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Black and Blue 2011 reviews...
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| Spin Laden |
I can't believe I'm the one posting this thread considering I had to do a two-hour trip home just now and I last slept Saturday night. I guess MTLTA is officially dead :p
Overall, the music at this year's Black and Blue was excellent and the crowd was very good, very enthusiastic and cordial. However, I can't say much about the venue of choice this year.
The event was held at the convention rooms at Olympic Stadium, so not the main field, as already mentioned on TA. I estimated about 2000 ppl in the trance room and about 8000 in the house room at peak. This was from looking down at the dancefloor from the concourse above, which provided a great vantage point.
That was probably the only good aspect of having it in those rooms, as the bathroom situation was horrendous and the lineups for booze and water, etc took forever. To blame the venue may be inaccurate, for it may have been just a logistical issue, such as having more port-a-potis and more bars. Gotta love those portapotis :p
Musically, the trance room was very very good again; you guys are on to something by having that trance room at BnB and by booking djs that are not all djmag "top 10s" but certainly know how to deliver good sets. I thought the showcase aspect went well, but I'll reserve further comment and let the trance experts do their thing on here.
And guess what, it was genius to book Mark Anthony after all, because his set was a good motivator for many to leave the house room and check out some trance :p
Dannyboy and Happydude72, you guys are totally vindicated as DJ Vibe made Mark Anthony sound like Offer Nissim on acid :p
Vibe's set (before Anthony's) was one of the best ones I've heard this year - filthy and sexy, well-constructed and awesome track selection throughout. I will gladly don the noob hat and sit in the corner after listening to that set and the terribly flowing one afterwards.
Great to see TAs Marcus and Mrs Haus, the latter who is flying off to Barcelona this evening...good luck with that :p
Btw, Marcus was trying to peruade one of the lurkers to become new fodder for us and join TA.. I think she knows better :p ;) |
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| The Highroller |
How was Hernan?
Also, not surprised to hear that about Vibe. He is the man. His set at Stereo last year in November destroyed anyone from the Minus night the night before. |
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| Spin Laden |
all I can say about Hernan's set this year was this one track... can someone id that 55 minute track? :p
Second half of his set sounded decent but that first part put me to sleep. Very proggy but the proggy build was way too long for my tastes. I loved his 2010 set, in any case. |
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| Passskal |
| Great review as always. Thanks for sharing. |
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| Delroy |
| How was D-Formation? Real curious.... |
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| Romchik22 |
| quote: | Originally posted by Delroy
How was D-Formation? Real curious.... |
I absolutely LOVED HIS DIRTY DARK set. He truly blew my mind away! |
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| klm21 |
| Best set of the night? |
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| HappyDude72 |
@ Spin Laden: Unfortunately, I wasn't able to follow my own advice and caved under pressure from friends and other people telling me to give MA a chance and ended up going at the last minute... Thank god I didn't pay full price for the ticket cuz he was a total buzzkill.
Thank you MA for proving my points:
1) incoherent set with no flow: in trying to please everyone by playing every style of music, you pleased no one... were trancey tracks really needed with a trance room next door ?
2) No adjustement for the time slot you got: Happy vocal tracks and very melodious tracks work best for the closing slot or at least after 6 or 7AM... Peak time (3 to 6 AM) is better suited for darks beats (in a house room anyway)
So his set stuck out like a sore thumb between Dimas & Vibe's sets. Danny T must have been going "OMG they prefer this to me ?" ;-)
Again, I have nothing against the guy. I appreciate his contribution to Montreal's nightlife and he's a great DJ but I think he's better suited for earlier slots (pre 2AM) or later slots (post 6AM)
I got there towards the end of Rosabel's set so I can't say much about it. However, a word of caution to any DJs playing in the stadium in the future: "Full on vocals just don't work in that space most of the time". The echo/reverb ruins most of them. Use tracks with simple lines or instrumentals. Vibe's last track with spoken work & little music also worked.
Vibe and Dimas' sets were as expected awesome... deep techno, tech house, a bit of tribal....
Can't comment on Hernan's set since he's not my "cup of tea" and I left at the end of Dimas set.
This was my 17th Black & Blue (out of 21) and definetely my last one unless the organizers manage to pull rabbits out hats and have proper time slots for DJs... And next year I won't cave in to peer pressure... I know better ;-) |
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| Spin Laden |
| quote: | Originally posted by klm21
Best set of the night? |
I would go with Vibe and then D Formation, sets of the night. Cube guys were ok, more of a light, latin infused fun set but Rosabel, who were on second, took it into late night mode, imo.
Lots of hard tech trance coming out of the other room but I'm curious to see if any tranceheads stayed there long enough to break down the showcase sets. |
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| djchez |
| Pics and Vids people Pics and Vids please! |
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| Spin Laden |
| quote: | Originally posted by HappyDude72
The echo/reverb ruins most of them. Use tracks with simple lines or instrumentals. Vibe's last track with spoken work & little music also worked. |
very nice review and yes, the sound was not up to par that night as well. |
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| AY STAR |
ahhh man just woke up back here in nyc after a LOOOOOONG weekend ha ha ha
great party i had alot of fun minus a few negatives it was fun
music wise...
vibe- solid solid set his last 45 min was a total mind :crazy:
andy moor- did alot better then i expected
joc- def the set of the night in the trance room holy was he hard!!! banging banging set
leon boiler- solid set a few "trouse" sounding tracks which i hate but he also threw down a few good trance tracks
arnej- started out a lil blah but then picked it up and played a decent set
d-formation- i checked him out from 7-7:30 and he was boring as
very slow i dunno if he picked it up later but i couldnt get into it at all from what i heard
hernan- quality quality set, he didnt come out dropping hammers right from the get go he started off nice and deep and built it up as the night went on his first hour or so was really nice then around 10 wow he just let you have it wow i need some track id's ha ha ha after 10:45 or so he started to slow it down and was kinda boring but then his last 30 min or so he picked it back up and banged it out proper
a few negatives...the sound in the trance room was bad my ears are killing me ha ha everyone said the same thing,the location of party i though would be differnt i mean its advertised at the stadium but it was held in the basement? very weird
again i didnt really hear d-formations full set but if it did infact suck then i woulda switched time slots with him and vibe cause he def was banging out not playin 120 bpm down tempo stuff at 7am
the crowd in the house room was really gay i mean i had my group of friends and we just had our own lil thing goin but wow some crazy stuff i saw and the mens room wow thats a whole other story ha ha
overall iam very happy about the party and the weekend the vibe and music was up there
congrats guys will def come up in 2012 if the line-up remains the same |
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