Anthony Pappa and Dave Ralph @ the Guv

[solacevip]

Ok....so I heard about this party at the last minute. Sure...I saw the cheesy Kahlua ads in Eye Magazine...but I figured that there would be some MAJOR advertising as the date for this event came closer. As a result, I actually forgot about this "Ibiza Style" party. I had forgotten about the DJ line up. I had forgotten that they were planning to give a trip away. I haven't been to the Guv since Summers End last year...and I haven't seen Pappa since Systemsoundbar last time....so....bet....I went!

Um....how do you say....another "private party?" It wasn't busy at all. Semi busy...but I don't blame the Toronto Massive for not representing...I blame the promo team. They did not do a good job. Think about it...Anthony Pappa...Dave Ralph...those are some big DJs!! Maybe because it was a Thursday night...?

Sure, they had people on stilts walking around, one huge Caribana style puppet complete with blinking lights and tin foil face, figher eaters and jugglers, contortionists, and the usual Go-Go chickies...They had two big screens showing taped parties of people in Ibiza covered with foam and screaming in ecstasy. But at this "Ibiza Style" party at the Guv...the foam was nowhere to be found but in the big steel canisters located at various places in the room. (assuming that was what they were there for, but never put to use) I guess the place wasn't CRAZY enough for them to baptize us in the stuff.

As for the music....um...Dave Ralph....was a sleeper. Fairly uneventful eventhough I have seen him several times before. I was ready to take a nap on one of those huge Kahlua balloon lights...or nestle myself in the huge egg suspended from the ceiling. He was kinda dry...but the place was just starting to fill up.

Then Pappa hit the decks and the feeling was better. Progressive...moving...flowing....not as hard as I've heard him before at System....but consistent nonetheless. Slowly the video screen stopped with the videos, the figher eaters extinguished their flames, the oversized puppet rested in the corner, and the Go-Go'ers puts some clothes back on and joined us on the floor. (shit...no foam either)

Anthony Papa was good...but not the best I have heard him....

Maybe I should have stayed at home and miss this one....

Peace Party People....

 

[lift]

well... i have to say that was the best time i've ever had in the actual guvernment- not the regular saturday night crowd- and oliver knew this. he was letting his real talent come through with a sick warm-up set. i thought there was the perfect amount of people there. and i was under the impression that dave ralph didn't show! i know mark oliver was on when we arrived, and then pappa was on an hour 1/2 later- i didn't see ralph at all.

pappas set was good- threw a few tracks in there i didn't think too much of, but generally kick-ass.

cheers to choko for chillin it out in the vip room! jeers to the left turntable there that cut out forcing him to play cds.

i liked the stilt walkers and fire people- except the one guy that dropped his flaming baton into the crowd- coming close to singeing some eyebrows.

what i found unneccesary- the explosions. i think they scared the hell out of most people rather that thrilled them. they were randomly timed and just didn't fit. i also thought the video footage from ibiza was kinda lame- we don't need to see those people- we have people right here!

cheers to my crew for making that the best birthday in a long time.

 

[vinder]

i've never heard anthony pappa before, man was i impressed...when he threw down feel my drums and hide u i went nuts! soooo good... i kinda liked those stilt guys and the giant thingamabob with the trippy eyes, and the fire guys were cool, except when that one guy dropped a torch on somebody, ouch! all in all, i had a great time...though there could've been a few more people there...if this is any indication of what ibiza's like, man am i gonna love it next week!

 

[Lexicon]

I was there are 11:00. No queue. Hmmmm.....
Went in there and Jason Bye was spinning some really funky beats, a little house and little progressive. Nice.

And soon after, Dave Ralph took over the decks starting off with some nice smooth progressive trance, by the third track he was pumpin the crowd up and took it down again and about 15mins before he ended his set. He threw on this massive track with sick drum rolls and the crowd was going beserk for a while there.

Anthony Pappa took over the decks and the pyrotechnics came on. The pyros came on in a such an untimely manner that the even Pappa was startled by it hahaha. Started off great with some really nasty progressive tracks, which I am dying to know what they were. Some of the highlights of the night was Trancesetters - Synergy, Sono - Keep Control, Kosheen - Hide U, Saeed & Palash - Subattack, and other great tracks I cannot identify. (Did he play Mash Up - Do it? I have to leave a little earlier. I will be damned if he played that.) I was expecting an overall darker and twisted set by Pappa. Guess it didn't happen except the first couple of tracks and some in between which I thought was brilliant. His mixing was excellent, as usual, long tight mixes... totally wicked.

