XL & Victor Calderone - Evolve @ Stereo - October 8, 2007

Stereo, I know it has been a long and hard journey, and during all these years, for better or worse, you have changed the lives of many people. Many structural changes have given a new life to the place. Love the new glass entrance, adore the new Stereo Bar, I can live with the new colours that replaced the underground feeling in the main bar downstairs. Interesting decoration right beside the security personal. Enjoy watching those lamps placed at the end of the two mezzanine areas. Never been upstairs in the VIP but I’m sure changes have also transformed that hidden place. I can even take the advertisement for whatever company you want to flash in the giant screen at the end of the dance floor, but I only ask one thing, and one thing only: Please get the BAR off the dance floor.

Taken from Stereo website and written by David Morales:
“Stereo to me is a musical haven.
Stereo to me is a place where one can just go and be whoever they want to be and dance the way that they want to dance.
Stereo to me is a place where people of any age and sexual genre can get together under one roof and be as one.
Stereo to me is a musical playground where a DJ can play whatever he or she wants and the audience enjoys it.
Stereo to me is an experience that’s all about … THE MUSIC!”

All about the music, which means is all about the dancers, and by placing the useless bar at the left hand side corner of the back stage, you have not only taken space away from the dancers, but also cut off the flow of the people. Now you have this empty area in front of the bar that used to be packed with people dancing.

Not only that, you had to move the big metal stage that used to be located where the new bar is, and placed right beside the speakers located in the right hand side to the entrance of the dance floor. Realizing the little steps, that take you up to the stage, were a safety hazard, two of the boxes had to be placed in front of the step to avoid people walking by it. Once again you have cut off the flow of the place. People walk around the sides to go to the back, now they have to either take the left hand side, creating much more traffic over that area, or go by the dancers inside the dance floor. Once again, please do us a favour and get the bar off the dance floor.

Welcoming music by XL, those happy tunes that make you just want to be under the disco ball, not that many people at the beginning, which is understandable, having Circus hosting the official recovery party with Peter Rauhofer in the other side of the street. Nevertheless nothing is official for me unless is Victor Calderone spinning my delicious way up to recovery, the day after the Black & Blue.

XL was perfect, great intro, giving us vocals which I knew I was not going to hear during the second part of the night. Moving not long after into the tribal tunes, and travelling into darker territories by the end, preparing the dance floor for a darker voyage with Victor.

“Transitions” started to play out of those monster speakers a little bit after 2:00am, the music went up and a fresh blow of air was felt, Victor Calderone had arrive but not too many realized it. Either Victor was too excited, or too confident the dance floor would take anything from him, he started to play a set that didn’t make sense, what happened after a great beginning I asked myself - it had gotten lost in music that was not making anyone happy. Everyone knows he has changed his style of music into a more minimal, techno and less tribal sounds. He doesn’t want to be known anymore as the gay DJ, but when you have a room full of queens that don’t want to be taken for granted, you must earn their spirit and will, and then move the dance floor to whatever place you want to go.

Tough crowd, but nobody better than a great DJ to show the dance floor who is in command, and a great DJ is the one that recognizes and listen what the dance floor is saying. The music was not happening, some people were just standing around, I was seriously scared people would start booing him right there - even I moved to the sidelines and stood around waiting for something to change - the more I looked at the dance floor the more worried I became.

Victor, Victor, Victor, I will never again doubt his talent. He went back into his roots and brought out his personal tribal army, he invited some of his vocals back, and the best of all, he made the dance floor go wild. It took him almost an hour (I think, just remember sometimes it feels as if time stops at Stereo) to make this change and shift the mood of the crowd, but once he did it there was no way back.

The energy lifted, the people danced, the music was perfect for the occasion, even the lights started to be part of the show, which until then had maintain a darker look of the room. Once the party got going, Victor slowly introduced us to his new image, into more techno grounds, into more minimal moves, into more variety, and guess what? The dance floor moved accordingly and with no hesitation.

It was around 5:00am when the place got an influx of people, and it got packed and hot, but not as hot as other occasions. Another mini-wave I think arrived at 8:00am which was around the time Circus closed its doors.

Victor even played some tunes that I heard the night before when D-Formation was spinning at the Black and Blue, don’t know the name of the track, but it felt just perfect at the time, and it was something I had never heard him play before. It was around 9:00am when I asked a friend from NYC how the night was so far, and he answered with "everything is just perfect".

Personally, I have to take my hat off for Victor. If had been perfect from beginning to end, it would had been the Victor that I know and expect, but this time around he took a party that was happening, mellowed it down, then lifted in a way not many would had been able to do it. At the end, Victor gave us what he wanted to give us, his music, it took him a little bit of work at the beginning, and he did it, but this is why he is not just a DJ, he is Victor Calderone.

Left around 10:30pm and got trapped downstairs by the sounds of Alain Jackinsky and Patrick Guay. Only had the chance to stay for Jackinsky set and let me tell you, it was fun and it was not just me that got trapped by his music.