Andrew McCallum's review

Synergist played an amazing trance/houseish set. He definitely doesn't sound amature, and if you get a chance to see him in your area, do so. Well constructed sets, nice progressions, and good layering.

It's a good thing I don't have to apologize to anyone here for my set since I played at 11pm and nobody was around. :) (Except Syn and Slinky) I'll definitely debug my system problems before my next show -- having your computer completely lock up during the first song is no way to make an impression.

Other notables for the night were Brano (who lived up to his hype) and Hugh Sharp, an amazingly nice guy and a good Goa DJ to boot.

Transonics's review

All in all, lots of wicked people and a great vibe! Kick ass job, chris, keep it up :)

See y'all at the next one!

Jonathan Hart's review

slinky dee - was spinning at the very beginning wen i got there. her headphones blew out so she was havin a hard time :( im still awfully sorry about those headphones slinky!! then mental floss went on and did some great live PA work despite computer probs at the beginning. i really think its wicked how he uses like 4 different forms of live PAs all in one to play various songs. he did a great job.. then i went on and did my thing, i was playing as the majority of people were coming in. i think it went from 100-500 people during my set, it was great to see people dancing to my music.. a wonderful feeling!! :)) then brano went on and played serveral old school tracks, a bunch i heard from a tape my girlfriend had of his. it was a great set .. then another dj went on whos name i forgot but he was really good too!! then FLEX went on. oh man, that was one of the best sets ive ever heard. ive listened to some of the worlds top djs, but i think flex topped the majority of them all with his skills. hes got STYLE, and hes also got SKILLS, which made his set the absolute favority of the night. he had the crowd up so high!!! then HUGH SHARPE went on :) and his set was a close second when it comes to my favorite sets of the night. he spun the best psy trance a lot of tracks i knew a mix of old and new (and when he played that doof track i was in heaven!!)

after hughs set i had to leave :( my stomach was aching so bad i couldnt even speak. i had to get some food and rest so me and my girlfriend went home...

i loved the vibe so much!!! and the whistles!!! and the guy who gave me 3 12" long glowsticks for free!! and the girl who gave me a whistle!! and all the IRC people who were there (40 of them?!?!!? Jeeeeeeeeeeeez!!) and brenda whos a wicked cool girl and lesse phil/baconboy (everyone go to his party!! :)) and everyone else i met who was really cool ...

special thanks to slinky for letting me use her flashlight and headphones, mental floss for lending me his monitor and midi cable, my girlfriend shannon (i know if you were there, you saw her.. she was the 6'3" girl in the trippy ass dress gogodancing on stage) for giving me a ride there aND back (thats a lotta driving you know)..and super extra special thanks to chris/anabolic frolic for giving me the chance to play for THE BEST scene in the northeast of this continent!!

i always love good parties like this.....they lift my spirits for days afterwards...thats what i think parties should do for people above all else :)

Xotis's review

Thursday, Sep 4th:
I left work arround 4:00 and got an oil change (since I was driving 2,000 miles, I thought it would be a good idea) and got to Pepper's place where she was staying at about 5pm. We packed the car, and got directions to ChrisE and DICA's place in Madison (we were going to stay there our first night). After we were all set to go, we headed out to get gas for the car, and then we were gonna go get my friend that was joining us, Sarah. On our way to get gas, we stopped at Sebastian Joe's Ice Cream shop in Uptown (for those of you outside of Mpls, Sebastian Joe's is the BEST ice cream in the state!). After we got our gas we headed over to Sarah's place and packed the car with her gear and we were out of the cities between 8 and 9pm. I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast that day, so as we were passing through Hudson we stopped at a McDonalds and I got some grub, then we started driving again. We had a video camera with us, so we made a stop at a few locations to get some of the infamous GIANT Fiberglass farm animals that are littered about on the journey to Madison. We finially got to madison at 1am, but we had a dificult time getting to ChrisE's and DICA's place because of the construction, but we finially found it arrount 2am, and we finially all got settled arround 3:30am. Once again, I slept on the floor. If I had a dollor for every time I slept on the floor, in a house in madison that Dica lived in, I'd be a rich guy :-)

