Fabulous Times
Well, I figure it's about time I updated... mainly on my trip to Montréal last weekend.
I headed over there last Friday afternoon to see DJ Tiesto live at Circus Afterhours... and oh, baby.
We got into the city around 7pm, checked into our hotel, and got settled. The soon enough we were heading out the door and onto the metro to meet up with the legendary Dan Plouffe for some nachos, beer, and hockey over at La Cage aux Sports. After making a mandatory stop at my first-ever Montréal Second Cup and saying our farewells to Dan, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the extreme party that was to soon begin.
We arrived over at Circus (a mere 5 minute cab-ride / 10 minute walk away) around midnight, and thankfully I saw Savath's head in the crowd (near the front - nice!). This helped us out a lot since there were only, well, a couple THOUSAND people waiting in the cold to get in. We still had to wait an hour to get into the indoors line-up for intense security - what a frisk! - and ticket and coat check.. needless to say our feet were very numb. But we made some friends during the wait. Some of the people we ended up partying with were Rebecca, Steve, Michelle, and Allison, all former Nepeanites! They were all fabulous, especially Allison - we had such a blast!
The excitement mounted as we got closer and closer to the dancefloor... you could hear the music in the distance while in the coat check, and coming up the stairs and through the Red Hallway (as I called it, haha), it got gradually louder. After finally rounding up everyone, we headed into the club and started to party a bit. It was a pleasure for the senses - numerous flashy lasers, disco balls, strobing lights, and video screens... music going strong, bodies dancing, arms waving... and it was only 2am! I.e. the party was only just getting started.
Things kept on going and the pace was picking up... it started to get really fun around 3am or 3:30, and I was dancing and getting my groove on... and then I went to look for Matt who'd gone to get water, and couldn't see him anywhere.
This was weird, because the bar was only about 20m away.
I went over to the bar, and this is when I saw about 20 or 30 cops in the club. They (and the bouncers) were trying to sweep people out, saying "Everyone out! NOW!" "Move, get out!" etc... although it was in French, so it sounded more like "Avancez! Maintenant!" Anyhow... it was scary. They were blocking off areas of the club and working their way through. And to top it off, I was all alone, and they weren't telling us what was going on or anything... thankfully, right then, Michelle came out of the section we'd been in, so I grabbed onto her for dear life, since I didn't know where anyone else was from the 15-ish group of people I had been with.
Long story short, they kicked us into the Red Hallway (the entrance right before the actual dancefloor) and we waited there all together (reunited with Allison, Rebecca, and Steve) for about 30-ish minutes. Then, just as they were about to make us go downstairs and out the door, the bouncers turned around and said "Ok, you can go back in!"
And oh, lord... words dont even do the next part justice! We came through the hallway and turned the corner into the club just as the crazy lights came back on and the volume was turned up. It was the most amazing feeling - this was what we had been waiting for!!! We all grabbed each others' hands, ran onto the dancefloor screaming for joy, and proceeded to dance our asses off for a few hours straight! We were so happy to be back in there! It was absolute pandemonium. We had such a fantastic time!!! I can't even explain how good it felt! I think back on that moment now and I just swell with excitement!
Anyhow, the rest of the night went on like so. Dancing like crazy for ages - I even danced on the speakers with a couple of the others - and this isn't ho-dancing like in Hull; this is trance music, so you just dance wildly! It's great! I eventually found Matt again, after losing him for a couple hours, and he was in a blah mood because they'd kicked him all the way outside so he'd frozen his ass off waiting to get back in... but the party continued regardless! Matt and I left at 8:30 (yes, in the a.m), because he felt crappy, but the party was still going till 10am!
We got back to the hotel at 8:30am, slept till 3:30 pm (bed never felt so damn good!), then bussed it back home to O-town, arriving at 7pm-ish. Most certainly a wonderful 24 hours.
Long story short, DJ Tiesto was pretty good (although he left early due to the evacuation... grrr. 6-hour set my ass, it was only 2.5!).
Montreal was great; I love it.
The people I met are fabulous!
The rave itself was AMAZING. The feeling is completely indescribable.
And I'm doing it all again on New Year's Eve!!!
p.s. - if you want to see photos of the event (none with us in though, unfortunately) check them out here!