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.