Friday Sep. 5th:
I woke up arround 6am to thier roomate Tod walking in and turning on the lights in the living room that I was sleeping on the floor in, while swearing something, I sat up and he was like "Oh, hello, and who are you??" So I told him I was a friend of Dica and ChrisE's and I was just crashing there for the night, so he said ok, turned off th elights, and went to his room. I finially woke up for good arround 8:30-9am and got to watch Dica play "Crash Bandicoot"(sp?) on thier Playstation till about 11am and then we all got ready to leave arround 12 noon.

Shouts out to Dica for the place to sleep, and the toons to listen to in the morning. ChrisE for a place to sleep and hangin out with us. And to Tod for not shooting me when he jumped up when he walked in the room at 6am.

Well, we were on the road out of MadCity arround 1pm, and were on our way to Chicago. We arrived in Chicago arround 3pm and headed directly to Gramaphone records and Untitled.

At Gramaphone both Sarah and Pepper each bought some vinyl, and I was planning my hunt for Happy Hardcore early (DJ Phil, where do you get your vinyl, I couldn't find any happy hardcore at Gramaphone :-( ). But, since I couldn't find any, and I have yet to hear any _real_ house, Pepper told me that I should just buy something from the Ministry of Sound lable, so that's what I did, I got Dance Nation which is a 2cd set with some GREAT tunes! :-) I guess it's kinda cool that I got into the scene after the straight year of nothing but house that everyone talks about, because now I can enjoy it without being sick of it.

Well, we got back on the road arround 5-6pm and headed for DETROIT. I had gotten an email from Jen Abrahms on the list telling me that there was a party in Detroit, and since none of us had ever been to a party in Detroit, we decided to go :-) We had planned on driving straight through to Toronto, but we wanted to stop and party first! :-)

We met up with Jen arround 12-1am, and went with her and her friend to the party, BIG shout out to Jen for going with us, it was a BLAST! Allright, I forget the name of the party, but here's a review.

Price - I think it was suppoed to be like 15 or 20 dollors, but since we drove from more the 2 hours away, we were able to get in for $5! :-)

Space: SERIOUS warehouse party in the ghetto! :-) It was 2 floors, not very big spaces, but enough for about 200 peeps each. Just black rectangular rooms with high ceelings. They put like black garbage bags all over the walls and ceelings and then strung cargo netting everywhere, it was very cool IMO.

Sound: I thought the sound was nice, nothing too great, but still better then most parties I've been to lately.

DJ's: The only DJ on the lineup that I recognized, and wanted to see was 3D out of chicago, but we got there just after he finished. I don't remember the other DJ's, just that there was some good acid-house trax when we got there, which went into someone spinning Booty House, they were both fair to good DJ's, IMO, then upstairs they werre playing mellow jungle from what I could gather. We finially left arround 5am. Thanks again Jen!

Saturday Sep 6th:
We drove arround Detroit for 2 hours looking for the tunnel accross the border to Canada, and realized, as the sun was coming up, that Detroit is not a city I want to get stuck in late at night. As we were driving, we went past the FOX theater, and Pepper wanted to get out and take a picture, while they were, a homeless guy came up to my car and asked if I had anything I could give hi,m, I reached in my pocket, and pulled out my earplugs I just used at the party, and said "Well, all I have is this earplug, but if you want it you can have it" so he put out his hand, and I gave the earplug to him aand I noticed him saying " ohh a marshmallow!" to which I said "NOOOO don't eat it!!!!" to which he looked at me funny, popped it in his mouth and made a sort of "Mmmphgrwalp!" as he spit out my used earplug on the ground and glared back at me. So, I reached in the glove box and handed him a wad of change for his troubles, and he walked away. We finially found the tunnel 30 minuites later, and it was getting light outside.

