Toronto Clubs

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
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Toronto Clubs

Yesterday I went to see Identity Festival in Toronto, and I had some mixed feeling about it, 2 things in particular. Firstly, the great sets that I saw were from Le Castle Vania and of course, the legend himself Mr. Eric Prydz. The rest of the acts were alright, just felt like it was Beatport top 10 on shuffle, there was no mixing involved, no energy progression through the set, it was just fist pumping and fader slamming. (worst case was Bingo Players, never been so upset watching a show). And secondly, I felt that a large portion of the crowd was there because it was a venue to get drunk/high and try to get laid, a lot of people didn’t even care about the music. I actually heard someone say about Eric Prydz “This dude is shit, when’s he gonna drop the bass?” I always find myself feeling out of place going to shows for the music…

So I was wondering, since I am newly of legal age, are there any clubs (and possible names) in Toronto that are still about the music, and less about the EDM douchebagery I’m seeing more and more of. I love tech house and minimal, but I will honestly listen to anything if there’s passion put into it. When I went and saw Nero at the festival, it had a better feel in the crowd, and I feel d&b has a nicer culture to it, but are there places where I can enjoy house music, be it tech, prog, chicago, philly, whatever, I just love music.

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Well there is always the Guv, and their resident isnt too bad… Mark Oliver i think? They have Chroma their too but idk if its any good.
This is London is okay too kinda cool decore and what not they just had D.Ramirez on friday he tore it up. I was at identity too and i was kinda disapointed in madeon i though would have been better. Was my second time seeing Nero soo it was cool.
Eric Prydz was amazing been waiting 4+ years for him…totally worth it.
Maison Mercer (on mercer street) was pretty laidback and cool…plus they had full air conditioning so +1. Footwerks ive heard good things about and Cube was pretty cool too when i went in May. I saw Trent Cantrelle and Manuel Del Mare at XS for free so that was pretty sweet too.

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i hear ya man… i snuck into escapade this year main acts i wanted to see were nadia ali, eric pryds, max graham, sander van doorn, gareth emery… so i have lots of incentive to go… each stage was half empty and it was like you said top 10 all the way… people were not there for the music at all… glad i didn’t waste 200 on tickets… i ended up leaving early.

oh and for clubs check out the guverment :smiley:

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Firstly thanks a lot for help, and ya i agree about madeon. It was a good set, but from his productions, I just hold him at such expectations. I just hated that Nero and Prydz was at the same time, they were both amazing :disappointed:

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Honestly i wouldnt really go to the guv unless they were throwing their party’s or events usually, cause their the biggest and most well known club in toronto they have the money and name to book more expensive and well known Dj’s but its really out of the way and like a 15 cab ride to the entertainment district where the rest of the clubs are at. But at the guv look out for the Labor of Love weekend its like a two day festival that runs right after Electric Zoo in NYC so they usually get pretty big names to attend. Check out last years lineup.

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Pretty sweet lineup unfortunately had school so could not attend…just like this year -1.
If can afford definetly worth a look. i think ticks were only like 70 to 90 last year. So yeah.

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Footwork. Great djs, good sound, and a good vibe in there, no sketch heads.

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hands down if your looking for straight dancin vibes till the mornin rise, no doubt about it; comfort zone… vibe there is unlike no where else on this planet… sunday and monday mornings is some of the illest shit ever… some of the best sets ive ever seen have been there… like lawler at 4 pm on a monday afternoon… always something in store there, place is fuckin legendary

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Comfort zone is legendary. So guv residents the junkies play tech house too. Signed to dubfires label.

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For something just slightly off the beaten path…

“Milk” or “Milk Audio” milk.audio. + music. design. people. radio.

I’ve been a faithful follower of this company since 2000, and they throw (IMO) the best jams in the city. If you’re 19, then you’ll probably see a lot of people between 25-30+. It’s almost always deep house, or soulful and/or funky house. VERY respectful vibe, very chilled, while still being an awesome partying environment. In the summers (now) they throw outdoor events on the Lakeshore in this space called Sunnyside Pavillion, which an awesome open air courtyard. Next one is with Mark Farina on Aug 5th. I’ve never really seen any posters for their events but if you follow them on FB or add yourself to their email list you should be able to hear about all their events.

Mansion: Facebook
Their events seem to feature a lot of the more underground DJ’s that you won’t see at places like The Guv, or Footwork. Sometimes they even have some indie electronic artists (Think Friendly Fires, Cut Copy, etc). Interesting article here about how this promotions company aimed to reinvent the dance party scene Mansion aim to reinvent Toronto's dance party scene

Break and enter: Facebook
Mostly techno events from what I’ve seen. Very “underground”. They tend to use old warehouse spaces

Promise: Facebook
They throw Sunday afternoon/evening jams at Cherry Beach every Sunday. Starts sometime in the afternoon, (maybe 3pm) and goes until, I dunno, maybe 11, or as late as 2. Kinda hard to explain how to get there, but when you get to cherry beach, you should be able to follow the music.

Stone Lounge: This is the basement of the club Revival. There’s an EDM (usually house, tech-house, electro), night that happens there every Friday.

Embrace: Facebook
These guys throw jams with amazing looking line-ups (haven’t been yet). They’ve recently had shows with M83, Justice, Buraka Som Sistema, James Murphy (of LCD Soundsystem). A lot of EDM, and some of the more indie electronic type of stuff.

If you go to The Guv, you’ve been forewarned that there’s a lot of juicebags, douche’s (think sunglasses and steroids), and the vibe is by far the worst that I’ve seen in the city. A lot of testosterone. That’s why I boycotted it 10 years ago.

IMO: The Comfort Zone only has a good vibe later in the afternoon. If you go first thing Sunday (or Monday) morning you get a lot of the people that have been up all night doing god knows what so it tends to be really sketchy. Later in the afternoon, most of those people have gone home to sleep, or at least freshened up and came back so you get a more upbeat environment. Atmosphere is almost non-existent at “The Zone” and it’s actually a pretty dodgy looking place. I haven’t been in a long time so maybe things have changed but what I remembered was basement club with low ceilings, mismatched couches with stains all over them, and unisex washrooms with no doors, toilets clogged and full of drugs, condoms, etc…

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Got free tickets to Skrillex, Diplo & Pretty Lights
and Justice and M83
:laughing:

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For tech house/techno I suggest footwork as others have mentioned before. Every friday they have a “local residents” night where its all local producers/djs. This is the night to check it out imo, if you get g-list it is free before midnight so you can check it out without having to pay a $20-30 cover like on saturday nights.

There is also this place on college called “lily lounge”, they usually have a tech house events on saturday nights. The system there is pretty good too.

Dubstep/dnb/bass music spot is wrongbar on queen street, very different vibe/crowd and it gets really rowdy there. They always throw down awesome parties on wednesday nights, and bring some top class international acts.

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Thanks a lot everyone for all the great suggestions! I knew Toronto had such a rich music culture, with all the great producers coming out of here, you just have to know where to look. I follow bassmentality on facebook (the event created by Zed’s dead at Wrongbar) and this wednesday it’s DJ Shiftee if anyone was interested. Again thanks!

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At the risk of sounding like an old school elitist, you should have seen it 7-14 years ago. You didn’t need to know where to look. It was like shooting fish in a barrel.

Even on a Monday or Tuesday night you could find at least one EDM night, and on Friday’s and Saturday’s, you had your pick of dozens of venues. Things have changed a lot since then. Everything changed once people started OD’ing at all the raves in the late 90’s.