Hello I'm Rich Brown and this is my personal website and blog. I'm just your simple, average, down to earth, professional, out gay man and aspiring circuit boy, living in Phoenix, Arizona with a few things to say while trying to find my place among all the scary, conservative, religious nuts in this sick and twisted world.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Cesar Bass Romero @ Bal en Blanc 14
Ok I just couldn't resist one more post about Bal en Blanc. I was looking for some music from Cesar Romero today and I came across this video him spinning at Bal en Blanc.
Cesar Romero was spinning in the House room when we walked into the party and this video was taken from someone on the DJ stage just shortly after we entered the room. You can get a good feeling from the video the style of music and the energy of the crowd in the room.
I really hate not having my own photos and videos from an event like this. I think somehow in the full body security pat-down they would have noticed my camera, oh well, maybe I'll figure out a way before next year. Cheers!
Well we’re back from our first trip to Montreal’s Bal en Blanc or White Party and I only have 1 word to describe it … Amazing! The people of Montreal sure know how to throw one hell of a party. Except for the weather (20 degree daytime highs / 9 degree nighttime lows with snow & ice still on the ground) I would honestly have to say that I actually enjoyed Bal en Blanc much better then Black & Blue in 2006. Justin and I joined Philip, Jamie and Jamie’s friend Mike for the event. I don't have any photos of the actual Bal en Blanc event because unfortunatly flash cameras are not permitted into the event.
We arrived in Montreal on Saturday morning, checked into our hotel and then headed out to Rue Sainte-Catherine to do some shopping and have a few drinks along the way. On Saturday night we headed over to Unity to do some dancing from 10 PM - 2 AM and then ended up at Stereo around 2 AM to open it up for after hours. Justin and I stayed at Stereo and danced our asses off until around 7 Am before heading back to the hotel.
After catching a few hours of sleep we got ready and headed over to the Montreal Convention Center (Le Palais des congrès de Montréal) for the main event of the weekend, Bal en Blanc. I knew going into this there was going to be 2 separate rooms, the house room and the trance room, and in my mind I envisioned a pretty big room, about the size of the Palm Springs Convention Center, with a smaller room off to the side. My vision couldn't’t have been more off.
After the long line and total of 1.5 hour wait to get through the line, coat check and finally security we were standing in the center of what almost appeared to be a huge warehouse room at about Midnight. It was almost like a fair because this center room contained several vendor booths, information, a large massage area, and bars. I looked to the right and a few hundred feet from where I was standing I saw the lights coming from the entrance to trance room which spanned the entire right side of the room. I was a little overwhelmed because the size of that room appeared to be much larger then what I expected. Then someone said … “That’s the Trance room, let’s check out the house room first” I then turned my head to the left and another few hundred feet to the left were more lights and music. The house room in itself was probably a little larger than the Palm Springs Convention Center and this was the smaller of the two rooms. Honestly I was completely blown away at the size of this event and the number of people. I was told the event typically draws a crowd of 15-20k people.
The event itself was a mixed event with maybe 15-20% gay, but the best part of Montreal is that the people don’t really seem to care if your gay, straight or anything else. We spent most of the night in the house room dancing, kissing & hugging alongside of straight couples, lesbians and other gay men. Everyone in that place was f’d up on something and there are certainly some beautiful people in Montreal.
The lineup for us in the house room was first Caesar Romero, Cedric Gervais, David Guetta, Offer Nissim and ending with Victor Calderone. Justin and managed to hop over to the main room a few times to check out Ferry Colrsten and Armin Van Bururen. I have to say overall the music was amazing except for David Guetta and Offer Nissim. David Guetta started out alright, but by the end of his 3.5 hour set I think we were all ready for Offer to come on because David was just mixing too many different things together with electronic sounds and it was giving all of us a headache. Offer came on and we were expecting to see yet another Offer Nissim greatest hits concert, which would have been fine for our moods at the time, but that was not what he played. Frankly I don’t know what the hell it was that he played but it was terrible. The music was all over the place with weird dropouts, clips of song pieces in what seemed to be inappropriate places. Honestly Offer was a complete trainwreck. While I really love Offer Nissim's music, this is the 3rd time I've heard him spin live and I think we all agree that he just needs to stop with the live performances and stick to his own remixes. We were glad to have Victor Calderone come on to finish up the party. Victor never seems to disappoint, his music was typical Victor and he was really working to crowd to get everyone motivated again.
Around 11AM we were all pretty tired so we headed back to the hotel to get a few hours of sleep before our 3 PM checkout and flights back home. It was a great weekend, and if you get the chance I would highly recommend checking out the Bal en Blanc sometime, it’s defiantly worth the trip to Montreal and the price of admission to the party. Cheers!
Yes that's right this coming weekend is Easter weekend which means only one thing. Justin and I will be headed up with Philip and Jamie to Montreal to participate in Montreal's 14th Annual Bal en Blanc or White Party.
It's a mixed event and should prove to be nothing less then another fun weekend in Montreal. It's going to be a short trip as we're leaving Phoenix on a red eye flight getting into Montreal Saturday morning, and then returning back to Phoenix on Monday night. Justin enough time for a few drinks, the party and a little sightseeing. I'm glad to be going back to Montreal again, but hopefully the next time I'll be able to spend more time there. Cheers & Happy Easter!
