Allison Heather's review

It was great to meet Steve Buck, Thrush and Vergel for the first time, and Jim the lurker. :) And as always, great seeing Marty and Chris. Brenda, I didn't see you at all you wall flower! ;) Hope you're feeling better now.

Oh yeah, and just when I thought I was tired out at 4pm from Brano and Chris, DJ Flex made me boogy! Book him more guys! I don't recall hearing him before, although I'm sure I have...

^Chimaera's review

We get to The Warehouse at midnight. Luckily for me the people I was with were on the guest list and I did not have to wait in line (hehehe). So I got in - and wholly shit - Lasers everywhere, lights, people; I literally had to pick my jaw up off the floor. I'm loving it from the start, to my own embarrassment, I really didn't know too much about the Dj's, the only ones I was familiar with was Spock and Ruffneck. Anyways I was walking around observing the scenery and thinking, I am addicted!! I was there ten minutes and I was already making plans for another party. Anyways I was loving it. Ahhh - the House Room. Well I am not a great fan of house so - I won't judge the music - however the room was full of people, and they looked like they were having a good time.

Well this lil diatribe is going on but i am sure you want to hear about some of the Dj's - well look at another review (hehehe)- As previously stated I was only familiar with two DJ.s, and I didn't make a note of anyone else. I will say this though - DJ SPOCK DJ SPOCK DJ SPOCK!!!!! -Excellent set and when he spun Bro-Hymne by Pennywise - I was in heaven!!!!! So it was my first party - and deffinately not the last.

Chris Funke's review

Erik Spex's review

We (Matt, Jes, and Anita) Left Chicago friday morning at around 3:30a.m., after just finishing off a free event matt throws at the University of Chicago. As always I am the one that was voted to drive first...tired, I was thinking to myself all the way through Indiana and Michigan... "Is this really worth it?" The answer is yes.

Despite an unfortunate event that took place at the bus stop... I had a truely wicked time.

I would like to send shouts out to: Anita ( for sticking up for me the entire weekend), Jes ( for being nice to me), and matt (for... well giving me a ride... thats right, or for letting me drive his car 90% of the time...), I would like to thank you...Chris... for throwing an amazing rave:-), and of course for helping me in one of my many times of need... If you come ever back to chicago I will treat you to a sandwich, of your choice, at the White Hen, downtown. I would also like to thank everyone that was there, who really made the night amazing. I would like to thank the girl that massaged my back with a blue pig (I needed that!)... and all the others that I may have forgotten.

Anyway... I look foreward to driving the interstates for hours, staying in the Travelodge, next time... but until then I have to practice my air hockey.

Jason Judge's review

Yes, me... the techno-snob.

I always told people how much the party sould be about the music. We should go to parties with the sole intention of seeing great DJ's perform, and the party is secondary.

I've told many people how much I hate the concept of Hollaballo (sp?!). The the whole "I'm a candy ass raver wearing phat pants, going to party and I don't care at all about the music". I thought the whole thing was very immature. It was for new "ravers" who don't understand the music or the scene.

But, completely by accident, I ended up at h4 last Saturaday. Yes, the average age of all the people was 16. Yes, I wore my most "phat" pants and they were still the tightest in the crowd. Yes, the music was more cheesy than I can describe.

However, I listened to the flyer and "I left my attitude at the door". And with that I danced my ass off all night, and had the best time I have had in a very long time.

It was good since I hardly knew anyone there. And the crowd: I have not seen a crowd rush that hard in a very long time. Smiles everywhere. I met lots of new people. Even hugged alot of them. Just like the olden days I guess...

You see, I've been partying for over four years, and during that time I forgot how to just have fun. I was too concentrated on the music, the setup, the people I needed to talk to. I lost sight of what first started me "raving".. the party. The intense good time.

I had an amazing time at h4!