There was as many people there at the Guvernment as I had expected. The set-ups were great with all the Ibiza style atmosphere and the deco really impressed me. Performers on stilts, fire shows, bikini gals dancing on the platforms, even a Jacuzzi was placed at a corner for some good measure. If I have one thing to complain, it is the placement of the speakers. The sound wasn't uniform througout the dancefloor. There are times when I wanna chill out to one side and the music wasn't distinct all all. Kinda muffled up. Oh well....*shrugs*

Saw a few familiar faces there, bumped into the Release guys , Coleridge was there, too and a couple others.

Overall, it was an okay party. I was there to dance to Anthony Pappa expecting something darker, guess it didn't turn out that way. Not too bad of a set but I thought his set at System was better.

Anyways, I will put my hopes on tonite Parks & Wilson. Thanks to Matt for the guestlist.

So see you all tonite.


cheers,
Lexicon

 

[Wunderbar]

Overall, I had a really good time last night.
It was great seeing Dave Ralph back in the T-Dot. He always puts together some quality sets, though I would have liked to see him spin for longer than an hour. Anthony Pappa was phenomenal. This is the third time I've seen him and each time, I just get lost in the music. Too bad they cut him off after two hours to announce the winner of a trip for two to Ibiza (damn blonde in the playboy shirt). Jason Bye was very impressive to close out the night. The crowd was decent, quite a few crackheads, but enough bootyliscious girls to make it interesting. It was a nice idea to have an Ibiza style night but it would have worked a lot better on the weekend, when there's actually a decent sized crowd, the party could go on till 7, the dj's could stay on for 2-3 hours. The large puppet was really really annoying!!!!

 

[Lexicon]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Lexicon:
I was there are 11:00. No queue. Hmmmm.....
Went in there and Jason Bye was spinning some really funky beats, a little house and little progressive. Nice.
</font>

That was supposed to be Mark Oliver, I guess. My bad.

And someone actually hand over the large puppet's "hand" to me and I had to carry it like a dumbass for a while. Nobody wants to take over ....damn.... hahhaah

 

[vinder]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Lexicon:
That was supposed to be Mark Oliver, I guess. My bad.

And someone actually hand over the large puppet's "hand" to me and I had to carry it like a dumbass for a while. Nobody wants to take over ....damn.... hahhaah</font>

seriously! i saw that happen, and everytime the person who it got handed to was like DAMN...

 

[TraNceAhoLic]

AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!

Pappa was brilliant, beautiful set and in top form

Jason Bye was also great last evening, and to top of his set he is also one of the nicest dj's i have ever met

MarkOliver was great as usual, nice progressive set had the club moving, he definately did a great job

the crowd was great as usual and I had a blast especially when my friend won the trip to IBIZA

All in all a great evening !

PS. It was nice meeting you matt

 

[stanimal]

I had a great time last night! I wasn't too busy, but busy enough. Good looking crowd, though some of the people didn't look like they knew what was going on. Probably got those free passes from Kahlua and figured they would check it out.

Got in and caught the last 1/2 hour of Mark Oliver's set. Played a good warm-up set.

Dave Ralph was alright. I'm not too big on trance anymore, but he played some decent songs that got me dancing. He was definitely holding back.

Anthony Pappa started his set off just banging! Which was just I wanted at that time - let loose and dance my ass off. Played a really good set, but I've heard him spin better. Maybe it had to do with the fact that it was a Thursday night.

Jason Bye came on for the last hour. I was really impressed with him, having never heard him play before. When he dropped New Order, the crowd went nuts!

I was not ready to leave when the party ended at 4, but I guess that's how it is with weekday parties.

This was my first time back at Guv in a long time, and it was great to hear these quality DJ's on their soundsystem.

 

[Che]

awesome party! nicely decorated. trippy visuals. we need more corporately sponsored parties.

dave ralph played a great warm up.

and Anthony Pappa fucking ripped it up. His mixing was unbelievable too. he dropped a new mix of Freefall - Skydive. He said its the "Sono mix"

good night all in all.

 

[coleridge]

I got there relatively early.

The set order was:

Mark Oliver
Jason Bye
Dave Ralph
Anthony Pappa
Jason Bye again

Overall I thought it was okay, exactly what I expected for a Thursday night.

 

[Lexicon]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by coleridge:
The set order was:

Mark Oliver
Jason Bye
Dave Ralph
Anthony Pappa
Jason Bye again
</font>

Hmmmm... yeah, I thought I recognized Jason playing the set before Dave Ralph. Guess I was right.