We crossed into Windsor with no problems, but then got stuck in Windsor for 2 hours trying to find the 401 to Toronto. We finially got on it arround 9am.. the 401 is the most boring drive I've ever been on.. it's just a straight drive for 200 miles, with no scenery to speak of, it's a hell of a drive after no sleep in 24 hours, with a rave in between.

We finially made it to Toronto at 1pm and found a hotel and crashed there till 5pm. At 6:30pm we were supposed to go to a pre-party with a bunch of peeps from vrave that lived in Toronto, but after we got lost in Toronto, and finially found it at 7pm, they were gone, so we just ate dinner and went back to the Hotel at 8:30pm. at 9pm, they were all going to stop by our room and we would go to the party together. Well they all stopped by with a ton of beer, and we had a party there with like 10 people till about 11pm when we went to the party just down the street. We got in the party at 11:30pm, and here's where the REAL fun starts!!!!!!!!

H-U-L-L-A-B-A-L-O-O WOO TO THE MOTHA' FUCKIN' HOO!!!

You have NEVER seen vibe like this before!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We all walk in, and at the table in the entrence, they have ONE THOUSAND FREE WHISTLES!!!! YEAH!!! The venu had 2 spaces, one upstairs and one downstairs. Each was PERFECT for a party, just big enough for like 1-2,000 people, but shaped just right for no slapback from the wall, so the sound was KICK ASS!!!

As I was standing in the stairs, looking at the lineup, waiting for the rest of the peeps I was with to get in, I heard the DJ thrown doen BODYSLAM (it's on Sharky's mix of Bonkers2) which is a drum and basey Happy Hardcore song that KICKS ASS!!! Then I heard the MC flowing, and I told my friends next to me, "Tell everyone I'm down there!" and I ran down the stairs and almost passed out when I saw all the people bolowing thier whistles, the MC on the stage with the DJ and about 4 dancers, all of them jumping arround, and EVERYONE jumping up and down smiling! So I ran right in front of the stage, between 2 of the biggest racks of bins I've EVER seen, and I proceded to dance harder then EVER!

Well, in the top floor of the venue it was all oldschool breakbeat/house/goa stuff that had everyone dancing (there was about 1,000-2000 people up ther going bezerk at any given time, it was packed and EVERYONE was dancing!!! Whistles blowing, arms flailing, it was like nothing I've ever experienced in my life, I swear to god it was better then anything I could have ever dreamed that a rave could be!!!

The bottom floor was where I spent most of my night. This floor had fewer people then the top floor, only about 700-1000, but it was alittle smaller then the top floor, and the top floor had massive air conditioning, so it was super cool dancing up there, but the bottom floor was a bit hotter. Both floors had INTENSE vibe, EVERYONE was dancing, I counted maybe 5-10 people out ofwhat looked like a thousand or 2 that were not dancing at any given time! In this bottom floor they played Happy hardcore and jump up jungle and straight up hardcore ALLL NIGHTLONG!!!! I was in pure heaven! I've had tons of people describe to me what it feels like to do Extasy, and I felt exacltly like what they all said. I talked to a lot of people that night and they said tha tat most parties in Toronto, the vibe and the music and the parties ar so good, that drugs aren't really necissary to have a good time. Sure, you still have people smoking a bowl or 2, doing a little E and maybe a bit of shrooms or acid, but that was it. No heroine, no K, no PCP, no Cocaine, no Crack no Meth that I could see at ALL. I think that the lack of depresants and drugns that make you want to sit down had a lot to do with the reason the vibe was so intense, and everyone was dancing. The sound was SOOOOO powerful, I've never seen anything even CLOSE to that ever, I was standing about halfway back between the back wall and the bins, and my shirt and my pants were vibrating like mad, I swear I could feel my intestines jumping arround from the bass!!!! They even handed out earplugs as you walked in, so I assume they wanted it to be LOUD... then, about 4am, the DJ before Dominik, I believe it was DJ Spinback, turned up the sound EVEN LOUDER!!! I didnt have to go to the bathroom all night, but when he did that, I INSTANTLY had this insane urge to pee, so I had to literally run to the bathroom... it was NUTS!!! :-) ALL of the DJ's were right on, a few of them had a few mino mistakes, but they were VERY minor, and only noticable if you were really looking for them, or if you knew most of the songs by heart, like I did :-) Here are some of the songs I rmembered them playing at LEAST2 times that night.

