Adam Freeland @ Aria

After swinging by Clifford's birthday cocktail - which had turned into a full-on party – I headed for Aria, one of Montréal's prime after hours night clubs, where Adam Freeland would be deejaying the night away.


Considering that New Year's Eve was just a week behind us I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the place was host to a decent number of patrons, although the almost-nonexistent publicity meant that few were dedicated fans of Freeland.

Opening for Freeland was Montréal's own DJ Maüs, who captured everyone's attention with a perfect, fun and playful set of modern house, creating the ideal dance floor to welcome Aria's British guest. The highlight of her set was definitely Modeselektor & TTC's "Dancing Box", one of the few breakbeat-infused tracks she played that night.

Freeland eventually took over and began his set with a solid selection of electro-house that got everyone going crazy, especially during Thomas Schumacher's "Heat It Up". About 45 minutes into his set Freeland decided to fire up LCD Soundsystem's "Disco Infiltrator", thereby completely emptying the dance floor. I guess that's what you get for playing a rock song to a house crowd that isn't there specifically to hear you play.

Obviously, things went downhill from there: Freeland kept going as if nothing had happened, slowly driving the few remaining dancers into the mud with what seemed like a bizarre, un-cohesive set. The few breaks fans in attendance seemed pleased, but an experienced deejay like Freeland should've regained the crowd's favor at some point. We all knew he could've, especially since the beginning of his set was so strong.

"We Want Your Soul", a dated, 2003 piece of stale breakbeat electronica from Freeland's own repertoire ended the whole ordeal.

Happily, Aria resident Marco G was there to save the day, laying out a warm, driving house set which got the party started again, thanks to a few massively-appealing killer tracks, including Madonna's "Sorry", a re-work of Deee-Lite's "Groove Is In The Heart" by Tocadisco and last but not least, to my complete shock and surprise: The Smashing Pumpkin's "1979" (which went over way better than LCD's "Disco Infiltrator", for some reason). Marco G's own brand of "Operation Shock & Awe" was a success and inspired us to remain on the premises until closing time.

Song of the Night: Modeselektor & TTC "Dancing Box", played by Maüs.

Adam Freeland is on the web, and so are DJ Maüs and Marco G.

Death By Ice Cream Mondays @ Vinyl

Monday night I checked out Emmanuelle's Death By Ice Cream night at Vinyl. The place used to be called Luba Lounge, and it is, well… a small lounge-type place with a bit of a pub feel to it. No vinyl anywhere - except on the turntables of course.


The song selection was interesting, even though attempts to deejay from turntable to Powerbook and back were met with mixed resulted (pun intended). I couldn't stay for long but if you want electro on Mondays check out Death By Ice Cream.

No Excuse @ Balroom

On Sunday January 1st, I checked out Sean Kosa & Bender's new weekly "No Excuse" night at Balroom, featuring guest DJ Jordan Dare.


I got there around 11:30 and a mere $5 took care of entrance and coat check fees. Formerly known as Swimming, the place has been completely overhauled and redecorated. It's quite stylish and welcoming, built on levels and featuring a loud and efficient sound system, discreet lighting, comfortable seating, a nice view of St-Laurent and relatively cheap drinks for the area. On the flip side, the levels limit the dance floor to a rectangle the size of a small bedroom, which is kinda silly if you're going to call the place Balroom.

Anyhow, Cass & Mangan's "I Love Your Shoes" was playing - thanks to Mr Kosa – so the night definitely had promise. What really got my foot tappin' was his side-by-side mix of Miss Kittin & The Hacker's "Frank Sinatra" and Marc Romboy & Blake Baxter's "Freakin". Kosa continued with a nice selection ranging from minimal house to electro. Bender followed with a driving electro house set, and the night concluded with a too-rock-for-my-own-tastes set from Jordan Dare. His Neon set the previous night was infinitely better.

I'm generally pleased with my evening at Balroom and I'll probably go back next time I'm aching for some electro on a Sunday night.

You can find out what's going on at Balroom on their web site.

Happy New Year

During the first few hours of the New Year an after party, featuring the DJ talents of our own Clifford Brown, kept us awake 'til the wee hours of the morning. As we left the party and went our separate ways, we also left 2005 behind, looking ahead as the bluish hue of 2006's first dawn magic hour showed us the way to bed.

*

I'd like to take the opportunity to wish everyone a happy New Year.

It's going to be freakin' hot in 2006, but we're going to keep this fire burnin', I'm sure. So let's watch the flames and hope we don't set this city ablaze… 'til winter is over.

As a wise man once said: "Say your prayers, take your vitamins and you will never go wrong."

NYE Marathon: Alex Gopher + Digitalism @ SAT

I was so tired when I woke up Saturday that I couldn't possibly conceive doing anything demanding later on in the day... at first. Then, this strange urge to go out and celebrate the New Year yet again took over. I didn't quite understand it at first and I was beginning to question my sanity when I figured out what was going on.


Neon was calling my name, and I was going to answer the call.

I took a nap, drank some cold coffee, some more coffee - hot this time - and headed downtown while chugging down some Red Bull. By the time I got to the Société des Arts Technologiques I was feeling quite alright.
I Love Neon has been organizing parties in Montréal for a while now. This time around they invited Alex Gopher and Digitalism for their Neon Loves Paris New Year's Eve event. I didn't get a ticket in advance as I was a bit skeptical about the whole thing: Alex Gopher?

I had no trouble getting a ticket for Neon Loves Paris, and there was no line up to get into the SAT. After getting in Neon-ites were directed to the "Voyeur Lounge" that was set up on the second floor along with the coat check. I stayed there listening to Emmanuelle for about five seconds (no offense) before going down to the main room where Jordan Dare was already playing. I guess I missed Sean Kosa! Anyhow, Dare's selection was pretty good and aptly resumed what's been playing at Montréal's electro events for the last six month. Solid set, no surprises.

To dispense with the bulk of the criticism early on: the only thing that annoyed me a little was the constant flow of people walking around the room, disturbing those of us who tried to dance, as well as those few people who don't seem to understand that a dance floor is for dancing and not a proper place to stand still and drink beer. There ain't much you can do about that except not care, which is what we attempted and eventually succeeded at doing.

Like last month's LCD Soundsystem gig, Neon Loves Paris was a crowded event. The room was hot, people were sweaty, and water was a valuable commodity. Nice vibe and nice people made it all worthwhile, as usual. However, no New Year's countdown!
Gopher got on right after midnight and began spinning some solid electro tracks. Luckily, he completely stayed away from French touch (or whatever you wanna call "The Child"), and astounded us with some tracks seldom heard in Montréal. He concluded his set with "Fast Track" – an obvious but nonetheless effective pick from his own repertoire. I was pleasantly surprised by his set, so thumbs up for Alex Gopher.

Digitalism were fine too and drove mad beats 'til 3, keeping the crowd covered with sweat and sizzling.

Song of the night: Thomas Schumacher's "Heat It Up", played by Alex Gopher. As if we really needed more heat!

Alex Gopher & Digitalism were brought to Montréal by I Love Neon, and performed at the SAT.