Druid/Reviews

Saturday January 20, 2007 - 11:06 PM

Category:

Event

Promoter:

Nocturnal Commissions & De’rAngEd

Date:

Friday, January 19, 2007

Average:

36 reviews

Good party. Good DJ's, and a lot of energy from the people running it, as well as the crowd. The white shirts + markers idea was great, and everybody seemed to have a lot of fun with it.

The venue was not a sweaty mess like last time we were at the Vida.
Concerning the sound, apparently the fuse blew again downstairs (or something like that) again, but it was quickly fixed.

What was with that "conference" being held in the Men's room? People seemed to be lounging about in there, which is comical for many reasons.

One of the most brilliant moments in the evening was when Haagen-Daz bars were being handed out upstairs. It certainly cooled off those who had worked up a sweat dancing for several hours, and was a welcome addition to the overall vibe of the evening.

I'm glad that NC cares about the well-being of their event attendees.
My only real gripe is, of course, the fact that the energy trickled out significantly once a good portion of the younger partygoers left. This just shows you how important a youth presence is at these parties, hm?

My photos are up, and all 318 photos can be downloaded in one shot (in zip format) from this yousendit link: www.yousendit.com/transfer.ph...cb98c
They're already resized and are ready to upload to your PR accounts [which I encourage, since I have that 40 image upload limit per month. ].

Whomever requires larger versions of any of the photos, just let me know. Comments are appreciated, as always. <3

Sunday January 14, 2007 - 7:14 PM

Category:

Event

Promoter:

Lady Bass & Gta:xp

Date:

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Average:

40 reviews

Great party, DJ's kicked it, it was MUCH COOLER than last Darkrave was, despite being in the same venue. I really enjoyed all of the glowing artwork, and of course, the music. A larger review will be up within the next day or so (in my journal).
In the meantime, here are 357 pics from last night to chew on, zipped up and accessible via yousendit.com: www.yousendit.com/transfer.ph...02cc9
Please note, the yousendit link will expire within a week's time, so download the set while you can. Feel free to upload the photos to your PR accounts and into the Blacklight Birthday Beats gallery, as I'm limited in how much I can update per month. Enjoy, and comments are always appreciated.

Sunday January 07, 2007 - 7:43 PM

Category:

Event

Promoter:

Vampirefreaks + DJ Lazarus

Date:

Saturday, January 6, 2007

Average:

31 reviews

Upon arriving to the Funhaus, I noticed that there was an ENORMOUS lineup. It was ghoulishly large, and I cursed the "all-ages" aspect of the event. Seamus and I came to the conclusion that we didn't know anybody in the line, so were stuck at the back.
After about two minutes, a horribly underdressed teenaged girl stumbled over to Seamus and slurred, "can I have your coat please? I'm sorry mmreally sorry". Seamus, being the nice guy that he is, immediately took off his coat and handed it the the girl, who's friend was desperately trying to keep her standing. The girl was horrifically drunk. She asked us how to get her left arm through the sleeve of Seamus' coat, and I pointed out that she had her right arm through the left sleeve, and would need to remove it to put the coat on properly. Immediately after her friend helped her put on the coat, she collapsed to the floor, passing out and making a spectacle of herself. She immediately sparked the attention of the entire back of the line. Her friend held her closely, trying to keep her awake, until one partygoer who had just arrived to the back of the line expressed her concern. Apparently she was a paramedic, and she called EMS right away to help the obviously intoxicated, and barely-conscious girl. She did what she could to keep the girl awake while disdainful snickers and sneers (and genuine looks of disgust) were had by all who had crowded around.

In unofficial record breaking time (it was between 2-5 minutes) the ambulance arrived with paramedics. The wheeled out the stretcher and after trying to find out all they could about the situation (what the girl had taken et cetera) they drove off with the girl and her friend. Before leaving, the friend asked Seamus for his phone number, stating that she would call him and return his coat when possible. Seamus didn't expect to get his favourite/only coat back, and neither did I. As they were wheeling the girl off, the girl spit up some onto the coat.

