Bal en Blanc - Montreal - March 23, 2008

Warning: this is my personal view of what I experienced during the Bal en Blanc.

Everyone knows what happened last year with the big fiasco at the door, and for the same reason it was a given most of the people would show up earlier this year. I’m guessing the Bal en Blanc either didn’t care about it, or nobody in the organization thought about this issue. I arrived at 11:10pm and met up with some friends that were already in line - regular ticket holder - and it took us 1h10 to get in to the coat check area.



Then you expect to see organized lines to be search, instead you are left in the dark, like an orgy in waiting, not knowing what is going one because there are a couple of hundred people gathered like cows waiting to be slaughtered, actually if it had been like that it would had some type of organization.

All of that to go thru one of the weakest search I have ever seen in Montreal. I don’t think there is anything the Bal en Blanc can say to that would excuse what I witness on Sunday night. Later on I found out I had actually made in with not too much trouble, there were people that had waited 2, 3 and even 4 hours to get in.

I tried to shake those bad feeling off, and headed towards the Trance room where Infected Mushrooms were doing their thing, which within 30 seconds I decided it was not my type of music, and moved the other direction to the House room. Right there I met up a friend and we moved ourselves to the middle of the crowd.



Caught the end of Cesar Romero set, but it would be unjust to talk about it because I only experienced the end, but he was moving the crowd. Then the super sexy Cedric Gervais was announced and right away he started with some interesting sounds, and you could see the Latin influence of Miami in some of his music. Not sure why but I was unable to fully understand the story telling he was trying to give to the dance floor. Didn’t get totally into his music so I decided to visit the crazy room again.

Ferry Corsten was in charge of the room, and for what I saw and heard, I think he did a good job. You must understand I’m more into house music than trance, and this would totally disqualify me to give any kind of rating. I can only tell you what my body feels, and if the music is good I will dance, and dance I did.



Looked around in both rooms and the stained-glass made more sense in the Trance room than the House room. You could only fully appreciate then when the lights from behind the glass were on, and too much light in the House room doesn’t go well. It was very well done, but I would expect more from the Bal en Blanc in that sense. There was not much more that I can talk about.

Not sure if this is the case, but the theme this year was kind of odd. Last year it was Super Heroes and that was what we got, but with “100% Human”, specially in the politically correct post-September 11 North America, not mentioning no one want the Danish experience repeated in Montreal, it would had been hard to decorate using all those sacred -for some people- symbols. Again, if you want to do it, this is the perfect place to push the envelop, specially since most of the people attending, the key word being MOST, are open minded individuals that are more interest in the music.

I would had loved to see mini stages around the dance floor in the House room, were sexy dancers would give their best moves to the crowd. Then it is hard to envision Maria Magdalena or Judas up to this task, specially since the crowd wouldn’t be allowed to go up due to hazard issues.

Moved back to the House room where the music with very interesting lyrics was playing, “…because we all know is all about the music…today anybody can be a DJ… you just have to play the cheesy music…” Anyway, this was before David Guetta drove the crowd nuts with his appearance. Let me tell you, he received a very nice welcoming intro by the crowd. By then I had been informed one of my friends had suffered a mini panic attach and they had found this reclusive spot right beside the VIP area. The spot was perfect because there was actually room to dance, beside the fact we could keep company to our friend, which ended up having a great time - all of us rotated our presence in this wild dancing spot.

The lyrics from “The World is mine” started to come off the speakers, and actually heard them several times during Guetta’s set. He is cheesy, he is commercial, he is everything everybody talk about, but he made the crowd move at the beginning. Then he just moved me into the boring planet of “why are you so famous land”. He made the crowd sing along, and he dropped most of his commercial hits, but they were not enough to keep me where I was, and it was a good thing because gave me the chance to dance to the tunes of Armin Van Burren.

