Billy Lace live from Matinee NYC - New Year's Day

First time I saw Billy Lace was in Las Vegas last Summer, and I was not too impressed by his set. Nevertheless I've been checking out his podcast and I'm really enjoying the music from his live sets. Below is the link to one set recorded at District 36 in New York City.

I did not post the embedded version because it's set in auto-play, and who knows where you right now, we don't want the whole office to find out you shouldn't be visiting Patius during working hours right?

MY House Vol. 8(Live From Matinee NYC New Years Day @ District 36)

Igloofest - January 28, 2012

We couldn't have asked for a better weather, and I must say I was scared when I saw the huge line to get in, but it was very organized and in less than 5 minutes we were inside.

"Saturday January 28 - in collaboration with Resident Advisor: Marcel Dettman (DE), Ben Klock (DE), and Ostrich (CA)"

I was just thinking how much the Igloofest has changed since their first edition, and I'm wondering if the creators thought this event was going to become so popular in Montreal, don't know the statistics but they were able to sold out the place more than once.



I could actually see this event lasting longer than 3 or 4 weekends and still doing well, and love the fact they are bringing such a diversity of talent, some of which I heard first time at the Igloofest (Guy Gerbert comes in mind).

Only went once this year, and enjoyed my time with the Igloopeople. what better way to embrace the Canadian winter in the month of January right?

Igloofest 2012

I know, there is only one more weekend left of the Igloofest 2012 and let me tell you, if you haven't been, please do you and me a favour and check it out. Sure, this has become a popular festival now, and yes we do have those annoying "I do not excuse myself to get thru" people, nevertheless it is a great music gathering, and even better it defies the cold winter weather of Canada.

Yes, we could stay home and talk about how cold it is outside, or you could join other 10,000 plus people and dress up warmly and go dancing outdoors to the tunes of some known and unknown deejays.

Igloofest, the "only" place where 

beer becomes colder with time

Igloofest last weekend will be flavoured by

Friday January 27 - in collaboration with Bench
Green Velvet (US)
Maya Jane Coles (GB)

Saturday January 28 - in collaboration with Resident Advisor
Marcel Dettman (DE)
Ben Klock (DE)
Ostrich (CA)

To tell you the truth I'm excited about Ben Klock, the massive techno resident deejays of one of my favourite places in Berlin, the club Berghain. Last time I saw him was on May 27, 2011 at Stereo (click on his name to read review) and he was just unbelievable. It will be interesting to see what he will do in an outdoor party.

If you want to guarantee your entrance, make sure to buy tickets online or get there early, otherwise you might be one of those unlucky ones to be turned around at the door, and then your only consolation will be to tweet screaming you want to be let in, hey there is always 2013 right?

1) ONLINE TICKETS
You can buy tickets online through Ticketpro.ca, at the cost of $12 (+ tax and service).
2) SAME DAY TICKETS AVAILABLE ON SITE AT IGLOOFEST
You can also purchase tickets on the evening of the event as of 6:30 PM for a cost of $15 all-in.
3) IN STORES – DESIGNATED IGLOOFEST LOCATIONS

food in montreal

TGRM

Arena - Playa del Carmen, Mexico

There is an amazing festival that has become the place to be during the NYE celebration, and this year was the 5th edition of the BPM festival in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.

Unfortunately I was unable to be there this year, and I'm planning and will try my best to be there for the next one.  This is when I heard about this new music festival called ARENA (February 5 to 12, 2012).


2012 will be their first edition, and they are advertising it as the new gay event in Mexico, and looking at the invited deejays they are not joking about the sought clientele. At the end of the day, I decided to go not because is a gay festival, but because there will be house music in a sunny and warm place.

Nevertheless if you visit their official website the front page does not  say anything about the gayness of the festival, unless of course you look at the picture of the hunky model been used to attract those party jet-setters, but when you read the description this is when the hunky + house music = gay festival becomes obvious, and hopefully this event will attract a mix crowd, they are always fun.

It is in February and this is when a lot of people are sick and tired of the winter in the Northern latitudes, the weather is usually great in Playa del Carmen, and the city is cozy and attractive, and the musical talent invited is perfect for a good time, so why not eh?

The good news is I'll be reporting live from Playa del Carmen, the bad new is I won't be there from the beginning, but who cares, it is Winter in Canada and it should be sunny and warm in Mexico. Hopefully I will be able to take some good pictures and videos of the festival, and as usual I will try to review most of the parties, and please forgive me if I don't write anything for a couple of days, probably I'll be enjoying the beach parties in Playa.

