Sneaks Beats

[kyfe]

Think I've been to almost every one since they started in Toronto. I'm not going to say much but it was great to see my old industry crew in attendance and to party in one of the spaces I basically grew up in (Factory, OZ, X-it, Digital).

As for the party itself, it was one of the better parties I've been to, it's difficult to get me out of the house these days but last night the crowd was something I'd gladly deal with again. Not sure I'm a fan of $8.00 stella's but for being understaffed the tenders did a great job. Sound was excellent, someone during the night commented how they thought it sucked and I had to remind them that we were in the middle of the dancefloor having a normal conversation and not shouting at eachother. This will always be one of the easiest ways to determine quality sound along with the fact my ears are not ringing. Funktion-1 makes really nice sound product

Caught Fries & Bridges, Sneak but sadly missed Ricardo, everything I heard was fresh with a blend of classics thrown in for good measure.

At the close of 2010 this could be up for party of the year

 

[praktik]

ummm... i dunno might need some better line management and respect for ticket holders to be considered party of the year...

after hours of waiting finally made it in (though the line had fun moments, like the "do you know who I am? You'll never work at this club again!" dude, and the huge crowd boo-ing when the bouncers let a bunch of people in past the people who had been waiting for 2 hours with tickets), caught 1.5 hours of ricardo which was interesting, but dealing with a flare up in my back so the time I spent waiting in line was stolen from me really: couldn't just stay longer cause I didn't have the endurance to make up for it by closing the party out...;(

anyway, was good to see ricardo, tried a lot of different things not all of which worked but variety is the spice of life and it was *almost* worth the line and the 32$

 

[DoubleDown]

Crazy.. I thought this would be a tear up session... Read so many tweets and FB updates compaining that Villalobos was putting'em to sleep!?!?

meh.. different strokes and all that shit.. I've never really been a fan of the party myself.. but hope it was alright for everyone that was boonkers excited for it this week.

 

[davehill79]

was great to see the entire universe and their dogs there last night, and that made my night for me.. 'nuff said..

Villalobos was piss poor IMO, what's with the 40 minutes of 80's soft porn rock..??$%^ Hats off though to Phil and Hector (who were in a right state when i saw them at 2am), sneak was great (who was also, by all accounts unconscious in the DJ booth at 4am... lol) , i just love his sound...

To the point of bar tenders, i thought they coped very well, considering. Coakcheck was a shambles...

 

[Nesta]

saw tons of old friends, sneak played a great set, ricardo was good (loved the talk talk remix), and generally had a kick ass time! it definitely brought back great memories of fridays at x-it in the late 90s. good times!

 

[Mattyson]

One of the illest parties ever!

Fantastic party. Great crowd. Great Sound.

I think this was one of my favorite parties in a long time. Fries and Bridges warmed it up real nice. Big up Hector Moralez. Sneak was rocking it and Ricardo was incredibly killer aside from the fact that I would have enjoyed seeing Ricardo vs. Sneak play last. Instead Ricardo continued on and switched gears to a more downtempo tip in the last 30-40 minutes. Not that I didn't enjoy the material. Perhaps I just wasn't ready to stop dancing hard.

A very memorable evening. Happy Birthday Sneak!

 

[urbanriot]

"VIP reduced" not so VIP... didn't get in after more than an hour of waiting in line in the cold... disappointing.

 

[mandapanda]

ricardo was absolute rubbish. i tried to get into it, but it was futile. i think hearing "it's my life" was the beginning of the end for me - really?! his set was all over the place and boring as fuck. we bailed around 4:00 because we couldn't take it anymore. i actually didn't mind sneak -- not really my bag, but you know, he was decent. not really a big fan of the club or it's overpriced drinks (can't see myself ever setting foot in there again), the coat check was a total shit show and i'm really glad we got there early and didn't have to wait outside for two hours like so many others. i still had fun cos of the company i was with, but the night was pretty much a massive disappointment.

 

[Big Cheese]

definitely brought back great memories of fridays at x-it

*pouts*

 

[Maui]

think hearing "it's my life" was the beginning of the end for me - really?!

