randino

I have to agree with artful, Miami (South Beach) is pretty damn sweet. A bunch of the London clubs have made it there, like Amnesia and Cream. My opinion may be biased though, as I was there during the Winter Music Conference (last weekend in March?) which was a sick time, DJs and performances everywhere, all day.

Yeah, I knew from the beginning that the ABC special on Ibiza was gonna be propaganda journalism, but it does hold some truth. I've talked to 2 people that went there this year, and they're trying to talk me out of going, because it is so damn crowded everywhere you go, and so ridiculously expensive. Something like $6 for a water, $10 for a drink, $45 to get into a club, etc. Just something to think about. I still want to go, maybe not during peak season, because of the club scene / tropical paradise combination. If anyone knows of any similar places to Ibiza, I'm all for it.

shallow? why, because I had a lot of negative things to say? Not every negative point has to be balanced out with a positive one, that's what people's replies are for. my first post stated that I was disappointed, so I expanded on it. Had I said that it was amazing, I would have pointed out the finer things about the event, so since you're curious I will... without trying to sound so shallow. First of all, some corrections: I did not say that the fountain ruined my night. I pay attention to detail and I was just trying to share as much of the experience as I saw when I was there. Perhaps I missed the artistic impression in the water-less fountain, maybe they did it because they didn't want people drinking out of it, I don't know, I don't care, I was simply pointing it out. I also did not say that I was shocked with people doing drugs at a rave, how could I be when I've done it myself. I was simply a little surprised at the openess that everyone did it with, and being that I am not Canadian, I was curious if maybe the Canadians were not as strict in public events such as this. I was upset when they told me to stand up because there didn't seem to be anything different about that spot where I chose to sit, than all the other places they did allow people to sit, but to your credit, fine, I'll chalk that one up to commercialism. My major complaint may have been the decorations because I enjoyed everything else. Better to have complained about something so trivial rather than the actual music. OK, now for your benefit I will "get real". The organization was pretty good, the lines to get in were quick, and the will-call people were friendly and quick (since I ordered my tickets online). Security was very heavy, but not overpowering. The bathrooms were tiny for such a large event, but luckily I sweat out nearly every drop of liquid that went into me, so I never had to use it after I entered. There was a sign above the sink written in French (and I'm sure you'll call me shallow for this too), which I wish had an English translation on it, paritcularly because of it's importance. A friend later translated it for me, something along the lines of "do not fill water bottles here, it is not drinking water, please use the water fountains". Of course, the water fountains were behind barriers in the hallway. If I remember correctly, water was $5, which meant about $3.50 american dollars, which is more expensive than I'm used to, and I sure wished that I was in Toronto, where it is illegal to charge people for water at a rave (or something like that). As far as I know, all DJs showed up and played their sets, and the transitions were seamless and high energy. I don't think you want to hear about my particular opinion on each of the sets, but I'll touch on it. Most of what I heard was rather repetitive beats, without enough of the ups and downs and pauses that really get the crowd crazy and jumping. But Darren Emerson's set had all that, and I liked his the best (of the 5 that I saw - not all). I don't think that there was anything really surprising in any of the sets, except maybe more like pleasure when Darren Emerson mixed in a couple Underworld tracks. I was impressed with the performance by Max Graham mainly because I hadn't heard him before, and he was pretty good. I wasn't entirely impressed with Dave Ralph's set, but that could have just been because I didn't hear the kind of tracks I've heard on his albums. The sound system was pretty sweet, as something of that size usually is. It wasn't as clear as I would have liked it to be, but that could have been attributed to the un-accoustical nature of the venue. Although I don't claim to know much about the physics of audio. There was a "chill out area" if you could call it that. It was the concrete hallway outside the stadium stands which was just as steamy and hot as the rest of the place, and almost as packed with people sitting, and walking through. But it wasn't an escape from the pounding of the music. I must say that the rain/mist tent was a nice touch. There were also a couple tents that look like they might chill out areas, but I didn't get a chance to go over there. And near the entrance there were many patio tables with umbrellas and chairs, another nice touch. The one place that was actually "cool" in terms of temperature was between the 2 major rooms, which could also be a chill out area, because it had several projection screens with funky computer graphics on it, but this was one of the areas were you were not to sit. I don't know if I'd go so far as to say that it was oversold, but there wasn't any room to dance in the main room. But that is probably typical because that's where the DJ booth is. one more time: I still had a good time despite my negative findings (trivial as they may be).

