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Review: Bal En Blanc 15 (pg. 4)
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| MoAmyot |
I was the first in the line-up so I had the chance to view must of the prestations in the tech-room.
Insomnia did a great job preparing the crowd to the madness that would be Markus Schulz.
Schulz started mixing @ 23:30 and his set was completely massive. He dropped track like Daydream, Aurora, the wonderful mashup of This Is That by Gareth Emery and Silence by Delirium by Myon & Shane54, Chinook, etc. He wasn't energetic like Armin (obviously, Armin really knows how to pump a crowd) but he delivered a great presence to the crowd. His transitions were spot on and I had a great time... Until the performance of the theme song. Schulz provided a great remix but the live vocals were REALLY boring.
Then A&B turns came. I was really looking forward to their set because their lastest episode of TATW was great. They started their set with a massive track that I just can't remember the name then they played WAY too many Oceanlab tracks (I am what I am remixed by Lange, Lonely Girl remixed by Gareth Emery, On a Good Day, Can't Sleep, Breaking Ties). I highly respect Oceanlab's work but six tracks were really too much (I have to admit that I really enjoyed Can't sleep being a personal favorite of mine). Props to them for dropping the newest collab between Leon Bolier and Galen Behr, Wet Dream, it was AMAZING! The same goes for the newest release of Breakfast : After Midnight. I was looking forward to ear a couple of anjunadeep tracks like Life Aquatic, the PROFF remix of Delta by Jaytech, etc.
Armin started his set with his mashup of let there be light, dust in the wind and the batman soundtrack and mixed Let there be Light next. It was my first time seeing him lives and I must say that the guy is absolutely energetic, loves the interaction with the crowd. He dropped alot of good tracks like Los Angeles, MME, Communication, Find Yourself, etc. but some tracks were REALLY normal : Man on the Run (Chagall Remix), Let it Rock/Thump and Crash my Bitch up. I really enjoy the fact that he played Communication, his remix of Violam, Elektra and Sunrise. As usual, his transitions were great.
I missed Shah because my legs refused to cooperate and one of my friend was mad sick so we just left.
A couple of things that I disliked :
Magenta has been played by Schulz, A&B AND Armin.
Biscayne has been played by A&B AND Armin.
The sound near the stage was horrible.
The laser show was really awesome, they've outdone themself this year in the light department.
It was, again, an amazing experience and I can't to see what's in store for us next year. |
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| Marcus007 |
I know Balenblanc and I don't get along here on TA but...
Props to Bal en Blanc for throwing a great party! Speakers for the line-up was a great idea... I noticed the line-up went faster than previous years so kudos for that...
Sound was good... not spectacular but good enough... production value was great... i especially appreciated the huge screens behind the dj... this created a great ambience
djs... ok here we go... and let me first mention im not a big trance guy...
markus = good, too eurotrancy for my ears tho... and he was hitting a VERY high bpm but trance people love this!
avb = typical armin, great energy, solid mixing
a&B = harder than i expected
king louis = rocked the house room! Longer slot... later on in the night next year! Bravo!
didnt catch offer or ana paul
axwell = playing his brand of house... catchy tunes and great performance
deadmau5 = :S I dunno... I mean I guess it was great music to unwind to at 8am but when he started the room was PACKED to th edges, 30 mins later half the people had left... still digged his dj rig though... fkn HAWT
victor = couldnt stay that late
people seemed to enjoy the song that yan performed...
so the 15th year anniversary went off without a problem. People were having fun, staff was friendly, djs provided good music and finally the production value was up there with other parties... lazzers were a plus... and not cheap lazzers cool ones!
so good job bal en blanc team
LOVE,
marcus |
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| Alexx G |
soooo where do I start.
Came at 9, there was already a relatively massive lineup. For some reason they openned the doors at 9h30 only, sucks for KING LOUIS how played 35-40min for an empty room, really had a rocking set, best time i had in the house room all night.
