New experiences and new people—that’s what I live for. So attending the A Song Across Wires Tour where I would be spoiled by the likes of BT, Alex M.O.R.P.H. and Jordan Suckley, none of which I had seen before, in a venue that I had never been before, was a no brainer.
When I walked into The Annex Wreckroom, located at 794 Bathurst, I immediately noticed a tentative crowd populating the edges of the dance floor. It kind of reminded me of a grade 8 dance where the boys were on one side of the gym and the girls on the other, each group too nervous and self-conscious to interact with each other. I was later informed that the layout of the venue had been changed. In the weeks prior, there were bar tables outlining the dance floor where the patrons were now standing. These have since been removed. Also, the DJ booth had been relocated from its elevated platform in the far right corner to front and center.
The club slowly started to fill up. As more people entered the club, the dance floor started to become a hot bed of writhing bodies. Andy Ares was doing an exceptional job at warming up the crowd. The last forty-five minutes of his set was filled with high energy songs such as Copperfield by Orjan Nilsen. It was a tough task taking the crowd from a standstill to ready for the melodic, high-energy, high beats-per-minute set Alex M.O.R.P.H. was surely going to play. But despite the tough assignment, I was very pleased with Andy Ares’ work and commend him on a job well done.
Photo Credit: Adele Desloges for EDM TOR
Photo Credit: Adele Desloges for EDM TOR
There was a gigantic roar from the belly of the crowd when Brian Wayne Transeau, better known as BT took to the decks. The excitement of the crowd was palpable as he opened with Skylarking. With people’s hands in the air, or wrapped around their friends, and smiles on everyone’s faces, you could tell that there wasn’t an unhappy patron in the Wreckroom. I was curious as to how BT would manage to work in his progressive, melodic, slightly more relaxing sound between Alex M.O.R.P.H. and Jordan Suckley who are well known as high energy, dance till you die, kinds of DJs. But, if you listen to the A Song Across Wires album, you’ll immediately realize that BT has evolved his sound. Many of the tracks found on his ninth studio album are a marriage between the slow, melodic chords we are all used to hearing and a softer, more melodic version of dubstep. Considering this tour is promoting his new album, it shouldn’t be a surprise that his set consisted of songs that fit the mould of this new sound.
Photo Credit: Adele Desloges for EDM TOR
Despite the unexpected avenues BT has chosen, I was unequivocally impressed with his set. His set had everything; easily transitioning from dubstep to classics like Loves Comes Again, Mad World, to bangers like So Get Up by Cosmic Gate, all of which exemplified his exceptional talents as a DJ. He powered through the rest of his set with hard hitting, high energy tracks that left me seriously wondering how Suckley was going to outperform him. That’s when a friend of mine turned to me and said, “Don’t worry. It’s Jordan Suckley, man. He’s going to wreck the wreckroom!”
Jordan Suckley tested the bass right from the get go, and although the sound was slightly distorted when you were standing at the very front, this wasn’t as big of an issue as you moved further back. I had tingles all over my body. His set mirrored the diversity of BT’s. He let the crowd catch their breath by dropping classics like Southern Sun by Paul Oakenfold, 1998 by Binary Finary, and No one on Earth (Bryan Kearney Remix) by Above and Beyond presents Oceanlab. But just like high intensity interval training, the rest periods didn’t last long. Jordan bombarded the dance floor with knockout punches like Vanilla, Stealth Bomber by Bryan Kearney, Corruption by Paul Webster, Captain Charlie by Eddie Bitar, Have you ever by Liquid Soul, his very own Do or Die, and a personal favourite of mine, Out of Nowhere (Jordan Suckley Remix) by John O’Callaghan featuring Josie. Any doubts I had about whether Suckley was capable of stealing the show from legends like M.O.R.P.H. and BT were put to rest when he dropped Lethal Industry by Tiesto, Discover by Faruk Sabanci featuring Jaren, and one of my all-time favourites, Beautiful Things by Andain.
Photo Credit: Adele Desloges for EDM TOR
The most humbling sight was when Jordan Suckley stepped away from the decks every ten or fifteen minutes to hug his fans, take pictures with them, read messages off of their phones and shake their hands all the while maintaining a giddy smile. He’s an incredibly nice and energetic person, you can almost feel how grateful he is to be where he is today just by watching him perform.
The show only ended because the venue needed to close. Otherwise, I’m sure Suckley would have been happy playing until there was no one left standing. This event was truly one for the ages, and at $15 a ticket, extremely good value for your money.
LINKS:
BT
Alex M.O.R.P.H.
Jordan Suckley
Jeet Ghoshal – EDM TOR
