I don't think there is a blog post long enough to explain how much craziness there was going on at the Kool Haus last night. Long story short, Major Lazer made the crowd get rowdy, crazy and stanky.
Not only was it the music that made everyone go absolutely insane, the two dancers and the hypeman put on one hell of a entertaining show. The two female dancers crowd surfed with the crowd almost pushing them all the way to the back of the club, did head stands on speakers, and had insane amounts of energy, way more then I do on a regular, weekly, and monthly basis. The hypeman got the crowd singing the words to the songs, got everyones hands up in the air and got many female fans to come up on stage.
Diplo put on one hell of a DJ set, every song got the crowd crazier, rowdier, dirtier and nastier. The mix of electro, house, and reggae defiantly made everyone insane in the membrane. I can remember someone in the crowd going up on the stage and doing a back flip and pretty much smashing his face on the concrete floor covered with spilled alcohol, plastic cups, and random towels? The crowd was so energized and pumped that as I was taking a picture the camera flew out of my hand, landed in a swarm of people and got stepped a couple of dozen times. With that being said let us have a moment of silence for this deceased camera of mine.
All in all it was one crazy night and I'm hoping Major Lazer makes there way back to Toronto soon!
Arctic Monkeys are an alternative rock band based out of Sheffield, England. The band consists of Alex Turner (lead vocals, guitar), Jamie Cook (guitar) , Nick O' Malley (bass guitar, backing vocals) and Matt Helders ( backing vocals, drums). I had heard about them from a friend and have listened to them for about a year and a half now but as soon as I found out about them coming to Toronto, I bought the tickets right away.
I'm 20 years old and have only been to two concerts in my life. Embarrassing and sad I know but they both have been great experiences and make me want to go to more and more. On September 29th 2009 I went to my first rock concert. They performed at a small venue called Kool Haus which is part of the Guverment Entertainment Complex in Downtown Toronto.
I got inside the venue and got a perfect spot right near the stage where I was able to see everything perfectly. An all girl band called "The Like." opened up for them. I've never heard of them before, but every song they played sounded almost identical to the one before, as catchy as the songs were I wasn't feeling it. Along with not enjoying the music each member of the group looked like they needed to take a one hour bath. Maybe life on tour was hard for "The Like"?
After 2 hours at the venue and waiting for Arctic Monkeys to come on they finally did and the crowd went insane. Right when they went up the stairs to come on the stage the crowd rushed to get closer to the stage, in the process because of these people I almost went face first into a steel banister. I'm sure you all know the banisters are used to guard people, but with the luck I have it could also be used as a perfect object to get a concussion. They sounded amazing live, and sounded almost identical to their albums which I wasn't expecting to happen. I was happy my first concert was with a band that actually had musical talent and wasn't lypsyncing or getting drunk on stage. Well, the lead singer was pretty drunk but that didn't effect his performance at all surprisingly. Alex Turner you really do have a god given talent. As alot of people probably know concerts are very unpredictable and this concert was no exception. Someone in the crowd decided to rush the stage while they were performing, as they did the security guards caught him but he was still struggling to break free. As they were restraining him he managed to throw his demo cd's at them, and also pushed over the huge amps that were needed for the guitars. The band just laughed it off and continued performing for the fans.
The only thing I regret doing from that night is not buying a crazy overpriced band t-shirt that I was willing to buy but got fed up cause the line was too long but besides that it was a great concert.
Crookers who are one of my favorite dj acts specialize in house, electro house, fidget house and hip house. They mesh and fuse all these different types of house music together to make something that would potentially make me deaf but I would be okay with that. After listening to them for about a year I was wondering when they would be coming to Toronto. I missed them once before, but when the opportunity came again I knew I had to go no matter what.
August 6th 2009 was the day of Crookers Insanity and it was one of the best experiences of my life. They played at Skybar which is on top of the Guverment Entertainment Complex. There was no roof and thankfully it was a nice summer night. You could see the CN tower in the distance, an enormous ship and a sugar factory across the street. Oh, I think I failed to mention it was located in an industrial area?
I always wanted to experience what it was like to listen to there music live and in person and I was not disappointed. They filled a nightclub right to capacity and would of torn the roof off the place if it had one. The energy that was in the room that night was unexplainable. Hands and fists were waving in the air the whole entire night and screams from fans were probably heard all over Downtown Toronto that night. Usually if people go to nightclubs a major reason they have a bad experience is because it is too busy and there is no room to do anything. This night it felt as if the club was over-capacity but no one seemed to mind because they were there for the same reason; to sweat profusely, scream at the top of their lungs and listen to some dirty electro beats.
For some reason in today's day and age the music you listen to can sometimes automatically sticks you into one group or label. If you have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about let me run through a couple of examples for you.
If you listen to: House, euro, freestyle - your considered a gino/gina Rap & hip hop - your considered a gangster electro & indie rock - your considered a hipster (sorry if I am not using technical terms or offending anyone by using these terms)
There are tons more but I just don' think everyone would really want to read a full blog post on what label is associated with what type of music you listen to. If you step outside of your house or come out of the rock you live under you would see these types of people in your everyday life. Music is something that is very influential, and makes people act, dress, talk, and view things a certain way.
I personally don't think that labels should be associated with what kind of music you listen to. What if a person listens to all these different types of music? does it make them a gangstering gino hipster? Do they carry the some characteristics of each label and morph into one super label? I myself listen to all these types of music that I listed above and don't really consider myself to be any of those three labels. I have always liked different types of music, but in the past was a little afraid to express it to others because they would probably think I was weird for listening to that type of music and people are always looking for excuses to shun people away from a group.
The purpose of this blog is sharing some of the artists that I enjoy and maybe opening you up to some different types of music that you might not be used to or haven't even heard of.
