Last Friday saw True North Trance‘s (TNT for short) first event in Toronto, ever. They brought Elias Barouche a.k.a Solid Stone to Populus for a six hour open-to-close set. I was really excited to hear some Progressive Trance and get a break from the Hard/Psy/Uplifting Trance that has been saturating the local scene. At least, that was what I was expecting, since Solid Stone is known for his Progressive Trance sound. In fact, I was greeted to a 6 hour journey through Deep, Progressive and Tech House, as well as the Progressive Trance he is known for.
The show was scheduled from 10PM till 4AM. I arrived at about 10:30PM. I was greeted by the ultra friendly TNT staff at the ticket window and was given a branded rubber wristband that said True North Trance presents Solid Stone on it. When I stepped on the dance floor Elias was easing everybody in for a long night with some Deep House goodness that was keeping the handful of people who had arrived early moving. Tracks like Danito & Athina‘s Hydra (the Sous Sol Remix) really set the the tone for what was going to be a fantastic night. Over the next hour or so, the dance floor filled up and he transitioned into some body-moving Progressive and Tech House.
As the hours passed, the club stayed busy and there were appearances by local trance DJ Adrian Marshall, local producers HNRSound, and Trance Sessions owner Ashlee. At one point, the TNT team tossed some TNT t-shirts to the crowd. It was nice to see Darren, Lucas and Andrei of TNT all dancing to the music and interacting with the Toronto trancers. With all of the bodies dancing around, in addition to the warm summer night, it got quite warm inside Populus, so I parked myself in front of one of the two fans they had at the front of the club on either side of the DJ booth. The club did not get overly packed which left everybody plenty of room to dance. It was a great relief from the pushing and shoving that I have noticed in some of Toronto’s binter clubs. Soon the witching hour had passed and the lights went low. Solid Stone spent the next hour moving into some Tech House that got the dancers sweating and the shufflers shuffling.
Just before 3AM I found myself sitting down for a much needed rest, when suddenly I had to rush straight back to the dance floor because I recognized the beginning of Solid Stone’s remix of Markus Schulz and Andy Moor‘s Daydream. The last hour was a return to the hands in the air, head back and eyes closed progressive trance that I so love. Ending the night with his own original track, Remember Me, really left the couple dozen or so of us left wanting more!
At the end of the night Elias took time to sign autographs and take photos right up until we were ushered out the door by security. All of the people who made it through until the very end got in a group photo with Solid Stone (shown below). Check out the rest of the pictures on our Facebook Page in the albums.
All and all, I had a pretty Solid (wink wink) time and am grateful to TNT and Solid Stone for putting on an awesome show, and for recording the entire set and posting it for everyone to experience. I am looking forward to see what TNT will bring the Toronto Trance Family next!