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REVIEW: SvD and Deko-ze at Beta Waterloo
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| srussell0018 |
Overall I had a great time. Deko-ze was ripping it as always, and SvD kept up with that trend when he came on around 12:30-1am. The only complaint I would have is that the highs didn't come through very well on the sound system there. It was a little too bass-heavy for my taste, but again, overall I had a really great time.
Edit: Also wanted to add that the crowd there was much easier/more enjoyable to be around than the Guv. I'd guess it was mostly 20-28ish there, as opposed to the 19-50 range at the Guv. I'm not sure how to really count that because asians don't age :toothless |
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| Jayx1 |
| quote: | Originally posted by srussell0018
Overall I had a great time. Deko-ze was ripping it as always, and SvD kept up with that trend when he came on around 12:30-1am. The only complaint I would have is that the highs didn't come through very well on the sound system there. It was a little too bass-heavy for my taste, but again, overall I had a really great time.
Edit: Also wanted to add that the crowd there was much easier/more enjoyable to be around than the Guv. I'd guess it was mostly 20-28ish there, as opposed to the 19-50 range at the Guv. I'm not sure how to really count that because asians don't age :toothless |
dont discount the fact that its a smaller city and that its not as full of jaded ravers as toronto.
Guv is a great crowd but there def tends to be more of a raw energy anytime u leave TO |
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| feelgood |
My review...
Had a decent predrink at failtes with a huge group of kw dj's and TAs...then headed to the club.
Being my first time at beta I was impressed at the scale of the place. Good on Ryan for being able to fill such abig venue on a thursday in waterloo. My only gripe would be the lack of rear speakers.
The crowd was young. I felt like I was at an all ages party surrounded by jailbait. I was happy to see youngins spinning glowsticks properly.
Dekoze did his job flawlessly. The guy is a legendary opener. I don't think there is any other toronto opener as versatile as dekoze. House, trance, tech...he can do it all.
I got pretty amped from dekozes set. I'm not a trancer at any stretch, but dropping 'for an angel' was pretty sweet.
Sander came on, and disappointed. Way too many breakdowns that left me bored. The set was sterile and didn't really have any flow. Huge build ups led to sub par drops.
It was a far departure from SVD in london back in 2006 or 2007..whenever that was.
Ah well. It was a fun way to break up the week. |
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| Yohan |
Pretty much echoing what Aaron said.
Was good catching up with some TAs at Failte's. More people showed up than I expected.
Got to Beta around 1130. Some miscommunication between security as I got searched outside, but there was another guy inside who wanted to search me again. Getting in was pretty efficient. I think I was outside for max 5 mins.
Got into the main room only to hear Three Drives - Greece 2000.
Deko-ze. Legend. That guy parties harder than rest of the crowd put together. I love seeing this guy go ape because he truly loves what he does. (you can tell how some DJs do the crowd interaction thing because they have to, to get the crowd pumped up)
Though it was... interesting to see Deko-ze play trance. For An Angel and Flight 643. He had the place rocking.
Then Sander came on and started off with Cosmic Gate - Back 2 Earth (Arty rmx) I think. Which was a good start. Then the randomness began. His set was all over the place and had no real flow. At times too fluffy. Then too cheesy. Then techy tune out of nowhere. Felt like SvD was trying to find what the crowd was really into for then hour and half of his set that I heard. Which was hard because the crowd was loving everything.
Like Jay said, the best thing about the KW crowd is that most of the people are n00bs into the EDM scene, and they party for the pure love of partying. Again, the vibe was pretty damn good. People just having a good time. People who still think glowsticking is cool, and you can get a proper lightshow. But there could be a monkey on the decks playing farting noises for hours and the crowd would still love it.
I miss the days when I wasn't so jaded about trance and I can enjoy partying for what it is.