Went to see Markus, was an ok set I guess, didnt really pay much much attention cuz friends were still coming and i had to go find them. But overall Markus was good.
Above & Beyond, well....beyond dissapointed, I expected soo much more. I heard from friends who went to BeB 2 years ago and told me above & beyond played the best set ive ever heard so i came with high expectation, I basically came for them. I had the impression they played the same song all night, very similar beats all night. At least they played air for life which was totally the moment of the night for me. However, they didnt play No one on Earth, Satellite, etc. After above set i was on a downer, dissapointed :(. The crowd didnt seem to dig them, maybe because of the sound system. I looked around and half of the crowd was sorta standing there, not paying too much attention.
Armin was great, had fun with the crowd and played some banging beats, but so predictable, as somebody already mentionned, it was basically the same set he played in NYC the week before. Wtv, it was good overall and sorta made up for A&B.
Got kinda tired from Armins banging at around 9, it was getting too much for me. Soooo, biggest mistake of my freakin life, I was to see...the one and the only (thank god) Deadmau5.
wowww what a piece of trash this guy is, if my shoes werent so expensive i would have for sure thrown them in his face. Didnt really have any expectations for him after his horrible set at stereo. His stereo set was by far the worst set ive ever heard in my life and i thought nothing could ever be worse, WRONG! his stereo set was amazing compared to what i heard at bal. It wasnt even music, same freakin bassline, kinda slow i find, but mannn same bassline for a freakin hour!!! and occasionally some noize here and there, total badtrip!
I was counting on victor to save the night, had a little problem at the beggining, but then cought on with some banging stuff. I find it was so so for about 45min, after that i really started getting into it. But I couldnt enjoy victor for long, was soooo tired, so i just went home and passed out.
missed offer (bleh), missed ana (bleh) missed axwell (I should have went to see him, heard he was ok) and didnt see shah either, i heard he started off with going wrong...so ya..not the stuff i want to hear at 10h30.
now, the setting:
Came in the house room at what lets say 10. As Louis was doing his thing i was looking around, and all i saw on the ceiling was 4, what looked like cardboard shapes wtv, one in each corner of the room.... :S very not impressed with that.
Went to the trance room after and there was sooo much more deco, looks like most of the budget went to the trance room, which I dont mind :)
The sound, was, suuchhh in the trance room (ionno about house). I had the impression that there were 4 subwoofers instead of 4 speakers, all I could hear was the bass. During armins set i was really having a hard time hearing anything. The vocals during A&B also were very hard to understand. but hey BeB was never famous for the sound system, so i guess its ok, but I still think that improvements can be made.
As for the setting, I expected it to stay the same way as it was last year, cuz last year was just good imo. but they totally changed the trance room which didnt really do my thing, didnt please any of my friends either. I think last years set up should have been kept.
Now what the hell is wrong with the lighting guy??? why in the world around 8am he just turned all of his lights and lazers on at the same time, it was sooo bright! on top of having the light coming in from the huge entrance (a curtain SHOULD have been installed) i felt like i was outside. toooo bright, i dont see the point of turning on all the lights like that, its as if they wanted us to leave. I thought of stereo, at 10am when they wanted ppl to leave they would just turn on all the light and ppl understood and the show was coming to an end...but y do it at 8am...just dont get it. horrible.
Also I noticed there was a loott of people not dressed in white, wearing jeans, or just full out random outfits taht didnt even have a white spot on them, so lame ppl at least make an effort to bring a white shirt or something.
SOoo overall I had a good time, had some great moments, but nothing compared to last year, not sure ill be back next year, too expensive for nothing, really not worth the money, especially this year, last year was ok. I heard from friends who went to 5-6 bals and they said it just gets worse every year, so im not really looking forward for next year. I know it sounds like cheese but for me, theres no one like tiesto in a rave (trance), no show ever beat tiesto. So i guess unless hes on the lineup for next beb, ill skip it.
