Halloween au Palais ’19 Spooky Seazon in Gatineau, QC

By Dominic Wren (Photos by Bryce Stephenson and Simon Audette)

This year’s edition of Halloween au Palais in Gatineau, Quebec brought a mix of local talent and some out of town big boys. As this is a smaller event then what we generally cover, this brought a specific authenticity they usual. For a capacity of 2500 people, the crowd felt way bigger then it actually was. Though it was a Halloween party, some costumes were as entertaining as the show itself.

At 9:00pm, the doors opened to start this monster bash with a local talent duo named Ross X Class who brought the growing crowd through a bit of house with some bass and a touch of trance. Both DJs also perform and produce individually as Rossvel and Classified but they’ve united their talents to t perform various shows together, such as at Riverside Music Festival in September. They’ve also released a debut track called Party Girl, which is now streaming on all platforms.

The second opener of the night brought his ear of the art to the Gatineau stage. Chefnier, another local act pushing for that break through, was well into the Halloween theme, dressing up as a cook for his show. He’s played across the Ottawa/Gatineau region but you might best remember him from his performance at Riverside Festival 2019. He brought to the mixing table some hard bass and good vibes and took his audience to real Chefnier experience before heading off to perform at Babylon Nightclub later that night.

The headliner of the night, Crankdat, cranked the energy to another level. Releasing his brand new EP FEARWORLD the day of his set at Halloween au Palais, he gave the crowd the energy they came to see. Playing his new tracks, such as Phantom Cry and Horror Hour, the headliner took no breaks. It was pure energy from the beginning straight to the end. Crankdat not only brought his DJing talents but displayed his producing skills as his set was mainly built from his own tracks and the crowd absolutely loved it. Let’s hope to have this talent back in Canada real soon.

To finish off the night was Castnowski, a DJ/producer from Quebec City brought some house music to evening, which was absolutely perfect to close the event. Though he didn’t take it easy. He kept the energy going with his famous G-house sounds and a bass house. After playing at Amsterdam Dance Event in the Netherlands, Castnowski made his way across the pond to perform a superb set in front of the Gatineau crowd for a perfect end to superb night full of energy and Halloween darkness.

Riverside Festival Review

By Dominic Wren

Riverside festival has always been a special one ever since its creating in 2013, but this year… Oh man. They took it above and beyond. For a festival to be held on very limited space, DNA Presents find ways to make it one of the most exciting events of the festival season. I’m not just talking about the impeccable view onto the Canadian parliament or the beautiful architecture of the neighboring Canadian museum of history buildings, or the biggest lineup we’ve seen to date. I’m talking the maximum use of such a limited space without feeling like you’re squished into the festival. Not once would you feel suffocated by people, which sometimes happen at the major festivals. This aspect is often forgotten for why we had such a great time at an event. The organizer’s care for the attendees experience and comfortability is something to take note of.

Now to the music. Riverside Festival saw it’s biggest lineup since its birth. Some of the biggest acts in the world came to Gatineau last weekend, such as Matroda, Lost Kings, Borgore, Black Tiger Sex Machine, Steve Aoki, and so many more.

Starting Day 1 of 3 with a solid night of house music was the perfect warm up. With some local acts, such as Ross X Class, Mac, and others showing their talent, Matroda took the stage for dangerously hard set of hard house music. Matroda on his Red Tape Tour came and made a visit and slammed his set. Mixing some of the biggest tracks of the summer and switching to some crazy drops while keeping a house vibe. It’s also cool to note that he didn’t touch the mic once because he was so into his insane mixing.

Day 2 saw a new kind of energy. Starting the day on a more big room house lineup, the festival saw names like Maurice West, 13, Jay Hardway, and the Lost Kings performing some incredible sets and dropping crazy throwbacks, fresh music, and some unreleased tracks. To end the night, Borgore with the sunset time slot played a mixture of intense bass music with some of his classic Borgore originals. Have you heard Unicorn Zombie Apocalypse? If you have, imagine that at one of his shows. Yeah, it went crazy. To headline the night was none other than Montreal’s very own Black Tiger Sex Machine. Three guys with black tiger helmets that light up on a stage overlooking 6000 people and Canada’s Parliament was something unique. Not only did they kill their set with HEAVY bass anthems and a BTSM personal touch, the crowd’s energy was as entertaining as the show itself.

Riot Ten

The last day of the festival didn’t take a minute to chill. Two of Montreal’s most loved local DJs, Khaos and Domeno, warmed the day up in style. Next to take the stage was Riot Ten who mixed in and out of some of the hardest bass tracks of the night. He almost literally destroyed the crowd but they kept up with him. Tritonal followed to with an emotional and powerful set for Gatineau to enjoy. Zomboy joined to the Riverside party at 7:25 pm for his second time since 2017. He honestly took the definition of the word “intense” to the next level. Dropping tracks that would make your head bang even if you’re not a headbanger, this UK born bass DJ/producer made Riverside look like one of his own. He gave the crowd no breaks with back-to-back drops of pure fire and notably starting a “Wall of the Death” while playing Eptic and Trampa’s remix of Get With The Program. It went absolutely nuts.

Closing the festival was the one and only Steve Aoki. Easily the biggest name Riverside Festival has ever had, Aoki shut the festival down in style. He is no doubt the incredible showman he’s so well known to be. Ranging his set from hard trap to psy-trance to his biggest tracks with a perfect touch of emotional songs, he had something to everyone. Though what made his set special is his way of including the crowd as the show. Bringing cakes to throw (it still fascinates me to see someone throw a cake so well), pouring champagne onto the crowd, and giving giant letters spelling “Gatineau” for photos, Steve Aoki’s art of making a great show is nothing to be underrated.

