Thursday, January 04, 2007

Bal des Boys @ Stereo - Dec 31, 2006

The idea was to arrive at Stereo at around 10:00 pm in order to get in and spend the count down inside. Instead, after dinner my friends convince me to spend the New Year at Stereo bar, where a cozy party took place. I was worried when I arrived outside Stereo and saw this big line turning around the corner, and even more worried when I was told that was the line to get into Stereo bar. I had to check for myself, and there was no line to go downstairs, but I could see some people spending NYE outside

Stay in the bar for a while, dancing to the tunes of Neill MacLeod (Toronto) and DJ Soto (NYC). Didn't go up to the main room until around 2:00 am, which is the usual time I arrive there anyway, and as soon as I got up, I was surrounded by a sea of men in the dance floor.

I have been at many parties at Stereo, but not even the Black & Blue Recovery Party have been as gay as this one. You could actually count the number of women inside, and what a surprise to have so many men in one single place, and not a single fight - it must be a gay party, and yes it was, Bal des Boys version 2007.

The decor of the place has worked wonderfully for the month of December, and those crystal look like lines work great with the light show happening during the evening.

The vibe was off the hook already, and all thanks to XL, which was doing already his usual head bouncing, and he worked the room like no other. I can only imagine how the count down went in the main room with him, but again some people might have not even noticed they were already in 2007 - so much that I heard the count down was done a second time after midnight.

Being a BBCM party, my guess is the DJs tailored their sets accordingly to the demographic of the night. XL once again didn't disappoint me because I really enjoy the tunes he was throwing at the crowd. I won't even pretend to know what the time slots were for each DJ, I can just tell you the place was super packed, and I have no idea how I managed to find room to dance. Actually, the best place to dance when Stereo is this busy, is up in the podium, and the visual you get of the place is just out of this world - you see everything you wanted to see and more, and some other stuff you don't really care about.

XL gave us good House music, hard tunes, touched by some vocals, some drums, refreshed by some proddy - not too much - but the best of all was his energy mixed with the sensuality of the dance floor.

The big screen in the back was used during the evening, with different projection coming and going. I believe Stephan Grondin started his set when the projections of something that looked like visuals for the Madonna song "Sorry" started to be displayed. Obviously the dance floor went wild, and from there the energy went up to the stratosphere.

Grondin with an incredible synchronization of music for the boys. He didn't only read the crowd, he moved it around in a way that no one was left untouched. The music was so good that I was scared to go downstairs to the toilets because I didn't want to miss another great tune - that and the fact it was a zoo to go downstairs. Each trip to the loo was at least 20 min in the making, 15 min if you pushed your way thru. Don't know how many people were inside, but it was a lot.

I was also concerned about the alcohol being sold inside Stereo, didn't know if some people were going to get crazy in a different way. Didn't see anything bizarre happening, and according to someone, the alcohol sales were good. I also heard there were some problems between the price of the presale tickets and whatever it was really supposed to be. It sounds like whoever bought their ticket a couple of days before the event, got a really good deal.

Didn't matter in what side of the dance floor you were, there were men everywhere, and a super vibe, with happy smiles, people kissing, hugging, talking, staring at nowhere. Hands would come down in your body, and either you had the choice to move away, or to feel and enjoy those anonymous touches, until you look back to see who was behind you.

Grondin made me dance non stop while he was in the DJ booth, and I didn't dance harder because there were no space for it. There were a lot of out of town people, and a couple of first timers at Stereo. Lots of first time faces for me, and it was nice to exchange some touches with some of them, until the next great tunes would start, and I had to find a little bit of space to keep dancing.

The torched was then passed to Hector Romero, and the transition was good, because I didn't noticed, and the floor continued bouncing with this dark sensual energy created by Grondin and XL. Not long ago I was told not to expect the usual energy from Romero for New Year Eve, not to expect the same dark sexy tunes from his famous and energetic Full Body Work nights, instead it would be perhaps a little bit more commercial.

The music was good, but not the best I have heard from him, or maybe it was because I was already tired of so much partying, and perhaps I wanted to save a little bit of energy for later on. Hector did a good job for a NYE, not what I have learned to expect from him, but good enough to keep me dancing for a little bit longer.

By the time I left Stereo, it was already 10:00am and the only thing I could think was to get to my bed pronto. Left and the place was still packed. Don't know at what time Mark Anthony started or ended, but what I can say is what a great party we had to start the new year.

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