Definite improvement of the club since last I checked it out. The sound was ok, though I noticed distinct lack of highs. And I was in the back of the club and I noticed slight ringing in the ears when I got back home. So I can only imagine how loud it must have been up front. Probably the biggest thing that Beta could do now is to get couple of speakers for the rear. You just don't get a balanced sound with speakers only at front. It was ok at the back of the club where it wasn't very crowded.
Coatcheck was better with another coat check at the top of the club, however it took me 30mins to check my coat. Could have used couple more people to handle the volume. And around 12, apparently coatcheck was full and many people had to walk around with their coats. Not so good. Need more coat space.
The lights and lasers are really awesome. It's just as good as Guv main room. I think Chris (?) did a fabulous job and it's good to see effects and visuals that match what's being played music wise.
Had no problem with staff or security. Generally helpful and I didn't see any drama that I noticed. Though there was this one security guy on top of one of the platforms trying to see what's going on. Would rather see some chicks dancing than some security dude. Kthnxbye lol
Left around 2 just because I got bored with SvD's randomness.
So despite SvD ending my awesome trance parties streak at 3 (and I'm going to go back to listening to house and techno again lol), I still had a decent time at Beta.
I look forward to partying in Beta again in the future.
PS: When did Beta close at? And what did Sander play for his encores? |
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| gimmebeatz |
| quote: | Originally posted by feelgood
. Dekoze did his job flawlessly. The guy is a legendary opener. I don't think there is any other toronto opener as versatile as dekoze. House, trance, tech...he can do it all.
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funny you say that because just the other day i thought the exact same thing to myself. while carlo lio has achieved the highest fame and notoriety, and its well deserved, deko-ze is hands down the most versatile toronto DJ, and possibly most versatile of any DJ ive seen, for sure. no matter what the genre, he is always on point and flawless at it combined with his energy....amazing! |
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| Yohan |
| quote: | Originally posted by gimmebeatz
funny you say that because just the other day i thought the exact same thing to myself. while carlo lio has achieved the highest fame and notoriety, and its well deserved, deko-ze is hands down the most versatile toronto DJ, and possibly most versatile of any DJ ive seen, for sure. no matter what the genre, he is always on point and flawless at it combined with his energy....amazing! |
As good as Deko ze is, the award goes to Mark O. He is da man when it comes to versatility. And c'mon. How often does Deko ze play a trance set, when we know Mark O can rock the trance with the best of them?
Honourary mention goes to Manzone and strong. |
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| chris_leslie7 |
| quote: | Originally posted by Yohan
The lights and lasers are really awesome. It's just as good as Guv main room. I think Chris (?) did a fabulous job and it's good to see effects and visuals that match what's being played music wise.
PS: When did Beta close at? And what did Sander play for his encores? |
Thanks :) Laser will be much better once we fix the bass issue and audio all together, keeps unaligning. Also an upgrade coming to lighting programs soon, so should be even better
just before 3
Deko-ze's set and everyone elses will be posted once we master them and put in the vocals for everyone to listen to and enjoy, again :) |
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| ~C~ |
| quote: | Originally posted by Yohan
As good as Deko ze is, the award goes to Mark O. He is da man when it comes to versatility. And c'mon. How often does Deko ze play a trance set, when we know Mark O can rock the trance with the best of them?
Honourary mention goes to Manzone and strong. |
+1 |
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| chinamon |
| quote: | Originally posted by chris_leslie7
Deko-ze's set and everyone elses will be posted once we master them and put in the vocals for everyone to listen to and enjoy, again :) |
MORE VOCALS? NOOOOOOOOOO.
i think you mean the tags, not vocals. |
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| chinamon |
fun times last night. sick venue.
thanks ryan and chris. you two are cute together. |
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| Yohan |
| quote: | Originally posted by chinamon
fun times last night. sick venue.
thanks ryan and chris. you two are cute together. |
lol. forgot that you were there. how can i forget a skasian |
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| DJ_Elyot |
Wow. Great night.