This was the closing song of the night by Doc Martin at the Sneak Birthday Beats that was held at the Steam whistle Brewery back around 2002? One of my favourite memories ever.

 

[kaniz]

I'll try to avoid bitching about the lineup. Got there just before midnight with my BF and my sister. Due to a miscommunication issue (BF goes to see which line we should be in, thought we were with him - he gets in instantly, I go to see where he went 5 minutes later, and ended up being stuck outside for over 2 hours. *grumble*), and it was the /worst/ lineup I've ever been in. Not only from how it was handled, but also because of how the people in line were acting. But. /anyways/.

Finally got in at around 2:30 or so. Coat-check looked like a shit-show, so I trusted my coat to the safety of a corner and hoped for the best, grabbed myself a drink and made my way to the dance-floor.

I'd say that about the first hour of Ricardo I didn't enjoy very much. He seemed to be going off on tangents, being a little bit self indulgent, and the 80s mini-set had me thinking "Ugh, I waited 2 hours for this?." After that, he started to tease in "House Nation", and then built up towards more of a housey/minimal set, and finally got into a solid swing of things by around 3:30 or so.

While there was never any moments of his set that seemed 'Magical' or 'Lose my shit bonkers', there were a few moments that did give me chills, put a smile on my face and had me grooving away lost in my own little world. I actually lost track of time, and was surprised when I checked my watch to see that it was 4:30 - as I thought he'd be going B2B with Sneak by then (but apparently he was passed out in the booth).

All around, I think I'd rank the night a 7/10 - if it wasn't for the bullshit at the door, maybe an 8/10. I've seen him twice before, and I think he'll have a hard-time matching the time I saw him B2B with Richie at pickik.

I went out, I danced, I had fun - and more often than not, I was enjoying the music he was playing.

 

[MeL_Roc]

The night was huge disappointment. We were lucky to get in by 12am...the whole line up situation was a mess. Supposedly they had oversold the party which is why 300 ticket holders were still waiting outside until 2:30...they had reached capacity. Very irresponsible.

As for the music...Sneak was great as usual. Ricardo on the other hand...was painful to listen to. He was all over the map. I havent' been that disappointed by a dj in a long time. What was with the 80s rock? And the Stevie b tracks? lol ughhh! I wish Sneak came back on.

Saw lots of people I haven't seen in awhile so that made up for the night !

 

[2canplay]

The night was huge disappointment. We were lucky to get in by 12am...the whole line up situation was a mess. Supposedly they had oversold the party which is why 300 ticket holders were still waiting outside until 2:30...they had reached capacity. Very irresponsible.

As for the music...Sneak was great as usual. Ricardo on the other hand...was painful to listen to. He was all over the map. I havent' been that disappointed by a dj in a long time. What was with the 80s rock? And the Stevie b tracks? lol ughhh! I wish Sneak came back on.

Saw lots of people I haven't seen in awhile so that made up for the night !

Agreed. Ive been going to this party for a long time and I am a big Sneak fan, but this event was a 4/5 out of 10. We arrived at 12 and once I saw the line I greased a greaseball bouncer (20 a piece; got it down to 40 for 3 people); then, when we got in, they were trying to get another cash sale from me even though we had tickets. We got that straigtened out only to discover the coat check line was in chaos (wtf - it was only 12:15am?). Like some others, we threw our coats on some speakers.

Sneak was OK. Ricardo prompted our exit at 2:45am. I was SHOCKED to see the line outside.

Crowd was great.

 

[Maui]

4399374 What was with the 80s rock? And the Stevie b tracks?

I was upset I missed this party and Ricardo was not even someone I wanted to see, but this sounds epic!

Was he just playing the straight up songs or remixes?


Steve Lawler threw this track down at System once, destroyed the place.

[YOUTUBE]mbPUW8Rcm-Y[/YOUTUBE]

 

[soapy]

Sneak killed it! wish he woulda played longer. the crowd was awesome and the sound was awesome. great time once we made it to the dancefloor.