[Note: The friend did make good on her promise to return the coat, which Seamus got back around 3:00pm today. The coat was not drycleaned or anything (which would have been a nice gesture), and it is currently dirty/stained.]

We later found out that the intoxicated girl did not eat anything during the day, and brought a mickey of vodka down to Darkrave with her. Upon realizing that she could not bring alchohol into the venue, she wanted to expose of her hooch as quickly as possible, while stilling getting her $$$'s worth. The tiny girl essentially chugged a mickey of vodka on an empty stomach, hence the sickness.

We waited in the line for over an hour. It was moving at a snail's pace.
During this time, I was asked by a young girl if I was selling E or K, or knew where to aquire some. I responded negatively, and told her that I could offer her Hershey's Kisses (I pulled out a handful from my pocket). She said, "That's great, but that won't fix the HIGH" and darted off to look for substances from other people. The girls in front of me, who had been talking with me about the horribly drunk girl, were curious when I told them that I don't drink, and asked me what I was on, if not alchohol. I said "Nothing. Hershey's Kisses!" and offered them some. I didn't eat the kisses, but I hope that I made the people in line happy.

At one point a woman came by, offering wristbands to those with 19+ ID, letting us know that with a wristband, we'd be rushed to the front of the line.
I didn't want to leave Seamus hanging though, so after getting my wristband I stayed in line.

Finally, we were being let in, and after a brief check of my camera bag, and my turning on my glowpoi to show the security guard that they were no, in fact, explosive devices, I was in.

The prices were reasonable. $5 for 19+, $10 for under. This was a relief, as I had just spent $65 on a djembe bag for Seamus earlier in the day, $20 for a drum strap for myself, and however much on dinner @ Bo De Duyen.

So, the first things that I noticed about darkrave were that:
A.) It was packed. Horribly, horribly packed.
B.) It was a freaking BOILER ROOM in there.

It was so hot, moist, and humid last night that I wanted to kill myself. Once again, my lens and camera were fogged up to high hell when I tried changing lenses. I couldn't take pictures for a good half hour. I had to step outside, put on my 17-75 lens (and wipe off my camera's mirror, and the outer and inner glass of my lens. My camera fogged up again upon re-entry. My glasses also were fogged up, so I couldn't see anything. I gave up on my camera for the next while, took off my glasses and found people I knew.

I spent some time in the back room of Funhaus, which was actually HOTTER than the main area, and my camera's temperature matched the room, and was no longer fogging up like previously. I find that a good way to measure whether or not my lens will fog up and screw up my shots is to check whether or not my glasses lenses are still fogging up. This, in itself, is easy to check as my glasses will usually be situated on my face. If they're not, I can't see anything, and will doubtlessly bump into things and injure myself.

I danced around for a while, and then checked my camera again. After wiping off the lens I noticed that it was no longer fogging up and I was good to go.
The picture-taking commenced and between that, spinning poi, dancing, and talking to people, several hours went by.

I eventually got worn out from too much dancing and running around, and told Seamus that it was time to go.

Overall, it was a good evening.

I like Darkrave, and the music is generally good and fun to dance to. I love EBM and trance, and comical stuff like Benni Bennasi and that ridiculous song "Frank Sinatra" by Miss Kittin and the Hacker

I must say, the best thing that I have ever heard at Darkrave was an electronic remix of Homer Simpson's rendition of "When I was 17..". Best ever.

A couple of other notes:

- One of the security guards was a real asshole and was yelling/swearing at people for no real reason. I think that he got off on it or somesuch.

- Fat people with enormous bodies (think "Attack of the Killer Tomotoes" in size) should not hang near doors.

- You can tell when Darkrave is all ages by the amount of braces that you see present in the smiles of the crowd.

- The VampireFreaks crowd is funny-looking.

