The Spring Equinox was upon us and there wasn’t a better way to celebrate it then to see Mad Maxx perform here in Toronto. Thanks to Progressive Monkey that was all possible, and with a supporting lineup of some of the most talented DJs this country has to offer, including Protocell, MagicMushroom and a very special live set by Modula. The deco was provided by none other than Space Tribe and Prog. Monkey personally did the setup themselves.
It was 9:45PM and the party was about to begin. I arrived at Club 120 just moments before Modula began their live set and greeted the few friends I found in attendance. Modula stepped on stage and began to enchant us with some hard psychedelic bass lines and groovy techno sounding beats and riffs. Jason Gardiner and Scott Hunter are the masterminds behind the duo that is Modula, with Jason keeping the beat steady on his laptop using various midi controllers and mixers, and Scott ripping his bass guitar to shreds with an array of pedals to produce incredible effects and distinct bass lines. These two put on quite the show for the start of the night and ended it with class.
While Modula packed up their gear and said their thank you’s and farewells to the Toronto Psyfamily, Protocell had already began performing their set, and to no surprise they started off hard and heavy. After witnessing an impeccable performance last year in September, it was joyous to hear that Prog. Monkey had called in these heavy hitters once again. Protocell’s set blew everyone to oblivion, starting out with some very psychedelic progressive beats and transitioning into hard and faster tracks that had almost a full-on psy feel to them. By the end of it, Protocell had everyone entranced and howling for more, and set the mood just right for the main attraction, Mad Maxx.
Mad Maxx stepped on stage and all hell broke loose. The crowd rushed to the dancefloor and began to dance like there was no tomorrow to the hardcore 145BPM tracks that Mad Maxx was spinning, creating vast psychedelic landscapes and cosmic sounds to enchant everyone. He performed one of the crowd favourites called Halloween Candy feat. Menog which, as you can tell by the name, is a very dark track but comedic as it contained vocal samples that stated people should put drugs in their kids Halloween candy and not worry about strangers doing it. Mad Maxx took us on a very interesting journey through happiness, fear, comedy, enlightenment and satisfaction. It’s no wonder why he is one of the big names in the world of Psytrance.
After a roller coaster ride of emotions that Mad Maxx had taken us on, it was time for MagicMushroom to take the stage and drop bombs, and so he did. Taking the energy that was left behind by Mad Maxx, MagicMushroom started off with a swift kick to the proverbial head playing tracks by Portuguese and Israeli artists such as Insane by Re-Twin and some new tracks by D_Maniac. He kept the crowd going all through the night until the very end when the club owners asked Prog. Monkey to call it a night. MagicMushroom played his last track while the Prog. Monkey crew began tearing down the deco of the venue and the Toronto Psyfamily returned to their psy havens once again content and all danced out. You can grab that Insane track through this link:
https://pro.beatport.com/track/insane-original-mix/5243791
Progressive Monkey had yet another successful night, and we will all remember it fondly. Throughout the night the vibe was amazing and I could only see smiles on people’s faces. If you want to experience the same feeling, then make sure to catch their next two events on April 9th, 2016 with Morten Graneau and on May 21st, 2016, with the return of 1200 Micrograms.
LINKS:
Mad Maxx
Phillip Pereira – EDM TOR
