I'm feeling alright, I'm feeling alright

Kid CuDi is a rapper who I've wanted to see live for a long time. I found out he was opening for Lady GaGa the same night at the ACC, but there is no way in hell you will get me to see Lady Gaga perform, she legitimately scares me. I'm a weird person, but she takes it to a whole other level, but to each their own. I was kinda telling myself that he will have his own concert around the same time and I was right! It was at Kool Haus, which seems to be the only venue I've been to for the wide abundance of 5 concerts I've been to in my life so far.

It was on November 28th 09 and in the midst of my hectic school schedule. It's getting close to exams so it was a nice break from my brutalious textbooks I have to force myself to read to get ready for exams. I brought 3 of my friends with me, who I somewhat forced to come with me because I really wanted to go. He was supposed to come on at 11pm and we were running late, thankfully CuDi was running late too. He didn't come on until 12:30am, and when he hit the stage the crowd roared.

He played all the hits from his debut CD Man on the Moon: The End of Day and from his mixtape A Kid Named CuDi which created his popularity. I'm pretty sure that me and everyone in the venue that night woke up the next morning with no voice. We all sounded like a horrible school choir singing a long to all of his songs. Well, the next morning I sounded like I was a cougar chain smoker so I guess I might of been singing along a little to much. I think the highlight of the night for a lot of people was when he brought on a special guest noone was anticipating. Drake showed up out of nowhere and I almost got thrown into the crowd cause of how excited everyone was. Okay yeah, his music is okay but I didn't think it was THAT much of a big deal. He performed his single "Forever" for all of 3 minutes, and then he disappeared.

Nothing spectacular happened at this concert, but for some reason I liked it the best. The energy was crazy, the music was amazing and he put on a hell of a show. He didn't need corny background dancers or a crazy looking set. It was only him and a DJ and he showed the crowd a good time!
In the video that someone took at the concert, this was right at the beginning when he came on stage. Look at the energy of the crowd and let me tell you it never slowed down.

MSTRKRFT .. MSTR UHH

Okay, so I know I haven't been updating my blog a lot because I've been under pooploads of stress because of school. Oh the wonders of post secondary education. ANYWAYS, on Halloween I got to see another one of my favorite dj's and this time it was MSTRKRFT. They played at Kool Haus, which is weird because almost every concert or every dj set that I've seen it has been at that venue. The best part about this time was that it was Halloween night. Downtown Toronto was full of crazy people that picked out some interesting outfit choices. I shouldn't exactly make fun since I dressed up as MC Hammer. The costume consisted of parachute pants, a mesh tank top, a blinding gold jacket and a giant gold clock that I put around my neck. Hey, I got a couple compliments on my pants so i'm guessing I made the right choice.

When MSTRKRFT hit the stage, the crowd went nuts. They played club bangers the whole entire night. I've been to other electro shows in the past, and I can always say the energy that you experience is unexplainable. The crowd is going nuts, dancing, feeling the music, it pretty much felt as if you were at a rave. The played a lot of songs from their new CD Fist of God (if you haven't purchased it I suggest you do) and their most popular remixes like D.A.N.C.E. At that point I completely lost it because those are some good tunes, well in actuality I think I lost it on numerous occasions that night. Lost it as in having a good time not lost it as in beating up random strangers. Sorry about that little tangent over there, all in all it was a good night with good people and I am patiently waiting for them to come back to Toronto. Hopefully, they come back with Crookers and Major Lazer. Just sayin'
Heres a clip of a bit of their set I found on youtube, it's not at the highest points of their set and theres also a lot of annoying screaming but enjoy nonetheless.

Major Lazer at Kool Haus

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 Extravaganza

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 Insanity

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.



At the end of this post there is going to be a little clip of what I experience that night. Sorry if you get a little motion sickness, it was a crazy party do you expect me to stay still?

How did that happen?

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.