Thank you Stereo for inviting this internationally acclaimed Portuguese DJ who brought together so many old-school dancers who have known him over the past two decades.
What a fantastic set.
Coherent, punchy, and aligned with the artist and the moment.
DJ Vibe applied a recipe that very few DJs have mastered — the art of sequencing tracks one after another, all perfectly in sync with each other, in a rhythmic coherence that is absolutely breathtaking.
Extraordinarily powerful music that maintained a very high energy level throughout the entire night — until it completely wore people out.
Visibly.
Like all DJs who have been playing for decades, there is always growth over time. It is a privilege to see people who have played their music their entire lives — people you saw or heard when you were young, who are still there, now fully grown and perhaps a little older.
You grow with these people and you watch them grow with you.
It is remarkable, and tonight was yet another beautiful example of that.
It brings you back to that whole concept of growing old alongside your dancefloor — watching the people you were young with, now greying and a little rounder.
With more scars.
More experiences.
More wisdom.
But still there — most of them warriors.
It was, in many ways, a beautiful gathering of the elders.
I must insist on mentioning that in my view, the lighting that night was such an integral part of the experience.
Through its perfection and synchrony.
Its colour balance.
Its incredible contrasts.
It was masterful.
That lighting takes the dancer's experience far beyond simple movement, causing them to lose themselves in space and time.
This is more than addition.
It becomes the multiplication of all the senses.
And the loss of self in conscious unconsciousness.
Time disappears, stretches, or slows down.
Smiles become eternal.
Movement is shared.
And the groove adopted by all.
I also want to highlight how fortunate we are, as dancers in this absolutely unique space, to have at the helm of all of Stereo's lighting atmosphere a true veteran and passionate soul: Luc.
You may have never even thought about it, but there is someone who runs the lights — just as there is someone who plays the music.
And this man, behind the scenes, is a masterful lighting artist who possesses, at his fingertips, awareness, technique, and a remarkable understanding of the human experience.
He has the entire volumetric space of Stereo to fill, empty, and frame in every way possible, from every angle, with some of the most beautiful lighting effects that exist on Earth.
Luc possesses an exceptional sensitivity to the use of colour and a sense of timing that only decades of passion, observation, and practice can confer.
The entire mechanics of the dance experience in the venues we frequent is an amalgam of excitement and sensory stimulation — through our sense of hearing, the physical sensation of the body absorbing bass waves, and of course the ears receiving the frequencies of the music.
These senses allow us to experience the music in our bodies, manifesting our interpretation of the rhythms through stereotypical sequenced movements, in cadence and synchrony with the music.
There is in this a deeply satisfying and entirely organic aspect of short-term physiological response, yet one that fills an immense attentional spectrum in our consciousness and our brain.
To this is added the stimulation of light, which, when perfectly calibrated and synchronized with sound, multiplies the effects of the music for the dancer falling into states of altered consciousness, blindness, and transformation.
We can even consider the colour spectrum from red to blue, which activates different areas of the brain and stimulates antagonistic sectors rooted in our prehistory.
The limbic system, with its warning and danger signals, and the frequency of red associated with fire.
By contrast, feelings and impressions of well-being and calm with indigo, literally, and the frequencies associated with cool blue colours.
The sky.
We are deeply Homo sapiens.
Make no mistake about it.
And so, the very elements upon which all this technology plays to give us extraordinary experiences are in fact anchored in our most primal senses — senses we are not even aware of or conscious that they exist.
This is why, in certain musical styles, red light will be predominantly used, and there will be alternations in the effects or musical phrases when the lighting artist is excellent.
There will sometimes be alternations between warm colours — red, orange, yellow — and crashes, then sudden falls into the vast blue light that floods you completely, suddenly, with UV, aqua, blue, violet — everything that instantly plunges you into a rush of icy air.
So suddenly restful on the eyes.
It is therefore the multiplication of these elements that contributes to and generates your conscious experience, resulting in an emotional state of well-being and ecstasy.
The tension of danger, with the release of the drops, the blue and the comfort, creates a form of nearly binaural constant exchange between the hemispheres of your brain.
Much like what is known as binaural sound, with two slightly different frequencies that force the brain to work diagonally — doing it a world of good.
Imagine then that all your senses are excited and multiplied by the frequency of the body, the ears, and the eyes.
It is therefore an amalgam that pushes you far further than if only one of these senses were activated.
And that is the Stereo experience.
The DJs play the music.
And the lighting artist sets the scene.
The music gives the rhythm.
But the light gives it dimension.
And when the two meet with such precision, sound and light no longer add up.
They multiply.
And for one rare and beautiful time, we had the privilege of witnessing a person with reduced mobility who was absolutely extraordinary on the dancefloor.
It takes immense courage, in my view, to plunge into the middle of a crowd of dancers in a wheelchair — and to truly dive into the party and integrate with the dancers.
I salute the person who did it.
And all the kind-hearted dancers around them who were there, who participated, who were present, and who gave their best to this courageous person — as if they were standing.
The guy had one hell of a vibe.
It was fabulous to watch him stand up for a few dance steps here and there, then sit back down — so very brave.
And what was even more beautiful was everything happening around him.
Naturally.
Effortlessly.
Without performance.
Simply human.
I was so proud of Montréal.
Proud of our community.
Proud to see how Stereo's compassionate ecosystem had created the ideal conditions for such a spontaneous, organic inclusion of a more vulnerable member.
It was the exact manifestation of what unites and brings us together.
The spirit of the underground life.
The SOUL.
Thank you DJ Vibe for the performance.
Thank you Luc for the performance at the lights.
Thank you to the security and service staff who guide and take care of us.
Stereo people, you are legendary.
