Monster Massive 2009

[Distorted_Jungle]

Details plz.

word!

i 3rd this, do tell....

[mattpach]

It took me an hour to find a parking lot that wasn't charging $50. It took a while because of the misleading signs but eventually I found the parking lot for the event. The line was horrendous and extremely slow. So many people got kicked out. After 2 hours of waiting in line I was let in.

I went straight to the sports arena just to check it out. The line to get onto the floor was a mess. Caught like 10 minutes of ames Zabiela and 5 minutes of Pete Tong. The place sounded great.
Then I went to find Andrew at the main stage. He spotted me and then we waited for Sasha. Sasha played one of the greatest sets I have ever heard. I really wasn't expecting it to be that good.

We then went to the smaller stage and Andrew fished for ravers for a while before leaving.

I loved how the main stage was set up. They had the speaker stacks and visuals/pyro set up in the audience (Think mini stages 3 on each side of the audience). Lots of fire.

This event would be so much better if it was better organized.

[ELECtROjan]

nice meetin up last night matt and andrew...

[ELECtROjan]

did they hand out anything for TAO at this?

[mattpach]

It was nice meeting you to.

TAO flyers with the headliners I assume.

DAVID GUETTA, JOHN DIGWEED, DUBFIRE, SANDER KLEINENBERG.


Tickets on sale the 11th I believe.

[djandrews25]

Sasha played one of the greatest sets I have ever heard. I really wasn't expecting it to be that good.

THIS!

[djandrews25]

nice meetin up last night matt and andrew...

Nice meeting you too man.

[heyeric]

it was pleasing being able to walk around inside the sports arena halls having an extra foot of breathing room.

[heyeric]

anyone see the girl sitting on the floor by the south ticket booth inside. she had fallen on the escalator, her leg was cut about half open, blood was just gushing out every where, horrible sight, she was terrified...took about 5 minutes for her to get some help.

note to 50+ year olds....don't roll.

i have never seen so many old people being dragged out unconscious...

[djandrews25]

[Distorted_Jungle]

I think you might have just convinced me to see Sasha, Sahsa & Digweed or even Digweed with this video, mainly that last drop. You going to TAO?

[djandrews25]

Are you seriously asking if i am considering missing digweed?

[airguitarvet]

im glad i went to this instead of hard...although it gets friggin chaotic!

[djandrews25]

Ya, the company in charge of the entrance really had no fucking idea what they were doing.

[fatbastard]

Saturday – Monster Massive

Night two of electronic music started out with a bump. I drove to Azusa to purchase my ticket around 5PM, just in case it sold out prior to arriving. Walked up to a Wells Fargo ATM and received a message that said, “Unable to process this request at this time”. Oh well, it ran out of money right? Used the ATM right next door to it and received the same message. I called WAMU or whatever they’re calling themselves this month. It seemed that they were having a GLITCH WITH THEIR SYSTEM and ATMs were down, but they mentioned that money could be withdrawn with a signature. This meant having to drive to the local Vons and withdrawing the money via cash back.

I went back home, closed the mini blinds and put a pillow over my head. Yes, when you are OLD AS DIRT you need to take a nap in order to stay up all night! Woke up around 8:00PM after a two hour nap. My legs were still kind of sore from the prior night and a partial day of walking. Poured a glass of red and stole some chocolate from the plastic pumpkin next to the front door. The cheers of “TRICK OR TREAT” every few minutes started to make my head hurt. The mini Snicker bars saved me.

Left around 9:30PM to the Sports Arena. I intentionally overshot the off ramp to come up from the ghetto side of Figueroa rather than drive right into the traffic. Plenty of parking but it was going to cost me either 40 or 60 bucks. Fuck! I only pulled enough money out for a ticket, food and 20.00 bucks, at most, for parking. I wasn’t willing to give up my food money. I drove around the venue twice and was about to give up when I noticed a FREE PARKING spot in front of Chipolte. I read the sign like three times and sure enough it was cool to park there.

The maze began on Fig. LAPD closed off the north side of the sidewalk on Fig and the eastbound side of the sidewalk on MLK. I basically had to walk around ¾ of venue to get in. Entrance was next to the pool. The first gate was easy. The walk was a 100 feet of so to another line around the corner that looked like a riot maneuver. There were yellow jackets, iron divider that had been moved around, and LAPD in force. It initially appeared to be 15 sloppy lines and bright lights to what looked like the front entrance. I walked to the far right. It became apparent that the iron dividers had been removed by people and now some people were either stuck in the maze or rushing into the next divider. People were yelling “WE GOT TICKETS” and “LET US IN MOTHERFUCKERS”. About 1/3 of the way, you could see LAPD officers had taken over for the security in the yellow jackets. ONE BALD SERGEANT has talking on a bull horn threatening to shut the line down for 15 minutes if people pushed or jumped over the barricade. He was actually very funny and cool about the whole thing, totally in control. They let people in clusters of 20 or 30. The entire thing couldn’t have been more than 20 minutes but a lot of people were, and I won’t use the word rude, but extremely frantic to get in. Pushing and pushing like their baby was drowning. It was overwhelming but tolerable.

