mike…watch out.
Some people may not agree that this is not the right venue for him to play at. Sure, I think he rips the Guvy apart too, and he is suited for that room, but he did a commendable job at Circa too. Carl wants to throw a party…and in my opinion that is what he did on Saturday night. As the staff were trying to close down the second floor and bring everyone downstairs, I looked over and the room was still on fire. I have not seen Circa this rammed with party goers since I have been going to the club. Bouncers have been extremely friendly every time I have been which is a refreshing change, considering the insanity that goes on in that club from time to time.
I really like Circa a lot, but being in the downtown club district is really going to start holding me back from going back very often. Two out of the last three times I’ve been there, the gun fights outside have started to scare me off a bit.
I came to jam and that is what I got to do.
Walking out the door I stop at one of the club managers and let him know “You guys threw a good party tonight.” He smiled and said thank you.
MissK
quote:
Originally posted by Knox
Walking out the door I stop at one of the club managers and let him know “You guys threw a good party tonight.” He smiled and said thank you.
yeah I concur. The staff were great there!
junkie_vince
So its bad that he played Grindhouse & Smoke Machine but it’s ok that he played Trompeta?
|3 |_ @ Z 3 |)
Arrived at Circa around 12:30ish to a fairly packed club. Went outside for a quick smoke where I saw Mach X. Went back in to catch a little bit of the opening DJ (I'm assuming Rundell?). He was playing some fairly good bangers to start off the night before Carl came on at 1am. Carl started off slow and steady and started to build. I didn't pay close enough attention to most of his introductory tracks as I was wandering around the upper shopping mall. Eventually came back down to the 2nd floor where I spotted Mr. Morton and friends at the bar. As we departed from the bar area and passing by the balcony I heard Christian Smith - Flyertalk which definately put a smile on my face. At the same time I felt he dropped this a little too early on in the night since I had expected him to play until 6am.
Met up with a bunch of other TA's near the 2nd floor balcony where I saw some veterans and new faces: nice to meet you Ian, Veronica, Cribby. Nice seeing you again Catalina, Dave, Kristina, Sonny - Del was eating up those beats :P
Now Carl had me going for awhile but the flow was lacking and there were tremendous breakdowns/buildups that I couldn't keep myself in a proper groove while dancing. Regardless I still had a smile on my face. At about 4am I took a much needed rest as I watched the place clear out and section by section was getting closed off. I made my way down to the main room at about 4:15 when Carl just started to rip me apart. His final hour was absolutely destructive thick rolling basslines. He finished up close to 5:30ish and while I was disappointed that he was done I was also completely wasted from dancing so hard.
So I grab my coat, say my goodbyes and I'm about to call it a night. As I approach my car in the parking lot I see about 15 cops on bicycles searching cars and yellow caution tape surrounding the parking lot where my car is parked. As I approach the tape an officer asks me "Where am I going?" - I said "To my car of course". He replied "This area is closed off until the SIU arrives - this is a crime scene and you cannot go to your car. Go to the Timmies and wait there until about 10am". There was no pleaing with the officers and not a chance in hell that I could take my car and leave. Gladly I managed to get ahold of Mr. Morton and I grabbed a cab to his place to crash for a few hours (LIFE SAVER!!! THANKS Kris/Sonny!!) - My night/morning ended on such a high note when Carl finished just to be shattered by the startling news about the crime scene. Things could have been worse but they managed to work itself out in the end. At about 10:30am I took a subway back downtown and managed to get my car back in once piece.
SOooOOoo the verdict:
Club - 6.5/10 - After my 3rd time being at Circa I am truly not a fan of the "mall" like design. I believe Circa used to be Lucid back in the day, or atleast it reminds me of it. Apart from that the smoking area is atrocious.
Carl - 7/10 - While I know hes a king behind the decks and definately a legend in the Techno genre, he truly did not WOW me in any way, shape or form. Frankly, his flow and track selection were mediocre at best but I gave him credit for his XLNT crowd interaction. Likewise I am giving him some extra credit for his final hour where he seemed to cater to the hardcore fans and started dropping bomb after bomb.
Vibe - 9/10 - For most people, they have a hard time ignoring any and everything within a clubs environment. Fortunately for myself as long as I am around friends and they are smiling and dancing the night away, so am I. Thanks for a good night TAs.
Mortyman
quote:
Originally posted by Lighthouse
Ahhh, yes, it is so ignorant to think that highly paid veteran's of the industry should not be playing dancefloor mainstays (read: cliche) tracks that every other local DJ has been playing in most cities on a routine basis for the past 6 months to 1 year. Even fans from such booming metropolises of Shawinagan and Moosejaw are familiar with this kind of music....
