The Toronto Trance Family were once again spoiled this past weekend by Fadi of Aly & Fila. This show was especially significant for me, as it marked my first Toronto show as a brand-new resident of the City of Toronto, and boy did I kick things off with a bang.
I arrived at Maison Mercer shortly after 10PM with fellow EDM TOR team members Ashlyn, Ed and Adèle (as you all know, we LOVE our trance so the team was out in full force). I’d like to give a quick and sincere thank you to the event organizers for such a swift and smooth entry process. When we entered, there were some early birds already in the venue, but it was still rather empty. This gave me a good chance to look around, as it had been about 3 or 4 years since my last visit to Maison. Maison has quite the decor, from the zig-zagged black and white dance floor, to the chandeliers and wall engravings. The decor is rather “busy”, but it gives you something to look at wherever you may find yourself in the venue. The club had a few too many bottle service booths stuck around the perimeter of the dance floor and venue for my liking, and this made it tricky to maneuver at times when the venue filled up (I didn’t want anyone to think I was trying to sneak into their booths!). I did enjoy the video screens on either side of the DJ booth; they added a nice touch to the overall production value of the show with their graphics and colours.
One last quick thing that I always like to touch on before we get into the knitty-gritty of the music (which was wonderful by the way), was the sound system. Now Maison has a partial Funktion One sound system (great right?), but I was thrown off by how it sounded. The system has potential of being spectacular, but I felt that it may have been in need of some tuning, as it appeared to just pump out a lot of sound that wasn’t as clear or crisp as I would have liked (compared to the clarity of the Funktion One system I heard at Circus Montreal). I felt that the definition of the vocals and the higher notes were lost in the noise at times. I first noticed this during KZ’s playing of Andy Moor and Above & Beyond‘s classic Air For Life because it seemed more distorted than I am used to hearing it. A friend of mine had mentioned that the system may have been tuned for the more top 40-style that Maison is generally accustomed to, so this may have been a factor. But like I said, there is potential!
Alright, now on to the fun! KZ was our opener for the night and he did a great job of setting the tone! When we entered the venue, the music was progressive, and fitting; it was not overpowering but definitely added to the ambience of the room. As we approached midnight, KZ smoothly transitioned to trance with a slightly higher BPM. It is not uncommon for an international trance artist to have a list of songs that an opener cannot play (sometimes they don’t want trance openers at all), and I believe KZ did a great job at working around any of these possibilities. My favourite was his addition of Apollo Road, a brilliant 2012 collaboration between Dash Berlin and ATB, into his set. This is one of a few songs that I can credit as what made me fall in love with trance a few years ago, and it was an extremely pleasant surprise to hear it live!
Just before midnight, we saw a very familiar face pop up in the DJ booth. Fadi was present and preparing for the upcoming changeover. KZ played his last tracks, one which was a remix of Above & Beyond’s On My Way to Heaven, as the crowd danced and cheered with anticipation.
There was a brief pause in the music which effectively signalled that Aly & Fila was prepped and ready to begin the musical journey we were about to taken on. Now, I’m definitely one for dramatic or different intros to sets; I like having that initial build-up before you get right into the music. For this, Fadi used an instrumental track, featuring piano elements. It really reminded me just how beautiful music can be. Funny enough, the only description I was able to come up with that I had written in my notes was the word “magic”. Then the music came in and filled the room, and we all started to dance together.
For the next little while, Fadi treated us to a great amount of trance, progressive trance, and some uplifting (although there was more of this to come later in the night). At one point, our Manager Adèle turned to me and said “This is what happy sounds like!”, and I couldn’t have agreed more. The club was full but there was space for us to dance. Right up front, I found FSOE 500 Toronto campaign team members Veronica and Caitlin. The FSOE 500 Toronto name was a recent update from formerly being a FSOE 450 Toronto campaign. After the 450th episode international tour dates were announced, this team pushed forward to start the campaign for the 500th episode tour which will occur next year. Caitlin was proudly wearing her FSOE Egyptian headdress and Veronica had a flag in hand. There were signs and flags supporting Future Sound of Egypt Recordings, TranceFamily Toronto, Toronto Trance Family, and I even spotted a proud Egyptian flag flying proudly above the crowd. I’m sure Fadi felt the love all night.
One thing I always love about Fadi, is that each and every one of his sets tells a story; it starts off slower, or at a lower BPM, and progressively builds throughout the night. We had been told that Fadi would play a 3 hour set, from 12-3. As 3AM approached, the club was still packed, and it seemed everyone was still loving every minute of it. I didn’t get the feeling that Fadi had reached the peak of his set or had any intention of wrapping it up. This may have been the turning point; we were reaching a “musical climax” that was to last the next hour.
The last hour or so of Fadi’s set consisted of some of the best trance anthems. We heard the Estigma Rework of Above & Beyond’s A Thing Called Love, Tiesto and Andain‘s Beautiful Things, some cool mashup of Above & Beyond’s Prelude (which I never thought I’d hear live), the Aly & Fila remix of Ferry Corsten‘s Beautiful, a crazy mashup of Ferry Tayle’s Napoleon with the lyrics from We Control the Sunlight over top, Aly & Fila’s Nubia, and my absolute all-time favourite Aly & Fila track, For All Time (which I have only witnessed live one other time in the past six or so times I have gone to see Aly & Fila in the last year). Needless to say, the majority of the crowd were all extremely pleased. We all sang along, hugged one another, danced, and enjoyed these precious moments, bonding over the sheer magic of this beautiful genre of music called trance.
At 3:45AM, the venue was still full. I was relatively impressed with how composed the crowd was. I did not see too many “sloppy” people for lack of a better term, and for the most part, everyone was mannerly (minus the one wall of a guy that forcefully inched me out of my chosen dancing spot). But I knew, whenever I found my friends, I’d be okay. I loved walking around the crowd, meeting people that I recognized from online, and being reunited with friends that I hadn’t seen in a while.
Right around 4AM, Fadi went out with a bang, playing A Million Voices. This song is definitely a fan favourite. When the song ended, the crowd started cheering for one more song and Fadi responded by playing Robert Miles‘ Children, a classic tune that I am glad has made a comeback.
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