Freaknight 2003


It has been a while since the United States of Consciousness threw a party that was so much fun. The annual Halloween "Freaknight" was held at the Stadium Exhibition Centre but in a different room from the usual areas held for the USC anniversary events.

There were two stages with terrific visuals and lighting, and the size was just right. In the main arena of the Exhibition Center, even though there are six or more stages, there's a lot of space in-between, which makes it feel empty. Here, the crowd was packed tight, but not too much so. Since this was a Halloween night, the costumes were terrific and just watching all the good people in their ghoulish attire was a lot of fun.

When we walked in, Donald Glaude had just started and, as usual, he was terrific. Even though I can't say that the music he spins is my favourite, he definitely gets the crowd worked up and generates a lot of energy. This also goes against my view that, in an electronic music show, it's the music that matters and not the DJ. However, the resulting infectious exuberance from my party neighbours gets to me. I left thinking that he had the best set for the night.

Jerry Bonham was next and he was mixed: there were some good track selections and some others that were mediocre. Paul Van Dyk, who I enjoyed immensely at the Northgate Theatre earlier, is one of the people that I was looking forward to see. For some reason, his track selections were simply not of the same quality as earlier, but it was still quite good.

One of the cool things about this year's event was that it was actually on Halloween night. Just the right place to dance away the night after some trick or treating.


Music ramblings || Ram Samudrala || me@ram.org || October 31, 2003