Patius: July 2011

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Patius moved

No worries, the blog is still in the same place, but I did move from apartments and this is why you haven't heard from me. I'm still putting the final touches, and here is what my new bedroom looks like.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Hover Dam - Nevada/Arizona

Las Vegas was great, but I also had the chance to quick visit the famous Hoover Dam, and no, I did not see any damage from the Superman movie (1978). We were supposed to go to the Grand Canyon, but it was around 3 hours away, so we settle for the Hoover Dam.

Wikipedia Quote: "Hoover Dam, once known as Boulder Dam, is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the US states of Arizona and Nevada. It was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression and was dedicated on September 30, 1935, by President Franklin Roosevelt. Its construction was the result of a massive effort involving thousands of workers, and cost over one hundred lives. The dam was controversially named in honor of President Herbert Hoover."

Click on picture to enlarge.

Divers/Cité - Montreal - July 25 to 31, 2011

Remember, this is not officially Gay Pride in Montreal yet, but as I said before if you want to attend great party and more parties, Divers/Cité is your week to come to Montreal, if you want some parties and more artistic stuff, then Pride (2 weeks later if I'm not mistaken) should be the time to come

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Sasha - Cut Me Down (Mehmet Akar Remix)

loving this remix

Wednesday, July 06, 2011

Hector Fonseca & Javier Medina @ Rain - Matinée Las Vegas - July 3, 2011

Rain at Palms Place is a beautiful and big venue, a perfect choice for the Sunday night main event by the Matinée group. My partner in crime had problems in getting in, security did not believe he was the person in the driving license, and was asked to show a passport or other type of photo ID - not sure why someone from Los Angeles would need a passport to go to Las Vegas right?

Hector Fonseca was in charge of the first half of the night, and he was moving the crowd with his latest house productions, Hector was a crowd pleaser and kept the music in a more known vocal tribal tunes, a bit commercial, nevertheless it worked for this party. The dance floor was jam-packed in a bigger venue than the night before.

Once again, mostly of the attendants were from the Los Angeles area, with all subgroups represented, and perhaps there were more women as well. I also noticed the people were a bit more aggressive compared to the previous night. The venue is a paradise for lasers, giant screens, and one of the coolest thing is when a hanging fixture is lowered from the ceiling right in the middle of the dance floor, and fire spurts above the crowd, let me tell you, you can feel the hit of those flames from faraway. If you are into trance music, make sure to visit this venue when a trance deejay is spinning, you will find very fulfilling because they have an incredible laser machine(s).

Edit: I was just informed the lasers and laser operator, the lighting and lighting operator, as the VJ were all people brought in by the Matinée group, and are not permanent features of this club, maybe after seeing how beautiful everything worked together they should hire Matinée for their regular events.

The dancers brought by Matinée were just beautiful, and they changed customs several times during the night, there were also acrobat shows, and the place is big enough not to stop the party for an aerial acrobatic show. The only thing the club might need to improve is their sound system, not bad, but it could be better.

During Hector performance one of the surprise guest was finally revealed and this is when Natasha Bedingfield shared the stage with the deejay, she sang a couple of songs and the crowd loved it.

Next came Javier Medina, and I was excited to see him again because last time I saw him at Parking (Montreal) he delivered an amazing tech-house happy set, and I was hoping for something similar.

Right at the beginning he started showing his Tech-house skills, which I was loving, but then I stop and looked around and noticed the LA crowd were confused, maybe it was my impression but it looked like they didn’t know what to do with the delicious tunes, maybe they were not ready for it? Don’t know but this is when you see the skills of a deejay in action, probably Medina noticed the same thing and he smoothly switched the tunes to a more tribal house happy type, which was rapidly embraced by the crowd.

Once Medina had the boys and girls by their balls, he started to play with different music styles, and I just enjoyed every minute of it. It was funny to see Javier Medina spinning and seeing the name of Hector Fonseca displayed in the background, I guess someone did not get the memo with the actual time slots right?

The place has tons of VIP space in the back and also right at the edge of the dance floor, don’t know how I feel about that, but I guess some people want to have their bottle service closer to the action.

Finally, Matinée created a vibe that will take a life on its own, no longer under the shadows of the sister group in Europe, but one that represents North America. Everyone knows the Matinée parties in Europe, and soon the same will be true over this side of the Atlantic.

Gracias Matinée, well done.

Billy Lace and Theresa @ Body English - Las Vegas - Matinée - July 2, 2011

The Body English at the Hard Rock Hotel was the chosen venue by Matinée for their Saturday night main event. The venue is an underground small bunker type of place, having a set of stairs that lead you down to the dance floor in a very dramatic Gone with the wind entrance style. There is a mezzanine level surrounding the dance floor, and this is where the VIP section is located, but because I’m not the VIP section type of guy, I spent most of my time on the dance floor.

When I arrived Billy Lace was still in charge, and I was excited because I had seen Billy weeks earlier in Montreal, opening for Javier Medina, and if his warm up set was so delicious at Parking nightclub, I was just imagining what he had prepared for this party.

Unfortunately my expectation were not met, I found Billy’ set to be everywhere, and maybe I’m wrong but perhaps he kept looking for the correct style of music to play, and at the end it became a salad of house music, but with no dressing. Don’t take me wrong, the boys and girls were enjoying themselves, but the abrupt changes in styles kept messing up my total enjoyment of his musical set.

Los Angeles was massively present in the room, and this was confirmed by a Los Angeleno so I’m assuming it was easier to park in West-Hollywood during this weekend.

Personally I love smaller venues, because it somehow makes the crowd a bit friendlier, and this was true at the Body English, very nice crowd, and do I have to comment on the quantity of good looking guys? There was no way I was going to take my t-shirt off in the middle of a sea of 6 packs.

Theresa took over at around 2:00am if I’m not mistaken, and right away you feel the difference in the style of music and the energy it created on the dance floor. I’ve been fortunate to have been introduced to Theresa’s crazy energy hard happy tribal classic remixed sets in Montreal, and read my words, this girl will go far away with her contagious vibe.

There was no way people would not dance to the rhythm brought by this girl, the room actually went crazy. One thing that was missing this time was her usual playing the mini congas, or whatever name of the instrument she plays. Nevertheless this was a non issue, specially since the crowd wouldn’t have been able to see her in action, due to the location of the deejay booth in the mezzanine level.

Love the dancers Matinée chose for the night, and at the same time I ask myself why people are not allowed to dance on the stages while there are no go-go dancers? Is it a liability issue? I guess if someone felt the place could be sued by some crazy excuse? Whatever the reason, I always like when the crowd is allowed in those areas, it gives an extra vibe to the place.

One thing that annoyed me a bit was the fact the party was somehow interrupted for a good 15 minutes in order to open space for the Cirque du Soleil acrobat. I’m all for extra acts during the night, but please don’t kill the vibe because you want someone lifting himself on two sticks. There was already an area in front of the bar that could had accommodated this act - Matinée, next time please don’t kill the grooving energy Theresa had already created, just add to it by been almost invisible, like how they do it at the Cirque du Soleil, you almost don’t notice when one act ends and the other begins.

Overall I had a great time, good looking people, sexy dancers, nice venue, and awesome work by Theresa, a bit disappointed by Billy, and I’m sure he will prove me wrong next time I see him in action.