...would you care to elaborate on what you find so offensive/ignorant about that statement, my erudite friend?
Just because he played 2 tracks out of a 4 hour set that you think are overplayed makes him less original???? Where the logic in that???
Let's someone (ie ME) has only heard 2 DJ's ever drop Grindhouse... Maybe because I don't listen to alot of Dubfire and don't go out and party as much as you do, I like it when I hear tracks that I really like, and to hear it on huge booming sound system. I don't give a crap if local dj's have been playing them over and over every night... do you think Carl Cox went around asking all the local Toronto DJ's... "Hey, do you play this track? If so, maybe I shouldn't play it then?"????
FFS, I go see Sander van Doorn and Armin van Buuren and they play pretty much every track I have at home... should I consider them any less original than me???
I think people in Shawinigan and Moosejaw have access to the internet, No??? every single person on this planet who has internet access can be familiar with any song that's ever been released.
You're digging your own hole dude. I'm getting out while I can.
peace
ChemEnhanced
quote:
Originally posted by Mortyman
FFS, I go see Sander van Doorn and Armin van Buuren and they play pretty much every track I have at home... should I consider them any less original than me???
yes...yes you should...they are less original then you...and no...I'm not joking
Lighthouse
quote:
Originally posted by Mortyman
Just because he played 2 tracks out of a 4 hour set that you think are overplayed makes him less original???? Where the logic in that???
FFS, I go see Sander van Doorn and Armin van Buuren and they play pretty much every track I have at home... should I consider them any less original than me???
No, you should consider both those artists just as original as you.
Don't take any offense Mortyman, your statement above tells me we live on different planets when it comes to music, club performances, and expectations of a touring DJ's role...which is fine.
You were right to stop reading my review/comments.
Peace.
rabbitjoker
quote:
Originally posted by Lighthouse
we live on different planets
lol.
Ravist
why hasn't anyone told me about this "other" planet? WTF??!?! seriously!
musicsnob_NOT
I hate getting into these kinds of discussions but I think its a case of Carl Cox (and other big name DJ's) having jumped the shark.
reference if you don't know what I mean by jump the shark
I believe as DJ's get more and more popular there comes a time when they have to make a decision about their career and what they want to accomplish.
1. Continue to push the boundaries of music and technology, continue to evolve and develop their sound and performance (Richie Hawtin)
2. Accept what they have done and what has made them popular and continue to down that road (Armin, Tiesto)
Both choices have their merits and will appeal to different groups of people. Now I wasn't at Circa because to be honest after seeing Carl at Time Warp in April I felt he had lost it and had "jumped the shark". Here he was at one of the biggest (if not the biggest) techno party and he could have brought his "A" game and stole the whole night as I know he is capable but he sucked. It was just awful and compared to the last set I had been at (Stereo the year before) it was very disappointing.
Now depending on what you want when you go out to a party what Carl aparently played could be "OMG the best set ever", or "popular crap that is over played".
People who want to hear "classics" and hits will be happy. Those people who want to hear new stuff and know what Carl is capable of from what he was like in the past will be dissapointed.
In short I think Carl has "jumped the shark" and no longer wants to push the envelope and is content playing the hits. It is the easier way.
Just my 2 cents.
dirtbag
I completely disagree with you guys.
Ive seen Carl Cox a few times and always found that what he played was targetted at more of a main stream crowd. It would always be a few unremarkable, fairly cheesey tracks punctuated by an outstanding song.
I didnt witness any of this on saturday.
It was just bomb after bomb.
Big dancefloor sound without any cheese.
DigiNut
quote:
Originally posted by Lighthouse
I'm learning to manage my expectations...its a painful process.
That sounds like a euphemism for "lower my expectations". What's wrong with expecting highly-paid "professionals" to actually do their jobs better than the grunts and amateurs? If I'm going to walk in with low expectations then I might as well do it on a cheap local night.
Instead of forcing audiences to lower their expectations, these people should be raising the bar. I can't even imagine someone taking the former approach for say, a basketball player, or a chef. You're supposed to be A-list - prove that you earned it.
quote:
Originally posted by Yohan
...in my view n00b crowds want to connect with the tracklist and want to hear some familiar tunes, or else they get impatient with the DJ.
Typical, blaming the audience for the artist's performance. I can't say this squares with my observations from the night, either; frankly I don't think that 9/10 people in the crowd would have even had a clue what track was playing, they were so trashed.
If it's really so important - and I personally question whether most members of a n00b crowd even know what a "tracklist" means - then play a few crowd-pleasers, don't slather the whole set with them like ketchup on fries.
