Patius

If you have never been, I just don't know what you are waiting for. It is literally an electronic picnic, where you can bring your food, drinks, and dance electronic music from 2:00pm to 9:00pm every Sunday at the "place de l'homme" (Park Jean-Drapeau). St-Michel (Canada), Amir Javasoul (France), Mighykat (Canada) and Rob Mello (UK) were the guest DJs, and man they rocked the place. On top of that the weather in Montreal was just fantastic to be outdoors, not too hot, not too cold, and super sunny. The crowd was enthusiastic during the whole afternoon. These are some of the pictures I took while at the Piknic:

You are forgiven if you arrive later in the evening (or early in the morning according to some) for parties at Stereo, but never if Stephan Grondin is the one warming up the dance floor for a great night of dancing. One person dancing in the side lines of the dance floor, decoration imitating a forest above, lots of people walking to and from the smoking section, and a DJ that was ready to surprise the crowd in the tables. In a normal night music usually stays slow for a while, but Saturday was not normal night, not when you have the Luso-Canadian duo ready to rip you apart in the dance floor. Grondin probably was only waiting for the first person to move under the disco ball to release the energy in the making since his debut at Pacha the weekend before. People only had a couple minutes to make themselves comfortable before the music literally exploded. Grondin had the compassion to maintain the volume down for a bit, again just enough time to grab your space in the dance floo...

“Where should I go first? Parking, Unity, Academy, home?” Those were my thoughts on Saturday afternoon, later on was crystal clear I really need some sleep if I wanted to survive a night at the temple. Arrived at Stereo at around 3:30am, no line up, no stress, easy parking, quick security check and there I was again, listening to some uplifting house music being played by Max Herbert. Not my first time seeing him in action and the music was what I expected from him. Chill out, happy, cute and all those adjectives, but not for long, he then started to go into this dark technoish happy pulsing hard beats which got me off guard. Had to look twice to see if Max was really the one at the tables. Nice change in style, and I’m not sure if it is permanent, but whatever he was doing really got me going. The spill over from Parking began at around 4:30am, and people arrived raving about what Offer Nissim had done, and not long after Max decided to slow down the music by a notch. Personally I...

Disclaimer: This is a short review, and these are my personal views of this evening. I wasn’t sure if I was going to go to this party, a Morales night combined with no tickets usually means a long queue to get in. If it wasn’t because of a friend of mine that had called and told me he could get me a ticket, I probably wouldn’t have gone - it was a last minute decision. Due to previous engagements, I arrived at around 4:00am at Stereo, short wait to get in, and inside the place was full, but not super packed - and the temple was decorated with spring-like accessories. Personally, the music was OK when I arrived, until it became monotonous, and then just plain boring! Not sure what Ricky Montanari was doing, and I hope next time he is able to understand the crowd, because if that place goes wild right at the moment that some good upbeat music is played, please keep “that” music going, and stop teasing the dancers. Actually, that was not teasing, it was pure torture and I couldn’t w...

I've seen several Cirque du Soleil shows, personally liking Alegria the best. Now I have another show in close second - Kooza - which I had the chance to see on Wednesday, May 16th. "KOOZA tells the story of The Innocent, a melancholy loner in search of his place in the world. KOOZA is a return to the origins of Cirque du Soleil: It combines two circus traditions – acrobatic performance and the art of clowning. The show highlights the physical demands of human performance in all its splendor and fragility, presented in a colorful mélange that emphasizes bold slapstick humor. The Innocent's journey brings him into contact with a panoply of comic characters such as the King, the Trickster, the Pickpocket, and the Obnoxious Tourist and his Bad Dog. Between strength and fragility, laughter and smiles, turmoil and harmony, KOOZA explores themes of fear, identity, recognition and power. The show is set in an electrifying and exotic visual world full of surprises, th...

How to get tickets was my main concern for this party, things have changed and one thing I don’t like is to arrive at Stereo with no tickets at all. If it is choosing between (a) going there with no assurance I will get in, and (b) not going at all, I have chosen (b) a couple of times already. Anyway, got my tickets two days previous to the party, nevertheless for Stephan Grondin I might have picked (a). I was probably one of the first to arrive at Stereo, and stayed like that for a while. “Where is everyone?” I kept asking myself. It was like everybody was taking their time to come down, or maybe they were just trapped downstairs in the bar. One hour later and place was still empty, never mind that, the volume was already as if the main DJ had arrived. Cajjmere Wray, excuse my ignorance but I had no idea who he was, or what type of music to expect from him. Asked around to see if someone knew the name of the first DJ, until I finally found someone that gave me the answer. At...

Review posted originally at Indamix.ca Disclaimer: this is how I spent my Sunday/Monday. Super Heroes are always needed in the cities, and once in a while someone comes up with an idea, in which the “League of the Justice” is invited to party in Montreal. In order to celebrate the purity of their actions combined with the Easter long weekend, white is the colour of choice, and the rest is all in your imagination. Montreal is known as a party place in North America, and perhaps the city [read city officials] has decided that it may want to shred somehow this image. Due to incident that occurred at a well known Afterhours, in the weekend previous to the Bal en Blanc, I decide it was in my best interest to arrive early to the Convention Center. I couldn't see the Fire Marshals shutting down this party, but anything else was a possibility. It was around 10:30pm when I made it - quick process - to the middle ground of the good and evil, between House and Trance. It didn'...