My photoset can be temporarily accessed in it's entirety from the following link:
download.yousendit.com/4AF992D52C336589

This is a ZIP file and is about 15 megs in total, containing 195 photos.
**This is a yousendit link, and will expire in about a week, or if too many people download it.**

Sorry about putting it up on YouSendIt, but I don't have a CS account, and have exceeding my monthly upload limit of 20 photos. It shouldn't be a problem, though. If you would like access to larger version of any of these pics, please let me know. Also, if you would like to view the photos as a set or slideshow on Flickr, message me and I'll link you. Comments are encouraged/appreciated.

Tuesday January 02, 2007 - 6:28 PM

Category:

Event

Promoter:

Goodfellaz and Nocturnal Commissions

Date:

Sunday, December 31, 2006

Average:

34 reviews

Excerpt from my chronicle of the evening:

"The line progressed along further, and I was getting closer and closer to the door. If it was my turn to go in, and I didn't have a ticket, there would be problems. Suddenly, a fellow in what appeared to be a beekeeping outfit walked down the line asking people if they needed to buy a ticket.

Me: "How much?"
Him: *grins* "How much are you willing to spend?"
Me: "I want to pay the price of the ticket."
Him: "$30? Fine. Come with me."

He rushed me ahead of everyone in the line and brought me inside. He then told the girl at the desk that I'd be getting in on his spare ticket, she stamped my hand, and I payed him. I was in!

I had one minor issue with the security- I couldn't tkae my monopod in. Understandable, I guess, since it could -technically- be used as a club, but whatever. It was held for safekeeping and all was good.

I scoped out the area.

Upstairs was a chilled environment where throughout the night they'd be playing drum n' bass, breaks, house, hard dance, and techno.

Downstairs was pretty much a stricly Hardcore/Happy Hardcore area, and was a sweatbox.

Despite the heat, I spent a good deal of my night downstairs as Hardcore/Happy Hardcore is really fun to dance to.

Some notable sets were (these are just the ones that I remember off of the top of my head):

Mil b2b Dynamic (USA)
[NAHM, Happyhardcore.com, Nocturnal Commissions- Syracuse/Buffalo, USA]
***Special Midnight Anthems Set***
Happy Hardcore

Come on. Anthem? Epic!

Jiminicricket (USA)
[Seattle, USA]
Happy Hardcore

Bacchus b2b Mannik
[Airhead, Big Kahuna]
Breaks

Mr. Brown
[2theBeat]
Drum N Bass

Flim
[Goodfellaz Crew, Blackmoon, www.DJFLIM.com]
Techno! Techno! Techno!

I met up with tons of my friends, who were all very glad that I could make it.

I was glad, too. happy At one point I left to my car to go and put on some Safari-themed makeup. I did myself up at a Catkins completely with eyeliner. It was cute. :3

I took lots of photos 300'ish individual shots, roughly half with flash and half without. Partway through, when the hardcore room was really heating up, I had some technical difficulties. My camera's lens was fogging up big time. I had to keep wiping off the lens, and when I changed lenses (from 50mm 1.8 to 17mm-75mm 2.8-4.5 Macro) I had to wipe the internal glass of the lens too. I was fiddling around with my camera a lot after that, wiping the lens, taking a photo, wiping the lens again. My glasses also fogged up a lot.

The lens fogging caused some pics to turn out like this:

I partied hard, and was on my feet for what, 9 hours? I didn't even feel it, except an hour before the end, when I realized that the part went on until 6:00am.

"What?! There's still another hour? What'm I going to do for another hour?"
"We-ell... Want some K?"
"What? No. I'm going to be driving home in an hour"
"It'll be gone by then"
"I don't truuuuust it"
"Want a coke?"
"That would be nice"

I didn't get a coke, but rather a red bull. I had had anything to eat or drink all night, and then I had a red bull. Wow. That filled me with energy. I was dancing up a storm for the last 45 minutes or so of the party.

I also had danced earlier for the entire duration of FLIM's set, from 4:00am-5:00am. Techno techno techno! The man's music makes me happy.