I got there early to hear Kurtbradd's opener. Was quite a good mix. Kurt is a very solid opener and clearly knows his stuff. His sets are optimized to perfection for flow and he avoids making all of the common mistakes. There's really few ways for him to improve without just
Deko-ze... WTF. This guy was just full of surprises. I had no idea he was so versatile. Dirty house into 2000-era trance into progressive into more dirty techy prog. Unstoppable! 3 Drives - Greece 2000, PvD - For An Angel, some other classics. I came in doubting his ability to open for a trance act like SvD, but was pleasantly impressed. There was a track near the end of his set that I was really into; have no idea what it was called. It was a very good sorta electro-ish progressive track.
SvD... well, I've seen him 3 times, and he's always good. Last night was no different. Lots of variety in his set, good hard tracks, good melodic tracks, epic buildups, the usual.
Regarding Sander's randomness in mixing...
For most of the night, it seemed that Sander was mixing in key using ascending circles of fifths, so he played all songs in C minor, then G minor, then D minor, then A minor, and so on. His transitions were good and there was lots of nice layering and other simple touches that I enjoyed a lot. I generally like harmonic mixing (and often mix harmonically myself) but IMO Sander was constraining himself to pure harmonic mixing to the degree that his setflow suffered.
I mean, when you NEED to play all your A minor tracks RIGHT NOW because you won't be playing A minor again for the rest of the night, then you're gonna have to play the techy ones, the melodic ones, the epic ones, and so on. I generally feel it's better to compromise and mix melodically only when it's good for the flow, but some DJs (Armin quite notably) are so obsessive about melodic mixing that they let their setflow be completely dictated by it. I never knew SvD was one of those DJs.
In all honesty though, variety throughout a set isn't a bad thing. A good mix of melodies and techy is sometimes OK; it gives you a chance to recharge your batteries between songs and isn't at all boring. I know Yohan is as obsessed with setflow.
That said, I enjoyed his set quite a lot. He even threw in a couple of "mau5prog" style tracks near the start (e.g. Evol Waves - Everything's In It's Right Place) which I guess is the norm for trance DJs nowadays. Around 2am he dropped some completely epic melodic tracks. Loved it. I was dead tired by the end of the night and still Sander gave me the energy to keep going.
| quote: | Originally posted by Yohan
PS: When did Beta close at? And what did Sander play for his encores? |
Uhhh maybe around 3am? Sander played FIVE ing encores:
http://twitter.com/SandervanDoorn/s...441088026976257
Sia - The Girl You Lost to Cocaine [SvD Remix]
Riff
hmmmm can't remember the others; I'm blanking out.
Perhaps "Love Is Darkness" was his first encore?
As for Beta, I guess the obvious should be said. If Sander cloned himself and played at both Guv and Beta, I'd be at Beta for sure. With nights like this at a club I can walk to in Waterloo, going to Toronto.
But perhaps even more can be said. Even if guv was right beside Beta, I think at this point, I'd pick Beta over Guv. The lights and vibe at Beta are just completely unreal.
My (hopefully constructive) feedback for Beta:
- Beta might consider taping some reflective tape or glowtape around the perimeters of the gogo dancer boxes (or even just painting a white strip around the edge). My friend was dancing on one and she complained that she was completely paranoid of falling off the box because she couldn't see where it ended (see Guv's )
- LOL coat check was STILL FULL despite the extra coat check space upstairs. Bwahahahahah. FAIL. This just made me laugh. At least they're trying.
- Lights are ing PHENOMENAL as always. Better than guv's by far. The upgrades to the programming (since Avicii) did not go unnoticed. Lots of new patterns and other fun stuff. Keep it up.
- Sound at Beta seems better every time I go. I mostly stayed at the back this time because the crowd at the front was insane. Sander loves his bass. My usual trick of remaining on top of the stairs still seems to hold true (the sound is better because you have a direct line of sight to the mids and highs).
I loved seeing people from the UW Spin and Flow Club out in full force. Many of these people are genuinely talented. I hope beta continues letting them perform in the club (it seems like with current capacity limits, there is always room for them).
Whew, awesome night. Can't wait for the next one. |
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