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Junglist®fridays - Best Memories Thread
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» STABBA replied on Mon Feb 27, 2006 @ 5:52pm |
 Coolness: 49000 | On March 3rd 2006, we invite you to join us one last time in our broken beat weekly adventures as we will be celebrating Junglist Fridays 6th year anniversary, while writing the Final chapter & closing the book. Expect a royal rumble, 2 for 2 all night tag team from all our current residents and a retrospective set from myself to close the night. Camo, lighters, air horns, sweat & rewinds are to be expected.
I would like to thank you all for your constant support over the years. This night wouldn’t have been the same without each and every one of you. Spread the word to all who care as we would like to see everyone who made this night special walk through the door for one more night. Take a minute to reminisce some of the good times we had in the past years. We would like to hear your best memories, weird & funny stories. Short or long, please email them to stabba @ [ mtldnb.com ] and I will make an e-book out of all the stories and pictures. Here's my first attempt at writing the brief history of the night. It has been exactly 6 years and one Friday since we first started the night. Its been quite a ride since then. It was on a Thursday night while I was standing outside Angel’s Jump Up Thursday night handing out flyer for the next 514 & Dune Recordings event that I heard the name Blue Dog for the first time. Two other DJ’s, Axionfigga & Rendo, were letting me in that the club might have an opening. I had been hanging on St-Laurent for about 2 years had never heard of that bar except for that tiny sticker with Mini’s name on it who was promoting another Thursday dnb night. I decided to go check out the space. Since I was already promoting for half the city and just about to throw my first rave “Velocity”, plus I was hungry to play out even tho I wasn’t ready, ( I obviously thought I could kill any dancefloor at that point, haha) starting a weekly sounded like something I could handle. I called up the bar and set a meeting with Petra who was running the place back then. The club was crummy, had couched everywhere, a pool table, tiny speakers hanging from the ceiling for sound system and the worst dj set up I’ve seen. Turntables even you grand father wouldn’t have thrown out. I offered her to run a Friday DNB night but she wouldn’t hear it since she already had Mini playing DNB there on Thursdays. I obviously let her know that there was no way her Thursday would go off since she was competing with THE DNB NIGHT who was also on Thursdays. So I offered to do a one time trial on Friday February 25th and if it goes well I get a month trial. She went for it. Me and Alex from 2HQD were throwing “Velocity” on the 26th so we decided to do a pre-party. While shopping for records & promoting I had met this new guy in town. A Toronto Junglist rocking an afro and carrying cardboard boxes of records around town. He said his name was Krinjah and he played jungle but he was trying to start a hiphop/reggae night at the defunct Polyester. Meanwhile, Montreal Jungle Pioneer GNAT, who was one of the only DJ still playing raga in the city, had left Angels residency. I was never a big fan of ragga but I could see that the gap clubnight was never the same without it. I was telling Sase & Spinal to have the new guy replace Gnat and they did have him play a few times. They were gonna get him a residence but I vaguely remember something about the club owner & exclusivity… So I told Krinjah about the deal I just scored and that he could be a resident if Id get the night. I also invited RO-B-NE who was playing chill dnb with Maus at Blizzarts Massive Saturdays to be a resident & Chuck aka Abracadabra, a friend who liked to beatboxed and fool around with a mic. The first night went well enough to get an extra month. We had about 50 peoples, mostly friends and ravers. Krinjah had brought a few pieces of gear from his hometown so I rented a sub, top and decks from him. I can’t remember who our original guest was going to be but he cancelled so we brought in Arkin Allen, famous Tech-house DJ & RO-B-NE’s roommate. And so trainwreck after trainwreck with the energy of a whole army we kept dropping bomb records and overloading the shitty amplifiers. We probably were’nt that bad considering people came back week after week. But I remember a few nights where we were only 5 people in the club because all our raver friends were gone to the big hardcore show or too wasted from the night before to show up. I would still book out of town guests on a regular, breaks & dnb guys but after paying them, Krinjah & the rentals I would often come back home with less $$ then I had before the night. RO-B-NE left after a few months and because Krinjah wanted more cash to play, something had to be done. That’s when we made a deal and became partners. It wasn’t till 5 months later that I would get a call from Louis, the owner who was offering me to “own/manage” the bar for him. When the owner realized the bar sales were 90% done on Fridays, he decided to fire Petra and give us a shot at it. I wasn’t interested to have my name affiliated with the bar and have a bullet at my feet if any opportunities were going to be offered. Keep in mind I’m just starting my DJ career and the whole game and I’m aiming for the top!! After I declined the offer, they closed the bar for a whole month, putting us back on the streets with no more weekly gigs. It didn’t take many Fridays for us to call back Louis and make a deal. I would take the job under certain conditions. 1- Tao stays my partner. 2- We want Mini to be part of the team because we don’t want to take care of the bar/inventories. 