Now, back to being a techno-snob... ;)

Jes's review

we left chicago at 4am friday morning after cleaning up after a super fun positive thursdaze, drove straight thru to arrive in toronto sometime friday afternoon. yeah, it was a bit tirring but it was nice to rest up and have a chance to see the sites of the city and all.....

along the way we talked a lot about raving, the philosophy of it, history, what it means to be a "raver" etc.....matt was especially endorsing of the term rave as a gathering of ewnlightened souls come together to collectively celebrate life thru ecstatic dance and unity......ive always been rather shy of the word and all the negative connotations it brings, but after this weekend, i love it. i love rave.

i met some kid at hullaballoo who said it was his first rave. even tho ive been doing this for two and a half years, i had to reply that this was my first rave too. it made me wonder what ive been doing all this time.

the vybe there was unbelievable. we'd been a little discouraged saturday day when on the streets no party kids so much as returned a single smile, not to mention eric got *stuck* (of his pager and cash by a gun) at the check point. shit happens. but once inside it was a whole other world, a cocoon of good vybes. i hate to make massive generalizations, but *everyone* there was super friendly, smiling, ready with a hug to share, stickers, toys, pompons, glowstikx.....it was candy raver heaven, and it was beautiful. i did not encounter a single person who was negative. unlike chicago, it did not feel like a dance contest, and furry pants took the place of label whores. i couldnt wipe the silly grin off my face all night and i didnt want to try.

and the music. oh gosh! for one thig, ppl were clearly there for the music, being as how most of the place was grooooooovin all nite long. and the music was so incredible. i was a little worried, being a junglist at heart, to be in the midst of such mad amounts of happy hardkore. but i must admit after a little bit i gave it a chance (how could i not with matt positive freaking the fuk out next to me every few minutes?) and i got infected. ill admit it: I LIKE HAPPY HARDKORE :) :) once i gave it a chance i realized it contibuted to the thick vybe and attitude of the place. i just couldnt help feeling uplifted; maybe that had somfin to do with the stoopid grin. then ruffneck went on with his 92-94 jungle set and i had to brock tha fuk out. oh gosh! they dont make em like they used to. anthem after anthem he laid down.....and when he dropped fire....well lets just say the place was on fire. then spock came on with some hard stuff from the netherlands....i kinda wish hed been a little harder, since a fat gabber set woulda been a nice kontrast, but he kinda swayed in between hh and partykore (scuse me if i dont have my terms perfectly refined) but whatever.....i dug it all! and thennnnnn grimace skooled us all, beginning with old skool breaks and basically took us thru the history of jungle.......wow. every set i heard that night was amazing. i felt like a part of something beautiful, a collective coccoon of wonder and contentment, not to mention consciousness. am i being too esoteric?

anyhoo, wow. those kids up there know how to fukkin party. it was so nice to go to a party, scuse me, *rave* where i didnt feel rilly old, half the kids werent krakked out on glass, and there was no house music at all that i heard the whole night! is this heaven? no, toronto!

seriously, i didnt know what to expect, this being a commercial party and all, not somfin im usually down with supporting but wow, id do it again anytime.

i had two disappointments the whole night:
* the corner configuration of the speakers. im a wall o sound gal myself.
* no moon bounce! oh well.

if thats all i have to whine about, just shut tha fuk up jes. hullabaloo was an awesome experience. i opened my mind to new music, encountered a vybe i never imagined possible, and in the process i lost a lot of the jadedness ive colloected from bad experinces over the years. wow. i cant wait to go back. :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

shouts out to greta and her friend luis (?) the only (knowing) net peepz i met that night, as well as all the incredible sweet folkz that helped make my night everything it eventually became. and thank you sooooo much for bringing me, matt. ill never tease you about root beer again!

ahhhhhhhhhh. see yall at the next one!

Marty VanDenzen's review

I didnt really do too much. I think i was still in shock for most of the night. I have never dJ'ed at the warehouse, it so big. I met so many people from the list & nottheend~message board people. I love meeting strangers at a party, who you (virtually) know/admire but never get to hang out with. Too cool.

I wish my set was taped, Thats about my only complaint. And next time I think Ill get there before 12, cuz the party ended way to fast for me.

Matt Positive's review

i'll spare everyone the details of our trip up there and all the crazy stuff that happened before the party, but i really want to thank jes (from the list), anita and eric for making the whole weekand an incredibly fun time. be it eating tai food or waiting in line, the entire couple of days was a blast.

