I was going to put this in a review thread, but it was so long and I though it was just more than a review, it was an homage, a tribute, a statement of gratitude, an opinion and what the hell, its a short novel about hulla me and everything else.
my ears are still ringing...
I was only fortunate enough to make it to two hullabaloo's, one of which being the last. I have enough memories from those to fill up two lifetimes. Everyone who's been there for a while should consider themselves so lucky to have been a part of something so great and taken so much from it. It just completely blows me away that something as small as a "rave" can be so huge. When everyone asked me what i was going to canada for I told them, the last hulla. No one understood. Its not a thing you can understand without going to one. It is mind blowing. I'm a drug free kind of guy, so there's no exctacy induced euphoria kind of thing going on. It is all pure vibe and music and love. That's what i felt at hulla. I walked in and it was like jumper said, it was like a dream. I felt just a little bit at home. I saw friends up on stage doing there thing and rocking out. I got to know a lot of people through hulla, even though it is so recent. It made it unique, special to me. And of course I teared up more than a few times, seeing the guys on stage did it for me. I can't believe it, hulla over, damn. I guess I just thought that it would be around forever. I mean, I started getting into it about three years ago and just always assumed that I would have a chance to get there. Now I'm out of chances and i've only made it twice, it is bittersweet. I couldn't help crying a bit. It was extreme, moments of utter joy, and sadness, and resentment, not to hulla, no but to people that just don't appreciate it. What hulla is, what it has done and how it did it. How it changed lives and made so many people strive for there goals... to be a better dj, mc, promoter, raver, person... A lot of people stayed true to the rap for hulla or because of it, so many people lived plurr for it, i did, my friends did. Hulla taught me what the scene should be about. It was the best place on earth.
now after that long statement here's some more, so if you get bored feel free to skip around a bit, i know these posts get tiring.
The review:
Started out the night at the reel jerk, met up with the fps guys and all the friends, glad we were invited. It was great to chill with them again. Super cool group of guys. Ordered an overpriced amaretto sour, waitress forgot to include the sour. Chilled there for a bit, saw a bunch of familiar faces, than left for the line.
Lines are always fun at good parties, especially at hulla. So many good people and friends. Saw all of em. Traded some kandi, took pictures and handed out cd's. We talked to Robin for some time, which is always cool. She always seemed to have great stories and she took all of us grabbing her away from her guest list duties with style and grace. Fun times. Saw Gavin chilling in the restraunt with the grandma which was cute, and made me miss my kids even more.
Getting searched is always fun, I carry an incredible amount of junk on me at all times: two pens, wallet, keys, two packs of cigarettes, two liters, glowsticks, cds, and gum. And then everything that was in my bag. From there we got inside.
the short bit i saw of hujib's set was awesome. He had been spinning party crasher when we got in, awesome tune.
Silver1 was a super emotional set for me. Honestly it was the first time i actually saw him spin. It was great, solid tunes. And mike was mcing which is awesome. Guy rocks my socks i swear to god. Mike gave a shout to cleveland for us, handed out a stack of my cd's for me. Made sure to give us copies of his cd's, which rocked. All in all great set. I cried it up a bit when silver1 disrobed his gear.
spinz was friggin awesome, i had the most fun during this set. Crazy jungle going on, great scratching and mike and flipside on the mics, it was incredible. Mike took turns puttin his crotch directly in all of our faces which was umm.. interesting i suppose. Flipside pulled jocelyn up on stage which was wicked, it made her night. Then both flipside and mike got down on the ground right by us which was just awesome, seeing them go at it right there. It was like a private party for us. At some point during either silver1's set or spinz set Pete (gobstoppa) showed up. He worked his way over to us from the stage gave him a good old hug and said it was great to see him again, that crazy man he is.
D-minus always rocks. He's got great track selection and pretty wicked mixing abilities. Unfortunately I felt the need to smoke and get something to drink while i had a chance.
smoking sucked. There were about 75 people crammed into the little hallway to wait to go smoke. It was horrible, two many screwed up kids rubbing up against me, urg. We were angry at this point. Finally got outside, smoked a cigarette, Jocelyn decided to go home (she really doesn't do late night anymore, but that's okay she's old
) Got back inside with just enough time to find everybody and run back up to catch frisky cuz i didn't want to miss it.
Frisky, the man, the ninja, invasion of the asian sensation my friend likes to say. His sets are always my favorite, I just feel like he hits all the right spots ya know? And I was so glad to see pete up there on the mic with him, cuz they work really well together. He dropped all of the right tracks, some killer tunes were going off it was great, unbelievably cool. Pete killed it on the mic, because he always does watching all of these guys do it just makes me smile, because they're just remarkable, no doubt that hulla had the best around. He gave a couple shouts to me, all the way home i was replaying it in my head...
gobs- "hey leash, what time is it?"
me - "four o clock in the morning"(screaming it at the top of my lungs holding up four fingers)
god do i get a kick out of it.
subsonic and elixer, i was stoked for it and not let down. Great track selection. We did some walking around for this one, actually found some usable space to dance which was nice.
Saw jumper up at the juice bar at around this time i believe, I could be wrong time was kind of non exsistent. super nice guy he is. Gave him a cd, he remembered my name (always a plus, makes me feel like i'm not doing too bad) Talked about kids, I congradulated him and told him about my two. And then let him to his business, because I'm sure he wanted to do some running around
video, friggin awesome, brought some tears to my eye of course. it was cool to see everybody up on stage watching too.
Frolic...
wow, just can't even say it. I mean, he started it all. Everything. I am a dj, i listen to happy hardcore, I am a promoter all because of him. I mean how many people would have never heard of the music, the vibe and the power of hardcore without him. He is the godfather of hardcore music. His set was wicked all of the way through. I heard a little bit of a wreck once, but don't worry chris, i forgive you.
It was insanity, i blew my whistle until i though my cheeks would rip apart. They still hurt by the way, and so does my shoulder, pumping your fist for that long just takes its toll. I loved seeing all of the mc's up there, most of them cryin a bit. It all started to seem so real and so dreamlike at the same time. It was all coming to an end, here and now. All just ending, no more hullabaloo, no more. Everything would feel a little bit different from here on in. There would be no more. Hulla, the largest name in hardcore raving on this side of the continent. The gathering of hardcore ravers. It was ending. It was sad, but I was so happy to be there. I held back tears, just because I didn't want to cry, I wanted to rock out as hard as I could to show everyone that this is hardcore. Nothing can ever come close to it. Somewhere during this set an angry raver told me to not blow my whislte... Did they know where they were? They must have forgotten, either way i kindly ignored his request. joy and anger, sadness and being so tired. It was all so mixed up and tormenting. I didn't know whether I should be hurt, hurt, cry, scream, or jump up and down pumping my fist and blowing my whistle( I tried to just to as much of that one as I could). It ended, we left we went to the 24 hour mcdonalds I didn't eat. I didn't know what i should be doing. I felt like there was just a little bit missing now. I know in my head that one day, hopefully far away from this, the hullaboard will die out, and friends will fade and drift away. All of us will continue on our paths whether it be to family, school, jail, the ground or some mental hospital. We will be happy to do so, because that's the way it is. The last record is spun and then its back to real life. Its just so hard for me to picture it without this ever happening again. Hopefully we'll all do it up right. A lot of the promotion companies out know are rocking it. FPS, those guys rock, Goodfellas too. Hopefully I can do something to match it. Hopefully.
Well, that was it.
the last record spun...
Hulla has ended...
goodbye...
peace love and unity respect and responsiblity
...(listen to the rap, and live by it for the better of us all)
-Leash
or you can call me Bob in real life.