Ill go for sasha n digweed any day though, taht was gold!
Anyways im out to catch on on some sleep, nice seeing some TAs, hope everybody had fun, hope to see you soon!
btw forgot to put an emphasis on that, best time of the night i had during KING LOUIS set, sick set, im sure he has much more potential and could be thattt much darker if he plays later, def want to see him play soon. at least somebody didnt dissapoint me. |
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| Romchik22 |
Sadly I can't say anything about the house room because I haven't been inside, but as for the trance room, I took a few notes. At first the lighting,laser and the decor was preety nice nothing too amazing ( Prefers Tiesto giant screen at bell center or @ quebec ).
The sound system in front of the stage was truly horrid...Way too much base at some points/ screechy / and some peek moments in certain song not loud enough...
As for the sets...Insomnia gave a cute set,her usual.
Then came Markus Schultz... one word to describe his set : Beastly.
Third performance that I see of him and that was his best and very nice choice of tracks. ( Brainbox - Ferry Corsten was amazing ).
Above and Beyond : WHAT A DISAPOITMENT compared to their last gig at bal en blanc..............Too many songs from ocean lab that gave it a cheezy trancy trancy sound that was soo repetetive. Had a few nice classics but I expected much more from them after hearing their first set 2 years ago.
Armin van buuren is a tricky one... AMAZING interaction with the crowd,not bad track list, and amazing opening.
The thing that I don't understand from Armin is that his sets don't have any dept...At some points it was the same beat/ same rythm in 3/4 of his set. I know that he's the #1 dj on djmag, but I still don't understand why he's #1. I'm not an armin basher..but I've heard
sets in my life that armin could never approach even tho he's #1. Tiesto in my opinion gives out the most epic show's in my opinion. When he played 11 of his old school tunes in Quebec city, The collise pepsi was "trembling", the crowd was out of their minds. What's sad about Armin in his sets at bal en blanc, it's just that they're too fluffy, very little dept, and for a person that has seen him a few times, can get very easely un-impressed.
Truly hope that next year Armin won't be the main dj because I'm getting fed up with his sets. |
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| Alexx G |
| btw can somebody shoooottt the tam-tam people, sooooo annoying! |
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| DJ Eterno |
got to the party around 10:30ish and i saw this massive line. i told myself and the others theres no way were going to wait in line. luckily we found some loopholes and we were in the party 20 min later.
overall setup was pretty tight. the theme this year was supposedly environmental awareness but i dont really see how relayed that to the decor. either way, the setup of the two rooms was impressive. the screen in the trance room was cool. dont really see whats the big hype over lasers but kudos for having them. i was hoping the mall area would have some cooler stuff. i heard a couple years ago they had video games lol. one of the most important things to have at these types of parties is decent air circulation. usually these parties are gross moshpits of sweaty peeps and condensation leaking from the ceilings. last night was pretty impressive. i could actually breath and at some point i even got a little chilly.
knowing this party was really all about the vibe and the party goers, i wasnt going to put too much of an emphasis on music played. highlight of the trance room was definately above and beyond. played some tight oceanlab tracks and lost tracks filled with basslines. highlight of the house room i'd say was axwell. ana paula played some decent tunage as well. deadmau5 sounded like some emo kid who wanted to be different and decided to play some minimal techy tunes at 8 in the morning and the room suffered from that. didnt get to catch calderone, couldnt stay that long.
considering this is my first time attending BeB i didn't want to overhype the party too much for myself so i decided to let everything coast. everything ended up falling into place. highlight of the party was definately the ladies lol. and oh yea, the music. what the! |
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| MoAmyot |
+1 Romchik
Some of my friends also told me A&B were great 2 years ago (those particular friends are not even big fan of trance just to give you an idea).
I was really looking forward to hear more classics during the night such as Oceanic, etc.