Passed security then went looking for the ticket office. There was no one in line. They directed me to the first 2 ticket windows. On my way to the ticket window, a young Hispanic girl with a WONDERFUL PAIR OF BREASTS protruding from her outfit, just below her chin, offered to sell me a ticket. Her beginning sales pitch of “it’s not a fake ticket, seriously” didn’t convince me for some reason. I paid a $1.00 service fee along with $80.00 admission price. I went into another mess.

There were no lights past the entrance. It was packed full of people walking in different directions. At one point, I followed a line of people who walked right up to a security person who was standing in front of a closed bottom STAIRWAY. Once you past the Sports Arena ticket office, you could see all the lights from the vendors.

Walked into the arena to catch PETE TONG’s set. It was impressive. All of the seats and the area floor were filled with people. People in the seats were dancing and people on the arena floor were dancing. At one point, it looked like 8 big conga lines going up and down the floor. The stage had two circular video screens on each side. Attached to these screens were 8 big osculating lights. There was one big video screen behind the lit up deck. The stage was filled with lights. Hanging from the ceiling were 4 huge light trusts that were shaped like the body of a dragon. The best part of being in there was when all of the white lights came on and you could see MASSIVENESS of the crowd. You could smell the money put into this event. Pete’s set was great. I would compare Friday’s sets at HARD as simple and two dimensional as compared to the sets at Saturday’s Monster Massive which were rich and mind boggling. Not to say one was better than the other, but Saturday night, thanks to the music, was a night to bask in thought.

Walked out of the arena to catch Sasha’s set. The outside stage took up the entire Sports Arena parking lot. I thought this was a good idea. In addition to the 3 screens on the stage, they set up 8 (did you get that) screens out on the floor, 4 on each side, which included their own set of speakers and strobes. You could dance from way in the back and not miss a beat. I was on the left had side in between the smaller side screen and the main stage. Sasha started off at a fast pace with occasional breaks of airy explosions. The video screens were displaying EQ graphics that moved to the beat of the music. Over the EQ graphics was a white radio graphic line that is trembling up and down. It was probably during his 4th song of so that these fire cannons go off on the stage. Sometimes the cannons exploded high in the sky, sometimes they puffed repeatedly like a roman candle. Cannons on top of the 8 smaller screens go off at the same time as the main stage a couple of songs later. It was hot, even from a good distance away and just like inside the area, you could see everyone. It was exciting to look up and see all of them going off at the same time. Why is it that he had such a full set and nothing was recognized by me? I only recognized a hint of Georgio Moroder’s The Chase and a couple of seconds later he went into LOVE BEAT? That song killed. As a matter of fact, the final 3 songs were the best of the entire evening. I could have left right then after seeing both of those guys, totally got my money’s worth.

I’m going to stop here for now and finish the rest tomorrow night. There are stacks of paper that I committed to read and clear out this week. I hope you’re getting a feel for what went on.

Next up: People who started crashing after 90 minutes of dancing.

[djandrews25]

2nd or 3rd to last song was called jetstream.

[soundsoftherstreets]

[heyeric]

yuppp

[nbvcide]

The maze began on Fig. LAPD closed off the north side of the sidewalk on Fig and the eastbound side of the sidewalk on MLK. I basically had to walk around ¾ of venue to get in. Entrance was next to the pool. The first gate was easy. The walk was a 100 feet of so to another line around the corner that looked like a riot maneuver. There were yellow jackets, iron divider that had been moved around, and LAPD in force. It initially appeared to be 15 sloppy lines and bright lights to what looked like the front entrance. I walked to the far right. It became apparent that the iron dividers had been removed by people and now some people were either stuck in the maze or rushing into the next divider. People were yelling “WE GOT TICKETS” and “LET US IN MOTHERFUCKERS”. About 1/3 of the way, you could see LAPD officers had taken over for the security in the yellow jackets. ONE BALD SERGEANT has talking on a bull horn threatening to shut the line down for 15 minutes if people pushed or jumped over the barricade. He was actually very funny and cool about the whole thing, totally in control. They let people in clusters of 20 or 30. The entire thing couldn’t have been more than 20 minutes but a lot of people were, and I won’t use the word rude, but extremely frantic to get in. Pushing and pushing like their baby was drowning. It was overwhelming but tolerable.

Passed security then went looking for the ticket office. There was no one in line. They directed me to the first 2 ticket windows. On my way to the ticket window, a young Hispanic girl with a WONDERFUL PAIR OF BREASTS protruding from her outfit, just below her chin, offered to sell me a ticket. Her beginning sales pitch of “it’s not a fake ticket, seriously” didn’t convince me for some reason. I paid a $1.00 service fee along with $80.00 admission price. I went into another mess.

wow.. who would've thought HARD would have the smooth, well-organized, short-lined event?

Plenty of parking but it was going to cost me either 40 or 60 bucks.

Fuck. That.

yuppp

that looks pretty cool though..