Bringing back college. Joris Voorn live at Coda.

Joris Voorn, a Dutch record producer and Dj, is on a month-long tour of North America and Coda was his base in Toronto. Having grown up in a musical family Voorn swiftly transitioned into house music when radio entered his life in the 90’s. Since then, Voorn has been brining house and techno music to hungry kids around the globe through various shows and festival showcases. So, obviously, we had to see the man live.

Just off the busy corner of Bloor and Bathurst, tucked away between a Pizza Pizza and what looks like a shady mall is Toronto’s new club venue, Coda. Up the stairs we go through the black labyrinth of hallways into a room filled with colorful lights and geometric shapes on the walls with projections dancing on them. So far so good.

A few groups of people are scattered around the room, some hiding out on couch corners while others are actively working on getting the party started on the dance floor. With a quick glance we realize that the entire wave of the Toronto’s college’s freshmen are in this room. This is where running shoes, tucked in dress shirts, crop tops, and training bras collide in a concoction of a well lit college dance party.

Just before midnight the lineup grew heavily deep into the North end of Bathurst street. There was an obvious air of excitement, thought it was hard to decide if it was for Joris Voorn or the love of a Friday night and good techno.

Voorn continued on dropping clean baselines and carefully composed remixes with a collected and well composed expression on his face while the crowd was loosing calories and spilling beer on the dance floor. His now well knows recipe of house mixed with techno stirred with an occasional deep techno and drum beats kept on pushing the kids to their dancing limits.

As someone who’s been outside of the homework-filled yet carefree college life for a while now I couldn’t help but notice that our small party of 2 (and we are small girls) found a way to stand out as grownups who were too old for this party. But the young local scene aside, Voorn’s set was one worth witnessing and even dancing too.

With new tracks dropping one by one the anticipation for the full length album, set to come out in fall, is growing. In the meanwhile, you can still see him on tour:

May 03 – Story – Miami
May 04 – Electric Zoo – Mexico City
May 06 – Tapas – Newport
May 08 – Bar Smith – Phoenix
May 09 – Public Works – San Francisco
May 10 – Output – Brooklyn
May 23 – Sound – Los Angeles
May 24 – Mysterland – New York City
May 25 – Bijou – Boston