What a party! Here I am still recovering from the 1200 Micrograms of dosage after a couple of days as Mescaline still plays in my head like an earworm. Thank you Toronto for showing up at Li’ly Lounge in numbers I’ve not witnessed before at a Progressive Monkey event, it was 1200 Micrograms after all; 300 micrograms each of Sajahan Natkin and Joe Quinteros from GMS, Ron Rothfield (Raja Ram) and DJ Chicago.
I reached the venue at around 10.30 p.m. and was welcomed warmly as I have always been by Michael and Mikael, the heart and soul of the Prog Monkey crew. The fairly empty dance floor was very inviting as Psyslim was throwing down some serious Goa psytrance. In a minute I was on the dance floor raving around making use of the space knowing that soon there’ll be every psyhead in Toronto on this dance floor.
Psyslim kept a very continuous flow going with a set mixed with Goa and full-on, keeping in tune with the theme of the night which was pure 1200 micrograms of powerful psychedelia. Psyslim; a veteran DJ who learned his trade from Goa and is now spreading the good vibes on the east coast of North America, kept it going with tracks by Astrix, Astral Projection and the likes as the basement at Li’ly Lounge started filling up by 11PM..
Most of the regular psy-family that could make it had made it there for the night considering the generations that have been into the music created by 1200 Micrograms. At around midnight Sara Dopstar got behind the decks and was welcomed with a huge roar confirming the popularity of this talented local DJ. Sara started her set with her signature style of progressive psy-trance churning out tracks by Gaudium, Zyce and the usual progressive psy-trance suspects. By this time, past midnight, the basement was completely packed while the people that were going to the main floor of Li’ly Lounge wondered what event was going down in the basement to attract so many smiling and mingling souls.
DJ Chicago walked on the stage at around 1AM when the whole place burst out, louder than the music itself – that was something beautiful to hear. The smile on his face said it all. He was pleased he could see Toronto show up in a packed house to celebrate life with a man who clearly was the most experienced man in the building clocking in at over 60 years spent on this beautiful planet. The energy at the event was very high already, and DJ Chicago’s presence multiplied that exponentially.
DJ Chicago wasted no time to induce the 1200 Micrograms trip as he started with Mescaline and drifted into a beautiful new remix of Juice. Now, Juice by GMS is probably the most remixed track I’ve ever heard, and yet the master delivered a slick and powerful remix that I hadn’t heard before. There are probably new remixes released every year for the past decade of that beautifully haunting composition from Requiem For A Dream and yet I can never get enough of it as was the case with most there, I presume. When that right moment arrived, every soul in that basement shouted, “I said, we have a winner.” We really did have a winner.
The 68 year-old veteran of psy-trance killed it for a straight 120 minutes as he churned out one classic after another covering everything from Juice to DMT to Acid For Nothing; which is a full-on remix of Dire Straits’ Money For Nothing, by 1200 Micrograms as he kept the BPM thumping at 145-150 BPM. I’ve witnessed a lot of DJs play over the years but can’t seem to remember a DJ that enjoyed the event more than the audience did or so it seemed to me as Chicago stood there smiling ear to ear, playing his music, greeting his fans and wearing a modest Goa souvenir T-shirt. That t-shirt, I know for a fact, costs less than $4. Now that’s being down to earth, staying true to the essence of psychedelic culture.
At around 3AM DJ Chicago started to wave to the crowd hinting that it was the climax of his magnanimous set as the dance floor was left with not an inch of space unoccupied. I savored those special moments and walked up to DJ Chicago to thank him and through him 1200 Micrograms for all the amazing music they’ve blessed us with for over a decade.
Next up was Lumen (Live) and things didn’t seem like they were calming down anytime soon as Lumen was warmly greeted on stage by his loyal followers and the rest who by the end of his set might’ve become his followers. That’s exactly what happened to me after the first time I heard him play. With his usual composed self, he started with bass thumping originals as he set the basement on fire with high energy progressive psy-trance. Around 3:30AM very few people had started to make a move to the exit door but just enough so that there was space to prance around freely as Lumen played Filtter Happier followed by Clocks which are amongst the originals he had blasting.
The energy was as high it had been all night but it was getting late for us; I started to pack up at around 4:30AM. as I thanked Lumen for the amazing set on this special night. A night where we all; me, Sara, Psyslim, Lumen and everyone present at Li’ly Lounge’s basement that night, witnessed an artist whom we all grew up to and still continue to do so, 1200 Micrograms. Thank you for the beautiful music over the years, because of you: life is a party!
Progressive Monkey
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Sara Dopstar
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Lumen (Live)
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Nikhil Khedkar – EDM TOR