Some rave/party classic were dropped, by the way. At this point, I forget the names of many of them, but here's a sample:

tarantula
fasten your seatbelts
hey jude (take a sad song and make it HARDCORE!)
a classic prodigy track (whose name eludes me atm)
shooting star
poison

and the night ended with a whack, HappyHardcore mix of Blue (da ba dee).

I have about 90 of them loaded into my PR folder, but apparently I've reached my photo limit for the month, and cannot upload further."

-----------

Head over to my journal to find a link to my Flickr photoset of the evening, with all 222 photos.

Great, great party! <3

Sunday December 17, 2006 - 7:44 AM

Category:

Event

Promoter:

Newmindspace

Date:

Friday, December 15, 2006

Average:

1 reviews

Since the March of the Misfit Toys event listing was deleted from PR, I'm going to post review photos here as well. This is a copypaste from my journal entry, excluding the last bit. This focuses on the main parties+ a small one that sprouted from both of them.

"For every subway car you have partied on, for every flag you have captured, for every bubble you have blown and for every pillow you have fought with, Newmindspace invites you to celebrate the year 2006 with a massive party in Union Station."

Jingle Bell Rock was great. Not only was it a bizzare thing to watch (an entire group of people rocking out silently) but it was a great thing to be a part of. Different people from all walks of life showed up, geared up, and danced, waltzed, headbanged, pop/locked et cetera to their own person music players. Though it was in a very public area (as usual), the group was nondisruptive, and security was more-or less fine with the lot of us being there. There were people dressed up in formal wear, rave wear, even in gift wrap! Though there were less people than the anticipated turnout (still a lot, considering) a fab time was had by all.
After much fancy footwork, and dubious glances from security, the party dissipitated and Uberave+Rothko took over.

People were quietly instructed to follow the group out of the main area and over to the skywalk, where on signal, the jams were pumped up.. Security was on our asses at once, but could do nothing besides escort us out of the skywalk. Of course, this was going to take some time, so the party continued uninterrupted, and with much enthusiasm.
The party continued, and security returned indoors. Several different songs were played (Including Blur's famous "Song #2", which sparked a singalong--ur, a "Whoo-Hoo!-along) until the preferred tunes was finally decided upon: Shane Saiyan's "In Da Club" set. Yay HHC!
The crowd would push forward past the CN Tower, past the Rogers Center (where a rousing rendition of "O Canada" was spontaneously sung) and continued onwards until the time neared 11:00pm, where we all gathered in the lot behind a condominium and partied for about 5 minutes, before the music came to a stop. The party may have seemed to end abruptly, but noise pollution + complaint laws come into heavy effect after 11pm, so stopping before then was a very strategic move.

After the two parties, the remaining small group of people, including myself, had a mini-streetcar party, blasting psytrance and drum n' bass until we ended up going our seperate ways or congregating together in a house party. Kudos to all who helped make this happen, and to those who joined in the festivities.

See my whole photoset here on Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/jammcat...8432/

Video footage will be up soon.

Wednesday December 13, 2006 - 12:08 AM

Category:

Movie

Director:

Luc Besson

Year:

1997

Genre:

Science Fiction & Fantasy

Average:

129 reviews

Multipass?

Saturday December 09, 2006 - 7:54 PM

Category:

Event

Promoter:

Uberave

Date:

Friday, December 8, 2006

Average:

21 reviews

Things turned out absolutely amazing.
Despite all of the minor setback and group-breakups, moral was high as we made our way to the final destination for the night. This night had it all, from the beautiful rainbow of coloured LEDs, to the "Chickenshit streetcar driver", the Tim Horton's Rave, the "rave in aisle six", the Charlie Brown Christmas (that small tree in the middle of the street), to the improv dj table made from a "keep right" sign and a couple of waste bins. Wow, I was impressed.

Here is a wealth of photos from last night:

www.flickr.com/photos/jammcat...8233/