What you say about Armin is right, I love his charisma, I love how he interact with the crowd but his set was alright, not was you're expecting from the NUMBER ONE dj in the world acclaimed by the announcer right before his set :P |
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| MoAmyot |
| quote: | Originally posted by Alexx G
btw can somebody shoooottt the tam-tam people, sooooo annoying! |
Why are they even allowed XD? |
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| MoAmyot |
| quote: | Originally posted by DJ Eterno
highlight of the party was definately the ladies lol. and oh yea, the music. what the! |
Amen to that... holy sh!... |
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| Romchik22 |
| quote: | Originally posted by Alexx G
btw can somebody shoooottt the tam-tam people, sooooo annoying! |
I soo second that! |
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| Marcus007 |
yes
the ladies
this was A+ last night |
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| Cmdr |
The night was great! I completely enjoyed Above and Beyond. Really good Trance, and the Journey they took me on was fantastic. Armin was high energy and he got the crown going but the 'Journey' didn't work for me. Many breaks, and he would go from Trance then break, then House then break, then Tech Trance, then break, then Prog, then brea then Trance. At times irritating and difficult to dance to. Above and Beyond's Journey was smooth... I was so satisfied. ;-)
OK, quick summary of the event (not so much focus on music):
PROS:
1. Lineups were better than last year. Down to 2 hours instead of 4 or 5.
Lineups can and should be reduced to 40 minutes. The organisers say come earler but that is an unreasonable lame excuse, given that it is a 15 hour event. If you come at 8 you just won't have the energy to stay for the main acts. (But they want people to come earlier to spend more on food and alcohol. So they don't want to take decisive action and fix the problem.)
*LINE-UP SOLUTION*:
When you go upstairs they say left side for coat-check, and right side for no coat-check. The right sight is huge and empty for the entire night.
MOVE THE SECURITY CHECK FROM WHERE IT IS NOW TO OPPOSITE THE COAT-CHECK. THE LONG AREA FOR THE COAT-CHECK WORKS, SO DO THE SAME FOR THE SECURITY (YES, IT WILL FIT), AND *TRIPLE* THE NUMBER OF SECURITY LINES. By tripling the security it would reduce the line up time by 1/3. So from 2 hours (120 mins) to 40 minutes. And don't increase ticket prices for the extra security... sheesh... they already charge $6 for a $0.30 bottle of water!!
2. Lasers! 3 of them and multicolour too. Great! For the hanging lights they quickly realized that the chandeliers were too bright and stopped maxing them out. The vertical LED lights were BEST in blue/light blue or rainbow. Red/green looks bad.
3. Better decorations than last year. More politically correct too ;-)
4. More Spacious and better ventilated! (Trance stage now West instead of South.)
5. Food was good and fresh as always. Good variety including milk! Don't like events at the Bell Centre because the food there is really bad junk food and overpriced.
6. Bathrooms! Automatic faucets, warm water (at least for about 6 hours), clean, the urinals were replaced with toilets to make things easier for the ladies, cleaning and replenishing every few hours like they do in cinemas.
7. CLEANING AND DISPOSAL OF GARBAGE *DURING THE SHOW* Made me stay longer, and less chance of twisting an ankle on a bottle or can. Can be improved though.
8. The Volume was not too loud. So many times I see DJs turning up the volume to make people dance more. There should a specified limit that ALL the DJs *MUST* adhere to. Hec, the sound guys in the control booth should put a hard upper limit in place.
9. A good genial crowd, and pleasant staff all around.
10. There was lots of good Trance... Melodic, Euphoric, Vocal and Epic. Good to see the crowd embracing it. I saw many, many people having a grand time. Do bring back Above and Beyond please!
CONS:
1. Agreed. Something was wrong with the sound on the right side (front) of the Trance Room.
2. Some of the other cons I already commented on above.
I ONLY SPENT A FEW MINUTES IN THE HOUSE ROOM SO CAN"T COMMENT ON THAT.
Overall, a great night! Good music, good vibes, good people! |
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