31 seconds (GREAT jungle song, cant remember the producer off the top of my head, but its a KICKIN tune!!!) Expressions - Dave Wallace (cant remember the name off hand) - 88.3 - remake of a classic 70's song by Rose Royce (sp?) DJ Phill has mentioned the song on here before, so I know he knows the name, and it's on a CD out in my car, but I'm too tired to go get it :-) OH I remember, it's "Wishing On A Star"

They played a WHOLE SHITLOAD of Jungle anthems from '92 to present, it was INSANE, the MC's were ALLLLLLLL AWSOME, they would just get the crowd pumped up every now and then, and rhyme a bit, and let the music do the rest! It was incredible!

here are the Happy choons I noticed.
SURREUNDER - eruption
GO INSANE - d.n.a
LET THE MUSIC - eruption
ITS NOT OVER - dougal & seduction
WONDERLAND - Force & Styles
PARTY TIME REMIX (this is ONE KICK ASS tune!) - dougal & eruption
TOYTOWN (fuck yeah!) - hixxy & sharky
TOGETHER FOREVER - hixxy and bananaman
LOVE OF MY LIFE - Dr Who
IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE -dj ham
DISCOLAND - I forget the producer
LET IT BE REMIX (yeah, of the beatles song!!!!) - this song kicked all ass, it REALLY got the crowd moving, anyone know the producer?
WANTIN TO GET HIGH - I forget this producer as well :-(

All in all, the absoulte BEST set of the night, was that of DJ Spinback and MC Ruff, these guys fucking kicked the ass of ALL the dancers and the whistle kru in the place. It was waaaaaaaaaay intense. If you are like me, and have only been in the scene for a short time, then you have NEVER experienced someting like this, it was utter crazy insanity! it was BEAUTIFUL! Even the jungle set of Marcus KICKED ASS, I think Trigger was the MC for him, and he ROCKED THE PLACE, when he called for a rewind (only 2 times or so) it was ONLY when the crowd was blowing thier whistles and horns soooo loud, that you could hardly hear the music, it was WONDERFUL!

This party, was without out a doubt, the BEST thing I have ever experienced in my entire life, and I am NOT saying that lightly, if you would have gone, you would agre!!! :-)

Allright, since we had only had 4 hours of sleep for 2 parties and 12 hours of driving, we just about passed out during Dominiks set, which was kickcking ass, it was literally raining sweat in there after a while, it was insane!!! :-) So we left arround 6am, and the party went till 9:30 am... but we just couldn't take anymore, and we checke out of our htel at 1pm, so we wanted to get a bit of sleep before we left. We finially got to the hotel at 7am, and slept till 12:30pm.

Sunday Sep 7th:
We got up, and I called a friend of mine that I knew from vrave, who we partied with the night before and told him he should stop by, since Pepper was gonna show us arround Toronto and he should jon us. So we took the subway to Queens street and I was blown away, THERE IS A RECORD STORE EVERY 10 FEET!!!!! And they all have speakers on thier front steps blasting Acid/House/Jungle or whatever, its like a rave every day on that street! If had more energy, I would have been dancing down the street! We stopped in about 5 record shops, and I picked up gem af gem of happy hardcore CD's and vinyl... it was was so nice to do some needle dropping on happy hardcore vinyl, instead of just having to order stuff you hear about through friends.

NOTE TO RECORD SHOPS! Myself alone spent like $150 on vinyl and CD's, and thats not counting what everyone else that was with me was buying in the Happy Hardcore bins, SO GET SOME HAPPY HARDCORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm SURE people will buy it, so get it in stock! :-)

At about 9pm we dropped Pepper off at her friends house, and then drove straight back to Minneapolis, getting home about 11pm Monday night. All in all, it was an incredible journey, and it was the best time of my life.