If you are going, Playa del Carmen is not a big city and you can walk around without any issues.  Accommodations should be easy to find and it shouldn't be too expensive, and some hotels are offering discounts for this festival (promotional code: ARENA - I would call the number on the Arena website because I tried different hotels and they did not recognized the promotional code given).

When booking your airfare don't despair if you can't find flights to Playa del Carmen, this is because you should be flying to Cancun instead and then taken a bus to Playa - some hotels offer pick up arrangements so make sure to inquire as well.

If you need more info, you can always join their Facebook page and ask them directly, otherwise just book you trip and have some fun with Stephan Grondin, Chus & Ceballos, Isaac Escalante, Peter Rauhofer, Phil Romano and other deejays.

Do you want to go?

Arena in Playa del Carmen

Unfortunately I wasn't able to travel to PDC for the BPM festival, but I decided to be there for the Arena music festival, it should be interesting.

Steve Lawler @ District 36 - NYC - January 1, 2012

Last time I saw Steve Lawler was at Stereo in Montreal, and he did not disappointed back them and I was hoping the same thing at District 36. My friends told about another party happening in NYC but I wanted to be there and I was happy when the final decision was to be at D36.

This was my first time at this club, and we only got there 10 minutes before 4:00am, when Steve was scheduled to start spinning. The line up to get in was not too crazy, having the usual I know X & Y and I'm fabulous so I should be let in before everybody else waiting in line.

It didn't take us long to get in, and the security was gentle enough until there were more men in the women line to be checked, well there was no sign how was I supposed to know eh? You have to walk downstairs in order to let you upstairs, and once I got downstairs I was told I had to go back to entrance to get my ticket. Quick visit to the security area and I was back at the entrance getting my arm stamped - checked my coats, and the coat-check lady was nice enough to let 2 coats in the same hanger.



Obviously Steve Lawler had already taken command of the deejay booth by this time, and when we finally made upstairs the place was rocking and tons of happy people, some happier than others. To your right you have a bar, passed the bar you have the bathrooms, and to your left you have the dance floor located on a square open room, with a second floor where the deejay booth and some tables/seats are located. If you want to have a good view of the dance floor just go upstairs and muscle your into a small spot to observe the dancers downstairs. Having Steve Lawler spinning you might be right in assume I spent most of my time on the dance floor.



The dance floor: sticky like hell - I don't know man, how is it possible to have a floor so sticky? People, can't you keep your drink in your glass? I must say it was kind of annoying because I really wanted to dance to the sexy smooth rhythm Lawler was dishing out but it was kind of hard.

Deep, dark, sexy kind of minimal techno was felt at the beginning, and progressively the music got more intensive. Vocals almost non existing at the beginning started to show up here and there. To tell you the truth Lawler has this unique style of music that drives me crazy, love when he adds the Latin sound to his music, lots of deejays do it but Lawler does it differently, leaving me with the feeling of wanting more and more. Several times I just closed my eyes and I let those chants take me elsewhere, but somewhere delicious where I felt everyone riding this incredible wave of music.



Lawler is a genius and I still don't know what happened, but afterwards Lawler posted online the fact that was his last gig at District 36. Don't know what the issue was, maybe there were some technical problems, but most likely might be something to do with the relationship with the club. Whatever the problem, Lawler kept his cool because if he was mad I couldn't tell, he was dropping this fantastic music while I was at District 36. Also I should mentioned he was spinning at another party before and after D36, is he human?

The sound system at D36 is almost as good as the one at Stereo, then again I must admit I'm bit bias towards Stereo. I spent a couple of hours and I did not have ringing in my ears, and the place has a good light system. In case you ware wondering, I did like the club but I was not wowed, nice sound system, good crowd, didn't like the numerous doors everywhere, and the music was delicious the night I was there.



The crowd was mostly straight, well behaved and without attitude, and one thing that grabbed my attention was the interesting dance off circle created spontaneously by the straight boys. I've been to several parties in NYC, mind you mostly gay events, and I had never witnessed a dance off such as what I saw at D36. I inquired about it and it sounds like it is a normal occurrence in NYC (I might be wrong). Basically a circle opens up somewhere in the dance floor and someone goes in and dance the best he can, to be then replaced by the next dancer in waiting.

Once again, I'm so glad we decided to go to D36 to see Steve Lawler, I did not stay until the end because my stomach was asking for food, and by the time I left Lawler had slowed down the music and was playing some oldies, great tunes. The best way to start the year, spending time with good friends and your love one.

Happy New Year boys and girls.

Good afternoon NYC

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