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Where there’s a Will…
Will Munro has thrown sporadic no-wave themed parties called No TO over the past year at various venues, but none of them quite lived up to the success of his long-running Vazaleen parties or the now defunct Peroxide events. Until now. Last Friday, he revived No TO at Thymeless , and this time it worked.
It took a while for the bar to fill up, since most people were out on the back patio for the first half of the night. But then the dance floor got crowded and Munro cranked up the music. The night is all about disco punk, angular guitar rock funk, no-wave – anything edgy and danceable.
Munro may not be a good DJ technically speaking, but his so-so mixing has no negative effect on the crowd reaction. After all, this is a night about the music, not the DJ.
The crowd was Munro’s usual gang of art scene fags, young dykes, open-minded indie kids and even a few punks. Combined with the regular Thymeless crowd of dreads and barflies, it was an interesting mix, to say the least.
Heaven can’t wait
Warehouse space 66 Portland has played host to some truly legendary loft parties over the years. Most notable were the free Heaven & Hell events run by the tenants in multiple lofts and the outside courtyard. There’s nothing like the rumour of a free warehouse party to get people out, and as a result the Heaven & Hell parties were rammed to the rafters and always on the verge of going out of control.
Last Saturday was the final event at 66 Portland – it’s about to be demolished to make way for yet more condos. You’d think the eviction would be a great excuse to let the party get really crazy, but instead the organizers hired security, charged a cover and ran the three-room event in a fairly professional way. As a result, there weren’t nearly the same numbers as at past, more anarchic events.
The Wabi crew threw down some techno at one end of the warehouse, playing more upbeat and dance-floor-friendly than they usually do. Across the courtyard, jojoflores rocked some deep house sounds to an enthusiastic crowd, while upstairs the Sauce , a live funk band, jammed for most of the night.
It’s funny how people buy condos to be close to all the excitement of downtown, while the condos themselves replace the bars and warehouse spaces that new urbanites supposedly move to the city for.
Not to mention how many bars in the club district are being forced to remove their patio sound systems in response to complaints by people who bought condos in order to be close to the parties. Go figure.
Night cooks cook
DJ Nightcook ‘s weekly Saturday-night dub event at Sutra could be the place for those of you looking for something mellow to start the night with. Over the past little while, Nightcook’s sound has strayed a bit from traditional dub reggae into more contemporary dub-house and digi-dub. Few DJs in Toronto play this stuff these days, so if you’re into that electronic dub vibe, this is the place. Last Saturday he had a special guest, Hani, whom some of you might know from the Kops record store. He dropped some nice tunes as well, sticking to the housier side of the sound.