This year’s Riverside Festival went to another level. Every year the teams at EDM Canada is impressed by this event’s outcome and we look forward to many more years to come.

Bringing house music back to Ottawa (Brohug event review - Halloween Au Palais)

By Dominic Wren

Recently, Dubstep has been dominating the Ottawa/Gatineau with an overwhelming majority of ravers here preferring that genre. Although these hardstep/hardtrap shows can can be one of the most entertaining, sometimes a bit of diversity can bring a fresh look to the EDM scene. This past weekend was filled with EDM events across the region but one that stood out on the Friday was Halloween au Palais, organized by Les Fondateurs, at the convention center in Gatineau which brought house artists Hook n Sling and Brohug.

The Swedish band of brothers took to the stage Friday night after an empowering set from L.A based Hook n Sling. At the start of their set, the crowd seemed somewhat into it. Looking for some headbanging madness, it wasn’t the right place for it but Brohug quickly noticed this so they switched by mixing in Lil Pump hit single “Boss.” The crowd suddenly started to liven up and the massive room got hotter and hotter by the minute. From there they smartly transitioned between basshouse (sticking to their house roots) and hip-hop. Even though the event was 95% sold out, the venue felt intimate as there was a connection between the DJs and the audience. The DJ trio released a track recently with world famous Tchami “My Place” featuring Reece that had got quite a bit of attention at its release. To my surprise, believing the track wouldn’t be that popular in this region, the crowd seemed to know every lyric to the song. It was pretty amazing to see.

After the show, I managed to ask a couple of questions to the three sweaty DJs. I first asked what brought the three guys together where they responded casually by saying the two of them were brothers and the 3rd was a friend of theirs so stuck together and have now become one of the biggest names in House music. They have recently launched their first record label “Brohouse.” They mentioned the goal for this label is to promote up and coming artists that have good music and raw talent. What should the EDM community expect next from these guys? Well they have SO MUCH fresh music coming out in the next coupe of months and a lot of touring around the world so they might be in a city near you!

High-fiving Riverside (Festival review)

By Dominic Wren

This might just be the best Riverside Festival Gatineau or Canada has ever witnessed. With an insane lineup, pumping artists such as Kayzo, Deorro, Snails, Slushii and Loud Luxury, this year’s festival went up a level. All 16 artists nailed their sets over the weekend but the EDM Canada team has picked out five of the top acts that most impressed the crowd and us the most.

Breathe Carolina

All photos by Dominic Wren

This year’s set from the American duo was like none other I’ve seen from them before. They started with some of their classic big room house vibe such as “Always Find You” by Raiden X YURI (Sunstars Remix). About mid through their set, they noticed that the crowd was somewhat into it so they did what any world-class DJ would do - they adjusted. Breathe Carolina changed their set to a more hip hop/dubstep, playing tracks such as “Plain Jane” by A$AP Ferg and “Let’s Get Crunk” by Gammer.

Slushii

If want to see a crowd roar endlessly, go see a Slushii concert. From perfect transitions to emotional moments, to hard trap, hip hop, and dubstep. For a crowd that’s hard to please, they went HARD. Slushii also put a lot of effort into his visuals for the crowd. Not only did he wear colourful clothing but also the LED screens took on a trippy adventure though various colours and shapes.

Snails

This set can only be described in one word: RAGE. If you like to go hard then Snails is the artist you want to see live. There is a very legitimate reason why he’s created his own genre called “Vomitstep”. He opened the last set of the night with his track “Shake The Ground” featuring Kill The Noise, Sullivan King and Jonah Kay. Unlike the other artists, Snails had no throwbacks in his set. He gave the crowd no rest and kept his game strictly to “Vomitstep”.

NoWayOut

Everyone should keep an eye out for this up and coming DJ/Producer. Even though his set was early in the evening, it felt like he was closing the whole festival. The energy coming off of his movements behind the decks and his music attracted the attention of the growing crowd. From smart transitions to the choices of songs, this young DJ nailed his set in one of the best festival venues in Canada. He is definitely the smallest DJ in this list but definitely showed some world-class talent.

Deorro

Probably the best set of the whole festival, Deorro definitely left a mark at the Riverside Music Festival. The basshead crowd received his electro house set very well, which was a bit of a surprise. Before the second half of his set where it became very technical, he dropped tracks like his hit single with Steve Aoki, Diplo, and Steve Bays “Freak”. Deorro vibed with the crowd while playing his track “Bailar”, then kicking the energy up again with “Knockout” featuring Deorro, Makj and Quintino. The second half his set was the most interesting. Do you all remember when the 2012 pop group LMFAO dropped “Party Rock Anthem”? Yep. Deorro snuck in that lost artifact into his set. He followed up that great moment with a drop-less couple of minutes while transitioning between hip-hop to old rock classics. Deorro produced a unique set that was enjoyed by many fans.

Riverside Festival put together a stacked phase 2 lineup

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By David Mann

This year's Riverside Festival is bigger and better than ever, boosted by their huge phase 2 lineup release. For 2018 they have added an extra day to the festival, which means a much larger lineup that includes Slushii, Matoma, a special Downlink B2B Figure for the bassheads, Loud Luxury (Check out their latest video interview here), and much more. 

Set at the beautiful Museum of History grounds in Gatineau, the stage is perfectly placed infront of the waterfront overlooking the Parliament Hill. The stage is so epic that I believe it's the best outdoor urban EDM festival location in Canada hands down. 

Every year this event brings thousands of fans from Ottawa/Gatineau/Montreal, and when it's time to party it up from September 8th - 9th, I suspect that this festival will be taken to another level. For tickets, click here. 

(Source: Riverside Festival's FB)