/enter H4/ after getting inside the warehouse space, i realized that something awesome was going to happen here. it was 11:00 and everyone was going nuts already. after about fifteen minutes, one of the nicest people in all of toronto and a MW list member recognized me wearing my big pink ear-muffs and introduced herself: Brenda! she made me feel completely welcome by introducing me to lots of her friends and just being generaly nice. thanks so much:) [i promise to send lots of hardcore and gabber tapes!]

things just got better and better and every now and then there were these little 'vibe explosions' that upped the vibe to 11 (like on the spinal tap amps) and had everybody jumping up in the air and screaming. like when ruffneck dropped 'fire'..."ohhh my gawwwd" was all anyone could say including the mcs. i think there might have been tears in almost everbodys eyes (including mine). WICK-ED!! the entire night went like that. we all had a time.

i really do wish everbody could experience just one Hullabaloo! rave. mega-large respect goes to anabolic frolic for throwing this amazing series of events [thank you so much].

im sure there's lots of reasons why raves turned into 'just parties' in chicago and other places and sometimes I get a little bummed thinking that maybe this Rave thing really is over....though as long as an event like Hullabaloo! goes down somewhere (whether im there or not), just knowing that it exists makes everything worth it. ultimate respect goes to anabolic frolic, toronto, happy hardcore, jungle and old school rave music, the djs and mcs @ H4, all the ravers at H4 that i met and didn't meet, eric (for being quite the funny guy), anita (for putting up with me), jes (for being vegan, challenging and awesome), brenda (you rock), and what or whom ever started this whole Rave thing in the first place. something definately special happened.

RaV8's review

Thanks for bringing him! and Thanks for the best party ive ever been to! PLUR.

Vlada's review

This was my first rave in Toronto, so I wasn't sure what to expect and what kind of crowd I'll see there. I was really excited about the party and on a very good vibe, but I got pretty disappointed after waiting in line & freezing for over an hour, and after seeing that the crowd wasn't exactly your real raver types. However, once I got in and saw how cool the set-up was inside the venue, and saw some people that actually did not wear those "phat pants" (or whatever you call them) and didn't carry around toys and pacifiers, I got into the vibe again. I did seem A BIT out of place in my typical European raver outfit, but it's the vibe that counts much more than appearances, and I'm happy to say that the people there put up a very good & positive vibe.

I came in during Frisky's set. Happycore is one of my fave types of tekkno, so I quickly got into it. I LOVED it when he played Scooter's "I'm raving" at a higher speed (that track has some cool memories for me). After a while I got a bit tired. I danced to happycore for the next while, but, after about 3 hours of happy hardcore, I did get rather bored of it. I loved Chris' energetic DJ-ing style (I danced again during his set) and I spent a while backstage ( I took a photo with Chris later. Thanxx). I went to the second room during the jungle set ( I like jungle ONLY when mixed in with something else that gives it more energy and makes the sound more engaging). It was really packed, but I found enough space to dance.

Soon enough, I started hearing the wonderful hardcore base, and I knew that the moment I waited for came ! I can harly remember when I last heard real hardcore at a rave. Over the past few years, I stopped liking hardcore as I saw it as overly simple and very easy to make. However, the hardcore set was AMAZING !!! I really liked the way DJ Spock gave us some rest time before returning to bomb the place. It was kinda funny seeing that I seemed to be the only raver there that actually knew how to hakku. The ONLY complaint I hava about this set is that it seemed too SHORT - it was more like giving people a demonstration (a taste of hardcore) than a real set. Needless to say, I walked away with a restored love for hardcore tekkno. I WANT more !!! I also enjoyed the oldskool rave set that followed Spock's set. By then, I was totally into it - tripping away ! It was amazing. Too bad that my 2 friends got so pissed off at me, and at the whole party, that they shouted at me and made me leave then before the end of the party...

Overall, this was one WICKED party, and I must thank Chris, and the entire Toronto crew for a good time. Toronto's scene RULES !!! Now, if someone can only explain to you guys that where I, techno AND raves all some from (Europe), someone who wears mail bags instead of pants IS NOT a real raver !!! Where in the world did you guys get that image from ??? Oh, well. As long as you're all vibey people, it doesn't matter that much. Oh, yeah... I also saw first-hand what you guys mean whwn you say that in Toronto everyone dresses up the same and dances the same way. So funny !!! ; )) That typical dacing style the people there had, seems to lack the energy needed to call it real raving (plus, the stage dancers kinda ____ [figure it out]). I was pretty impressed with the way people there all gave me thumbs-up when I was going crazy, though. It was cool.

Let's send a big one to da Toronto crew !