3- We bring whoever we want to play the other nights. That’s when things blew out of proportions. Back to Basics Saturdays started with DR.One * Steady B, we moved Micth Akiyama to the Sundays, Mini kept her Thursdays for a bit, the Broken crew formed itself and ran the Wednesdays. The club no one had heard about had a new vibe. People were coming to party and we had to make room for them. We threw out some couches and moved the pool table underneath the DJ booth. We used it as a stage. A month later, when the Angel’s Thursday shut down, the night took a turn we were’nt expecting. The night I was going to for the past 2 years to hear my fix of dnb had just finished. No noticed nothing. It was over and people needed a new spot to hear dnb. They came to us and that’s when we felt the pressure to get serious behind the decks. There was no other dnb night in the city at that point so we had to get our shit straight and represent properly. For the next 2 years we had some of the craziest night I have ever been too. We had nights with over 4 times the legal capacity, line ups, sweat dripping from the ceiling. People were packed wall to wall, it would take half an hour to get to the back of the club. We would stop the records at 3:00 while the crowd was screaming for more, and we would play some more, and stop, and make them beg for more and stop again, and play more sometimes till 7 in the morning. People wouldn’t miss one Friday night. Regulars became brothers and sisters. ( Im only talking about the main events cause if I started enumering all the people that made the scenery and brought something to the night. I might aswell name you all and call a publisher.) Krinjah kept renting his sound system to the club and he would constantly buy new speakers with the money. There was a wall of speakers in front of the DJ booth plus stacks in every corner of the dancefloor. It was almost ridiculous. He was obscess but the sound did get bigger nad better. That’s also when he started producing. I still remember the first time he dropped “the Burial”, his first tune. I still get shivers from the memory. Then came Bambam, Angel rmx, etc.. and many more rewinds and good times. These tunes brought him many out of town bookings and he started missing on some nights. We had another crew on the side called the Last minute crew. It consisted of us plus our friends Corey K, Jackbeetz aka Jah Murda, Arthur and Lee. We organized 5 debaucheresque loft parties between December 31st 2000 and 2003 like: I lost my pager, We, Trendy Yo!, Last minute crew got busted.. These guys were un-officially part of the night by affiliations and would join/replace us quite often. A few more guys joined us during the first 4 years: Sase One, Accomplice, MC Vortex, Ironee & MC Y were all resident at one point or another. The night originally named Soundclash Fridays who later changed for Junglist Fridays was based on old school/ragga jungle vs. new school DNB. Krinjah vs. Stabba. The smoother Krinjah would play the harder I would. He’d play reggae, I would drop hardcore! I believe it is this dynamic that made the night so popular. The constant fight, between the DJs for a sound to be best, weeks after weeks. But after 4 years, what seemed to be fun wasn’t anymore. I wanted to get the night on a Internationnal level, promoting new talents & sounds, while Krinjah wanted to play more reggae and keep the night cheap, local, fun without keeping high standart. We would get in fights pretty often and I couldn’t handle it anymore. One of us had to go. The management took the decision to keep me. I brought in 4 new residents. I need it 2 jungle Djs and 2 DNB ones. Corey K from the original crew was an obvious choice, RCola was partner with Jackbeetz who just moved to NYC and needed a place to play out cause those 2 were about to leave for tour and RCola had barely any hours of Djing under his belt. Mayday was the new ragga-jungle DJ in town, she was Krinjah recommendation and she was hype. Being from Toronto, she had knowledge of the scene which was something I valued. Stalker was the most promising producer we had in town at that point. He was also part of the family from day one being one of the most dedicated Heads so it wasn’t a hard choice to get him involve. Then came Generic, our graphic designer, who started opening the night and got promoted resident when Corey K got asked to leave. Generic has been the most constant DJ and fast became my right arm man. Then Jase started opening the night with his deeper tunes and he still is to this day. The past 2 years more school for all of us then anything else. It took time for my new team to learn the system and how to rock the crowd but once everybody got comfortable, the beats were heading towards the highway. We had many more original tunes being dropped at the club. We also brought many International artists that we became friends with. We all open our eyes and used the night has a tool for us to step up to a new level. The night is now known internationally in Jungle and neurofunk circles. But the quality of the night isn’t simply build on the music but also the vibes which we couldn’t create without our staff. Flyerboy, coatcheck/door persons & bartenders have all been a big part of this night. Mini, Rawa, Sami, Frede, Helen, Claudia, Nath, Emilie, Maude, Celine, Vicky, Maya, Demo-Nath, Renee, Lee, Alex, and the ones I forget just now. The camouflage was spreading wild on the streets and “Junglist” got voted new best trend in the Mirror reader’s poll once. We made the Best Clubnight Top10 3 years in a row. Our bartenders were always nominated and Sami even got voted #1 best bartender in Montreal. All these people + the other 180 local & international artists that rolled throught that club were what made this journey what it was. To be add-on, edited, re-written. See you on the dancefloor. |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» somekid replied on Mon Feb 27, 2006 @ 7:39pm |
 Coolness: 84985 | So the gig is up, oh well, I wonder what will be next for you and for the bar? I remeber countless good nights at bluedogs! especialy a couple a years ago when my friends from my 'hood,' at the time, would get really trashed every friday and head out to blue dog to dance our ass off! Though I don't really remember the first time I went to blue dog on a friday I do remember the last! It was after the Ladysoverine show (grimecore!) and for some reason a lot of people that used to go to that night happened to be the there; it was cool like that sometimes. |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» PitaGore replied on Tue Feb 28, 2006 @ 10:53am |
 Coolness: 471785 | BIG fuckin respects |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» BA_Baracus replied on Tue Feb 28, 2006 @ 1:36pm |
 Coolness: 121015 | good read |
Junglist®fridays - Best Memories Thread
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