After an afternoon breakfast, I take a stroll on the boardwalk which is where the hotels all back on to. In some areas there will be a huge party in every pool and back patio, making for a chaos of beats as they compete with each other.
Hear a track I like coming from one and walk in. Almost immediately I run into Toronto promoter Thomas Neary, who then points out Social owner Richard Lambert (who apparently I’d run into the night before but barely remember). The DJ is some local Miami guy called Tony G – not amazing, but dropped some decent tracks here and there. The Toronto crew drag me over to the Raleigh Hotel where Calvin Harris is playing with a full band. Big Toronto presence in the audience for this one too – run into LSM (of VND/LSM) again, Fistfight (aka half of the Nacho Lovers) as well as Nav Sangha (co-owner of Wrongbar, Play De Record, and now partner in the Social as well. Oh yeah, he DJs a lot too. It’s rumoured he never sleeps).
The Calvin Harris performance was impressive – electro house with rock overtones played by a very tight full band, with live vocals by him.After breaking for some food, I head to Snatch, where the Social are hosting a night. Good music from DJ Mehdi, Annie Mac, Rok One, and of course some hometown talent from Nasty Nav and VND/LSM. Notice Teki Latex from Paris electro hip-hop crew TTC hanging out and grab a photo.
Seems like I should try to get away from Toronto a bit since I’m in Miami, and end up at Shine where David Morales was playing as part of the Def Jam party. Of course end up running into more Toronto there when I see promoter Carl Wint from Mixed Signals Music. Morales is in fine form and I last till closing time, sometime around five. There’s actually a party going on pretty much 24 hours a day somewhere in this town, but when you’re starting early-afternoon you need to hit the sack at some point.