People, people, people, I don’t get it, you pay tons of money to come to this party, and the only thing you can do is stand around lifting your hands while contagious dance music is being played by Burren? Feel the music, feel the vibration, listen to the anthems, and let you body do the rest. Special note goes to the person holding a flag with Armin written on it. I’m not a DJ, but I think I would had appreciated more if you would had danced to the music instead of adoring me as a god. Again, whom am I to judge, I’m just the shirtless guy dancing like crazy around both room.



Armin was playing tunes that were able to bring out the most energetic dancing I did all night long, and it was easy to open up a dancing space, specially since most of the people are just standing around with his arms up in the air, or just moving his hands with those glow sticks. Anyway, really enjoy his set and then was time to make my way back to the washroom.

Although it is kind of annoying having to walk one floor up, the lines actually move, nothing compared to the 2005 experience when the emergency exit doors were kept closed, and everyone coming or going had to go thru the same area. Allowing the people to use the exit doors to return to the dance floor dramatically improved the “experience”.

My house was calling and just on time to see Offer Nissim take over the decks, and back to the wild dancing spot I went, where I found myself for most of Offer Nissim set.

I said it before and I say it again, I like what Offer Nissim does music wise, but I cannot stand seeing him moving his arms, because the first thing that comes to my mind is “shouldn’t you be mixing?”. I don’t care what anybody else say, he started his set with “Happy People” and then dropped music that made me dance from beginning to end. Escaped a couple of time to catch up with Armin but always went back to spend time with my friends at the wild dancing spot. I did not see what he did, I only heard the music and I danced like crazy.



During his set, it was the first time, out of 3, that “Toca Me” was played without any technical issues. Credic had some problems, and so did Armin - by the way, what was with that sound distortion in the Trance room? Kind of annoying. I would had expected Offer Nissim to change a bit his final part of the set to accommodate the arrival of Victor Calderone, but he even didn’t acknowledged that Victor was waiting behind him for a couple of minutes. Overall, I enjoyed Offer Nissim set, and like it or not, he moved the crowd. By the way, repeat the intro of the same song 6 times, what was that? It was a nice intro, but I really wanted to hear how it ends.

Then the music stop and it was announced the arrival of Victor - by the way, I feel the liberty to call him just Victor because I have written so may reviews of his parties that I feel I already know him, even though I don’t.

Evolve is the name of his parties, and most of you have experience how great his parties are at Stereo in Montreal. Evolve is the best word to describe what has happened to his style in 2007, his music has evolved and I guess I’m lucky that I have evolved with his new style. If you were one waiting to hear his army of tribal and vocals, you probably left the party disappointed. If you were waiting to hear his transition phase of Tribal-minimal-Tech, then you probably also left semi-disappointed. If you were like me, waiting to hear his deep dark Tech (towards techno) then you had an amazing time.

Victor was even dancing and moving his sexy shoulders, and many times I would look up and see this big smile in his face, similar to the one I had all night long once inside the party. The first hour of his set was kind of mellow, kind of warming up the crowd, then he just started to drop bits that drove me nuts - the fusion of techno and house was just too sexy to resist.



In one of my trips to the neverland of the upper floor, I stopped by the Trance room to check out the young Menno de Jong, and man he was moving the crowd with an intensity that was scary, I actually saw people dancing, not just lifting their arms.

Then went back to say adios to Victor, not because I wanted to leave but because my legs were begging me to go. Danced a little bit more and then left with the feeling I had made a good decision to decide to come to this party.

There were tons of beautiful men and women at the Bal en Blanc, and I’m just want to say one thing, if you are one of those scared of shirtless sweaty gay people, please stay home, this is a massive party, and where there is good music, where there is good a good time, where there are beautiful people, where there open minded individuals, you will always find them in the middle. I do have to remark, that the number of gay people were less than the previous year, not sure if it was because more straight people moved into the house room, or because less gay people attended the event.



Regardless of what happened at the beginning of the night, I had an incredible time with my friends, and with the friends of other people. I laughed, I talked, I kissed, and most important of all, I danced, because we all know is all about the music and the dancers.