KoolHaus - Toronto

Date of visit 4/21/2012

I was in Toronto from 4/20 to 4/22 for reasons unrelated to EDM but when walking around town I noticed flyers for Swedish House Mafia's Axwell visiting town on Saturday April 21st. Having already seen both Sebastian Ingrosso and Steve Angello in the past 6 months I took this as a great opportunity not only to see a good concert but to also party for the first time outside of the US.

I did some online searching when in my hotel room and found out the event was being held at The Guvernment  or "The Guv" which is Toronto’s Entertainment Complex. After a short cab ride from my hotel from downtown Toronto to the Guv and after paying $60 for my Axwell ticket at the door I was in. The Guv is exactly what it claims to be, an entertainment complex, as it is composed of 6 separate clubs (KoolHaus, Chroma, Surface, Skybar, Haven and The Guvenrment). Axwell was spinning specifically at KoolHaus which is a huge open space resembling a gutted warehouse, just check out the floor plan. From its website KoolHaus actually looks pretty nice, but it was so dark and packed when I was there that it didn't look like anything special. I also didn't notice as many bars lining the walls as the floor plan shows there should be. 

Koolhaus claims its capacity is 2000 but I wouldn't be surprised if they exceeded their capacity that night as the crowd was shoulder to shoulder causing the place to heat up fast. The heat is my only complaint. Our Aragon Ballroom and Congress Theatre have a balcony where you can escape the heat (if they're open), or an open space outside of the main stage area. Koolhaus was hot n sweaty all over even all the way in the back of the room where I stood most of the night as I wouldn't dare push my way through all those ragers and candi kids..

That being said, most of the crowd is comparable to our crowd at EDM concerts. The crowd is also younger as the legal drinking age is 19. A plus for the Canadians is that they are generally nicer than our crowd here, another is that there are a lot less stereotypical club goers here and more stereotypical ragers and ravers.

My experience at Koolhaus was a good one. The sound was great the atmosphere as well. It reminded me more of an underground (rave) in a warehouse rather than a concert. I'm definitely coming back to the Guv to check out its other parts next time I'm in Toronto.

Here's a video I shot while at Koolhaus

Here's another one