 

[mariazmess]

wow, am i ever glad i showed up at 10pm. when i got there, Hector Moralez was standing outside waiting for someone to let him in. LOL -- even the DJ waited. :O geezus.

the whole line up situation was a mess. Supposedly they had oversold the party which is why 300 ticket holders were still waiting outside until 2:30...they had reached capacity.
...
Saw lots of people I haven't seen in awhile so that made up for the night !

a friend said, "i would have paid an extra $20 to have them cut the crowd by 1/4." it was just too packed. quite unpleasantly so.

oh well, like most people said, the music was a'ight (i <3 phil weeks!) but the peeps made my night. it was great to see everyone. (i just wish i'd been able to *really* get my dance on.)

 

[Joe Seven]

There was a lot of anticipation and hype surrounding this party. I wouldn't say it was "bad", but I think overall I was disappointed. I've only seen Ricardo play once, at Mutek last year, and really enjoyed his sound there. I was expecting something exciting from him on Friday... but his set put me to sleep, really monotonous stuff. Oh well, to each their own. At least he had enthusiasm. Sneak and Fries & Bridges were fun as expected. Navigating through that crowd was a bit of a chore. But hey, good to see everyone out! 'Till next time...

 

[KillaLadY]

Got there around 11ish, because I wanted to catch Hector and Phil's set... music was stellar as usual from these two (Phil delivered an incredible epic set the following night at Our House, but that's another party lol)... Our House was DEFINITELY much better the next day, musicwise, vibewise...

Club is nice, your typical layout, made me feel like I was at the Guvernment sort of. Maybe because of the masses of people that were in there? Sound was crisp though.

Sneak came on and of course, his set was great as well. But yes, I am like the other rest of the million people that were there... it was incredibly packed. Impossible to dance, buy drinks, go to the washroom, party with friends - impossible to do anything really. It kind of sucked a little to wait 30 minutes at the bar to buy drinks, so double-fisting was a must. lol

Villalobos was meh. Then again, I didn't expect anything more from him and that isn't because he is a shit dj, but because his minimal house just simply not my type of music that I usually listen to, so I had low expectations. We left at 3am and felt we didn't miss anything. Happy to see the turnout for Sneak.

 

[DoubleDown]

I was upset I missed this party and Ricardo was not even someone I wanted to see, but this sounds epic!

Was he just playing the straight up songs or remixes?


Steve Lawler threw this track down at System once, destroyed the place.

[YOUTUBE]mbPUW8Rcm-Y[/YOUTUBE]

You sure? I remember the time you are reffering to and I'm pretty sure it was "It's My Life" followed by Def Leopard "Photograph" (is that what you were thinking when you thought Autograph? hah.. I think it's even listed in my review from that night.

 

[dig this]

Gotta agree with the majority in here. If I knew what the night would have turned out like I most likely would have not gone...

Got in before midnight without suffering nearly as much as some of you (perhaps 20 minutes or so in the will call lineup.) Coat check was a disaster so ended up stashing mine on the speaker... Drink lineups were pretty bad too, but nothing to really ruin my night.

Although the sound was crisp I could have done with more volume... I enjoyed not having ringing in my ears afterward, but I would have also enjoyed feeling a 'lil rumble from the bass when I'm front & centre... Yes you could have a conversation on the dance floor without shouting at one another, but personally conversations are better left to the sides, outdoors & washrooms.

As for Ricky... the best it got was something that would have sounded good at an after-party chill out room, or at home while doing household chores... I got into it as much as I could, but could have used more chunks of beats and less sprinkles of "80's", but hey, I'm no cook.

d

 

[romstah]

the party was going great until he played 'running by information society' after which went downhill for me, went to coat check at 3:30 and end up leaving at 5 coz they lost my freakin jacket!

 

[kyfe]

the party was going great until he played 'running by information society' after which went downhill for me, went to coat check at 3:30 and end up leaving at 5 coz they lost my freakin jacket!

Losslobos played Running! I hope it wasn't the early 2000's version which is a little circuit sounding

 

[romstah]

around 3:30 on the video

[YOUTUBE]KdF1vZfAR0w[/YOUTUBE]

 

[ndrwrld]

with his hands in the air when he drops that song....lame.
no wonder sneak passed out !

 

[Nesta]

you guys suck - 'running' is a wicked tune!