Well, I was misled by the 514 Productions web site - the picture on their homepage ( www.514productions.com ) shows a picture of a very large event happening INSIDE the stadium. So I naively assumed that this event was going to be inside the stadium. It was not. It was in the adjacent Exposition Hall or whatever you call it, just some very large rooms with semi-tall ceilings - much like a warehouse. Secondly, the ventilation was absolutely poor. Actually it was more like non-existent. I did not see any fans anywhere, and there were certainly no types of windows. It got uncomfortably hot in there even with all that room for heat to rise. I was also rather unimpressed with the decorations, effects, etc. They had one laser, and it was one color (green), with a few variations in effects. The hanging cubes of light fixtures were kinda cool, but didn't really do much except change colors. There were many weather balloons hanging from the ceiling in the smaller room, but nothing was being projected on them, so they were going to waste. There was a Pagoda-like water fountain in the middle of the smaller room, surrounded by light fixture pillars, but the fountain was barely dribbling water. Whoever was operating the computer screen in the main room that displayed which DJ was spinning (in case you couldn't see through the haze that people's body heat was creating) was a moron. They obviously didn't practice the switching of screen shots beforehand. Between every DJ set, when the DJs which changeover, you could see him fumbling on the screen for at least 3 minutes every time. It didn't really bother me, I mean I knew who was on when, but it was kinda amateur. Just the commercial-ness of the whole thing kinda bothered me too, the security guards wouldn't let me sit on the floor in a lot of places. The drug use was ridiculously open, not that I'm against drug use, but security apparently wasn't either. Overall, the whole place was just a drug-infested, outfit-competing, muscle queen show-off contest. You could tell that a good majority of people there were there for the drugs and the meat, and oh yeah, the music was pretty cool too (if you were high on something). But personally, I managed to make a good time of the night, and I liked the majority of the music, even though I had all those negative things to say

Did anyone attend the Cream rave at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal on Sunday 9/3? Just looking for some opinions, thoughts, and reflections I was rather disappointed myself

Sorry, one more reply I had gone to Dome the next night, and I happen to be with a local who new someone there and we skipped line, and got in for free which was pretty sweet. But at around 11:30, there was quite a line forming, and I think admission was $10 (not bad... Sona was $20). Dome is true to Superclubness with it's podiums, stages, crazy bar antics, fake people, cheesy crowd-pleasing dance music. I figured it was probably a combination of college students and tourists that were there. They would do things like lick whip cream off a girls stomach on top of the bar, poor lighter fluid all over the bar and light it on fire, hang beer funnels from the ceiling, etc. The music was pretty good, and the lighting was pretty cool too, even some pyrotechnics. The music was varied, some top 40, some obscure, and half the people were there just to drink. Just my 2 cents on the subject Montreal is well worth the trip, especially if you're from the states because the exchange rate is soo good!

I don't think Montreal is all that much colder than down here in the new york area, they just get more snow. In fact, I think it was nicer up there this past weekend than it was down here. I mean, I was there in early September and the weather was maybe high 60s to mid 70s (fahrenheit), even though it rained a couple days.

I was just in Montreal for labor day weekend. Got there Friday night and went straight to Sona around midnight (after finding it). It's not too hard to find, not like it's down an alley, it's in a parking lot, a blocked off street one block from the Place de Arts (or something like that) on Bleurry and St. Catherine I believe. The "line" to get in was new to me, every just kinda stands around until the bouncers think you're good enough to get in. They even turn some people away saying "sorry, but you need passes to get in tonight", even though it was obvious none of the rest of us had passes I only had to wait about 10 minutes with one friend of mine, and I got the feeling that it might have helped that he spoke French, not sure though. When you walk in, you go down 2 floors to the sub-basement which is the Hip-Hop room (or was that night) which wasn't very crowded, but was definitely overcome with pot smoking. You go up the stairs to the next room and they have a couple bars, and a jungle/d&b/trip-hop room I guess - awesome stuff in my opinion. After a couple hours of being in that room, they literally "herd" everyone into the next room, which is even bigger and more elaborate, with a better DJ (same type of music mostly). I didn't last long enough to make it to room #4, but I'm sure there was more to this club than I experienced! I must say though that the bouncers there were assholes (not necessarily the ones at the door) and it took me at least 10 minutes just to find my way out of the club since we couldn't go back the way we came after they had closed the 2nd room. And oh yeah, it absolutely ridiculously hot in there, enough to kill someone who was rolling on e or anything else and wasn't careful about their water intake. I was feeling nauseous myself! But it was a good time.

Ibiza is not too far off the east coast of Spain, bart of the Balearic Islands. It's been a clubber's paradise for almost 13 years now, ever since Oakenfold, Tong, and a couple of their buddies landed there and declared it Mecca to club-ness. Since then it has been overridden with British people and has been rather commercialized and quite crowded. Even MTV has a week there I've been planning to there for 2 years now, but can never find anyone that wants to spend that kind of dough on the trip. I have found flights from NY to Ibiza for as low as $589 round trip and package deals that include airfare, accomodations, free club passes, and a tour/club guide for as little as $1159 (from www.bringitontravel.com ). So I haven't been yet, but plan to go next summer. Check out www.ibiza-spotlight.com for excellent Ibiza information, including club schedules for the whole summer.