K, I'm gonna try and go into more detail...
I've finally had some sleep since my first post, I thought maybe that my memories would not seem as clear, and that I would not remember Infected Mushroom being as amazing as they were, but that is not the case.
From the start the whole trip was amazing. The bus trip up with all the Om'ers set the stage, with psy trance playing the whole way up and smoke breaks at every opportunity. We got a hotel room (thanks Norm), and a couple of the people that I was with crashed around 10pm. The hotel was a few minutes from the venue, and we woke up around 1:30 (kinda late but the nap rocked) and headed to the party. It was at the Taj Mahal (is that right?), a pretty cool venue. All around the main arena were hung incredible pieces of phychedelic art that have to be seen to be believed. I hope that someone who took pictures will be able to scan them and post them, they were the same ones that were up at the BLA party last weekend.
I headed to the second room and caught some of S4. He had a pretty good set from what I heard, spinning hard, punishing techno as opposed to the hard trance that he's known for, and he was incorporating the 909 in his set too which was pretty impressive.
Quivering Virgin was opening for Infected in the main room, and he played some good stuff, but a lot of it was too techno for me. It was more along the deep psy-tech sound than actual goa for what I'd been hoping for. Nonetheless, it still set the mood for Infected Mushroom.
Now what can I say about Infected Mushroom... holy shit. The crowd of about 1500 in that room went off at the first note. For 2 hours, Infected worked through and around some of their most recognized tunes and a whole lot of other simply amazing music. It was fantastic. Having never had the opportunity to hear this music on a clear, loud system, I had no idea what I was missing. It can't be compared. Their music was brilliant, absolutely incredible, at times, I was nearly in tears all because the music was *that* good.
And when their set finally ended with Bust a Move I was in shock, I had to go sit down, I couldn't stand up. One guy on the dancefloor fell right over, he couldn't even handle it (he was ok though). The crowd went nuts. I've never seen a crowd reaction in Toronto like the one that was given to Infected in Montreal. Straight cheering and screaming for at least a minute until the next dj finally began his track. Definitely the respect that was due to this group.
After their live set I felt like my brain had been given a nice hard fucking, I stood in awe with some of the bus crew unable to say anything except "holy shit" "what the hell was that" or what other half-sentences we could scarcely formulate.
But it wasn't over. Someone came to relieve Infected for a bit, I didn't even notice who because it didn't matter, we needed to rest. We came back about an hour later to hear them do their dj set. This was the chance for them to play the tracks that we didn't get to hear, and it was almost as good as their live set. I finally got to hear Nothing Comes Easy (which I'm listening to right now, oh my god) on a big system, and with a big crowd, and I was in heaven.
By 6 or 6:30 their dj set came to a close, and we decided it would be best if we left at this point so as not to pollute in any way the entire experience of Infected Mushroom. We went and chilled at the hotel until the bus left around 11, and headed back to TO to the sounds of more psy trance.
I got home, and proceed immediately to my turntables to play any Infected Mushroom vinyl that I could find in my bin and try to relive the moments from the night before.
This was, bar none, the greatest musical performance that I have ever experienced.
Their performance was on such a completely different level than house, trance, or any other kind of electronic music, it felt so much more "complete". I don't know how else to say it.
To anyone who couldn't make it, I'm truly sorry, and to anyone, especially goa fans, who will ever have the opportunity to see Infected Mushroom perform live, see them at any cost. Trust me, it's worth it. You don't know what I'd give to be back in front of the speakers again.
Pete
