Monday, November 13, 2006

Danny Tenaglia @ Stereo - June 22, 2006

Disclaimer: this is how I spent my Thursday / Friday

"Do you have tickets? Do you know who might have tickets? What time does Stereo opens up? Tena who? Yes, I got tickets. What? She is coming? CND 100 if you are in the guest list?"

After hearing the questions and answers above, I drove up to my friend's house, left my car there because I didn't want to get any parking ticket on Friday morning, and walked to Stereo. 12:30 am and the line was already thick, and it keep getting thicker by the minutes. Lots of noise, lots of people moving, lots of beautiful faces, and bodies, and everyone looking at the people in the front to see if anyone was getting in already. Probably it was around 1 am when the line started to move. Didn't take long and there I was again, T-shirtless being checked by the beautiful and smiling security girls.

There were tons of people congregated right in front of the main bar, and lots of regular faces kissing each other in the cheeks and saying hello - obviously I had to do the same before moving upstairs, were most of the people always disappear in a sea of sounds and bodies.

Looked around and didn't find anything different regarding the decor of the place, maybe because Stereo was planning a major dress up for the following Disco party, and not knowing when Tenaglia was going to end his party, why take the chances eh?

I came prepared to dance as if I were in the Sauna (place where people go to relax - not the other Sauna) - so I decided not to wear Jeans, and instead opted for some Brazilian capoeira pants, which worked out wonderfully.

Looked up at the booth, and there he was, Mr. Tenaglia in person, back at Stereo for an unforgettable evening. Music was tranquil, low volume, relaxing, like a welcoming sound to the main lounge, where everyone is getting ready for a ride of their life. Tenaglia kept talking to another person in the booth, I'm assuming it was to get to know the whole equipment, and this went on for a while.

There was only one cheese box placed this time around in the front, and the rest were banned to the end of the dance floor. Surprisingly there was no one dancing on it yet, so I decided to move in for a while. I have said this thousand times, there is no better spot to dance than in the top of those cheese boxes. You can scan the whole area in 3 seconds, and you have enough space to dance without having to step on someone feet.

Finally when Tenaglia looked as if he had grasped everything he needed to know, he looked at the dance floor and the volume went up, way up. The music was still not up to beat, but got faster and people started to make noises, clapping, jumping, and smiling more. Danny did not just pay attention to what was going, but he also came down to the dance floor to check the sounds, and to say hi to his friends. It didn't take too long for him to get surrounded by several people he knew. Hugs were exchanged, small conversation went on, and finally when he had satisfied his need to be there, he decided to go back to the booth. Funny thing is that while he was in the dance floor, you could see people still trying to see his hat up in the DJ booth.

It was probably 3 am when Tenaglia decided to talk a little bit, thanking Montreal for its long support to his work, thanking Stereo, Morales, and other DJs in the house. He also stated that he wanted people to let him be whom he was, and he was sure this was going to happen because at Stereo we are all adults and very open minded about different things, specially about the music. If people were ready to let him do what he wanted, he was promising a trip like no other before, where he would travel different eras, different places, and different emotions.

Finally the room exploded full of energy and sounds. There was not a single soul that stayed untouched by what was coming out of the speakers, either because the sound was just excellent or because those vibration from the speakers are so powerful that they should be used to revive people having a heart attack.

Tenaglia talked about a trip at the beginning of the evening, and we were all treated with a special first class ticket to Bumbumland, and the trip was amazingly divided in different incredible stages, which did not allow your body to rest for a second.

The music went from a mellow and slow beginning to a darker more tribal deep sounds, even deeper sounds followed, spiced up by classic sounds. Minimal techno filled with classic house and twisted with the old sounds of disco. Underground music became reality during the whole evening, and he did it without having to use to many of the whole so known music we are so used to hearing in every party.

I'm a super lover of vocal house music, and let me tell you, I didn't miss it at all, because Tenaglia used different types of sounds in order to make me forget them. Instead when he was getting ready to take us to another stage of our trip, he comes and dropped a Reggae song. Who else in his/her right mind would be able to do this at Stereo? Why did he do it? Because he was having too much fun with the whole dance floor. People reacted differently, but everyone, after looking at each other with bigger smiles in their faces, went back to dance to the sounds of Reggae.

Tenaglia enjoyed what he saw, and the energy lifted up not only the room, but also Danny himself. He kept pretending to be an airplane by waving his hand from side to side, then using the spot light to make our eyes follow the white energy moving from one end to the other. Sometimes he spotted the disco ball situated right above his head with the cannon light - I had never noticed there was a disco ball there until this evening. He took off his hat, and said that it had been a long time since he had taken his T-shirt off. Did he really take his T-shirt off? I was not able to see it by the time this happened.

People were just wonderful, super happy crowd, full of energy, and almost everyone respected Tenaglia in the best way possible, by dancing like there was no tomorrow. I even saw Danny Torrence dancing like crazy at the beginning of the evening, and it was early afternoon and Torrence was still shaking his body to the sounds of Tenaglia. Other DJs were also in the house, and no, Madonna did not show up as some people were hoping, but tell you what, she has no freaking clue what an amazing party she missed it - she could had even learned a couple of things from this evening.

Something amazing was the fact the place was packed but not super packed, you were still able to move your ears, and I thought it was going to be super hot, and yes indeed the temperature got up, but those fans placed strategically in each tower metal did their job. They kept parts of the dance floor much cooler than others. People just had to move around in order to cool off a little bit. Beautiful people all over the place, men and women, and everyone dancing non stop.

11 am and I was already getting worried because I knew Tenaglia had said he was going to finish at noon. I didn't want this party to end, even if my body was telling me it was going to go on a strike in case I didn't stop dancing like crazy.

Tenaglia so far had take me along in a trip like I have never experienced before in my life. New sounds, new ways of mixing styles, new emotions, and if this is the future of our music, please let it take over the world faster, because I haven't had enough of what I heard.

Noon and Tenaglia looked at his watch makes the motion with his hands that it was time to go because he had to sleep. Bells sounds followed the move of his fingers, it felt as if the Big Bang had been moved to Stereo. He then decided to talk once again, and thanked once again the people at Stereo because he said that this place has a magic energy that cannot be found anywhere else. He thanked Montreal once again, and because we were allowing him to be who he is, because he was allowed to explore and be risqué, he was going to give us more. Oh my gosh! I looked at my friends and told them to forget about our plans in the afternoon, because the only way to get me out of Stereo was either by knocking me down, or dragging me outside tied in ropes. They said not to worry because they also had no plans in leaving the place.

Old classic voices in early afternoon - I had no idea Donna Summer was going to sound so good at Stereo, and even more after being spiced up by Tenaglia's hands. How can I explain, it was track after track after track of great music. People screamed, people laughed, people were truly happy, some with foreign help of course, and others just happy to be there because we were treated to something totally different.

2 pm and Tenaglia had beat me already, although part of my body was telling me to stay, the other was ready to collapse. Sad to leave but happy to have experienced such an incredible evening, which I know was also special to the DJ of the evening.

This time around I did not stick around Stereo bar, because they were broadcasting Tenaglia's sounds downstairs, and if I had stayed listening to that, I would had just moved myself back to the main room.

Once again thank you Stereo for such an incredible evening, and I feel lucky to have decided to be present, because it is not every day we have Tenaglia making you dance to the sound of his talent.

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